NCAA Football Quiz: 1) Who am I? I’m Virginia Tech’s career rushing leader with 3,767 yards and my initials are C.L. 2) What VT quarterback threw for 6,009 yards from 1970-72 and then went on to a long NFL career? 3) Who is Wake Forest’s career passing leader with 8,017 yards? 4) Who holds Wake’s single season passing mark with 2,775 yards? [Not the same as No. 3] Answers below.
*I’m more than a little beat, to say the least. My brother and I had quite a time in Deadwood on Friday night. I’ve said it before but Saloon No. 10 knows how to do up Halloween (this being my third here). And I even won some money playing blackjack. But Saturday was an all day travel experience through Minneapolis (Larry Craig International), though we did make it home with minutes to spare for “Saturday Night Live” and the end of the Texas-Texas Tech game. Kudos to Ben Affleck, by the way, for his performance doing Keith Olbermann. And how about Texas Tech and that great catch by Michael Crabtree?
1. Alabama 9-0…first time No. 1 since they ended 1992 that way
2. Texas Tech 9-0…and now plays Oklahoma State
3. Penn State 9-0
4. Florida 7-1
5. Texas 8-1
6. Oklahoma 8-1
7. USC 7-1
8. Oklahoma State 8-1
9. Boise State 8-0
10. Utah 9-0
16. Ball State 8-0
*All in the top eight are still very much in the hunt for the national title, at least by my way of thinking.
1. Alabama .9747
2. Texas Tech .9372
3. Penn State .9286
4. Texas .8531
5. Florida .8268
6. Oklahoma .8220
[Sports Illustrated, in forecasting the 2008 season, had Georgia No. 1, Ohio State No. 2, and USC No. 3. Alabama wasn’t in the top twenty, nor was Penn State.]
Can you believe Michigan? At 2-7, they have clinched their first losing season since 1967 and also see an end to their streak of 33 straight bowl appearances. Yup, just a great start for new coach Rich Rodriguez. “Well done, my friend,” said John McCain when informed of the latest result, a loss to dreadful Purdue.
*Personally, my slide in picking games continues. Another miserable week, this one 1-3, to drop my record to 13-14 after an 8-1 start. It’s all about the children. They were up over $565,000 but have now lost about $800,000 since then. Throw in my 7 straight losses at Monticello Raceway with Johnny Mac and I’m just not real confident these days. I kind of feel like Custer, after he realized the scope of his folly.
The Tennessee Titans are beginning to resemble those old Steelers’ teams…great ground game and solid ‘D’. Gotta like their chances come winter. But I think the Giants are the team to beat these days.
And did you see that Atlanta-Oakland game? In winning 24-0, the Falcons had the ball 45:15 to the Raiders’ 14:45 and had 30 first downs to Oakland’s 3. It was also in Oakland. Imagine actually paying to see that. I’d rather listen to the DeFranco Family’s Greatest Hits than experience something like this.
6. Michigan State
21. Wake Forest
–While I was away, there was a big controversy in New Jersey as some suburban high schools refused to play games in Newark after a series of drive-by shootings that left two people dead about ten days ago. But pressure from school and government officials, including Gov. Jon Corzine, led to the schools relenting, or in one case playing on a neutral field. Just a few weeks ago I asked friend Steve D. if he was going to Newark and Irvington to see his son, a tight end at Westfield, play. [Irvington is an even bigger hellhole.] Actually, I haven’t heard from Steve….Steve? Steve?
“Montana man hurt by bears in Alaska”
“A 31-year-old Montana deer hunter was mauled by a sow grizzly bear and two cubs, then spent two days in a remote cabin before he could be airlifted to a hospital.
“Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game (officials) said Matthew Sutton was by himself when he shot a deer and began dragging it to his hunting camp.”
The bears then attacked Sutton, but he somehow made it to the camp.
“ ‘Originally, it was a cub that knocked him over and then he stood up and I believe he yelled something at the bears, and then all three of the bears attacked him,” said spokeswoman Megan Peters.
“Sutton was bitten and clawed on an arm, leg and the back of his neck during the attack.”
The injuries were deemed non-life-threatening. But get this. Once Sutton and his comrades made it to camp, they had no way of communicating except with a marine radio. A bush pilot happened to hear a weak mayday and swooped down to help. Otherwise, I’d say the injuries would’ve been life-threatening…know what I’m sayin’?
–My brother and I stopped at a highway marker along a road in Wyoming and learned about Jedediah Strong Smith, a trapper killed by a grizzly in 1823.
“When others lost their way or gave up the struggle, he ate the bread of faith and drank to the bottom from the cup of the Lord’s will.”
–Saw a sign in Ft. Morgan, Colorado…. “Boyhood home of Glenn Miller.”
–Awful story out of the University of Central Florida, as a former running back, James Jamison, told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that Ereck Plancher, a redshirt freshman wide receiver, struggled at a workout on March 18, 2008, at which he collapsed and died and coaches may have been responsible. Jamison says they “ran a player to death.”
“Every step he [Plancher] took, he was about to fall over…He was just, literally like everybody was looking at him…pushing his body like past his limit…” Jamison said.
“Coach is like, ‘That’s a bunch of BS, son,’ like, ‘I expect better from you,’ just dogging him….I’m thinking, ‘Why you, why you getting on him? Everybody’s tired. Like, look around you.’”
–Golfer John Daly went to North Carolina, and my old stomping ground of Winston-Salem, to have fun with some friends, so says Mr. Daly. Well, if you didn’t already know, John had a little too much fun and he found himself in jail and with another one of those awful pictures. But…he was not charged with a criminal offense since he wasn’t driving.
“Nothing is going right in my life right now,” he said in an interview with the AP on Sunday. “I’m going through a hell of a divorce. I haven’t seen my son. It was an unfortunate incident…but it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
Daly was incredibly inebriated when he was found outside Hooters, his preferred chain. His friends were afraid for him and called paramedics.
–23-year-old Lewis Hamilton became the youngest Formula One champion on Sunday at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Needing a fifth-place finish, he did just that in dramatic fashion, securing the position on the last lap.
–I never did congratulate the Phillies. You see, I was in Hardin, Montana, at the time and Bro and I went back to this bar, you see, because I had a contact lens that fit the prescription of the bartender there who was missing one, and we were on the “Res” as they say in these parts and….oh, you really don’t need to know this story.
–Underwater explorer Jacques Picard died. He was 86. It was back on Jan. 23, 1960, that the Belgian-born Picard and U.S. Navy Lt. Don Walsh took a boat into the Pacific’s Mariana Trench and dove to a depth of 35,800 feet – nearly seven miles below sea level, using a vessel called the bathyscaphe. It remains the deepest dive ever carried out.
“A high school football coach in Chelsea, Mass., is accused of spending money set aside for team uniforms at a strip club.”
–So long, “Opus.” I was sorry to see Berkeley Breathed’s latest creation end.
–Residents of Donora, Pa., 24 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, commemorated the opening of the Donora Smog Museum, some 60 years after an incident that led over time to the 1970 federal Clean Air Act.
Back in 1948, Donora was the home to two U.S. Steel plants [American Steel & Wire Company and Donora Zinc Works] that employed some 5,000 people. Smog was common, but during five days in October ’48, an unusual weather inversion led to a toxic brew of sulfuric acid, nitrogen dioxide and other poisonous gases, that would normally rise into the atmosphere but stayed at ground level. The result was that 20 died and nearly half the town of 14,000 became ill in one of our worst air pollution disasters.
U.S. Steel said it was “an act of God” and never admitted responsibility. The plants closed in 1966 and Donora’s population is now down to 5,650.
–Remember my discussion of the deadly box jellyfish off of some of Thailand’s best beaches and resorts? The population continues to grow offshore and there are real worries it could kill the entire tourism industry there.
–T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times has a pitiful story on one-time USC superstar Anthony Davis. Davis these days is setting up a card table in the middle of tailgaters.
“He has a stack of photos in front of him, and he’s signing autographs: ‘Best wishes always, Anthony Davis.’ Now isn’t that nice, until the other hand reaches out for the money.
“A youngster approaches Davis with an open autograph book. Davis turns the kid away because the youngster is penniless. The kid shows the unsigned book to his dad, and his dad asks Davis for an explanation.
“Davis finally agrees to give the kid an autograph, so long as his old man drops a five spot into the box.
“ ‘It goes to the Anthony Davis Foundation,’ says Davis, and while he’s none too happy with the question, there isn’t any mention of the foundation on the table or the box.”
No one at USC has any clue as to the foundation. Turns out there was a tax return for 2006, taking in more than $31,000 – $13,500 going to scholarships and the rest for expenses. No return for 2007.
Alas, some of us have better memories. 1974, Notre Dame up 24-0 at half against USC, when USC’s Davis returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and the Trojans went on to score 55 unanswered points in one of the more remarkable performances in college football history. I was 16 then and that was probably the peak of my sports interest, as in it was the only thing that concerned me, not understanding that 34 years later the world’s financial system would be imploding and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi were about to emerge with more power….
–Yellowstone was the first national park, in 1872, and Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower, Wyoming, the first national monument.
–Did you see that a pink 3-cent stamp issued in 1868 and depicting George Washington was bought last week by an anonymous bidder for $1,035,000? As noted in the New York Times, “Stamps of this design are common and usually worth only a few dollars; but what made this one worth a million dollars is a distinct, waffle-like grill pressed into the back of the stamp as part of a short-lived government experiment to prevent fraudulent reuse.” Only four of this particular stamp are known to exist, all discovered in 1969 on a single envelope from a letter mailed to Germany.
–Johnny Carson’s long-time attorney, Henry Bushkin, “Bombastic Bushkin” as Carson viewers knew him, decided to play the role of a-hole in discussing Carson’s private life. “He was a great star, but not a great man,” Bushkin told the New York Post’s Page Six.
While I couldn’t care less about some of the details, because Carson will forever be number one in my book, evidently Johnny’s mother “couldn’t give a compliment. He’s the biggest star in the world and she couldn’t even acknowledge it.”
Then again, when Carson played Vegas, he had use of a 10,000-square foot penthouse with a private pool at Caesars Palace and routinely entertained the “18 beautiful girls in the chorus line that opened his act.” Huh. Gotta respect that.
Top 3 songs for the week of 11/1/75: #1 “Island Girl” (Elton John) #2 “Calypso / I’m Sorry” (John Denver) #3 “Miracles” (Jefferson Starship)…and…#4 “Lyin’ Eyes” (The Eagles) #5 “ ‘They Just Can’t Stop It’ the (Games People Play)” (Spinners) #6 “Who Loves You” (Four Seasons) #7 “Feelings” (Morris Albert) #8 “Bad Blood” (Neil Sedaka) #9 “Heat Wave” (Linda Ronstadt) #10 “This Will Be” (Natalie Cole…ya know? Not a bad week…not bad at all)
NCAA Football Quiz Answers: 1) Cyrus Lawrence is Virginia Tech’s career rushing leader, 1979-82, but he did not play in the NFL. 2) Don Strock was VT’s QB from 1970-72. 3) Wake Forest’s career passing leader is Brian Kuklick, 1994-98. [This one wasn’t really fair.] 4) The single season passing leader with 2,775 yards is Rusty LaRue in 1995. That year he had games of 545 and 501 yards, though he then went on to an NBA career.
