2000 Week10
October 31, 2000
Wow, that was one fine weekend of college football. I enjoyed just slumping over in my chair, with a couple of those 7 & 7's from 7/11 (they put ‘em in Big Gulp glasses for only $2.29 apiece, buy two of those and two of the week-old hot dogs and you’re nourished for the day, at least until your liver shuts down and you have to get another transplant).
The big game, of course, was the Nebraska/Oklahoma clash in Norman. They really hauled out all the nostalgia, they brought in Dr. Tom Osborne and even exhumed Barry Switzer for the occasion. Barry looked great--I hope I look that good when I’ve been dead for three years.
Speaking of the Big 8, I told people that Kansas City State’s schedule would eventually catch up to them. You can’t beat all the small college patsies all the time, and once you slip up it’s embarrassing. Congratulations to Texas A&I for pulling the stunner.
The wildest game had to be Arizona State vs. Oregon, which went to overtime with Oregon winning. The key to the game was the rule that each team supplies its own football to use on offense.
On the previous extra point, the Arizona State kicker had injured himself because the ball boy had accidentally substituted one of those soft Nurf footballs. He still managed to boot it through the uprights, but fell and injured his back. That forced ASU to fake the kick after the overtime touchdown and the pass fell incomplete. Oregon won the game because of the first OT tie-breaker--they gained more yards scoring their OT touchdown than Arizona State did.
Meanwhile, things aren’t going so well for Mike DuBose in Tuscaloosa, as Alabama lost a tight game to Florida. And on the final desperation play of the game, an Alabama player repeatedly punched an opponent. Players these days are far less disciplined. Punching opponents? Old time coaches like the Bear and Woody never would have tolerated that sort of thing.
The other big football development was in the professional ranks. Former star college and pro QB Jim McMahon and others formed the "XFL". This will apparently compete with the NFL for TV coverage and all that.
Of course football history is replete with many new professional leagues, such as the USFL, the WFL, the AFL, and the Southwest Conference. What usually happens is that the league lasts a few years, then most of the teams fold, but some join the original league (in this case the NFL; for instance the SWC’s Dallas team eventually became the Cowboys).
But few recall the first attempt to create an expansion league for college football. Back in 1946, with the war over and the popularity of college sports starting to grow again, young Gary Davidson decided that there was a marketing possibility for a new college football league.
Davidson was fresh out of the University of Georgia. He saw all the sellout crowds at SEC games and realized that there was a real demand for college football in the South. So he created the Southern League of Undergraduate Gridiron and announced plans to begin play, with eight teams, in the fall of 1948.
Of course, to get a league started, he needed some teams. So, with the help of various interested parties who owned the teams, he hired some coaches, then he built himself eight colleges.
You know that old saying "if only we had a college worthy of our football team?" Well, he came up with that one, because he promised to build some world-class institutions that would be every bit as good as the football teams they fielded.
Of course building the colleges was somewhat difficult, he had to buy land, in one case he had to buy the rights to some Tallahassee women’s college that was about to close, and so forth. But he finally had his eight colleges open, as well as eight football teams, and play then commenced.
Things didn’t go all that well at first. The red white and blue striped football was not very easy to see on passing plays, so they finally had to go back to the regular brown football.
The crowds also were not used to the things Davidson arranged to keep the fans entertained between plays, such as strippers. There were also some unusual promotions
The final straw was the game between host Central Georgia University (whose campus had just opened weeks earlier) and South North Carolina (not to be confused with archrival North South Carolina). The game was fairly exciting, with lots of scoring and fireworks after each touchdown.
But things went horribly wrong after a controversial fumble call that went against Central Georgia. Some of the fans stormed from the stands to attack the refs, while others remained in the stands and threw things.
The promotion that night was a promotion to release a popular local musician (the father of future country rock superstar Charlie Daniels) from jail after he had been charged for marrying his cousin. No, this wasn’t the case of comedian Jerry Lewis, that happened ten years later.
The accused was a local favorite, with tens of thousands of fans, and Davidson ordered his staff to set up a "Free Jack" promotion, and they did a great job in getting 40,000 people to attend the game.
Unfortunately, something got lost in the translation and the promotional staff requested materials for a "Free Jack Daniels" night. And we’re not talking those little 1 ½ ounce bottles. The promoters were handing out free fifths of Jack Daniels all night long. As you can imagine, the drunken crowd tore the stadium apart and numerous people on the field went to the hospital after getting conked on the head by empty fifths.
Due to the scandal (which happened in a dry county), the SLUG was disbanded immediately. Two of the more successful franchises, both in Florida, were admitted to the NCAA: The University of Miami and Florida State University. And that’s how the great ACC powers of Florida football got their start.