2007 Week 7
October 19, 2007
This past week in college football featured a lot of Homecoming games. Homecoming is a great opportunity for alumni to return to town, see old friends, down a few beverages. Then one can meet up with coed half your age (gotta love those 40-something women) for a little Alabama Hot Pocket action.
Homecoming has certain changed a lot from the early days. The first Homecoming was the brainstorm of famous University of Chicago coach Anus Alonzo Stagg. Coach Stagg's team was struggling and faced a big game against Wisconsin.
So Coach Stagg invited all the Maroon alumni back to campus for a homecoming. A few hundred Chicago alums returned to the Loop for the big game. People were shocked as Chicago pulled off the upset. Only later did we learn that the general invitation was a cover for Coach Stagg's real goal: Among the alums who returned were some former Chicago football standouts. Coach Stagg put them into the game and that led to the upset.
These days schools can't get away with sneaking in former players, so Homecoming is more focused on the regular alumni. There's always a parade, with bands and many floats, with honors bestowed upon famous alumni.
Last year I was invited by my alma mater, Pitt, to be in the Homecoming parade. In fact, they named me the grand marshal and made me a float. I got there and they showed me the vintage Corvette that would be pulling us along. They had some Panther cheerleaders riding on my tummy as I just laid down on a cart and was to be pulled along by the Corvette.
Unfortunately, the car's towing capacity was taxed to the max by the weight of the float. So the cheerleaders dismounted me to walk the parade route before I could even suggest trying a Pittsburgh Platter.
There was quite a shakeup in the rankings this week. #1 rated LSU lost up at Kentucky. #2 Cal moved up to #1 for about 30 seconds, but Cal has all the staying power of a 13-year-old boy.
The other exciting game was in a rainy Los Angeles. I heard my good friend Herb Street saying that USC wasn't going to put some prime Booty on the field against Arizona, but the Song Girls still were out there.
The field was muddy and there was a new quarterback so many of the USC faithful were worried. No one likes a dirty Sanchez. As it was, due to the early start of the game, I had to catch it while eating breakfast.
I went to the local restaurant and ordered a Big Boy Combo, unfortunately they didn't have any tv's. I finally settled on this little diner across the railroad tracks. It was a strange little place with no windows and lots of neon lights advertising "Live Girls" (I guess somebody tried to open a Hooters with dead women). Anyway, the feature of the day was Eggs Danny Thomas Style, but I decided to get the oatmeal instead.
By the time I got home it was halftime and the USC band took the field. I especially like the drum major, the guy in the Roman Helmet. I really felt sorry for the band - marching in mud is bad enough, but having to do it with a Rusty Trombone is even worse. After the game was over, the Song Girls and some friends saluted the new powerhouse of the Big East by performing a Cincinnati Bowtie.
Correction: I would like to apologize for a mistake I made last week, where I said that UCLA played Notre Dame at the Coliseum. It turns out that UCLA has played its home games at the Rose Bowel for over two decades. That probably explains why the game ended in a Pasadena Mudslide.
Well, it's back to some exciting football action this week. I've spoken for years about my dislike of baseball. So I was hoping that the Indians would beat the Red Sox last night to finish off that series and get us closer to the magic day when the baseball playoffs end. Unfortunately the Indians lost as pitcher BJ Sabbath let loose with a real Cleveland Steamer.