October 13, 1997

Well, last week was not much fun for fans of one of the nation's most storied conferences, the Big East. Last Saturday things didn't go well for the Big East. Temple and Pittsburgh had a contest that set the game of football back 100 years, to the days before passing and helmets and on-field latrines made things a lot less smelly. West Virginia blew out Rutgers, but I'm sure those Rutgers players were just psyched out by all them missing teeth in the stands.

Syracuse continued their fine season by winning big. With triumphs over the 8th best team in the Big Ten and that last second thriller over powerhouse Tulane (who are from Conference UFO--is that why their mascot is that bug-eyed alien who looks like Corso?), Syracuse is now firmly among the Big East's elite and with a few more victories they might soon be among the "others receiving votes" in the polls.

Associate Big East member Notre Dame also fell again. ND keeps on trying to join the Big East but they're not being let in until they meet the league's attendance requirements and stop having all those empty seats in South Bend.

The one other disappointment was Virginia Tech. After fighting hard the entire game, the Hokies almost pulled the upset over Miami, but fell short 24-17. To come so close to beating the Canes but not quite doing it, that had to hurt.

Miami apparently played a split squad this weekend, which might explain why their other squad got annihilated by Florida State, 47-0. They must have sent their best players to the league game up in Blacksburg and sent the scrubs to Tallahassee.

Miami's come under fire recently for their association with musician/booster Luther Campbell of that Too Live Motley Crue outfit (I always did like that one song, "Kickstart my Heart, You Ho"). This is not the first time musicians have become boosters for a football program.

Way back in the post-war years, "Schnectady Freddie" Crudup was the leader of one of America's best "big bands". Freddie could do it all, play clarinet, conduct, and singlehandedly take on five bobby-soxed groupies at once. Freddie was a big fan of nearby Syracuse University and became a booster.

Officials at the school were bothered by this--they feared that Freddie, with his snappy blazers and controversial wardrobe (no tie or hat or undies), would cause problems. They were correct.

Freddie set up players to make free long distance calls. In that era they didn't have any of those fancy phone credit cards. All you needed was willing operators. So Freddie started placing his groupies in operator positions and told them when they heard the magic big band song phrase "I ate the bar" the operator was to put the caller through for free.

The other problem involved the "Kell Grant" college aid program. This program was named for the tobacco-chewing, drawling third baseman and former two-sport star from Arkansas, George Kell. Kell Grants were designed to help athletes from poor rural areas through college and prepare them for careers as articulate broadcasters so they wouldn't be as embarrassing to the Ozarks and Appalachians as ballplayer turned broadcaster Dizzy "he slud into third" Dean.

Unfortunately, Freddie was caught taking debonair Syracuse players from the Lower East Side of Manhattan and teaching them to talk badly so they could pass the bad speaking test and qualify for Kell Grants. To this day hundreds of 1940's Syracuse football players speak improper English, which is why you rarely hear about that era in Syracuse athletics.

Fortunately Syracuse caught Freddie in time and barred him from contact with the program before serious sanctions were imposed. Freddie continued his involvement with big-time college athletes, in fact until his death in 1983 he took credit for introducing athletes to the joys of life on the road and all the lovely airline women one could meet there. One of his young athlete friends from the New York Giants, we'll just call him Frank G., obviously took some good notes!

See next Beeno post