Archive for the ‘Breakthroughs’ Category

1984, part III: BYU steps through the looking glass

Friday, June 12th, 2009

By Gaylon Krizak-Guest Writer

“We’re through the looking-glass here, people … white is black and black is white.” — Kevin Costner, as Jim Garrison, “JFK”

By the time the Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl and the other Jan. 1 games had been played, the eventual national champion’s season had been over for 11 days.

Five teams (including Nebraska on two occasions) had relinquished the No. 1 ranking over the course of the season, leaving the distinction by the 12th week to a team that hadn’t even been in the preseason Top 25 and which played outside the elite power conferences.

Brigham Young was no stranger to success by 1984; the Cougars had won 11 games or more in four of the five previous seasons. But playing a schedule that included no teams ranked in the final Associated Press poll (Pittsburgh flamed out after an early No. 3 ranking), BYU cruised to a 12-0 regular-season record and its seventh straight Holiday Bowl berth as Western Athletic Conference champion.

The Cougars’ unbeaten record and unlikely No. 1 ranking brought the subject of choosing a Holiday Bowl opponent more scrutiny than ever. The spot was offered to Washington, which had been No. 1 for four weeks before losing to Southern Cal and in the process missing out on the Pac-10’s Rose Bowl slot. But the Huskies still were No. 4 nationally with just that one loss.

They said no, opting for the more prestigious (and better-paying) Orange Bowl opposite No. 2 Oklahoma. After all, it was common knowledge that since the Associated Press began handing out its national championship after the bowls rather than at the end of the regular season, no team finishing No. 1 had played in a December bowl.

So BYU wound up playing Michigan, which had been a top-five team before quarterback Jim Harbaugh broke his arm but which came to San Diego sporting a 6-5 record. The Wolverines’ national cachet carried more weight than their record — worse than the 7-4 mark with which Arizona, Illinois and Clemson stayed home during a season in which there were just 17 bowls.

Robbie Bosco led BYU to an unexpected national title in 1984

Robbie Bosco led BYU to an unexpected national title in 1984

Accordingly, the Cougars and QB Robbie Bosco — third in the Heisman voting, behind Flutie and Ohio State running back Keith Byars — beat the Wolverines, but by a final 24-17 margin that didn’t exactly silence the BYU critics. The Cougars trailed entering the fourth quarter, but won when Bosco threw a 13-yard TD pass to Kelly Smith with 1:23 remaining.

Washington went on to handle OU, 28-17. No. 3 Florida (9-1-1) was out of the picture, banned from bowls by the NCAA. No. 5 Nebraska finished with two losses. Simply put, the voters’ choice was uninspiring but clear:  unbeaten and largely untested BYU, or once-beaten Washington.

By just 20 poll points, the AP voters picked BYU. It was at that time the closest final margin in the poll’s 49-year history (the final 1991 poll margin was just four points, with Washington again on the short end, this time to Miami).

Conspiracy theorists point to BYU’s title season as the genesis for what evolved into the Bowl Championship Series — more precisely, the leaders of the power conferences began to organize the major bowls into first a coalition, then an alliance, and finally the BCS as it now exists. Their goal, say the theorists: to prevent another BYU from claiming to be the best in the land.

Has it worked? Ask Tulane (1998), Marshall (1999) and Hawaii (2007); be prepared to ask twice when questioning Boise State (2004, 2006) and Utah (2004, 2008). Each fielded an unbeaten team from outside the six power conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac-10 and SEC) plus Notre Dame. None played in the BCS championship game, and only relaxed eligibility rules (and the addition of the separate BCS title game) allowed Utah, Boise State and Hawaii into non-title BCS games

Tags: , ,
Posted in Breakthroughs, National Champions | 1 Comment »

Michigan State Begins Big Ten With A Bang-1953

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

by Bert Hancock

As Danny Thomas’ show titled “Make Room For Daddy” debuted across America’s living rooms in 1953, Michigan State’s once fledgling football program had convinced the Big Ten to finally make room for its debut that same fall.

Clarence “Biggie” Munn had coached at Syracuse in 1946 before plying his wares at Michigan State the following season, where he brought along his inevitable successor, Duffy Daugherty. Munn was a broad-shouldered guy with a powerful physique and relentlessly good nature who enjoyed the game more than a lot of his more uptight peers. He even often sat with the players during team meals, and they loved playing for him.

Under the direction of school president John Hannah, Michigan State had already begun a gargantuan growth spurt from a land-grant institution often derisively referred to as a “Cow College” (from its agricultural roots) to a major university with several times as many students (about 20,000) by the mid-1950s.

Hannah, who began his regime in 1941, reasoned that a high-powered football program would bring the relatively unknown school the kind of prestige needed to attract a wondrous and large faculty. “If it meant the betterment of Michigan State, our football team would play any eleven gorillas from Barnum and Bailey any Saturday,” sang the ambitious school president at the time.

Fight for acceptance into Big Ten

As Michigan State College (the word “university” did not become part of its name until 1955) grew, the University of Michigan’s resistance to its striving for Big Ten admission grew as well. As such, a bitter pill was added to a rivalry already formed from the natural in-state battleground setup and near-annual gridiron clashes.

After three rugged years of formal effort following decades of hope and despair, Michigan State was admitted into the Big Ten (aka “Western Conference”) in December of 1948. Though the occasion demanded celebration (and Michigan State students leveraged that to the hilt), one somber note was added. The Spartans would not be allowed to compete for the conference title in football until 1953.

Biggie Munn’s boys in 1949 gave Michigan State reason to be proud despite facing the long delay ahead, playing Michigan to its closest in years, finally falling just short by a 7-3 count.

The Spartans’ program continued making headway on the strength of two main factors: Munn’s staff and the recruiting of black players.

Integration a critical ingredient in giving the program strength

Though the Big Ten area integrated with more aggressiveness than most parts of the country, Michigan State fired it up another notch.

“No school was more receptive to black players at that time than Michigan State,” said former standout Henry Bullough (1952-’54), who also coached under Duffy Daugherty at MSU from 1959-’69. “You look at other teams in the Big Ten in the early ’50s and they probably averaged four or five blacks on their entire team. We’d have five or six starting alone. We wanted to provide an opportunity to those who were denied one.”

Some referred to State as “the Brooklyn Dodgers of college football.” One of the benefactors–who also benefited the school tremendously–was lineman Don Coleman, the school’s first black All-American and inevitable inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame. His head coach Biggie Munn praised Coleman as “the number one blocker and finest lineman, pound for pound, I’ve ever seen.”

Coleman savored the opportunity. “What we did at Michigan State helped everyone take a step closer to better understanding those who before that had no prior contact with one another,” he reflected.

Spartans become national player

In Biggie Munn’s first game in 1947, Michigan had obliterated State 55-0. By 1951, the Spartans invaded Ann Arbor and blasted the Wolverines, 25-0. A perfect season vaulted Michigan State to a heady No. 2 in the country at season’s end.

Despite the loss of the entire offensive line and a number of additional starters, Munn and his top assistant Duffy Daugherty possessed sterling reps for constructing great lines, and they lived up to the billing.

Building off of the glory of ‘51, the 1952 version impressed even more, walloping its opponents by a cumulative 312-84 and capturing the school’s first national championship.

Beyond recruiting talented black players (as well as white ones), Munn’s multifaceted offense, what he deemed the “T double wing,” played a big role. Stated Biggie (named 1952’s national Coach of the Year) following grabbing the national title, “The T double wing has been important in the success of the last three teams at Michigan State. In the last three years we have lost one game. To my knowledge I had never seen this formation before in football.”

At the time, many teams were using some form of the split T with option running emitting from that formation. Munn often took such trends to the next level.

Finally, Michigan State begins Big Ten play

You figure the suspense of actually facing conference competition would be enough, but added to the mystery was the stunning rule change on substitution after 1952. Suddenly, players would need to thrive on offense and defense both, following several years of specialization (like we’re used to seeing these days).

Spartan head coach Munn hated the dramatic change. After carefully building the pieces to a national powerhouse, he feared the new rule would tragically throw the gridiron landscape wide open going into 1953. Magnifying this mess was the reality that 19 of his standouts over the great ‘51-’52 run had completed their eligibility.

Still, in Michigan State College’s Big Ten initiation, it handled Iowa, 21-7. First test passed easily enough. Munn then decisively disposed of his alma mater, Minnesota, and the Spartans’ win streak bulged to 26 games.

TCU’s Fightin’ Frogs came to East Lansing next, seemingly a non-factor for the Spartans’ powerhouse. After all, the visitors had been playing no better than mediocre ball the last few years and, in fact, were on their way to their worst mark (3-7) in seven years.

Incredibly, Michigan State found itself in a huge hole, 19-7, late in the game. Just as it appeared college football’s biggest upset was in the books, the Spartans shot back with 19 unanswered points in a 26-19 triumph.

Two weeks later, Biggie Munn’s unbeatables took on Purdue, another paltry squad on its way to a 2-7 record that season. But stunningly, the Boilermakers took a late lead over the heavily favored Spartans, 6-0, following the fullback’s plunge over the goal.

Lightning struck in the Spartans’ favor on the ensuing kickoff, as super scatback LeRoy Bolden raced 95 yards in an apparent rescue, only to have a penalty bring the ball all the way back deep into Michigan State territory.

That sunk the Spartans, and the “Spoilermakers” had shocked the country while breaking the streak at 28 games in . Biggie Munn also suffered his first shutout defeat since the 1947 Michigan drubbing that began his East Lansing career.

Playing solely for pride?

Though unbeaten Illinois had a clear inside track to the Rose Bowl now, Michigan State refused to lie down. LeRoy Bolden personally bludgeoned  Ohio State with three touchdown runs, including ones of 20 and 37 yards. Said a dejected Woody Hayes of Ohio State, “That’s twice now he’s done that (knocked the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten race).”

It still appeared that this standout State program would fall shy of its dream of winning the conference in its first season. There would be others, but the school had waited so long and had come off of two perfect seasons, hoping to continue such a string.

But, just as it appeared that bridesmaid status would be the best in store for ‘53, Wisconsin shocked formerly unbeaten Illinois, 34-7. Meanwhile, Michigan State’s fourth consecutive handling of hated Michigan (on NBC’s nationally televised “Game of the Week”) gave it an unexpected tie for the title.

The league had quandary on its hands in determining the Rose Bowl representative. On the one, this new kid on the block–which had been despised in some quarters–had proved itself fully worthy of membership. Still, residue of the bitterness remained, and Illinois had been a longtime member and was unbeaten most of the season.

The vote was just as close as the conundrum, with suspense mounting as five separate ballots produced a deadlock, 5-5, in votes for Michigan State or Illinois. Finally, Ohio State convinced Indiana to side with the rookie representative, and suddenly the first-year competitors were playing in the Granddaddy of Them All.

msu-ucla-54-rose-pennant

The season now had, in many ways, already brought long-starved Spartans more satisfaction than they could have hoped for, having been left out of its Big Ten ambitions for ages. Would it represent the conference well, now, or would it crater on the huge stage awaiting it?

UCLA, the opponent, played its home games nearby, and its program had been through two Rose Bowl’s already.

The Bruins acted like they’d “been there, done that,” in taking and owning a comfortable 14-0 lead late in the first half. Just then, Michigan State’s Ellis Duckett broke through the line to block a UCLA punt, gathered it in and ran for a lead-slicing touchdown. That gave the Spartans the spark they needed going into halftime.

With head coach Munn working them into a frenzy for the second half and  Billy Wells busting loose, Michigan State broke out with three more touchdowns.

Halfback Wells, perhaps inspired by a meeting with then starlet Debbie Reynolds earlier, buzzed for 80 yards on the ground and then bolted for a 62-yard punt return to put the Spartans up, 28-20. He followed that with a touchdown saving tackle of a Bruins’ receiver who’d broken loose, putting a close to this great game.

Closed, too, was Biggie Munn’s fabulous career as head coach, opting to focus solely on his duties as athletic director, with his first duty hiring his longtime assistant, Duffy Daugherty. As a result, despite a setback in 1954, Munn was able to maintain the momentum he’d engineered for years to come.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Breakthroughs | No Comments »

Oct. 6, 1934: Texans clear away the tumbleweeds

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009

by Gaylon Krizak-Guest Writer

Texas in motion pictures frequently is portrayed as one big monochrome haven for dust and tumbleweeds — even when the story is set in the tree-laden east, along the Gulf coast or in one of the state’s many concrete-and-steel cities. As famed radio announcer Bill Stern was said to have advised: “Never let facts stand in the way of a good story.”

And so it was on Oct. 6, 1934, as two college football teams from the Lone Star State made their way to the state of Indiana to, in the view of the experts, receive another lesson in how the sport was really played.

Texas before that day was a place from which many nationally notable players came, not a place where they stayed to play. Players who genuinely deserved national recognition — Louis Jordan of Texas, Joel Hunt of Texas A&M and Raymond “Rags” Matthews of TCU — might be thrown a third-team All-America bone, but never were mentioned among the true elite. Baylor guard Barton “Botchey” Koch in 1930 became the state’s first consensus first-team All-American.

Teams from the state rarely faced the powers of the day — generally acknowledged as teams from the Ivy League, the Big Ten (then known as the Western) Conference and the two service academies (Army and Navy; there was no Air Force), as well as a smattering of schools in the Northeast, South, Midwest and California … and, of course, Notre Dame. When they did, the results usually were disastrous: Notre Dame, for example, walloped Texas 36-7 and Rice 55-2 during a three-day swing through Texas in 1915.

How fitting, then, that the Longhorns and Owls were the Texans who, not quite 19 years later, traveled north in an attempt to clear some of the dust off the nation’s conventional wisdom.

A Notre Damer beats Notre Dame

The University of Texas fielded the state’s first intercollegiate football team and, for the most part, its most successful in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Longhorns were unbeaten in their first season, winning two games each over town teams from Dallas and San Antonio in games that spanned late 1893 and early 1894. Their first losing season did not come until Clyde Littlefield — a star on Texas’ 1912-15 teams — coached UT to a 4-5-2 record in 1933 — not surprisingly, his last year at the Longhorns’ helm.

Brought in to restore some luster and perhaps even transform Texas into a national name was Jack Chevigny, a renowned back at Notre Dame who reportedly scored “one for the Gipper” in the Irish’s famed 1928 victory over Army. Five years later, Chevigny wound up in Austin, where he coached St. Edward’s University to the Texas Conference title in his only season before being hired by UT.

Chevigny’s alma mater happened to be the second team on the ’34 Texas schedule, and he was asked if he wanted the school to back out of the game. No, Chevigny replied, and immediately began zeroing in on the Irish. In his Longhorns debut, a 12-6 victory over Texas Tech, Chevigny reportedly told star back Bohn Hilliard to fake a limp after scoring on a 94-yard run, so as to fool Notre Dame scouts.

Once in South Bend — and with Hilliard miraculously at full speed — Chevigny stoked his team to a fever pitch with an emotional pregame speech. He then used his knowledge of the Notre Dame personnel to full advantage, having Charley Coates aim his opening kickoff at Irish halfback George Melinkovich, who was said to have a penchant for early game fumbles. Melinkovich dutifully bobbled the ball at the Notre Dame 5-yard line and fumbled for good at the 18, where Texas’ Jack Gray recovered.

On first-and-goal from the 8, Hilliard rode guard Joe Smartt through a hole at right tackle, then followed his touchdown run by kicking the extra point. It turned out to be one  of the biggest PAT’s in Texas history — Notre Dame needed a drive of just 9 yards for a second-quarter TD after a Longhorns fumble, but Wayne Millner missed the extra-point try after Melinkovich’s fourth-down blast from inside the Texas 1.

The 7-6 score held the rest of the afternoon as each team threatened but failed to add points as the game wound down. The game ended with the Longhorns at the Irish 4, with Hilliard fumbling four plays after returning an interception to the 12.

Notre Dame’s loss, which spoiled the home debut of former “Four Horsemen” member Elmer Layden as head coach, was its first ever in a season-opening game.

Rice plays spoiler against the Boilers

Rice Institute (it would not be designated a university until 1960) didn’t win a football championship during the first 20 years of the Southwest Conference. It also entered the 1934 season with a new coach: Jimmy Kitts, an offensive innovator. Kitts’ fortunes were boosted by the return of star backs Bill Wallace and John McCauley, who had missed the 1933 season after an exam-cheating scandal in ’32.

The Owls were 1-0-1 when they traveled to West Lafayette, Ind., having beaten Loyola (New Orleans) 12-0 and tied LSU 9-9. The Boilermakers, like the Fighting Irish against Texas, were playing their season opener, which drew only 12,000 as Purdue fans expected a light test a week before their trip to South Bend.

The game entered the fourth period scoreless; both teams ran the ball well during the first three quarters, but each also threw three interceptions. Rice finally broke through early in the fourth when McCauley took a short pass from Wallace and broke tackle after tackle en route to a 45-yard touchdown.

From there, the Owls’ defense took command, recording a fumble recovery, a blocked punt and an interception before Frank Steen forced and recovered a fumble in the Purdue end zone for the clinching TD in a 14-0 Rice victory.

The Associated Press, in its roundup of college football games for Sunday newspapers, said of the day’s events:

“The football experts had better retire to their bomb-proof shelters.

“In as great a succession of early-season upsets as the game ever has known, Notre Dame’s Ramblers, Purdue, Michigan, Cornell and Pennsylvania all went down to stunning and unexpected defeats yesterday.

“Two of these form reversals were credited to invading outfits from the Southwest Conference, the Texas Longhorns and Rice Owls.”

Epilogue

The Longhorns again were the invading outfit Oct. 20 as Texas (3-1) met Rice (4-0-1) in a game so widely anticipated that Humble Oil set up for it a network of clear-channel radio stations in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.

Rice carried a 7-6 lead into the fourth quarter before Texas broke through, a 74-yard pass from Buster Jurecka to Jimmy Hadlock setting up Hilliard’s short field goal with three minutes left. But in those final 180 seconds, the Owls struck twice — a 67-yard TD pass from Wallace to Ray Smith, followed by a 35-yard interception return by Harry Fouke — for a 20-9 win that was their springboard to their first SWC title.

Rice wound up 9-1-1 and was fifth in the final Dickinson Ratings, the main college football rankings system until the Associated Press poll debuted in 1936. Kitts also led the Owls to the 1937 SWC title, but had losing records the following two seasons before leaving to coach his alma mater, Virginia Tech, for three years. He was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1956.

Chevigny’s first Texas team finished 8-2-1, far and away his best record in his three years with the Longhorns. He’s the only UT coach to finish with an overall losing record (13-14-2).

(Speaking of Bill Stern … he told the story after Chevigny’s death on Iwo Jima during World War II that a gold pen given to Chevigny after the 1934 upset — supposedly carrying this inscription: “To Jack Chevigny, an old Notre Damer who beat Notre Dame” — was used by a Japanese admiral during the signing of the peace treaty. No authentication was ever found.)

Notre Dame beat Purdue 18-7, but both teams went on to record subpar seasons. The Irish finished 6-3, while the Boilermakers stumbled to a 5-3 mark.

SMU and TCU also recorded noteworthy intersectional wins in 1934. The Mustangs downed Fordham 26-14 on Oct. 27, and the Horned Frogs beat Santa Clara 9-7 on Dec. 8. That set the stage for the SWC’s true leap into the limelight the following season, when SMU visited TCU with both teams unbeaten and vying for the conference’s first-ever Rose Bowl berth. SMU won 20-14, then dropped a 7-0 decision to Stanford in Pasadena, Calif., while TCU was downing LSU 3-2 in the Sugar Bowl that same day.

The Mustangs’ No. 1 finish in the final Dickinson Ratings marked the first of three SWC national championships in the 1930s. TCU, led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Davey O’Brien, won the title — only the third awarded by the Associated Press — in 1938, and Texas A&M won it the following season.

By 1940, the state’s previous college football reputation was driftin’ along with the tumblin’ tumbleweeds, to quote a popular Sons of the Pioneers song of the era.

Authored — like the upsets that began to turn the perception of the SWC around — in 1934.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Breakthroughs | No Comments »

Thanks to Chinese Bandits and a Cannon, LSU Gets Its First National Title-1958

Friday, May 29th, 2009
Life Magazine Captured LSU's Chinese Bandits

Life Magazine Captured LSU's Chinese Bandits

By Bert Hancock

In 1958, while Elvis and the Everly Brothers were stirring the charts and westerns like Gunsmoke and Have Gun Will Travel were invading America’s living rooms, a specialist squad of “foreign” defenders and a Heisman talent named Billy Cannon burst forth to grab LSU’s first ever national crown.

LSU had struggled historically, and the Tigers appeared to be one of the least likely candidates for such monumental success in ‘58. For one thing, the school had failed to even win (or tie) the Southeastern Conference since 1936 (22 years). What’s more, head coach Paul Dietzel’s three year mark at LSU sat at 11-17-2–hardly the stuff of inspiration.

It’s hard to garner a lot of encouragement when your last season of 5-5 was your best. Further compounded is that the Tigers dropped their last four of 1957 after teasing fans’ hopes.

Largely from these shoulder slumping results and limited depth, experience, and size, LSU was projected near the bottom of the Southeastern Conference heap, at no better than ninth. Another coach visiting the practices referred to the Tigers as a frighteningly scrawny bunch.

Leadership Overcomes Deficiencies

But the baby-ish Paul Dietzel (just 29 when given the head coaching job as the youngest on his staff) possessed terrific organizational talents as well as an eye and pitch for recruiting. His landing of greats such as Billy Cannon, Johnny Robinson and Warren Rabb in 1956 built the foundation for what was to hit Baton Rouge by the fall of ‘58.

Scooter Purvis, a back on the title squad, remembered, “He (Dietzel) got just about every player in the state he wanted.” Meanwhile, a tackle on the team, Dave McCarty recalled, “We had great organized practices…we didn’t waste any time.”

One of those blue-chip standouts, of course, was Billy Cannon, who boasted sprinter speed and exceptional shot putting ability, making him known as either “the fastest shot putter” or the “strongest sprinter.” Cannon didn’t just have the talent, he also owned quite a bit of confidence in himself, as well as his team. Amidst the bad mouthing of the LSU program, he stunned pundits by predicting, “It (the SEC race) will be between us and Ole Miss.”

The Tigers first handled the Rice Owls, then a strong program led by Hall of Fame head coach Jess Neely, 26-6. By week four, which saw a 41-0 plastering of Andy Gustafson’s Miami Hurricanes in the Orange Bowl, Dietzel’s squad looked for real, and pollsters took notice. LSU now rose to No. 9 in the nation, right behind that Ole Miss squad that Cannon confidently predicted his team would challenge for the SEC crown.

The two appeared headed for a collision course battle. Though Ole Miss won its fifth game, LSU’s pounding of respected Blanton Collier’s Kentucky bunch soared the Tigers all the way to #3, while the Rebels had to settle for #6.

The biggest key to Tigers’ greatness

LSU’s defense played the biggest role in its nation-shocking success. A change in the tightly bound substitution rule in 1958 had allowed any player the option of returning to the field in the same half—something that had been only permitted for starters in prior seasons.

With that, LSU head coach Paul Dietzel created a unit solely of defensive specialists, naming them the Chinese Bandits. Dietzel took the name from an old comic book character who stated that Chinese bandits were the most vicious people alive. The salty unit helped LSU hold opponents to a futile six points per game.

After getting by Florida, the Tigers now carried the nation’s No. 1 ranking into its biggest game, versus Ole Miss, ranked a lofty No. 6 itself and feeling perhaps equally deserving of top billing.

Showdown Time With Ole Miss

A then record 68,000 filled Tiger Stadium Saturday night, creating an indescribable buzz of intensity and anticipation with every play. Standout back Scooter Purvis vividly relived the feeling: “It was as if the crowd was out there with us, as if the crowd was saying, ‘We’re all playing this sucker.’”

Ole Miss, taking advantage of a fumbled punt attempt and the hard running of its star back Charlie Flowers, hammered to within a whisker of a score. But Max Fugler, the stout center (played both ways), almost single-handedly stuffed the vaunted Rebels from scoring, teaming with Billy Cannon on fourth down to ensure the critical goal line stand.

Mississippi would never have such a golden chance the remainder, as LSU’s defense, aided by the  “Chinese Bandits,” skunked the Rebels’ offense. Meanwhile, the Tigers’ offense generated just enough spark to score twice, making the final, relished result 14-0.

The stunning Tigers now had a clear path to the mythical national championship, and next proceeded to plaster Duke, 50-18. Dietzel’s program did face one more intense test, against the other Mississippi program, State. Though facing the Bulldogs on the road, a downpour, and plenty of mud, the Tigers survived, 7-6.

After waltzing by Tulane, 62-0, LSU was crowned the champion by the pollsters. The title was given at the time before the bowl games, but LSU proved its worth there, too, beating Clemson, 7-0, in the Sugar Bowl.

Fittingly, the Chinese Bandits had again helped the Tigers register a shutout. Incredibly, ten of the 11 opponents were held to seven points or less!

The national title would be LSU’s first and only for nearly half a century.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Breakthroughs, National Champions | No Comments »

UCLA Picks Its Rose-Bruins 1942

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

By Bert Hancock

Entertainment giant Bing Crosby predicted this regarding the upcoming 1942 showdown between USC and UCLA for the Rose Bowl: “Southern Cal has the power. UCLA has a brilliant passing game. The attack that clicks pockets the Rose Bowl key.” Other legendary performers were split. Red Skelton put his faith in UCLA, while Jimmy Cagney offered, “The Trojans should turn in their best game of the year. I have to ride with them.” Joan Crawford simply projected, “The Bruins, 18 to 12.” As the oddsmakers called it a virtual tie, it’s no wonder there was confusion on the favorite.

Though UCLA was considered to have the more potent program this season, the Bruins had never defeated the Trojans, at best getting a few ties in the battles. The series started so one sided in 1929 (USC grinding up UCLA 76-0) that both sides agreed to better judgment to suspend things after two years until UCLA could field a competitive team. As a former Bruin suffering through those massacres confessed, “The USC-UCLA game was like a practice for USC.”

UCLA proved itself by tying the mighty Trojans upon resumption in 1936. Even so, after several more fights, the Bruins still had failed to vanquish their rivals, with a particularly costly 0-0 tie in 1939 keeping them out of the Rose Bowl and putting USC in–again.

The 1942 season paths developed into UCLA’s favor, with USC going through a rebuilding process after losing its great coach, Howard Jones. Even so, the Bruins’ own guy, “Babe” Horrell, had confused the school alumni thus far with erratic season-to-season results, even free falling to 1-9 in 1940, his second year, after a strong first year.

UCLA's Great Passer, Bob Waterfield

UCLA's Great Passer, Bob Waterfield

The only thing truly consistent with UCLA is it thus far had never made it to the Rose Bowl. And standing before it was a team it had never beaten but always despised.  Future Bruins coach “Red” Sanders (who led UCLA to its only national title in 1954), would later emphasize, “The game (USC battle) is not life or death. It’s more important than that!” It seemed fitting, in a twisted way, that the two schools had bludgeoned one another toward a 7-7 tie the year before–one day before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

As Bing Crosby had accurately gauged, the contest would pit USC’s running game against the prowess of Bob Waterfield (later an NFL great with the Rams) and UCLA’s passing. Waterfield was more than a fantastic passer, though, and his running, defense (critical interception that led to a score), and punting gave UCLA a 14-7 lead, which it owned late into the contest.

USC, though obviously not as talented this time as its opponent, battled back to threaten twice, each time firing passes into the end zone that nearly were completed.

In the end, though, UCLA had survived the Trojans’ efforts while claiming the school’s first Rose Bowl berth against southern power Georgia. UCLA also won back its Victory Bell, a large bell that USC had stolen previously as a prank and only agreed to return if it could be held by the winning team.

The Bruins would fall to the Bulldogs, 9-0, and then–in typical “Babe” Horrell fashion–slide to 1-8 the following year, including two losses to USC.

While the status quo had returned with a vengeance and UCLA would not defeat USC with regularity until the 1950s, the school had broken through an immovable barrier.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Breakthroughs | No Comments »

Ohio State Finally Beats Michigan!

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

By Bert Hancock

After 15 years of paralytic ineptitude, Ohio State broke through with its first triumph ever over Michigan, 13-3, on October 25, 1919. Though the relished outcome couldn’t erase seemingly endless seasons of frustration, including an 86-0 drubbing, the victory ushered in a new era between the two squads.

To fully appreciate an OSU victory that now certainly comes far more frequently, it helps to know that, to this point, the Wolverines had outscored the Buckeyes by a mammoth margin of 369-21 in those first 15 games.

The 86-0 blitzkrieg in 1902 not only was the largest loss Ohio State has ever suffered, but it could have been much worse. The game was called midway through the second half, partly because it was feared that Michigan would opt not to play such a pitiful opponent anymore. To make matters more insane, touchdowns only counted five points then. With extra points often being eventful, you see how the score could easily have ballooned to over 100, even shortening the game! Ohio State’s school newspaper, The Lantern, soberly stated this in the aftermath: “Ohio had expected to be beaten, but 86 to 0 was so far beyond the thought of the most pessimistic, that the 1800 loyal rooters  were fairly shocked into dumbness. ”

It wasn’t as if the Buckeyes’ program was simply sorry at the time either, as that 1902 squad otherwise lost just once. Two years later, OSU rolled into the Michigan contest unbeaten and unscored upon, outclassing their four opponents by an average of 46-0. The host Bucks were promptly smacked by the visiting Wolverines, 31-6. Up to 1919, “victories” over the Wolverines came in the form of two ties among the many thrashings suffered.

So it was no big deal for Ohio State to enter this breakthrough event unbeaten, as was Michigan again. Further, this game was played in Ann Arbor, where OSU had scored all of six points in eight separate efforts.

The Game

Buckeye great Chic Harley, courtesy of Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

Chic Harley on critical score, courtesy of Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

Though the maize and blue suffered a blow early with the injury to a standout end on the opening kickoff, Ohio State gave generously as well, with its standout back Pete Stinchcomb coughing up the ball on the return. Michigan, already tasting another victory, fired a pass near the end zone, though it hit the ground harmlessly. After three plays, Ohio State had survived its early blunder.

The Buckeyes got even in the kicking game, breaking through to block a Michigan punt into the end zone for a touchdown late in the first quarter, along with the game’s lead, 7-0.

With quarterback Stinchcomb’s big runs, along with a 42-yard scamper by Chic Harley (who became OSU’s first ever college football Hall of Famer), Ohio State increased its lead to 13-3 in the second half. The Wolverines abandoned their normally reliable running game for the pass, but with even worse results.

Incredibly, Harley picked off four errant Michigan tosses, and the Buckeyes kept the Wolves’ out of the end zone all day. Ohio State clung ferociously to its 13-3 lead the remainder of the game, while a record Michigan crowd of over 25,000 looked on in dismay and disbelief.

Michigan’s losing but legendary coach, Fielding Yost, rarely spoke to the opponent after any game, but he made a special and classy point to visit the Buckeyes’ dressing room afterward. Yost lavished all praise on the opponent for its inspired play and brilliant strategy.

A last-game loss to Illinois prevented Ohio State from claiming the Big Ten title, but the bigger news had been its first triumph over Michigan, a breakthrough that propelled the Buckeyes to three straight over the hated rival and bolstered the energy to create Ohio Stadium in 1922.

Truly, a new era had entered the scarlet and gray’s football spirit.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Breakthroughs | No Comments »