OXFORD-----A Princeton "Publication has listed the University of Mississippi as the number two party school in America. Anyone who attended the Missouri-Ole Miss game might disagree. The tail gate of all tail gates took place on this sultry September afternoon. Hundreds of tents were on display in the Grove. At my favorite tail gate party the Wild Bunch rode again.
Each and everyone of this celebrity group arrived separately. Their wives,of course,and some children accompanied the likes of Charlie Flowers, Squire Ed Wilburn Hooker, Dr. Shed Hill Roberson,Holcombe Hector, Kent Jr. Lovelace, and Warren (Beaux) Ball.
A special guest was Kent Jr.'s son-in-law Chef Emeril LaGasse, who viewed the football game in Chancellor Robert Khayat's private box. Emeril, as noted earlier in this space, will be the Grand Marshal of the 2008 Rose Bowl Parade which might not have excited Wolfgang Puck, the renowned Los Angeles Chef.
University of Missouri handed a whipping on the Johnny Rebs true enough but the Red and Blue did not fold, battling to the end. Missouri just might be one of the Best 25 teams in the country. In pre-season voting Ole Mizzou had been labeled the Big 12's top team in the Northern Division, ahead of the University of Nebraska.
Buck Howell, Bill Lee and I made the trip to Oxford. The campus was buzzing . Threatening rain did not materialize. Five O' Clock kickoffs are not bad. An added highlight of the weekend was the salute to Mitch Lavinghouze, who was attending his 401st straight Ole Miss football game covering a 35-year period. A Southern Mississippi grad, Mitch started going to Ole Miss games when his sons, Steve and Robin, were place-kickers for the Rebels.
In the press box Larry Liddell, Public Information Director of Tunica Mississippi, asked me when did I see Ole Miss play. I saw the 1946 LSU-Ole Miss game when Y.A. Tittle decisioned Charlie Conerly in a shoot-out. That was only 61 years ago. In 1947 I saw Conerly reverse the situation again in Baton Rouge and then saw Ole Miss come from behind to beat Johnny Vaught's alma mater, TCU, in the Delta Bowl at Crump Stadium in Memphis.
I saw my first games on campus in 1948 as the sports editor-columnist of The Mississippian. So next year it will be my 60th year of watching the Red and Blue play at Hemingway Stadium, now Vaught-Hemingway. The writers who covered the Rebels 60 years ago Walter Stewart, David Bloom, and George Bugbee are gone. So are the Mississippi writers Carl Walters, Wayne Thompson, Arnold Hederman, Dick Smith, Bill Ross, Charley Kerg and others. I am the last writer still standing who covered the Rebels back on those days except for Jack Hairston who left Mississippi for Florida many year ago.
Larry Liddell was Billy Gates' aide in athletic publicity and thinks the All-America Football Foundation should have another Banquet of Champions in Tunica in 2008. We certainly enjoyed earlier AAFF Dinners there.
It was good to see Mississippi State perform so well in New Orleans in trimming Tulane and all of a sudden the next opponent Auburn does not look as tough after all after bowing to South Florida in Auburn, 28-23 in overtime. Southern Miss played Tennessee on even terms until bowing in the second half, 39-19. And the Golden Eagles now must journey to Greenville, S.C. to play a vastly improved East Carolina State before a third straight road game against Boise State whose winning streak ended at the hands of the University of Washington.
The Notre Dame-Michigan game puts the loser in a terrible picture. Two unbeaten teams colliding is one thing but two 0-2 teams squaring off shocks everyone in college football circles. LSU routed Virginia Tech and is dueling Southern Cal for the number one spot at the moment.
College Football, Campus tail gateing with old pals. Shocking wins, shocking losses. That is what College Football is all about.
---30--
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Hooray for Upsets
Fantastic season openers dominated Week One of the 2007 college football season with not only the University of Michigan bowing to defending national 1-AA champion Appalachian State, but Tennessee, Rice, Florida State,and the Brave Old Army team also going down in defeat.
Modern day sportscasters called the Appalalchian victory perhaps the greatest upset of all times in the College game. They apparently never heard about little Centre College going East to tumble proud Harvard, or little Mississippi Southern invading Montgomery in 1953 to shock defending Orange Bowl champion Alabama, 25-19, in the lid-lifter on a Friday night before other teams started play the very next day.
Alabama had throttled Syracuse in the Orange Bowl and had most of their key players returning, including Quarterback Bart Starr. Coached by Red Drew the Crimson Tide had been selected as the likely SEC champion but a national contender as well. Southern was coached by Thad (Pie) Vann and he rounded up a sterling group of Junior College players which blended well with his returning starters, plus a couple of war veterans, six-six Marine Corps veteran Sgt. Don Owens, and six-five Army warrior Jim (Coon Dog) Davis.
Owens weighted 250, Davis 245, which was huge in those days. Davis' next birthday was either 29 or 30,as my memory is correct.
Southern also had the best one-two running back combo in America, a pair of former Junior College backs, Fullback Bucky McElroy and Halfback Hugh Laurin Pepper. McElroy was a a steam roller, Pepper a jet-propelled bomber. As juniors Pepper and McElroy, the Black Knight from the Bayous, out-gained Heisman Trophy winner Billy Vessels and Buck McPhail of Oklahoma.
In 1953 gridders played both ways. Pepper was superb defending passes, intercepting them and running back for touchdowns. McElroy was a dynamic line-backer, who later played 60 minutes in Southern's 14-0 whitewashing of the University of Georgia, whose quarterback Deke Bratkowski had been averaging three touchdowns a game.
Both Pepper and McElroy made Little All American and Mid-Bracket All=-America but neither is in the College Football Hall of Fame but both have been nominated. Both are still alive and should be honored over a half century later while they can still smell the roses.
Southern also had two great defensive ends Stonewall Jackson Brumfield and Richard Caldwell, who were coached by H.A. Smith, a one-time Chicago Bear. Brumfield haunted Bratkowski and Starr as did Caldwell.
Alabama rallied to win the SEC and play Rice in the Cotton Bowl in the famous game where Tommy Lewis came off the bench to tackle Dickie Moegle.
Jerry Moore, The Appalachian State coach, who has already received the All-American Football Foundation's Johnny Vaught Head Coach Award, and has been honored as Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association, probably clinched his future induction in to the College Football Hall of Fame with his team's victory over mighty Michigan.
The Wolverines will come back after this staggering loss. That's my prediction.
****
On another note did you see where Leona Helmsley left her pet dog millions of dollars in her will. No dog should be lonely. I think that my dog, Christian, should be introduced to Leona's dog. If they hit it off Christian would move to New York. I have discussed this with him and he told me he would never leave me and move to New York, and since I lived and worked in the New York area I obviously knew the best places to hang out, including Jimmy Neary's Pub on East 57th street between First and Second avenue. Christian told me he would not move to New York to hang out with Leona's pup unless I went with him. I agreed.
---30-------
Modern day sportscasters called the Appalalchian victory perhaps the greatest upset of all times in the College game. They apparently never heard about little Centre College going East to tumble proud Harvard, or little Mississippi Southern invading Montgomery in 1953 to shock defending Orange Bowl champion Alabama, 25-19, in the lid-lifter on a Friday night before other teams started play the very next day.
Alabama had throttled Syracuse in the Orange Bowl and had most of their key players returning, including Quarterback Bart Starr. Coached by Red Drew the Crimson Tide had been selected as the likely SEC champion but a national contender as well. Southern was coached by Thad (Pie) Vann and he rounded up a sterling group of Junior College players which blended well with his returning starters, plus a couple of war veterans, six-six Marine Corps veteran Sgt. Don Owens, and six-five Army warrior Jim (Coon Dog) Davis.
Owens weighted 250, Davis 245, which was huge in those days. Davis' next birthday was either 29 or 30,as my memory is correct.
Southern also had the best one-two running back combo in America, a pair of former Junior College backs, Fullback Bucky McElroy and Halfback Hugh Laurin Pepper. McElroy was a a steam roller, Pepper a jet-propelled bomber. As juniors Pepper and McElroy, the Black Knight from the Bayous, out-gained Heisman Trophy winner Billy Vessels and Buck McPhail of Oklahoma.
In 1953 gridders played both ways. Pepper was superb defending passes, intercepting them and running back for touchdowns. McElroy was a dynamic line-backer, who later played 60 minutes in Southern's 14-0 whitewashing of the University of Georgia, whose quarterback Deke Bratkowski had been averaging three touchdowns a game.
Both Pepper and McElroy made Little All American and Mid-Bracket All=-America but neither is in the College Football Hall of Fame but both have been nominated. Both are still alive and should be honored over a half century later while they can still smell the roses.
Southern also had two great defensive ends Stonewall Jackson Brumfield and Richard Caldwell, who were coached by H.A. Smith, a one-time Chicago Bear. Brumfield haunted Bratkowski and Starr as did Caldwell.
Alabama rallied to win the SEC and play Rice in the Cotton Bowl in the famous game where Tommy Lewis came off the bench to tackle Dickie Moegle.
Jerry Moore, The Appalachian State coach, who has already received the All-American Football Foundation's Johnny Vaught Head Coach Award, and has been honored as Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association, probably clinched his future induction in to the College Football Hall of Fame with his team's victory over mighty Michigan.
The Wolverines will come back after this staggering loss. That's my prediction.
****
On another note did you see where Leona Helmsley left her pet dog millions of dollars in her will. No dog should be lonely. I think that my dog, Christian, should be introduced to Leona's dog. If they hit it off Christian would move to New York. I have discussed this with him and he told me he would never leave me and move to New York, and since I lived and worked in the New York area I obviously knew the best places to hang out, including Jimmy Neary's Pub on East 57th street between First and Second avenue. Christian told me he would not move to New York to hang out with Leona's pup unless I went with him. I agreed.
---30-------
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