It is too bad he can't be alive to enjoy this football season, because he sure would be proud of the year his two favorite teams - the University of Illinois and the Chicago Bears - are having. Mr. Halas was a Chicago boy whose father ran a tavern. He loved all sports, and attended the University of Illinois, where he played football for the great Bob Zuppke, and basketball and baseball as well. He played in the Rose Bowl, but not as a member of his college team; instead, while in the Navy during World War I, he played for Great Lakes Naval Training Station, in one of the two Rose Bowl games not played between college teams. After graduation from college, he played a season of baseball for the New York Yankees, and in the off-season played semi-pro football for a team in Hammond, Indiana. Around that time, he was approached by a representative of the A. E. Staley Company, a large corn starch manufacturer in Decatur, Illinois, looking for someone to work for the company, play on the company's baseball team and manage and coach the company football team - as well as play on it. (Mr. Staley thought it would be good for PR and good for the workers' morale.) Mr. Halas bought uniforms in the same orange-and-blue as Illinois, and became the team's player-coach. The Decatur Staleys were 10-1-2 in Halas' first year, but the country was in a recession, and Mr. Staley decided against continuing to cover the team's losses, offering to turn it over to Mr. Halas. He provided Mr. Halas with $5,000, on the condition that he continue to call the team the "Staleys" for one more year, and that "the team conduct itself, on and off the field, in a manner that would reflect credit upon the A.E. Staley Company." "From that day on," wrote Mr. Halas in his autobiography, "Halas by Halas," "I have made it a team rule that my players behave as gentlemen and dress as gentlemen. I wanted to end the popular conception that professional athletes were a bunch of roughnecks." (Things seem to have come full circle, wouldn't you say?HW) He moved the team to Chicago, and somehow managed to survive financially. The owner of the Chicago Cubs, William Veeck, Sr. - the father of famed baseball owner Bill Veeck - agreed to let him play games in his Wrigley Field,. After his year as the "Staleys" was over, Mr. Halas considered naming his team the Cubs, out of gratitude and respect for the senior Veeck, but, noting that football players were bigger than baseball players (at least they were, in those days before andro), "Bears" would be more appropriate than Cubs. The team, and the overall welfare of professional football, would become his life's work. Mr. Halas was instrumental in the formation of the National Football League, and his signing of Red Grange, easily the most popular football player in the nation at the time, was the move that earned professional football a place among America's major sports. On more than one occasion, he made decisions that put the league's interests ahead of those of his team, in the belief that what was best for the league was ultimately best for his team. One incredibly farsighted and unselfish decision, a key to the overall success of the NFL, was his agreement, despite the size of the Chicago market, to share network television revenues with teams in smaller markets. Someone once nicknamed him "Papa Bear," and the nickname stuck, but the reality was quite different. Mr. Halas was, above all, tough. He was hard and he was blunt. He was not subtle - he was Chicago all the way - what you saw was what you got. And what you often got, according to people I know played for him and against him, was language that would cost him his job had he been a middle school coach. A player on another team was likely to be called a (vulgarity describing Monica Lewinsky); a player whose courage was in question was a (fornicating kitty). He was honest to a fault, and demanded the same of others. He expected to do business with you on a handshake. He had little use for agents. He had known tough times, years when every autumn he'd have to take out a loan to get him through training camp and the first couple of games. "In truth," he wrote, "the Bears lived hand-to-mouth." People who've worked hard to get where they are tend not to forget the struggle, so Mr. Halas should be forgiven if he remained tight with his wallet, long after the Bears were successful financially. Mike Ditka once joked that he threw nickels around "as if they're manhole covers." But Mr. Halas was capable of great acts of quiet charity and generosity. His care of Brian Piccolo, in his dying days, is one such example. He owned the Bears until his death in 1983 at the age of 88. He coached off an on until his retirement in 1968, when he was 73 years old. He won the NFL title in 1963, when he was 68. When he retired, he had 324 wins, a record at the time. The things he saw, the men he knew, the teams he coached, are the history of the NFL. So long as men like him were alive, the game was able to establish an integrity it struggles to maintain under the stweardship of today's greedy owners. His inspiration to start a professional football team was something he remembered his college coach, Bob Zuppke, saying at his college team's annual banquet his senior year: "Just when I teach you fellows how to play football, you graduate and I lose you."
*********** CONNECTICUT TITLE GAME PITS A PAIR OF DOUBLE-WINGERS With 2001 Double-Wing champions in Iowa (Fredericksburg) and Maine (Boothbay Regional), it is safe to add Connecticut to the list. That's because it's Fitch High of Groton (10-0) vs. Notre Dame of West Haven (10-1), as two of the nation's best Double-Wing teams tee it up Saturday afternoon in the Connecticut state Class L championship game. Fitch, winner of 34 straight, is going for its third straight Class L title. Fitch hasn't lost since the 1998 state final. Notre Dame is making its first playoff appearance since 1992. Fitch, ordinarily a big-play team, put on a display of classic Double-Wing power football to with a couple of drives consuming more than seven minutes each, to down Staples of Westport, 27-14. Dante Ross ran for 142 yards on 22 carries, while Donte Kemp ran for 89 on 22 carries. Kemp also caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Will Deveau. Notre Dame, meanwhile, found itself in a jam against Pomperaug, down 16-14, and on its own 28 with 3:08 left. 72 yards later, Michael Penta went in from two yards out to defeat Pomperaug, 20-14. The key play in the drive was a third-and-14 on the Notre Dame 48, when Joseph Pepe connected with 6-4, 220 pound Brad Listorti for 46 yards to the Pomperaug 6-yard line.
*********** SPEAKING OF GEORGE HALAS... Hey..what's up with the re-make of Brian's Song? That's bullsh--. Some things should be off limits, and that movie is one of them!! Scott Barnes, Rockwall, Texas Man, I can't believe some of the previews I'm seeing. I swear I heard "Brian Piccolo" (actually the weenie who plays him) telling his roommate, "I'm going to blow you out of the lineup." Well. First of all, for those of you weren't alive back in those days, a little lesson in human behavior. He wouldn't have said that. People didn't brag back then. Today's kids wouldn't relate to a movie in which athletes took pride in letting their performances speak for themselves, and kept their mouths shut on the field and on the court. Or to a time when athletes - people in general, for that matter - didn't go out of their way to draw attention to themselves with jerk behavior. Back then, jerks weren't suffered gladly. (Now, of course, we teach our kids to "tolerate" them. Isn't tolerance wonderful?) Ah, those were the days... But secondly- are you kidding me? His roommate was Gayle Sayers! Not to demean Brian Piccolo or his memory in any way, because he was a very good man, a very good husband and a very good father, and he was a solid member of the Bears' squad. But he was never remotely in competition with Gayle Sayers. Wrote George Halas, Bears' owner-coach, "He was not a star player, but he was a star teammate." Sayers, on the other hand, was The Kansas Comet, a two-time All-American at Kansas and a top Bears' draft choice (along with Dick Butkus - pretty good draft). He not only started as a rookie - he made all pro! And did it again the next year. And again the year after that. And would have done it a fourth straight year, except that he injured his knee. Trust me, should you actually hear "Brian Piccolo" saying something boastful to Gayle Sayers - it didn't happen. Of course, if it were nowadays, the way kids mouth off, he might say it. But if it were nowadays, "Gayle Sayers" (this actor ain't very believable, either) would say, "In your dreams."
*********** First it was an Australian rugby player, giving an opponent uh, uh, a digital rectal proctological exam, and now this... After Jose Antonio Reyes scored the second goal in Seville's 4-0 defeat of Real Valladoid in an under-21 soccer match, he was congratulated by teammates, one of whom, Francisco Gallardo, is accused of "celebrating" by biting Reyes' "privates" as he rolled on the ground. (I am not making this up.) It wasn't until later that Reyes realized what had happened. (Imagine his surprise!) "I felt a bit of a pinch," he said, "but I didn't realize what Gallardo had done until I saw the video." A "bit of a pinch," did he say? Francisco the Nibbler has been charged by the Spanish soccer federation's disciplinary committee and ordered to appear at a hearing next Tuesday. If he is found guilty he faces a fine or suspension for "infringing sporting dignity and decorum."
*********** Dear Coach Wyatt; My deepest apologies for not staying in touch over the past couple of months. September 11th really put a stranglehold on my time. My base went to threat condition Charlie for weeks, and I was taken from my nice, safe duty rotation of once every 16 days and instead stuck out at the gate watch for a 1 in 8 rotation. We're still in Threatcon Bravo, and checking IDs at the gate. Additionally, I found myself on the field coaching for ten hours a week, spending six hours on game days coaching, and breaking down films or scouting an additional ten to twenty hours a week. But it paid off. Last Friday, the Tomales Braves finished their season with a 60-28 win over the St. Bernerd's Crusaders at the Santa Rosa Junior College field in the North Coast Section Division III Class "B" Championship round. Our defense held them to just three first downs in the first half, although they did score a touchdown just before halftime on their only drive of the half. Their remaining touchdowns came late in the second half against junior varsity players we had pulled up to varsity in preparation for next season. Offensively, will the people that think the double wing is easy to stop PLEASE shut the hell up now? We scored 60 points, racked up over SIX HUNDRED yards of total offense, and only started punting because we were so far in the lead. Our season included a win over arch-rival St. Vincent, 28-7 and victories over much larger schools, Albany (Class AA) 23-22 and Drake (Class A) 34-33. Those wins helped to give us the astounding final record of 10-1. (One game was cancelled after September 11th.) Our only loss came to Middletown, in a game I think we could have won if we'd played our "A" game. Two of our running backs had over a thousand yards on the season: Alex Kaplan, who had nearly 1500 all purpose yards before tearing his MCL on Calistoga's horrible field, and Ethan Wyatt, who finished the season with over 1100 yards, despite going into the championship round with just 980. Ethan also caught 19 passes for 563 additional yards, and a host of touchdowns. Every member of our offensive backfield, from first to third string, crossed the goal line at least once this season, and another of our running backs, Caleb Davis, added 632 yards to our total. To get to the championship, we had to beat Pt. Arena, which we did by a score of 8-0 on a muddy field at home, holding the Pirate's Roman Cobaruvia to just 124 yards. (He had been averaging 220.) A fine season, granted to us by a fine body of young men. It was really an honor to share the field with them. I predict great things from the members of this team in the future. However, the most important two things of the season weren't the football games. After September 11th Coach Feleciano and the staff agreed that we needed to be more of a family on this team. As a result, we began team prayer again. It started with prayers for our country, and those never stopped, but by the end of the season, we knelt before and after each game, thanking God, in any form, for the chance to be there, to play, and maybe even emerge victorious. Screw the liberals. We prayed, and we're PROUD that we prayed. As if this wasn't enough to bring a tear to your eye, at the championship game the CD player wasn't working ($1.6 million on a football statium and the $40 CD player craps out. Go figure.). Just when we were all positive the announcer was going to say, "Well, we'll just have to skip the National Anthem." He instead said, "Well, we'll just have to sing it ourselves." And so, in a cracked voice that hit notes the throat was never intended to produce, he led the audience, several hundred strong, in the finest tribute to this country I have seen so far. We all sang, some better than others. Unfortunately, I could only get halfway through the song. I didn't forget the words, but by then I was unashamedly in tears and overcome with emotion at seeing everyone, from the refs to the players of both teams, singing. On a very final note, should you decide to place anything from this email online, please include that I noticed an incredibly wide streak of sportsmanship and class in the St. Bernerd's players and coaches. I felt very lucky to have had the chance to line up across from them, especially one Cody Flynn, a senior I spoke with after the game who gave me a huge smile and said, "You had our number today, Coach. Congratulations."
"I tried to explain the situation to my nephew but he was too scared to stay in the room long enough to hear it. Still, I burned up six pounds of Thanksgiving grub and wrote out a check to the Oklahoma State scholarship fund besides. "Funny thing, after the Texas Tech-OU game two weeks ago (and what was thought as UT's last best shot of seeing OU upended) many Longhorns sold their ducats to the Big 12 Championship game to Sooners via the Internet. After Saturday, those same Horn fans are desperatly trying to get their tickets back from the same Sooners who so greedily gobbled them up prior to the Oklahoma State contest. The Sooners may not be going to the title game but they are going to have a hell of a good Christmas haul up there. "Didn't Lee Corso play for Tom Nugent at FSU in 1955. And didn't Nugent pen that tender love ballad "Cat Scratch Fever?" Or was that Ted ... his son? "Nugent, Tom that is, also came up with another grid innovation besides the I formation. What was it? *** "Hook em, head em, drag em through the dirt." Whit Snyder, Baytown, Texas *** You wouldn't be thinking of the "human scoreboard," Bernardo Bramson, his Chilean placekicker, who started the 1964 season as Number 0, and after every game received a new number reflecting his new point total, now, would you? (He made it to 44) HW Hey, that human scoreboard deal is pretty interesting. No, Nugent, says one of my books, invented the "Typewriter Huddle." I take that to mean the "choir huddle" or the "open huddle" wherein the QB has his back to the defense and the rest of the offense is in two lines, one behind the other, facing him. The first line are backs and receivers with hands on knees, second tier are linemen. Whit
*********** My favorite game of the year is coming up this weekend. I'm getting fired up for the Army -Navy game by watching my tape of one of the all time classics on my exercise bike in the mornings. I'm talking about the 1995 game that Army won 14-13 by driving 99 yards with 8 minutes left in the game. They got 25 yards on a 4th and 24 to keep the drive alive. Ronnie McAda was a great, big play quarterback. Bob Sutton was my defensive coordinator when I was a Western Michigan University. I was right with you concerning your comments when Army fired Coach Sutton. I'd probably be cheering for Navy if they hadn't pulled the same crap on Coach Weatherbie. Dick Vermiel said it best when he was doing the '94 game for ABC. He said its probably the only game you'll see in which all 22 players get knocked down on the opening kick-off. John Zeller, Sears, Michigan (When Army and Navy play, American wins! And if you haven't read it, get hold of a copy of John Feinstein's "A Civil War," the best treatment of the Army-Navy game you'll ever find.HW) *********** Hugh: I know you have mentioned Glenn "Tiger" Ellison before in your videos and clinics. I was watching the Illinois class 5A state championship game between Joliet Catholic (Major Wing-T powerhouse) and Morris (Always a state playoff program). It was obvious from the onset that Morris didn't have the horses to pound with Joliet Catholic and went down early 14-0. In the second quarter, when Morris got the wind to their back, they came out in their "Hawaii" formation. Five offensive lineman ten yards from the ball to the left. A guard and a center over the ball with the QB behind in a shotgun. Then spread to the right would be a trips or twins set. Morris immediately moved the ball downfield and scored two touchdowns to go into the locker room with a 14-14 tie. Catholic called two timeouts but could not adjust to the formation. It was quite interesting and at times amusing. Catholic made some smart adjustments at halftime and won their 14th state title 27-20. Thought you would enjoy hearing that the lonesome polecat was alive and well in Illinois. Bill Lawlor, Hoffman Estates, Illinois *********** My son Ed and daughter-in-law Michelle arrive today for a Christmas visit and the celebration of their first anniversary, and, needless to say, after 11 months in Australia, there is a lot of football-watching on the schedule. Maybe even, as one of Ed's friends wrote him, a trip to warm, sunny Seattle to watch his alma mater, Stanford in the Seattle Bowl: "It also looks like the Cardinal may be in the Seattle Bowl, so you may have someone to cheer for. You may also be the only person in the stands." I personally am afraid that we have come full-circle, back to the days of the Gotham Bowl and the Boardwalk Bowl, but at least in those days, there were only a half-dozen other bowls at most, and it was worth taking a shot at trying to make a new one work, and no disgrace to appearing in one. But will anyone in the world consider it an honor to be invited to play in the Seattle Bowl? Georgia Tech? Bet they didn't ask the players! I said at the time they announced it that it was the damnedest, dumbest thing I'd ever heard of: first, tear down the Kingdome, the only building in which you could possibly justify playing a bowl game in Seattle in the wintertime without being institutionalized - and then go out and get yourself a bowl game. And this was before the downturn in the economy and people's reluctance to fly. Who are the geniuses behind this, I wonder. Oh well, no need to worry about terrorists. They're after large crowds.
MORE ABOUT DON HOLLEDER AND THE TYPE OF MAN HE WAS "Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Michael Robert Patterson By the way... to make sure the record is correct... There is no "n" in "Holleder." It is NOT "Hollander." It was common, when Don Holleder was playing, for announcers to mispronounce his name "Hollander," and evidently it was a sore spot with his former wife, since remarried who, when I spoke with her, evidently thought I'd said "Hollander," and was quick to correct me!
|
November
30- "At Grambling, it's a cardinal sin if
you get within the 10 and don't score." Eddie
Robinson
A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: George Halas is one of the true
giants of the game; few individuals have had close to the
impact he has had.
It is too bad he can't be alive to enjoy this football season, because he sure would be proud of the year his two favorite teams are having. He was a Chicago boy and attended the University of Illinois, where he played football, basketball and baseball. He played in the Rose Bowl, but not as a member of his college team; instead, he played in one of the two Rose Bowl games not played between college teams. After graduation from college, he played a season of baseball for the New York Yankees, and in the off-season played semi-pro football for a team in Hammond, Indiana. There he was approached by a representative of a large corn starch manufacturer looking for someone to play on the company's baseball team and start a company football team. (The owner thought it would be good for PR and good for the workers' morale.) He bought uniforms in the same colors as his college, and became the team's player-coach. When after a year of operation the owner decided against continuing to cover the team's losses and offered to turn it over to him, he took over its operation, moved it to his hometown, and somehow managed to survive financially. The owner of a major league baseball team agreed to let him play games in his ballpark, and the name he gave his team reflected his gratitude. The team - and, in order to help his team survive, the overall welfare of professional football - would become his life's work. He was instrumental in the formation of the National Football League, and on more than one occasion made decisions that put the league's interests ahead of those of his team, in the belief that what was best for the league was ultimately best for his team. He owned the team until his death in 1983 at the age of 88. He coached off an on until his retirement in 1968, when he was 73 years old. He won the NFL title in 1963, when he was 68. When he retired, he had 324 wins, a record at the time. His inspiration to start a professional football team was something he remembered his college coach, Bob Zuppke, saying at his college team's annual banquet his senior year: "Just when I teach you fellows how to play football, you graduate and I lose you."
*********** Alert reader Jim Kuhn, of Greeley, Colorado, noted that I'd mentioned a Colorado coach whose players were caught having sprayed Pam on their uniforms. Perhaps you read about it where you live - the coach was suspended from coaching his team during the playoffs, and last I heard, he wasn't assured of keeping his job. I know the man somewhat, from his having bought tapes from me, and I regret what happened to him. That is why I did not use his name. I hope he keeps his job. His teams are consistent winners, and not because of shady tactics. So why? I did read a comment by him in one of the Denver papers in which he said something about getting tired of other people doing it to his team and nothing being done about it. If that is so, I can certainly understand his frustration. It doesn't excuse the action, but I understand. I know the frustration of watching a passing team continually hold, while the officials do nothing. You want to tell your kids to go ahead and punch them in the balls. But you don't.
*********** John Zeller, of Sears, Michigan, noted with a bit of irony that he'd come across an article by Purdue's Joe Tiller, entitled, "Running the Football From Multiple Receiver Sets." Man, those guys on that web site are real comedians. On the same page, there's a big ad for (I am not making this up) "The Complete Rick Neuheisel Passing Attack Package." ("Great Stocking Stuffer," the ad says.)
*********** I chuckled when I heard Gary Danielson on TV Friday mentioning that Nebraska had successfully run "counter trey," or "counter-gap," the one-back counter play, using our "C" blocking, that the Washington Redskins made popular under Coach Joe Gibbs. Just last week, I had been reading something by Joe Gibbs, and I happened across this: "With the Redskins, we borrowed a play called the 'counter-gap,' which became our signature play in the 1980s. We were in a staff meeting and Don Breaux, one of the coaches, said, 'I just saw a college game on TV, and Nebraska has a running play that's killing everybody.' "He diagrammed it on the board, and right away we knew it was a perfect fit for our offense."
*********** At least now we know what kind of a shot Fresno State would have had at the national title, if the Bulldogs had run the table. No shot at all. Look. This is for all you Cornhuskers out there- I admire the Nebraska program, and the Cornhuskers were my choice to win the National title. Nebraska may in fact still be the best team in the country. But 62 points? You mean to tell me that Nebraska gets its ass kicked, and doesn't drop below Tennessee in the polls? Or Oregon? Or Illinois? Or Maryland? Or BYU? I mean, 62 points? Ahead of Tennessee, two-point, last-second loser to 8-3 Georgia (oops - make that 7-3, better not count the Houston win yet), and winner of six straight since then? Ahead of Oregon, loser by 49-42 to 8-2 Stanford, and winner of its last three? Ahead of Illinois, loser only to 8-3 Michigan, and winner of seven in a row since then? Or Maryland, loser only to 6-4 Florida State? Or BYU, which, if it can survive trips to Starkville, Mississippi and Honolulu (how's that for back-to-back trips?) will have lost to nobody? I thought the polls were based on performance, not potential. Using that criterion, teams don't give up 62 points and rank up there at #5 or #6.. Guys, when you lose by 36 points - to anybody - you don't deserve to be ranked #5. Or #6. Or #7. Or #8. Or #9. Okay, maybe #10. But to get as high as #5, you would need BYU to lose, Colorado to beat Texas, Florida to beat Tennessee, Oregon State to beat Oregon. In the unlikely event of all of those things happening, back up you'd go. Right behind Miami, the Florida/Tennessee winner (assuming they go on to win the SEC championship), Illinois and Maryland. But as it is, there is still a mathematical possibility of Nebraska's being in the Tostito, er, Rose Bowl. The real outrage here is the residual effect of the pre-season polls, which are based purely on speculation, yet lock teams into place before anyone has played a game. It's like inherited wealth. Although Nebraska is the beneficiary this time, I call it the Florida State factor. That's because in seasons past, Florida State always seemed to start the season ranked #1, and the title was theirs to lose. If they won out, they were in the Big Tostito. Simple as that. Didn't matter who else went unbeaten. Not even close games could topple them - they won, didn't they? And even if they did happen to lose a game, they would only fall so far - as if they had been given a parachute. And that meant they would still finish ahead of all the other teams with one loss. Start the season off the charts, though, as Illinois and Maryland did this year, and with even one loss there's very little you can do to vault over the people who were voted ahead of you back before you strapped it on. Damn, I hate the idea of a playoff. But if ever there was a year that called for taking the top eight teams, and getting it on, this is it. Sorry, Cornhuskers. *********** From California, head coach only two years, made the playoff each year. My first year I used the wing-t & dbl-wing, finished fourth averaging 18 points a game. My second year we finished second, runner-up, averaging 28 points a game using only the dbl-wing. Thanks to your system. Coach Chauncey Baine, Vacaville Jr. Bulldogs (11-14) Vacaville, California
I told him that when the Lord came for me, I would ask only that He wait until the Thanksgiving weekend is over - for a college football lover, it is a feast. And so, to re-validate his football credentials, after just having missed a Thanksgiving's worth of football - TO GO TO DISNEYLAND! - he related a Thanksgiving-and-football story:. The only time I've ever been hospitalized was when I was within a year of getting out of the Marine Corps..I was a Sergeant, and knowing it was my "last ball", I got a little "fired up" at the Marine Corps ball (10NOV) --- without going into the details, I'll just tell you I ended up with pneumonia and got placed in an Air Force(zoomie) hospital over Thanksgiving '83.
*********** Coach, I just got around to reading Friday's news. Every time I read about another #$@%&$, that says, "but it won't work at this level," it just makes my blood boil. I would pay any HS the wages of a coach for a year just to let me try it. Then I would be happy. If I couldn't make it work, I would still be happy because at least I had a chance. Frank Simonsen, Cape May, New Jersey
"Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Dave Berry
|
***********
As Mississippi State lined up in a stack-I on
the goal line, Lee Corso said, "See that
I-formation? I played that in 1953 at Florida
State." Okay, let's see who's been reading this
page faithfully and paying attention: who
was his coach? WHO'S BEEN PAYING
ATTENTION??? In 1953, the FSU hired Tom Nugent
as head football coach. In his second season at
FSU, Nugent took the team to the Sun Bowl in El
Paso, Texas -- the first time any Florida
football team was invited to an out-of-state
bowl game. One of the Seminole players was Buddy
Reynolds, a freshmen from West Palm Beach, who
is now better known as film and television star,
Burt Reynolds. Nugent led the Seminoles to one
of their best seasons in 1958, ending with a 7-3
record, beating Tennessee 10-0, FSU's first win
against an SEC team. 1958 also marked the first
time the FSU Seminoles played the University of
Florida Gators, inaugurating one of the greatest
rivalries in collegiate sports. To round out the
year, the Seminoles made their first appearance
on national television during the Bluegrass Bowl
in Lexington,Kentucky, an indication of the
remarkable growth of the FSU football program.
Adam Wesoloski, Menominee, Michigan... Also Greg
Stout, Thompson's Station, Tennessee... Also
Kevin McCullough, Culver, Indiana - i finally
read the rest of mondays "news".....i remember
that coach tom nugent used the the stack "i" at
maryland.....i don't remember if he was at
florida state.....on some of the video games
that you can pick your own formations to use
they refer to the stack as the maryland "i"...
(In the photo at left, Maryland coach Tom
Nugent poses with his team captain on the cover
of the 1965 Maryland media guide. Inside the
guide it says, "'The Father of the I Formation'
is experiencing the busiest year of his life.
Because of the suddenly-rapid spread of the
formation he originated at Virginia Military
Institute in 1949, 'Dr.' Nugent is spending
almost as much time answering queries, sending
diagrams and giving lectures on the 'I' as he is
in preparing for what could be his winningest
season at Maryland. It's beginning to look as if
every coach in the country wants to learn about
Nugent's 'I'." Lee Corso, who'd played QB under
Coach Nugent at Florida State was a young
assistant on that Maryland staff. Now, here's a
real dose of trivia for you: the captain in the
photo is a fullback from Old Forge,
Pennsylvania, a guy named Walt "Whitey"
Marciniak. You may have heard of his daughter,
Michelle. Pretty fair basketball
player.)
It is too bad he can't be alive to enjoy this football season, because he sure would be proud of the year his two favorite teams are having. He was a midwestern big-city boy and attended his home-state's university a Big Ten school where he played football, basketball and baseball. He played in the Rose Bowl, but not as a member of his college team; instead, he played in one of the two Rose Bowl games not played between college teams. After graduation from college, he played a season of baseball for the New York Yankees, and in the off-season played semi-pro football for a team in Hammond, Indiana. There he was approached by a representative of a large corn starch manufacturer looking for someone to play on the company's baseball team and start a company football team. (The owner thought it would be good for PR and good for the workers' morale.) He bought uniforms in the same colors as his college, and became the team's player-coach. When after a year of operation the owner decided against continuing to cover the team's losses and offered to turn it over to him, he took over its operation, moved it to his hometown, and somehow managed to survive financially. The team - and, in order to help his team survive, the overall welfare of professional football - would become his life's work. His inspiration was something he remembered his college coach, Bob Zuppke, saying at his college team's annual banquet his senior year: "Just when I teach you fellows how to play football, you graduate and I lose you." Those words, he would write years later, "were to govern the rest of my life."
My best wishes to coaches Mike Emery of Fitch and John DeCaprio, both of them good coaches and good men. *********** So close, so close... "Driscoll played in the 4A state finals last night. They went into two overtimes and won 42-41 over Mt. Carmel, Illinois. Driscoll went ahead 42-35 and Mt. Carmel scored to make it 42-41. Mt.Carmel went for two and they didn't get it. So, Driscoll wins. This is the second time in my short coaching career that I have coached against and beaten the state champion. When I was at Waukegan, we beat Maine South 6-0." Jon McLaughlin, Rich Central HS, Olympia Fields, Illinois *********** So close, so close... Woodbury, Minnesota, was 8-3 this past year, Paul Herzog's first at the controls. Two of Woodbury's losses, by 21-20 in the regular season and 35-20 in the state playoffs, were to Hastings, which won the 5A state title this past weekend. ***********It sure is nice to be appreciated... Bill Hargis, the Mayor of Woodbury, Minnesota, is a real supporter of its football programs, top to bottom. Sunday night, he took the entire high school football staff - some 15 coaches - to dinner and then to the Vikings-Bears game in the MetroDome. Bill is the real deal - he serves as a volunteer assistant on Coach Paul Herzog's staff.
Grrrr... They are full of $#@%, people who don't bother to read the rule book carefully, but don't let that keep them from popping off. Or, sometimes, officiating games. The rule book says this: (Rule 7 Section 2 Article 7) "Only one A (offensive) player may be in motion at the snap and then only if such motion is not toward the opponent's goal line." And that's it. Period. That's all it says. There is nothing in there about depth of motion, or speed of motion, or duration of motion, or (except as covered in the rule) direction of motion. What is not prohibited is therefore allowed. Don't let any genius try to tell you otherwise. What those people read - just not very carefully - most likely was this: "the player in motion shall be at least 5 yards behind his line of scrimmage at the snap if he started from any position not clearly behind the line and did not establish himself as a back by stopping for at least one full second while no part of his body is breaking the vertical plane through the waistline of his nearest teammate who is on the line of scrimmage."
*********** WHOA! AN OFFER I CAN'T REFUSE: "If you are ever in the Denver area you will be welcome to spend some time with me in a patrol car in Englewood!! It would be fun. Have a good Thanksgiving week." Coach Tim Mitchell, Englewood, Colorado (Hope it doesn't get Officer/Coach Mitchell in trouble with anybody, but next time I'm in Denver, I'm there!) *********** You know Hugh my older brother is a Pipe Fitter (sprinkler heads) over in the Tri-Cities and he has been doing this work for some time now. He is one of the company's top foremen in the state. The other week his boss called him in and told him to take it easy on some of the apprentices for being late??????!!!!! My brother is the kind of guy that does his work and does it right. He is a perfectionist. When he tells his workers that work starts at 6:00 am he means it. Not 6:01. He called me and told me that he got called on the carpet for yelling at his workers and not to do it any more. He's pretty frustrated. I told him that he should try teaching and coaching. Ha. Ha. How about the old steel workers back in Pennsylvania. I wonder if they ever got after their workers for being late? Art Osmundson, Ridgefield, Washington *********** My Kinda Musician... Charlie Daniels' record "This Ain't No Rag It's a Flag" is said to be getting a lot of requests for play around the country. It is also putting Mr. Daniels at the top of the Diversity Gang's Most Wanted list, because he makes a reference in there to wearing a rag on one's head. He's referring, of course, to Osama the Bad Guy, but that doesn't matter, because this is America and he is making some people feel bad, which as we all know is now a capital offense. Mr. Daniels doesn't seem to care. Take a look at his web site < www.charliedaniels.com > and click on "Charlie's Soapbox." The man ain't afraid to say what's on his mind. For example, in an essay entitled "The Enemy Within," he takes aim (only figuratively, I think) at the mainstream news media, "These puffed up chowder heads," "overeducated cabbage heads" "self aggrandizing pimple brains", as he calls them, who "know as much about fighting a war as a hog knows about an airplane." "You live in an intellectually incestuous world," he tells them. "You never see anybody except each other and you wouldn't know a sledge hammer from a plowshare much less the people who work with them." And as for the peace marchers: "When I see one of you draft card burning love and peace flower children spouting off about what we are doing in Afghanistan or criticizing our government for their efforts on the home front I'd like to pick you up by the nap of your soft neck and shake you like a bulldog shakes a rat." (My italics. HW) He seems to have a bit more faith in Mr. Bush's being able to stand up to the news media than he did in Slick Willie Clinton: "That ole boy from Texas ain't going to give in to your incessant needling. He's made of stouter stuff than the last poll propelled draft dodger who disgraced the Oval Office." Like I say, My Kinda Musician. *********** THE TRIUMPH OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL OVER EVIL: The BCS may suck - in fact, it does - but at least the BCS has people talking college football. Boy, that must really gall the NFL! There was more exciting football this past weekend - and more surprise performances - than you'll see in a year of that NFL dreck.
"Major Holleder overflew the area (under attack) and saw a whole lot of Viet Cong and many American soldiers, most wounded, trying to make their way our of the ambush area. He landed and headed straight into the jungle, gathering a few soldiers to help him go get the wounded. A sniper's shot killed him before he could get very far. He was a risk-taker who put the common good ahead of himself, whether it was giving up a position in which he had excelled or putting himself in harm's way in an attempt to save the lives of his men. My contact with Major Holleder was very brief and occured just before he was killed, but I have never forgotten him and the sacrifice he made. On a day when acts of heroism were the rule, rather than the exception, his stood out." Michael Robert Patterson
|
*********** Coach, Just how good were the Oklahoma Sooners under Bud Wilkinson when they had TWO, 1000 yard rushers in the same backfield? Generally playing nine or ten games (not the present eleven), can be challenging enough for anyone to gain 1000 yards as a player would have to average at or better than 100 yards per game along with a teammate who is doing the same. In addition, (a) by not having the clock stop following each first down, (b) not having one or both teams passing at least 25 to 30 times in a game (by today's standards, that would be from a team that is considered truly ground oriented), and (c) not having extra "breaks" due to TV or radio time outs, the games went by VERY quickly. That, in itself, would limit how many possessions one team could have. Thus, fewer possessions means fewer carries for each player. I am amazed at what Oklahoma was able to accomplish during Coach Wilkinson's era. I know that the Big Eight was often referred to as "Oklahoma and the Seven Dwarfs" but those other seven teams also had some outstanding players and coaches. When you factor in the familiarity issue of Oklahoma not traveling coast-to-coast three to four times yearly to play their non-conference games (thus having a number of their non-league opponents somewhat familiar with the Sooner attack as well as the rest of the Big Eight conference) and always meeting Texas as one, non-league opponent annually, I feel their achievements are even more outstanding. By any chance, do you know who the quarterback was during the time Vessels and McPhail were there rolling up such huge numbers? Keep up the great work and Happy Thanksgiving! ! ! Mike O'Donnell, Pine City, Minnesota Well put. It was different football then. You might have added that the quarterbacks still called the offensive plays. (There were still rigid restrictions against "coaching from the sidelines.") The quarterback in 1950, his sophomore year, was Claude Arnold. In 1952, the year he won the Heisman, four Sooners made All-America: Vessels, center Tom Catlin, fullback Buck McPhail, and quarterback Eddie Crowder, who would go on to be an outstanding coach at Colorado. The other halfback was Buddy Leake. Undergraduates on that team who earned national recognition were guard J.D. Roberts end Max Boydston, and center Kurt Burris.
*********** CALIFORNIA TITLE FOR DOUBLE-WING TEAM This came to me headlined, "The results of taking a chance" - Division 1 Title Game: Lassen Grizzlies 20, Enterprise Hornets 17
*********** Gee Coach, I did catch the Jackson State-Alcorn game on BET last sad'dee (I think it was tape delayed, not sure though). Pretty good game, but the thing that caught my eye was the Jackson State kicker who toes it up straight on! Sadly, the play-by-play guy, noting this unique fact, said the kicker, "had his Pete Gogolak shoes on." Hah? Also watched the SMU-Tulsa game earlier that day. WORST football game I have ever seen. Both squads are polluted with ineptitude. Not surprisingly, Mustang Coach Mike Cavan got the axe on Monday despite beating Tulsa. In reference to Coach Barnes' note on Mesquite's Skeeters; we Texans are lucky to have a TV show which airs every Friday night at midnight on Fox SW called "High School Extra Live." The show serves up a terrific helping of highlights of high school football action from all corners of the state. Amid the parade of crazy uniforms wacked-out player and mascot nicknames of last Friday's show they gave us a snippet of the Plano East-Mesquite contest. What caught my eye was a split-second fan shot of this massive bald guy holding up an equally massive neon sign that blinked "SKEETERS." Yeah, they love their ball up there. Oh, yeah, The Baytown Robert E. Lee Ganders took out the Clear Creek Wildcats 38-28 for Bi-District down here at Baytown's Stallworth Stadium. Heading to East Texas for my Mother-in-Law's good cooking. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, we love it down here as well, why do you think Stallworth Stadium holds 14,000? East Texas may have SOME of the best talent in the state (Houston area has the best, I believe) but West Texas (Wichita Falls, Odessa, Midland and them fellers) is where the best football is played. Kids out there as tough as the back end of a shootin' gallery! Speaking of which, get a good look at Midland Lee's Cedric Benson when he chops up the Aggies this Friday Whit Snyder, Baytown, Texas ********** Last Friday we (Santa Margarita High School - Southern California), played Rialto in the opening round of the Division I playoffs - Markham is there now after coaching at Luezinger... I attended one of your clinics a few years ago in San Jose - We used the D.W. that year for our goaline offense - still use it now - just in Goaline situations...anyway Markham prior to the game bad mouthed his kids in a local paper, saying many were lazy, not committed, ect. .... 4 of his starters were out due to grades..... all seemed lost, but we know the double wing, having played Tustin High the last 5 years. They run the D.W. full time, and featured Deshaun Foster - (UCLA), a few years ago......anyhow....... game night, Markham brings his kids in a scores on an 80 run, on the opening play!! We score, they score, we score, ect..... they start to wear down due to 7, 2 way guys... Final score 44-30... We won. This is division I football, and Markham is doing well. He went 7-3 this year, against some good teams. How long he lasts with questionable kids remains to be seen. It will be interesting... Jerry Holloway, Rancho Santa Margarita, California
*********** EGG BOWL!!! I would hate to live in Mississippi. No problem, really - it's got everything I like about the South. Good people, good football and good food. But I'm sorry - I just couldn't come down on one side or the other. I like Ole Miss and I like Mississippi State, and I find myself watching a rooting for both of them
*********** "Numbers were low but the principal was very honest about that when they hired me. The biggest reason is that football cannot be made easy and there is no instant gratification. There is also a concept that I brought in about being at practice every day if you wanted to be part of the team." Arnold Wardwell, Umatilla, Oregon *********** "I listened to Chuck Knox talk a couple of weeks ago, and he made a very good impression on me. He said offensive line stance is only important in regards to what you are trying to do with your offense. If what you are trying to do is pour off the ball, you are very foolish to have your lineman in a balanced stance. If what you are doing relates 50% to drop-back pass and 50% to the run, you have to get a balance. If your offense is 80% pass, get them in a pass offense set." Jim Sweeney, legendary coach out in these parts (Montana State, Washington State, Fresno State) *********** On another matter which concerns me greatly, a friend of mine was fired as head coach at West High in Salt Lake City, this week. Sam Aloia is one of the best coaches and leaders of young men I have ever met. West High is in an area of the city which for the most part is underprivileged. The students are mainly minorities and there are some pretty talented athletes. Sam took over the program 4 years ago and his win loss record has not been great. But Sam does it right. He told the team right up front that school was more important than football. If a player was missing class or not doing well in school, he benched them. He held a study hall every morning at 6:00 a.m. with the team, and helped them with their studies. Sam has played and coached a lot of football. He was a stellar player at Arizona State; was the offensive line coach at Weber State; and was the defensive coordinator at Highland High in Salt Lake, which is a power-house program. He can flat out coach! He can flat out get his kids to graduate too! His team this year only won 1 game in the toughest region in the state. Consider this; one of his players committed suicide in the summer; his star running back's mom died a week before the season started; his captain, a big stud who could be a division 1 player, went down in the second game of the season with a spine injury and is now a paraplegic. Several players quit after that injury, some forced by their parents. How is a team going to win with all of these factors? The principal said that she wants a winning program. Everybody wants a winning program and no one more than Sam. He will coach again somewhere. I think it is a loss to West High that he will not be coaching there. He was asked to resign, but went to the team and they begged him not to. He said, "I am doing the right thing, if you want to fire me for my record, then do so". He was fired. He will land on his feet because Sam knows he is doing the right thing. Vince Lombardi was misquoted according to his daughter. He is commonly quoted as saying "Winning isn't everything, it is the only thing". His daughter says that what he really said or meant was "Winning isn't everything, but trying to win is". The distinction is significant to me and I hope to other coaches in the country. Al Andrus, Salt Lake City (Don't feel bad for Sam. He was in the sort of situation that every coach dreads - it is difficult to win, and yet the administration doesn't appreciate all the things you do for the kids. Screw them. He will wind up in a place were he will be appreciated. HW) *********** A very successful middle-school coach (he runs the Double-Wing) wrote and told me that he'd approached the offensive coordinator - a push-and-grab, zone block kind of guy - about running the Double-Wing at the high school. He and the Double-Wing were dismissed with a condescending "it won't work at this level." Now, it is one thing to say, "I prefer what we are already doing, and here's why..." But it is another thing entirely to answer in a patronizing way that lets the world know how ignorant and close-minded you are. I would fire any offensive coordinator who wasn't able to defend what he was doing with an answer better than that. "Up here?" "At this level?" Where does he think he is? He gives himself away by revealing that he doesn't know what is happening around the country at far bigger programs than the one he's coaching at. WAIT TILL HE FINDS THIS IN HIS
STOCKING! JUST THE THING FOR THE FOOTBALL FAN ON YOUR
LIST-- A life-size, 6-foot-tall statue of a
football player, "carrying the mail" --- paint it
in the colors of his favorite team! only $4995 (shipping not included) http://www.manateemailbox.com/mail5.html allow 2-6 weeks for delivery --- *********** Coach I wanted to let you know how we finished up this season. Rock Creek ended the season with an 8-1 overall and 7-1 league record, our one loss was a 21-20 decision that kept us out of the playoffs. We didn't have any superstars this season just alot of blue collar type of guys that did their job and had success. We rushed the ball 472 times for 2609 yds. and 32 td's, we passed 19-47 for 355yds. 7td's and 2 int. This was a true tough 5 yards type of team and a ball control group. We avg. 58 possessions per game to our opponents 45, and we avg.5.5yds. per carry. The thing that still amazes me is people are still asking why we don't pass the ball more or spread the field, my response to all of the critics is that since putting in the DBL Wing our record is 19-2. Thanks for all of your help and I am looking forward to a DBL Wing clinic this winter so we can all talk some real football. Mike Beam Rock Creek H.S., St. George, Kansas (Coach Beam, like so many Double-Wing coaches, is moving the ball and winning games, but still having to wage a propaganda war - in the same way President Bush was supposedly losing the propaganda war against Osama. I could care less about the propaganda war. "When you have |
A
LOOK AT OUR LEGACY: Billy Vessels was the first player
from Oklahoma to win the Heisman Trophy. A home-grown
Sooner, a native of Cleveland, Oklahoma, he was a star on
Oklahoma's first national championship team in 1950. In
1952, he and teammate Buck McPhail were the first pair of
players on the same team to rush for over 1,000 yards
each.
***********
What the Packers and Giants were wearing were supposed to
be "throwback" uniforms - like they wore in the "old
days," nyuck, nyuck. Lemme tell ya - there's not a
self-respecting Lion from the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's or
1960's still alive who would admit to ever going out on a
football field without wearing white sweat socks over
those blue stockings.