Muse Droppings
By:
C.C. Youngren

Bowling for Dollars

Sports Talk radio holds a significant trump card over its political cousin—the damage caused by the blabbermouth opinions of the former is limited to a minor up-tick in atmospheric CO2 levels, as opposed to the reckless political theater of the latter—so there is thanks to be given.  The annual renting of robe over the lack of a Division I college football tournament to crown a “National Champion,” however, mimics the most infantile political outrage. 

Until 1970 or so, the “National Champion” was declared (by poll) at the end of the regular season; the bowls were simply a sparkling coda.  In today’s BCS format, pollsters can hedge their bet until the top two contenders meet in one of the Rose, Orange, Sugar or Fiesta bowls (on a rotating basis), with the other three pairing (sort of) the next six runners-up—an improvement of sorts.  Would using those bowls or others to pair the Great Eight to Final Four on New Year’s Day, adding a semifinal Saturday & Championship Game over the next 2 weeks satisfy?  Possibly, except that the same volume of hot air surely will be vented over the No.9, 10 or 11 who were left out.

The comparison is made of course to the “March Madness” festival of college basketball, but I think that analogy is misplaced.  A 64+ team field might deprive some of their deserved 15 Warhol-minutes, but hardly excludes a potential champion.  And more to the point, elimination tournaments are part of the fabric of basketball.  College football is—should be at least—essentially a brisk autumn community event, replete with pep rallies, tailgating celebration & reunion.  In short, it’s game centered, not season centered—the immediate event and rivalry games more important than standings.

My angst is primarily over the obsession with the winner-take-all ethic.  It is an angst shared with the numbing sadness of absolutism in modern politics, religion, business and even personal relationships. With 30-some bowl games on the docket (and 80-100 players on most Division 1 squads), more appealing to me is 5000 athletes participating in their own private championship over the Holiday Season as a reward for some level achievement, and independent of the success or failure of others in similar circumstance.  

Unfortunately, bowl names, once primarily the domain of the plant kingdom, have been co-opted by their corporate sponsors—a little bloom off the rose so to speak.  The once generic Citrus Bowl became the fruit-specific Tangerine Bowl before giving way to the current, unappetizing, Capital One Bowl.  Georgia’s Peach Bowl is now the immortal Chick-fil-A Bowl.  Someone will be able to brag to their grandchildren that they scored two touchdowns in the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl, or made a game-saving interception at the Roady’s Truck Stops Humanitarian Bowl; an unnecessary burden on future generations akin to the national debt.  And I am sure a Viagra Bowl is in the offing.  What happens if that game lasts more than four hours do you think?

This reverie started when I doodled a list of Bowl Memories on a piece of scrap paper. My self-prescribed rule was to resist the temptation to google, and only list those I actually remember seeing (on TV, or in one case, live) or had related to me by an eye-witness.  In reverse stream-of consciousness order, the list looks like this.

10—The Tournament of Roses rejected football as its competitive centerpiece in the years preceding WWI in favor of chariot races.  Family legend has it that a distant cousin participated.

9 —Columbia(!) defeats Stanford 7-0 in the 1934 Rose Bowl on a “hidden ball” play, leaving eleven defenders standing around in palms up confusion. (An Uncle George story)

8 —Two Gator Bowls in 1965, one in January (there was no 1964 Gator Bowl), Florida State v. Oklahoma, and one in December, Tech (GA) v. Tech (TX).  Both ended with an on-field pro contract signing: Fred Biletnikoff (Oakland Raiders) in January & Donny Anderson (Packers) in December.

7 —No.1 ranked Texas crushed the No. 2 ranked, Staubach-led Navy team 28-6 in a “National Championship” 1964 Cotton Bowl.  Most memorable was the Brigade of Midshipmen, hands raised in “V” sign, chanting “We’re No. 2!” in the 4th quarter.

6 —In what may have been the first televised Sugar Bowl (the first bowl game I remember seeing anyway—1951—on my aunt’s Emerson with a big magnifying glass bolted to the front of the set), Kentucky, evidently in blue jerseys & white helmets, faced Oklahoma in red jerseys & white helmets.  Unfortunately on B&W TV, it was impossible to tell them apart.  Somebody won 13-7

5—The clock runs out on Ron VanderKelen and Wisconsin in the 1963 Rose Bowl as a 42-14 USC lead gets shrunk to 42-37 in the last twelve minutes.

4 —I was one of dozens in attendance at the third, and last, Gotham Bowl (Yankee Stadium, 1962).  It was actually a pretty good game, with Nebraska holding off a George Mira led Miami comeback 36-34.  The first Gotham Bowl (1960), by the way, was cancelled when no opponent showed up to face Oregon State.

3 —Joe Montana is taken to the locker room and fed chicken soup to ward off hypothermia in a freezing 1979 Cotton Bowl.  He returns to the field to throw a last second TD beating Houston 35-34.

2 —Second best finish ever (1980 Holiday Bowl): SMU leading BYU 45-21 with 3 minutes remaining. A recovered on-side kick, a blocked punt and three TD passes by Jim McMahon (including a zero-time left, Hail Mary from his own 45) and BYU wins 46-45.

1 —Best finish ever: Boise State over Oklahoma (2007 Fiesta Bowl).  OU scores 2 TD’s in the last 90 seconds to take the lead,  BS ties the game with a hook & ladder on the last play of regulation.  Boise wins with a 2-point Statue of Liberty play conversion in OT, as halfback Ian Johnson completes the play by proposing to his cheerleader girlfriend in the end zone.  She accepts.

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