2022 Week 4
September 28, 2022
I'm glad we finally are seeing meaningful conference games all over the country. Up here we had wall to wall action for over 14 hours on Saturday, which is how I like it. There was also some football played.
My Pitt Panthers continued their turnaround by blasting the University of Rhode Island, 45-24. It was a tough day for teams from the Ocean State, as Houston held off Rhode Island Continuing Education, 34-27.
One of the most exciting games took place in the hill country of Athens Ohio, as the Ohio Bobcats had an exciting come from behind win over Fordham. Late in the game my good friend Coach Lombardi came over and started talking about the old days of Fordham football, when he was one of the legendary 7 blockheads of granite. Then his old Fordham coaches Jim Crowley and Frank Leahy walked in and we soon had a lengthy discussion of the football history of Notre Dame, Boston University, Fordham, and Green Bay. Then we started doing shots. Pretty quickly the coaches were all passed out while I, on my second transplanted liver, just sat back in my chair and laughed at their weak constitutions. It's good to be king.
Some highly ranked teams had some pretty close games. Clemson defeated Wake Forest 51-45 in overtime. Michigan narrowly defeated the Maryland Fighting Twerps. And Southern Cal, in the final game of the evening, scored very late to beat Oregon State 17-14. I haven't seen a Trojan score so fast on a Beaver like that since my prom night.
Kansas continued its fine start by beating Duke 35-27. Coach Miles seems to finally be turning it around there.
Tennessee had a wild win over Florida at Rocky Top. The Vols took a big 17-point lead on the Gators with 8 minutes to go then held on for the win. Coach Majors came over and laughed at all the passed out coaching legends sprawled on the floor by me, then pulled out his moonshine to celebrate. A few minutes later Florida was trying a Hail Mary to complete an improbable comeback and Johnny was staggering a bit. But the pass was intercepted, Tennessee won, and Johnny celebrated by pouring the rest of his moonshine over his head. That Tennessee moonshine is some strong stuff - part of Johnny's toupee dissolved.
Miami of Ohio had a tough loss to a game Middle Tennessee State team, losing 45-31. I like these mid-major matchups - rather than get plowed by a major conference program, Middle Tennessee played someone on their own level. Meanwhile the more well-known Miami, the Miami Hurricanes, traveled north to the shores of Lake Michigan and narrowly beat Northwestern, 17-14.
A great old-time rivalry was renewed with TCU winning a fun shootout over SMU, 42-34. I looked in vain during the telecast, hoping to see the Pony. Has anyone seen the Pony?
Elsewhere in the SWC, Texas Tech had a big comeback in Jerry Jones' AT&T Stadium and knocked off the Texas Longhorns, 37-34 in overtime. Now I'm still a bit confused about these overtime rules. Texas got the ball first but fumbled at the Tech 25. Then, for some reason, they gave Texas Tech the ball at the Texas 25, which set them up for an easy sudden death game winning field goal.
But the ultimate SWC game was between R Kansas and the Texas Aggies. A&M was clinging to a 23-21 lead when R Kansas tried a game winning field goal with a minute to go in the game. The kick was off to the right a bit but drifted over the right goal post before hitting the top of the goal post and bouncing to the ground without going through.
I haven't seen a play like that in over 100 years.
In 1903 Yale was playing Princeton. Back then field goals were worth 4 points and the goal posts were a lot lower because nobody could kick the rounder football as high, so you didn't need those posts that go 40 feet into the air. Also back then the rules on players linking up were a lot more liberal - that's why you had the flying wedgie and other such formations.
Yale trailed in the game 18-15 but had moved the ball down to the Princeton 10 yard line and lined up for a game-winning field goal from the 17 yard line. Now back then the college football goal posts were on the goal line not the end line, so it was just a 17 yard field goal attempt.
Princeton coach Art Hillebrand told his guys to use their special kick blocking formation where the 2 players would play line, then 3 groups of 3 players would stand at the goal line on each other's shoulders spaced out, one group at the left goal post, the second group at the center, and the third group at the right goal post. Princeton backup running back Charles Kafer, brother of All-American Dana Kafer, was a scrawny easily hoisted lad so he was at the top of the trio along the right goal post, standing on a teammate's shoulders.
Yale all-American Ledyard Mitchell lined up to try the game winning kick. He booted a line drive toward the right upright. Kafer leapt up and grabbed the ball to block the kick then fell. He and the ball were impaled on the goal post. Because the ball did not go between the uprights the kick was no good and Princeton held on for the win. Kafer, sadly, did not fare as well. But his sacrifice was recognized as Princeton built a metallic statue of Kafer cradling the football with a goal post sticking through him. Unfortunately the statue was destroyed in a lightning strike in 1953, so no legacy of his great play remains.
The rules were changed after this unfortunate incident and players were barred from standing on each other's shoulders. Goal posts were also redesigned so they were no longer sharpened to a point at the top.
And now you know the rest of the story.