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March Madness, one of America’s favorite annual sporting events, tips off March 19.

We hope for three weeks of buzzer beaters, nail-biters, and bracket busters as teams try to reach the Final Four in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome April 6-8.

If this season’s tournament holds true to form from previous NCAA championships played in years that end with a “three” it should be quite the treat. Like a game of Three-Card Monte, you never know what is going to turn up, and since the tourney began back in 1939, those “3″ years have provided some memorable moments.

1943 – Champion vs. Champion

In only its fifth year, the NCAA championship still played second-fiddle to the slightly older (by one year) National Invitational Tournament (NIT), which had a stronger East Coast presence, received more media coverage, and played at its permanent home in already fabled Madison Square Garden in New York City. Wyoming won an eight-team NCAA tournament by beating Oklahoma and Kansas in the West bracket (the tournament only had East and West brackets) in Kansas City, Missouri. The Cowboys then traveled to Manhattan and defeated Georgetown 46-34 in the finals at Madison Square. Star for the Cowboys was guard Ken Sailors, a early pioneer of the jump shot, but the most famous player in the tournament was George Mikan, one of the game’s first true big men; his DePaul squad lost in the semifinals to Georgetown.

The NCAA event got less attention than hometown St. John’s taking the NIT crown behind legendary coach Joe Lapchick. Two days later, in what may be the only time this happened, the champions of the two post-season tournaments played a charity game at Madison Square Garden to benefit the Red Cross war effort in front of 18,000 fans. The Cowboys downed the Redmen 52-47 in overtime, a precursor to the NCAA overtaking the NIT in prestige and power.

1953 – The Hurryin’ Hoosiers

The 1953 NCAA championship matched two of the sports titans, Indiana and defending champion Kansas, at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri.

Seeds for the Hoosier title run were planted a season earlier when the NCAA temporarily suspended the freshman eligibility rule due to the military draft for the Korean War (freshmen, ineligible for varsity competition in football and basketball until 1972, were allowed to play in 1951-52). The relaxation of that restriction freed up “the Ox.” Big Don “Ox” Schlundt, a 6’10 post player from South Bend, played as a freshman in 1952, averaging 17 points, and would go on to become the most prolific scorer in Indiana and Big Ten history to that point, a three-time All-American, and the vital cog of the 1953 NCAA champs. He still holds the record for average points per game for a career at Indiana (23 ppg). Schlundt teamed with Bob “Slick” Leonard, a feisty guard and future ABA and NBA head coach (he would lead the Indiana Pacers to three ABA titles), and forward Dick Farley. They all played for the great Branch McCracken, a Hall of Famer who led the Hoosiers to championships in 1940 and 1953 (both times defeating Kansas and Phog Allen).

The game went to the wire and was very contentious. Played in front of a pro-Kansas crowd (the game was played just about 40 miles from the KU campus), McCracken and the Hoosiers were incensed when Jayhawk star center B.J. Born was allowed to return to the game after receiving what was reported as his fifth foul. McCracken and Allen both argued at the scorer’s table. Slick Leonard converted a free throw with less than 30 seconds remaining, Kansas played for the final shot, but a desperate shot at the buzzer was off target. Indiana won 69-68.

That 1953 Final Four was a “Who’s Who” of mid-20th century basketball. Kansas coach Phog Allen ruled the sidelines in Lawrence for nearly 50 years, and actually played under the inventor of basketball – James Naismith. Dean Smith played on the 1952 Jayhawk team that won the championship and the ’53 squad that lost to Indiana. Smith would go on to win more games than any college basketball coach (a record since surpassed). Kansas whipped Oklahoma A&M (now OK State) in one semifinal … the Cowboys were coached by Hank Iba, who won 751 games himself and coached three U.S. Olympics teams. In the other semi, Indiana beat LSU and the great scoring forward Bob Pettit, considered the nation’s best player and a future NBA all-star and Hall of Fame inductee.

1963 – Ramblin Fever

The Ramblers of Loyola University won the 1963 championship in an NCAA tournament with racial overtones and historical implications.

Loyola whipped two-time defending champ Cincinnati 60-58 in the finals at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. That victory alone was historic. Coach Ed Jucker’s Bearcats were trying to become the first team to win three NCAA titles in a row and were playing in a fourth straight Final Four. This would also be the last season before John Wooden’s UCLA championship run. From 1964-1975, the Bruins would win ten of twelve championships including seven in a row at one point.

Before reaching the finals, Loyola played a second-round game against Mississippi State of the SEC. The Bulldogs of coach Babe McCarthy and star Bailey Howell had been kept out of the tournament three of the past four seasons because of unwritten, but typically unbroken, racial codes that prohibited white Mississippi teams from playing against integrated competition (as the Bulldogs surely would in the NCAAs). This time McCarthy and the team pulled a ruse and essentially snuck out of the state to make the trip to play the NCAA game in East Lansing at the home court of Michigan State (Miss State got a bye in the first round; the game was Loyola’s second round match). In a well-played, respectful game, the Ramblers beat the Bulldogs 61-51 to advance.

The championship game against Cincy was a thriller. In overtime, Loyola’s Vic Rouse tipped in a missed shot just as the horn sounded and the Ramblers had a championship. Rouse and Jerry Harness (Loyola’s star) were two of four African Americans to start for the Ramblers … the Bearcats sent out another three as starters, marking the first time a majority of starters in an NCAA final were African American. By the way, Rouse hailed from Pearl High School in Nashville, Tennessee, where he might have run into young Perry Wallace, who would go on to desegregate basketball in the SEC when he played at Vanderbilt from 1966-1969.

1973 – The Streak

The 1973 Final Four at St. Louis Arena, featured the man who’d already won more NCAA national championships than any other coach (John Wooden of UCLA), the man who would succeed him in Westwood (Gene Bartow of Memphis State), a brilliant and fiery young coach in his second season at Indiana who would go on to win three titles and more games than any coach in history (a total since surpassed by his top protégé) (Bobby Knight), and a gentleman from the East who would be the driving force behind the formation of the most successful basketball conference in America within a decade (Dave Gavitt). What a collection of coaching talent.

A big story before the tournament was one team that couldn’t play. North Carolina State, coached by Norm Sloan and starring the leaping legend David Thompson, 7’2 center Tom Burleson, and fireplug point guard Monte Towe, marched through an unbeaten 25-0 regular season then won two games and the ACC tournament. However, the school was on probation and ineligible for national post-season competition. The Wolfpack would be heard from a year later.

Wooden’s UCLA squad, led by the incomparable Big Redhead Bill Walton, won a seventh consecutive NCAA championship by beating Knight’s Hoosiers in the semifinals and Bartow’s Tigers in the finals. The championship game was played on Monday night for the first time, starting a new tradition in American sport that endures today. The Bruins, in the midst of a winning streak that would eventually stretch to 88 games, were never seriously challenged in the tournament, winning four times by an average of 16 points. The title was Wooden’s ninth and the UCLA dynasty was at its zenith.

That championship would be Wooden’s next-to-last. The long winning streak would end in 1974 in a regular season loss at Notre Dame, and when the Bruins lost back-to-back games later in the season to Oregon and Oregon State, the tiniest of cracks first appeared in the dynasty. Still, the Bruins made it to yet another Final Four in 1974, but lost a double-overtime semi-final classic to N.C. State. The Wolfpack would go on to take the title and erase the empty memories of 1973.

“The Wizard of Westwood” had a final charge left in him. His relatively unheralded 1975 team closed out Wooden’s career by winning the 1975 NCAA championship, the tenth in twelve seasons. It is a record that will not be matched.

1983 – Jimmy the Jester

When the basketball world descended on the desert for the 1983 Final Four at The Pit in Albuquerque, a coronation was supposed to take place. Or perhaps an induction ceremony. The brothers of Phi Slamma Jamma, the Houston Cougar’s coolest, quickest, baddest, and most exclusive fraternity was going to soar up and over powerful Louisville and upstarts Georgia and N.C. State to take the NCAA championship. Instead, a jester of the court slipped in and stole the crown.

One of the most storied Final Fours in the tournament’s history started with a workmanlike win by State over Georgia in the first semifinal game. That game figured to simply be the stage-setter for a dunk contest between Houston’s fly boys of Phi and the Doctors of Dunk from Louisville. The second semi-final lived to its billing as one of the most exciting games in tournament annals. The Cougars, featuring Akeem “the Dream” Olajuwon (he changed to Hakeem later), Clyde “the Glide” Drexler, and Benny “the Jet” Anders (they had the best nicknames too!), raced past a Louisville squad that included Milt Wagner, Billy Thompson, Rodney and Scooter McCray, Flash Gordon, and Charles Jones. The final was 94-81 and most thought the championship game had already been played when the show ended.

Jim Valvano of N.C. State had other plans. His Wolfpack used a controlled offense, played behind the Cougars on defense to limit their dunk opportunities (the Pack chanted “One Slamma Jamma” after the game in reference to the number of stuffs allowed to Houston in the title game), fouled and fouled the notoriously poor free-throwing shooting Cougars, and finally received a gift from Houston coach Guy Lewis inexplicably put his team into a spread delay with about 10 minutes to go in the game.

The game ended with a famous dunk, but it was by State’s Lorenzo Charles who caught a last-second desperation air-ball from Dereck Whittenburg and stuffed it through at the buzzer. State won 54-52, and Valvano scurried across the court looking for somebody to hug. The jester had stolen the crown.

1993 – Flub Five

Michigan’s Fab Five exploded onto the college basketball scene during the 1992 tournament. Wearing black socks and black shoes, the freshmen quintet strutted and smack-talked all the way to the finals before getting pasted by Duke 71-51. The next season, they stormed to the finals at the Superdome to meet another team from the ACC … this time the North Carolina Tar Heels and venerable coach Dean Smith.

The Final Four was basketball royalty. North Carolina knocked off Kansas in one semifinal, and Michigan took care of Kentucky in the other. It set the stage for a contrasting matchup on Monday night.

The Heels were the antithesis of the Wolverines in the eyes of the public. Smith’s system called for players to point at a teammate after a good pass, to subjugate individuality to the team, to never show up an opponent. Even the great Michael Jordan bought into the Tar Heel way, and on the Superdome court eleven years earlier he had clinched the beloved Smith’s first championship with a late jump shot.

The Fab Five showed little respect to anybody. Their attitude reflected (at least in their own eyes and those of some social commentators) the breakthrough of hip hop culture into the mainstream of America society. With their sagging shorts and in-your-face on-court personality, the Wolverines embraced the bad guy persona.

It was quite a contrast.

In the end, the system won and the upstarts again folded under the pressure of the finals.

The most infamous play came late in the game. Chris Webber, the most talented and vocal of the Fab Five got flustered when double-teamed and called a timeout even though the Wolverines had none left. The resulting technical sealed the 77-71 victory.

Dean Smith would go on to become the first Division I men’s coach to win over 800 games and the 1993 championship would be his last. The Fab Five never won a title and ended up vacating the entire 1992-93 season due to NCAA violations.

2003 – Cupcake

Jim Boeheim of Syracuse is a great coach. He has taken the Orangemen to the post-season every one of his 34 years at the helm except 1993 when the school was ineligible. He has never had a losing season, and has won more games at one school than any other D-I men’s coach. He trails only Coach K of Duke in total wins and may surpass him depending on who holds off retirement the longest.

Still, for much of his early career coaching the Orangemen, Boeheim’s schedules were ridiculed for being soft … filled with easy opponents … cupcakes so to speak. That sentiment seemed to always bear out come NCAA tourney time when the Cuse could never quite get over the hump to win a national title. Trips to the championship game in 1987 (loss to Indiana) and 1996 (loss to Kentucky) only provided more fuel to detractors.

Finally, back in New Orleans at the site of that excruciating 1987 last-second loss to Indiana and Bobby Knight, Boeheim got his championship. Carmelo Anthony, only a freshman, earned outstanding player honors as the Orange overcame a strong Kansas team 81-78 in the finals.

2013 – ???

There are a lot of story lines for the 2013 version of March Madness. Can Syracuse or Louisville claim a title for the Big East in its last year as currently comprised? Will the powerful Big Ten lineup of Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and the like take a championship back to middle America? Will Coach K further stake his claim as greatest coach since Wooden (and perhaps of all time) by winning a fifth championship at Duke? Can one of the upstart mid-majors like Butler or Gonzaga grab the crown?

Tune in the next three weeks for one of America’s great sporting spectacles.

Thanks for visiting The Campus Game.

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If you enjoy sports talk radio, please visit ESPN Chattanooga and the In the Zone with Jim Gumm Show from 3:00 PM – 7:00 PM ET daily.  I’ve been on as a guest a few times and always enjoy visiting with Jim and Wells Guthrie.  They are both knowledgeable and friendly.

By the way, new Tennessee football coach Butch Jones will be In the Zone on Thursday afternoon.

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“Crimson and clover, over and over …
What a beautiful feeling,
crimson and clover … over and over”

Crimson and Clover (click to listen)
(Tommy James and the Shondells 1968)

Will the power and poise of the Crimson Tide overcome the four-leaf clover luck of the Fighting Irish in the BCS national championship?

After a month of waiting, the game – and the answer – is upon us.

Beautiful Feelings

Alabama and Notre Dame evoke beautiful feelings for the college football traditionalist. Over the past century, the two schools won their way into the American sporting consciousness with victories on the gridiron, while symbolically representing much more than football success to their followers.

*****

The Irish first garnered national headlines when, in a 1913 game against powerful Army, quarterback Gus Dorais and end Knute Rockne helped popularize the forward pass (legal but seldom used previously) by routing the Cadets 35-13. Rockne of course would go on to coach Notre Dame from 1918-1930, compiling the highest winning percentage in college football history, staking claim to multiple mythical national titles, and becoming the prototype of the modern, superstar football coach … part salesman, part recruiter, part public relations master. All who have followed are simply revising what Rockne originated.

One of Rockne’s victories came in the 1925 Rose Bowl when the Irish swamped favored Stanford, coached by Pop Warner and led by Ernie Nevers. The Irish would not play in another post-season game for more than forty years. Notre Dame’s administration, concerned that such games interfered with academics, imposed a bowl ban that lasted until the 1970 Cotton Bowl.

Notre Dame’s next glory years stretched from the mid-1940s through the early 1950s under Frank Leahy. One of only two coaches to claim four AP national championships (more on that below), Leahy established the Notre Dame tradition of producing Heisman Trophy winners (Angelo Bertelli, Johnny Lujack, Leon Hart, and John Lattner) and of playing well in huge games, most notably the 1946 tie vs. Army that stopped a 25-game win streak.

After Leahy’s health caused him to retire, the Irish endured a decade of mediocrity before the dashing Ara Parseghian bounded into South Bend in 1964. Over the next eleven seasons, Ara won two national championships and narrowly missed a couple more. His most famous victory? A 24-23 win over Alabama and Paul “Bear” Bryant in the 1973 Sugar Bowl.

Dan Devine and Lou Holtz added titles in 1977 and 1988 respectively. The Irish haven’t won one since.

*****

A year after Notre Dame won the 1925 Rose Bowl and claimed a national championship, Alabama rolled west to Pasadena and whipped Washington. The Elephants and coach Wallace Wade, largely propelled by the publicity from that game and a return trip to the Granddaddy the next season, became the first team from Dixie to emerge as a national college football power. Between 1926 and 1946, Alabama made six Rose Bowl appearances, winning four, losing once, with one tie.

Ironically, Frank Thomas – a former Notre Dame quarterback that Rockne once called his smartest player – coached Alabama to the last three of those Rose Bowls before ill health caused him to retire after the 1945 season (a year in which the Tide finished unbeaten, untied, and uncrowned … their Rose Bowl victory over USC not enough to claim the AP title from Army – not the last time Alabama fans would feel burned by pollsters).

The Tide receded in the 1950s before the iconic football coach of last half of the 20th century came home.

Former star player Paul Bryant, after stops at Maryland, Kentucky, and Texas A&M, returned to Tuscaloosa. Starting in 1958 and continuing for the next quarter century, the Bear led Bama to unsurpassed heights on his way to winning 323 career games and five national championships (hold on to your houndstooth hats Bama fans – he only won five AP titles – the measure being used for the pre-BCS era).

Both teams boast eight AP national championships. Both teams were coached by the most famous men in the profession.

Alabama and Notre Dame … Bryant and Rockne … Crimson and Clover …

Symbols of Excellence

Success on the gridiron created symbolism off it.

*****

Notre Dame, a small, private, Catholic college in the remote northern Indiana woods, faced bigotry on the way to football significance.

The great Michigan coach Fielding Yost essentially blackballed Notre Dame after a loss to ND in 1909, refusing to even schedule the Irish again (Yost retired as Wolverine Athletic Director in 1941). It was a mistake. Due to scheduling difficulties caused by other schools following Yost’s lead, Notre Dame would embark on a coast-to-coast scheduling strategy in the 1920s and 1930s just as college football popularity soared. Rockne’s Ramblers evolved into the nation’s most famous football team, “subway alumni” making the Irish the most beloved team in America (and the most despised too for that matter).

An enduring example of the animosity toward ND took place in 1924, just months before the famous Rose Bowl win over Stanford. Notre Dame students scrapped with Ku Klux Klan members who were descending upon South Bend in an effort to curb what they believed to be a growing Catholic influence in the U.S. – an influence epitomized by the university. Like Yost, the Klan lost … not just that fight, but also the broader battle for public opinion, the hooded heads losing power across most of the nation during the same decades the Irish football team rose to prominence.

*****

Alabama faced its own bias and slights.

Like the rest of the deep South, the state lagged economically and educationally in the aftermath of the Civil War and well into the 20th century (by most measures, the region still trails most of the country). When the football team began to have success, southerners – not just Alabamians – began to identify with the Tide.

This regional pride reached a peak under Coach Bryant’s leadership when his teams – often small, and until the early 1970s all white – competed and won against all the big boys of the college football world. The losses in the polls seemed to verify this bias against Alabama – and by extension the whole of Dixie – not just 1945, but 1966 when Alabama had not a blemish but got out-voted in favor of a Notre Dame team that played for a tie against Michigan State and didn’t even go to a bowl. Or, 1977 when Notre Dame jumped from 5th in the polls to a national championship, leapfrogging – you guessed it – Alabama. That similar voting inconsistencies cost Notre Dame titles too (1964 for example) holds little truck with southerners sure of anti-South bigotry.

Perhaps remnants of this regionalism surface in the chants of “SEC – SEC – SEC” so common among Southeastern Conference fans during intersectional games or bowls. The South may have lagged for decades, but one of the first aspects of southern life to match – really to exceed – the rest of the nation was the Alabama football team. The Tide was a powerful symbol for a region that didn’t get to boast about much in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and into the 1960s and 1970s.

The Series and the Records

Alabama and Notre Dame have played five times, but all the contests were in a condensed fourteen-year time period from 1973 to 1987.

The most famous game was the 1973 Sugar Bowl that pitted unbeaten teams coached by the titans Bryant and Parseghian. Notre Dame prevailed 24-23 in a game that had a half-dozen lead changes. The next season the schools met in the Orange Bowl and the era of Ara ended with a 13-11 Irish victory. ND swept games in 1976 (in South Bend) and 1980 (in Birmingham), and the teams split a home-and-home series in 1986-87, with Ray Perkins finally breaking the drought with a home win in 86 and Lou Holtz and the Gold Domers prevailing the next year.

As for national titles, the championship count varies depending on who is doing the accounting, but the most accurate measure would leave the teams tied at 8 titles each.

The oldest well-respected poll is the Associated Press (AP) ranking, which first appeared in 1934. It has been published annually since 1936. The current cake taker is the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings which started with the 1998-99 season, and now constitute the premier determinant of the college football national championship. Counting championships prior to 1936, or combining different polls (even the well respected United Press International – or UPI) introduces faulty logic and results in silly claims of excessive championships. If Alabama counts 1973 (when the Tide lost to the Irish), then ND claims 1964 and 1967 … and Alabama claims 1977, and … well, you get the drift.

The true count is eight to eight.

Alabama AP/BCS National Titles: 1961, 1964, 1965, 1978, 1979, 1992, 2009, 2011
Notre Dame AP/BCS National Titles: 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977, 1988

Not surprisingly, these schools also feature the only men to win four or more national championships using the AP/BCS method.

Bear Bryant can lay claim to five AP titles (1961, 1964, 1965, 1978, 1979). He cannot claim the 1973 UPI crown unless he gives up the 1978 championship (when USC won the UPI) … so you see why the AP/BCS measure works best.

Frank Leahy claims four national titles (1943, 1946, 1947, 1949).

Should Alabama coach Nick Saban lead his Crimson Tide to the title this season, he will join that rarified air of men with four or more national titles. Saban won BCS titles in 2003 at LSU (USC won the AP that year, but the BCS rankings had surpassed the AP by then), and added titles with the Tide in 2009 and 2011.

The National Mood

For the first time in my memory (and I’ve been an avid follower of college football since the late 1960s), it seems more people will be rooting for Notre Dame than against the Irish. A few factors seem in play here.

First, it's been a long time since Notre Dame was truly an impact player on the national stage. The Irish haven't won a title since 1988 and haven't contended for one since 1993. The old animosities about preferential treatment in polls, resentment about national coverage and having a special television contract … all of that is old news for everybody except some of us old-timers. Everybody is on television every game these days. If anything, Notre Dame would probably get voted out of a polling contest against the power conferences.

Second (and third) is the SEC fatigue factor. The conference has won six national titles in a row and is strongly favored to get another. Unlike most conferences, where rivals would pull for nearly any team over their arch enemy, you can bet all the SEC fan bases (excepting Auburn) will by and large pull for the Tide in this game. That rubs pretty much everybody else the wrong way. A similar sentiment is settling in regarding Alabama and Nick Saban. Yes, he is a great coach and the Tide is a juggernaut of a program, but I would guess people across the country are thinking enough already, let somebody else in on the fun.

The Big Game

Alabama is a solid favorite and it’s hard to argue against the conventional wisdom. More words and better analysis can be found at other sites, but here are my keys to the game:

1. Everett Golson: Alabama struggles on occasion with mobile quarterbacks, and the Irish redshirt freshman can extend plays. He is no Johnny Manziel (who is?), so don’t expect him to snap off any 30-yard scrambles, but he can avoid the pass rush and does have a strong arm. If Golson can handle the pressure – literally from the Tide pass rush but also figuratively from playing in the biggest game of the year – the Irish might be able to score enough points to make the game interesting late.

2. UA Offense and ND Defense Line of Scrummage: Yes, scrummage is the correct word because these two groups figure to have a rugby scrum on most plays. Alabama has the best offensive line in the nation and the group typically imposes its will (see 2nd half of Georgia game) by the time the fourth quarter rolls around. Still, Barrett Jones and company will be in for a tussle because the ND front three of Stephon Tuitt, Louis Nix, and Kapron Lewis-Moore is a big, seasoned, and tough group. They are not deep however, so keeping the Tide from dominating the clock will be important.

3. Loose and Clutch: Ever let the clutch out on your car too loosely or quickly and killed the motor? Or, kept the clutch pressed too tightly causing the engine to rev and stall? Combine a long layoff with a hugely important game and these squads might be too tight. The team that finds the balance between being loose, but playing well in the clutch will have a big advantage. It’s tough to do after a half-season’s layoff and neither team played a truly tough schedule to get them ready. Listening to and reading pundits and fans, many seem to feel Notre Dame had an easier schedule, but neither team played a gangbuster slate. Alabama’s games at Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee were much easier than expected and the Tide choked a little in a home loss to Texas A&M. The best Bama win came against Georgia in an epic SEC championship game. Notre Dame’s wins over USC, Michigan, Michigan State, and Oklahoma look less and less impressive in retrospect, and the Irish tried to give away a game to a Pitt team that just got demolished by Ole Miss. ND barely held off a very good Stanford for the top Irish win of the season. Loose and clutch … watch to see who plays that way.

A final topic worth noting is attitude.

Notre Dame fans feel they’ve already won this season just by getting to the BCS title game, a totally unexpected run after back-to-back 8-5 seasons in Brian Kelly’s first two years in South Bend. A loss to Alabama will hurt, but not diminish the pleasure of a return to elite status after two decades. The players may feel differently, but I cannot imagine that they are anything but thrilled to be in the last and biggest game of them all. Whether that translates to a relaxed, confident team or not is to be determined.

For the Alabama contingent – players, coaches, and fans – nothing less than a third national championship in four years will mark this season as a success. A loss to the team many Bama fans despise above all others would be a sting that would linger. The last time Alabama lost a game that really hurt was the 2010 Iron Bowl when Auburn overcame a 24-0 deficit and moved on to a national championship. In some ways, I think this group still plays with a chip on the shoulder from that loss.

Prediction

Alabama should win the game, and probably will, but I won’t make a prediction.

This one is too much fun. The nation’s most famous programs. The nation’s top two teams. The season’s final game.

Crimson and Clover … over and over … Crimson and Clover …

I could watch this one over and over.

Enjoy the game.

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“Great moments are born of great opportunities …
You were meant to be here. This is your time.
Their time is over … this is your time!”
Herb Brooks to 1980 US Hockey Team (as played by Kurt Russell)

Can the 2012 Georgia Bulldogs become the team of destiny their fans have dreamed of for three decades?

Can the Red and Black, last champions of the college football world in 1980, conjure up an inspired effort like the gold-medal winning Red, White, and Blue U.S. Hockey team from that same year?

Can this team, this underdog, take down its very own crimson menace, and the sport’s reigning bully?

To win … to become this team of destiny … Georgia has to dethrone a dynasty – the mighty Crimson Tide of Alabama.

When Georgia and Alabama meet in the Southeastern Conference championship game Saturday in Atlanta, the Bulldogs face not only a fearsome opponent, but also the pent up frustration of chronic unmet expectations. Bulldog players, coaches, fans, and followers consider the program elite, but since Georgia last won college football’s grand prize in 1980, five Southeastern Conference programs have captured a combined ten national championships. Imagine a grating drum roll for Georgia fans as you read the list.

1992 – Alabama
1996 – Florida
1998 – Tennessee
2003 – LSU
2006 – Florida
2007 – LSU
2008 – Florida
2009 – Alabama
2010 – Auburn
2011 – Alabama

Think that championship roster doesn’t gnaw at Dog fans? The perception of Georgia nationally is at odds with the Red and Black base. Fans in Tuscaloosa, Gainesville, and Baton Rouge … talk radio hosts in Birmingham, Nashville, and Atlanta … the pretty boys and girls talking on ESPN and Fox … all of them consider Georgia underachievers.

These five keys should decide whether Georgia can overcome the doubters and become a team of destiny Saturday afternoon.

1. Aaron Murray must outplay A.J. McCarron. If Murray comes back for his senior season, he will become the most prolific passer in SEC history. While the Dog QB has been maligned for coming up short in big games, those criticisms are perhaps off base. In losses to South Carolina this season, LSU (last year’s SEC title game), Boise State (last year’s season opener), and others, Murray faced defensive fronts that shut down Georgia’s running game and nullified any play action passing with a fierce pass rush. A.J. McCarron heard similar questions about whether he could handle the big stage until he proved himself in last year’s national championship game. That title game success muted criticism of McCarron’s less-than-stellar play in the Tide’s loss to Texas A&M. Murray should be the equal of McCarron (or better) and can prove it Saturday. But, he will need help … which takes us to a second key.

2. Georgia’s offensive line must play Alabama’s defensive front to a near-stalemate. The Dogs will not dominate Alabama up front. The Tide is too well-coached, seasoned, and disciplined on defense to get pushed around. But, they are not that big and they do not generate much of a pass rush from their front three. Nick Saban has a history of trying to completely take away at least one aspect of an opponent’s attack. I expect Saban and Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart to do whatever it takes to stop Georgia’s rushing attack. As a counter, watch for Georgia to throw the ball a lot early … instead of running to set up the pass, Georgia should pass to open up some running lanes for Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall. Gurley doesn’t need much space to keep the chains moving. If the Georgia offensive line can at least hold its own, that would be a net plus for the Bulldogs. While much attention has been paid to the pairing of Alabama’s great offensive front taking on Jarvis Jones and the Georgia defense, I think this is the more important matchup.

3. Alabama may be able to advantage of the aggressive Georgia secondary. Georgia has more talent on defense than anybody – including Alabama. Period. The Dogs are bigger and faster, and their edge in the secondary (even considering the Tide’s terrific Dee Milliner) is the most pronounced of the defensive position units on either side. The Bulldog defensive backs, especially safeties Shawn Williams and Bacarri Rambo will support the run defense aggressively and deliver a strike. Still, they are at times too aggressive (a trait sure to be amplified in the heat of such a big game), prone to penalties and to biting on play fakes. Watch for Alabama to bait the Dog DBs with pump and go action, or simply with play action passes, and try to hit some deep balls. The Dogs secondary boasts great athletes, but they must play with controlled aggression.

4. Which team will deliver the big plays? Will Eddie Lacy rumble through tacklers for the Tide? Will T.J. Yeldon take a McCarron screen pass to the land of milk and honey like he did in the showdown with LSU? Will Milliner pick off Murray? Or, will the sublime Dog duo of insider linebacker Alec Ogletree (the best athlete on the field) and Jarvis Jones control the action, with Ogletree chasing down Tide runners sideline to sideline and Jones wreaking havoc in the Alabama backfield? Will Gurshall (the nickname for Gurley and Marshall in homage to the great Herschel Walker) provide the Dogs with a little thunder and lightning at the running back position. Will either team break a punt or kickoff return? Remember that the Honey Badger – Tyrann Mathieu of LSU – undid the Dogs in last year’s title game with punt and interception returns. Somebody is likely to make a big play … who?

5. Does Alabama realize the intensity they will face Saturday? Few of these Tide starters have played significant roles in an SEC championship game, many of the Dogs have. This is a hungry Bulldog team with unfinished business in the Georgia Dome. Last year they soundly outplayed LSU for a half, but crumbled under the pressure in the third and fourth quarters and got humiliated. Alabama took the backdoor into the national title game and missed the SEC championship. The Tide hasn’t been here since 2009 and it is an intense setting (the teams do not have five weeks to rest and prepare as they would in the national championship game). Beyond the players and staffs though … there is something deeper that I’m not sure many people have calculated. The Bulldog crowd, disappointed and mostly dormant for three decades, will absolutely dominate the Dome on Saturday afternoon – in numbers and intensity. If Georgia gets off to a quick start, it will ignite a passion – even fury – from Georgia fans that has not been seen since Munson was at the mike, since big #34 was stalking the end zone, since … since the Dogs were national champions. It would surprise me if Alabama realizes that potential factor.

Destiny … or dynasty.

This is Georgia’s game. This is Georgia’s season. This is their time.

Georgia 24 Alabama 20

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Flea Flickers and Fixes: A Brief History of the Alabama-Georgia Rivalry

Much of the history of the Alabama-Georgia series is strange.

The schools sit just 275 miles apart, and often have represented the class of the Southeastern Conference, but Saturday’s SEC Championship Game will only be the 15th meeting between the Dogs and the Tide in the past 47 years, and their 66th overall meeting.

The schools played football against one another for the first time in 1895, with the immortal Pop Warner leading the Dogs to one of his 319 career victories – a 30-6 conquest played in the border town of Columbus, Georgia (one of six cities to host the game over the years). A six-year hiatus followed as the fledgling sport found its footing on both campuses, then varsity squads met every season from 1901 to 1965 excepting a couple of years during World War I and a five-year drought during the depression-era 1930s.

Alabama leads the overall series 36-25 with 4 ties. The game has been played on Alabama soil 39 times, with the Peach State welcoming the matchup 26 times. For a couple of decades in the 1920s and 1930s, Birmingham was the host city – much like Jacksonville is home to the annual Georgia-Florida game.

A sensational accusation of game-fixing influenced the decision to put the series on hold after 1965.

The Fix

“Well, what the heck could Wally Butts do for you?”
Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy to Paul W. “Bear” Bryant, March 1963

Just months before his brother’s fateful trip to Dallas, Attorney General Bobby Kennedy met with Alabama’s Bear Bryant in Washington (at the behest of mutual friend Bud Wilkinson, the Oklahoma football coach already considering a move into politics … he encouraged Bryant to do the same and suggested he meet with RFK). During their discussion, Bryant mentioned a pending Saturday Evening Post article (March 23, 1963) that would accuse the Alabama icon, and Georgia Athletics Director Wally Butts, of conspiring to fix the 1962 Alabama-Georgia game. Kennedy’s sardonic reply to the charge reflected the ease with which the Tide had rolled to a 35-0 victory (in a game remembered mostly as the college debut of Joe Namath).

Butts sued the Post for $10 million and was awarded a judgment of $3,060,000 (the amount was eventually lowered and Butts received around $136,000 after taxes). Bryant also sued and ended up settling out of court for $300,000 – tax free.

While cleared in court, the ugly episode played a role in moving Georgia and Alabama to the back of the rotation when the SEC implemented a new scheduling format after the 1965 season. The teams would play only ten more times over the next thirty-five years … four times in the 1970s, twice in the 1980s, and four more times in the 1990s.

The 1965 game was a memorable way to conclude that historical era of the series.

The Flea Flicker

“The most exciting play I’ve ever seen …”
Bud Wilkinson on NBC telecast of Georgia-Alabama 1965

Vince Dooley opened his second season in Athens with the unenviable task of facing Bear Bryant and the Crimson Tide. Bryant and Alabama were in the midst of a remarkable 45-4-1 regular season mark over the past five years, and were the defending wire service national champions. The Bear had welcomed the Dog’s young leader to big-time college football the year before with a 31-3 pasting in Dooley’s first game.

The 34-year old upstart upstaged the master in Sanford Stadium on September 18, 1965.

The Dogs jumped to a quick lead on a Bobby Etter field goal, and soon pushed it to 10-0 in the first quarter when left defensive tackle Jiggy Smaha deflected a Steve Sloan pass and right defensive tackle (and eventual two-time All-American) George Patton grabbed the interception and scored on a 55-yard return.

The Tide fought back all afternoon and finally overtook the Dogs by a 17-10 advantage late in the fourth quarter. Enter a trio and a play etched in Georgia lore.

Backup quarterback Kirby Moore (playing in place of injured Preston Ridlehuber) threw a short pass to end Pat Hodgson in the right flat. An instant later Hodgson tossed a lateral to sweeping Bob Taylor and the halfback raced down the right sideline for a 73-yard touchdown. Dooley then refused to settle for a tie (no overtime back when football was played like it should be!) and went for the two-point conversion, which Moore successfully completed with another pass to Hodgson.

Alabama would recover to win the 1965 national title (jumping from 5th to 1st after the bowls), but it was the Dogs who sent the soon-to-be-dormant series out in style with that classic 18-17 victory.

What Might Have Been

Over the next 35 years college football fans missed out on what could have been memorable match-ups between the two premier programs in the SEC.

In the dozen seasons between 1971 and 1982, Alabama and Georgia won every SEC title. From 1978 to 1980, the two schools won or shared all three national championships. Alabama won the SEC in 1977, 1978, and 1979. Georgia won the SEC in 1980, 1981, and 1982. They rarely met on the field during those halcyon days of dominance (playing twice in the mid-1970s).

Nick Saban gets to face Gur-Shall on Saturday (the moniker given to Georgia’s freshmen tailback tandem of Todd Gurley and Keith Marshall), but the Bear never had to defend against Herschel.

From Pop Warner to Flea Flickers, Fixes, and what might have been … the strange story of the Alabama-Georgia series.

Visit The Campus Game again this week for the SEC Championship Game preview and Professor’s Prediction.

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Will Oregon win a BCS championship and signal the ascendance of “New America” even on the football field?

Or will Kansas State, Notre Dame, or one from a horde of SEC challengers slow the fade of “Old America” by shooting down the Ducks?

We will not know for another several weeks, but the battle lines drawn during this year’s political contests seem to be spilling over to the gridiron.

Consider:

“New America” supposedly represents an ever-changing, fast-paced society … is anything faster-paced than Oregon’s offense (which leads the nation in scoring)? Forget about going to the fridge when the Ducks have the ball, odds are you’ll miss four plays and a touchdown before you pour the Coca-Cola.

“New America” supposedly represents a sprawling, teeming mishmash of a multi-cultural populace … Oregon features a star quarterback from Hawaii in Marcus Mariota (and seven other islanders), a slithering, slippery Black Mamba from South Central Los Angeles (De’Anthony Thomas), a Dane from the North Pole (WR Dane Ebanez from North Pole, Alaska), an exotic-sounding Canadian (LB Boseko Lokombo from British Columbia), and other players hailing from Florida to the great Northwest.

“New America” supposedly represents the need for Uncle Sam to act as a sugar daddy, giving out treats galore to citizens eager for the freebies … the Ducks feature Phil Knight, founder of Nike and the biggest athletic booster of them all, his largesse resulting in palatial football facilities, and more uniform combinations than a mathematics professor could calculate.

So, is “Old America” resigned to the slag heap of history, destined to go the way of the wing-T, leather helmets, and quick kicks? Maybe not.

Consider:

“Old America” treasures conservative values like a strong defense. The five closest pursuers to Oregon – Kansas State, Notre Dame, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida – all rank in the top 25 nationally in scoring defense, with the Tide, Irish, and Florida making up the top three (Bama and ND are tied at #1 this week). The Ducks rank 30th – tied with Minnesota.

“Old America” honors tradition and experience. Does any team have the tradition of Notre Dame? The pedigree of Alabama? The stolid leadership and experience of Bill Snyder at K-State? The Tide and Irish have combined for more football national titles than any other two schools. Bill Snyder could have been the model for the farmer in American Gothic.

“Old America” supposedly believes in doing things the old-fashioned way. Bill Snyder played defensive back in college, earned his stripes as an assistant coach with John McKay and Hayden Fry, and built K-State from arguably the worst program in America to a team that would be in the championship game if the season ended today. Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly played linebacker in college, and worked his way up through head coaching stops at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, and Cincinnati before landing the Irish gig in 2010. Nick Saban played defensive back in college, worked under Bill Belichick, has led programs at Toledo, Michigan State, LSU, and the Miami Dolphins in the NFL. Oh, he has also won three BCS championships. Mark Richt of Georgia played QB under Howard Schnellenberger at Miami, and spent two decades with Bobby Bowden at Florida State. Will Muschamp of Florida played defensive back at Georgia and coached under Saban, Tommy Tuberville, and Mack Brown. By contrast, Chip Kelly never played college football and worked his way up through non-traditional programs at Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and New Hampshire.

New America won a presidential election last week, and (as represented by Oregon) looks favored to win another championship in early January.

Old America took a kick to the stomach in the 2012 election, but Kansas State, Notre Dame, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida are anxious for an opportunity to show the old ways still work pretty well.

New America.

Old America.

College football 2012.

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“Memory Lane up in the headlights,
It’s got me reminiscin’ on them good times.”
Dirt Road Anthem (click to listen)
(Jason Aldean 2011)

Could Notre Dame and Alabama play for a national title this season?

It’s still doubtful (mainly because ND probably will not win out), but the Irish and Tide have me reminiscing on them good times – of December 1973.

That New Year’s Eve, those two teams played what was – and remains – my favorite college football game (just edging out the great Nebraska-Oklahoma 1971 Thanksgiving Day classic). A crowd of over 85,000 filled old Tulane Stadium in New Orleans and saw two unbeaten teams battle to the final whistle with Notre Dame pulling out a 24-23 victory and laying claim to the National Championship. (A note on rankings in 1973: the UPI or “Coaches poll” still announced its champion at the end of the regular season – and ranked Bama #1 with the Irish #4; the more popular Associated Press (AP) or “Writers poll” waited until after the bowls and named ND champion). The UPI started holding its final ballot after the bowls the very next season.

Even though I was a Georgia boy, not a Catholic, and had never been north of Kentucky best I can remember (other than being born in Dover, Delaware, and living there a few weeks courtesy of the US Air Force), the Irish held a special place in my sporting soul (still do). Thank the great Lindsey Nelson for that affection. Like scores of thousands of others, I watched and loved the old Notre Dame football replays on Sunday mornings featuring the plaid-clad Nelson and the Golden Boy Paul Hornung. Those of you who don’t remember pre-ESPN days should realize most Saturdays offered only one college football telecast, with the occasional national-regional double feature. So, the team I got to see the most on that old Zenith was Notre Dame … and the Irish always seemed to be ahead by forty points as Nelson switched to further action, his signature line. (An aside – years later I would date a pretty girl at Georgia a couple of times – named Lindsey Nelson! A few years after that, in grad school at Tennessee, I got to meet the real deal when Mr. Nelson spoke to a sport history class – he lived on a bluff over the Tennessee River – what a man).

The fact that a whole slew of my cousins and an uncle or two ate, drank, and slept Alabama football also had my adrenaline flowing for the ’73 Sugar Bowl. If my (admittedly fading) memory serves me, I made a long-distance call to the Heart of Dixie to gloat just minutes after Irish QB Tom Clements calmly hit TE Robin Weber with a long-pass from the ND end zone to ice the game. Long-distance calls were nothing to take lightly in those days, but my mother let me have my fun. I don’t think any other football score has ever been so much fun since.

Aside from personal interests, the game held broad national implications too.

The two schools had never met on the football field. Many southern football fans, and Alabama fans in particular, chafed at what they saw as preferential treatment in the polls for Notre Dame. More people in northern cities, more television and newspaper exposure, more northern sportswriters with big-city biases, all those factors rubbed Bama and other southern fans raw. And there was 1966 of course.

That season the Irish were voted national champs after finishing the season with a 9-0-1 record that included a tie at #2 Michigan State in the next to last game of the year. Alabama finished 10-0 (and then won the Sugar Bowl over Nebraska), but still finished #3 in both polls. Want to start a fight in Alabama? Bring up that vote.

While the ND-State tie is long-remembered, the fact that the Irish won at Oklahoma and then crushed USC 51-0 in the season finale is often overlooked. Guess where Notre Dame plays this weekend? Guess where the Irish finish the season? Yes and yes … Oklahoma and USC.

I don’t think it will happen. I doubt the Irish can handle the Sooners on the road this weekend. I question whether ND will be able to stave off the future NFL squad at the LA Coliseum. They are too young, too fragile, too accustomed to losing big games the past decade or so.

But, oh just savoring the possibility for one more week … the Irish got me reminiscing on them good times.

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Welcome back to campus (and The Campus Game!) and the kickoff of the college football year.

The best and briefest sport season on the American calendar opened with a five-day football feast … and after the first Saturday, college football 2012 looks a whole lot like a replay of 2011.  These “Cliff’s Notes” summarize my review of toe meeting leather on weekend one across the nation.

Head of the Class

Three teams stood out to me in these initial games:

Alabama … the Crimson Tide program remains on a different level. In crunching Michigan 41-14, Bama dominated all phases of the game. The offensive line looks absolutely nasty and should be the nation’s best. That group paved the path for freshman T.J. Yeldon to establish himself (after only one game) as Alabama’s best running back, even though junior Eddie Lacy and Dee Hart (another frosh) are certainly serviceable. Yeldon is just different – and so is the Crimson Tide. Until somebody proves otherwise, Nick Saban’s squad remains the valedictorian of not only the SEC, but also the entire country.

USC … this is the most polished team in America. Senior QB Matt Barkley could just as easily be tossing touchdowns for an NFL team next week as throwing them for the Trojans (he hit Marqise Lee for a 75-yard TD on SC’s opening offensive play of the season Saturday night against Hawaii in a 49-10 victory). Barkley leads a balanced attack that features all-star receivers Lee and Robert Woods, and the Trojans make up for depth issues with pure talent. My preseason prediction for the BCS title game was USC-Oklahoma, but I’d really like to see Lane Kiffin and company take on Saban and the Tide.

Oregon … yes, a good, physical defense would probably stifle the Ducks, and their pinball wizard style of offense can result in a “tilt” if they fall behind in down and distance for any given series. But, boy does Oregon have speed and play fast. New QB Marcus Mariota led a dazzling Duck raid on Arkansas State when Oregon blazed to 50 points in the first quarter and a half of the game. I truly believe Oregon could have fairly easily posted triple-digits on A-State had not Chip Kelly called off his flock and settled for a very misleading 57-34 win. While I favor defense and physicality, you best believe the professor will be hunkered down to watch USC play Oregon (both times – they’ll meet in the PAC-12 title game too).

A Good Start

Fans of these programs should feel pretty good after opening week:

Tennessee: While it’s just one game, the Vols might finally be on the march back to contender status. They sure showed a lot of speed and talent in a nice 35-21 thumping of well-thought-of NC State. Junior college WR transfer Cordarrelle Patterson electrified a pro-Big Orange Friday night Georgia Dome crowd with two long touchdowns (a 41-yard catch and a 67-yard run) and QB Tyler Bray looked like the gunslinger he is in whipping the ball around for 333 yards and two TDs with no interceptions. The Vols also looked fast on defense, with sophomore LB Curt Maggitt showing star potential. The Vols are far from a finished product, but Derek Dooley and his young team may grow up this season.

MAC Teams: The professor holds a soft spot for the MAC, and the underrated conference played several nice games. Ohio beat Penn State at Beaver Stadium, notching a win for Frank Solich in a highly publicized pairing. Northern Illinois played Iowa to within a point on the road, Toledo took Arizona to overtime in Tucson, Buffalo rang up 23 points against highly-rated Georgia between the hedges, and Bowling Green scrapped with Florida at the Swamp before falling 27-14. Kudos to the Mid-American.

Notre Dame: The Irish finally started a season without moving as if in a fog. Maybe it was the trip to Ireland that lifted ND’s spirits, perhaps it was a Navy squad that might be the worst team the Domers play all season, or possibly it was the calming influence of QB Everett Golson or the upgraded size and power of the lines. Whatever. Irish fans will take it after dismal starts in Brian Kelly’s first two seasons.

Ohio State: No need to get too excited yet, but next year – oh yes. Urban Meyer has a perfect QB for his system in Braxton Miller and the bowl ban this season will provide Meyer and his charges with all the anger and edge needed to be a real threat next year. The Bucks may be the B1G’s best team before this season is over (but probably not). Won’t be long though.

Of Concern

Fans of these squads might call for some extra tutoring or time in study hall because they did not impress the first weekend:

Penn State: No need to say more about this situation. While normally a Nittany Lion fan, I took a wee bit of guilty pleasure in seeing PSU take a kick to the gut from a MAC school – mainly because of the shameful way the trustees buckled to the Freeh Report and turned on Joe Paterno. Billy O’Brien is a class act, but he and Lions fans are in for a tough year.

Florida: The Gators looked awfully ragged in their opening win over Bowling Green. While the game was never in doubt (a slight improvement over some of their performances last year), the sloppy penalties and sluggish offense is very reminiscent of Will Muschamp’s first season in Gainesville. The Gators have too much talent to look so fragile.

Savannah State: OK – nobody even knows them, but what was the AD doing scheduling Oklahoma State (84-0) and FSU to open the season? $375K, which is the payout for the Stillwater scalping, is not sufficient for the beating this team took. Hope Jimbo Fisher is feeling charitable next weekend in Tallahassee or there may not be a SSU Tiger team to pull for the last ten weeks of the season.

Enjoy the Labor Day matchup of Georgia Tech at Virginia Tech!

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Forty Septembers ago, sport and politics intersected on an international stage, resulting in drama and tragedy unmatched before or since.

The 1972 Summer Olympics were supposed to mark Germany’s ultimate return to prominence one score and seven years after the end of World War II. At least that was the plan for republican and free West Germany – Deutschland was still divided, East Germany a Soviet satellite trapped behind the Iron Curtain.

The Games had last been held in Germany in 1936. Adolph Hitler sought to use those Olympics as a showcase to demonstrate the competence of his ruling national socialist party. Now often called the “Nazi Olympics,” the Berlin Games were successful in an overall sense … filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl and games organizer Carl Diem creating one of the first true sporting spectacles; the great American sprinter Jesse Owens (the most famous of a bevy of African American athletes) shattering any notions of Aryan supremacy by winning four gold medals.

As the ’72 Games approached, the West Germans wanted no links to the aggressive, militaristic history many people around the globe associated with the Germany of WWI and WWII, and they certainly sought to avoid connection with 1936 Berlin. The Munich Olympics were to be the “Happy Games.” Security personnel carried no visible weapons, even dressed in soft pastel colors. This laxity proved tragic.

In the early morning hours of September 5th, during the second week of the Games, Palestinian terrorists dressed as athletes scaled a fence and entered the Olympic Village. The eight terrorists broke into apartments housing Israeli athletes and coaches. They immediately killed two of them, and took nine hostages. After nearly 18 hours of negotiations – played out on television – a bus ferried the terrorists and their hostages to the NATO air base at Furstenfeldbrook. There a poorly planned attempt to free the hostages by German authorities resulted in the murder of the remaining nine Israeli hostages, the deaths of a German policeman caught in the crossfire and five of the terrorists, and the capture of the remaining three terrorists (who would be released in a prisoner exchange by the West Germans within weeks).

After a one-day period of grieving, IOC President Avery Brundage announced “the Games must go on.”

And they did.

While nothing compared to the tragedy of the massacre, other controversial events took place as well. Brundage was roundly criticized for his decision to continue the games after only 24 hours. Controversial calls at the end of the gold medal basketball game allowed the Soviet Union to prevail over a U.S. team that had never lost in Olympic basketball competition; the Americans refused the silver medals (which sit even today in a vault at IOC headquarters in Lausanne). U.S. sprinters were given an old schedule by their coach and the 100 meter favorite (Eddie Hart) never even made it to his preliminary heats (having to settle for gold in the 4×100 relay). American swimmer Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals (a record that would stand until Michael Phelps won 8 in 2008) but left the Games immediately after completing his event (the Jewish Spitz uncomfortable staying in Munich). Altogether, the Olympic Movement would not truly recover from these events until the 1992 Barcelona Games (1976 Montreal Games faced boycotts and financial problems; 1980 Moscow Games saw an American-led boycott by western nations; 1984 LA Games saw a tit-for-tat boycott by the Soviets and eastern-bloc nations; the 1988 Seoul Games were marred by the Ben Johnson steroid scandal and controversial judging).

At the same time the 1972 Olympics captivated the world’s attention, two nations played out their own international drama on the ice.

Canada and the Soviet Union competed against each other in eight games, starting on September 2nd with four games played in four cities across Canada, and ending on September 28th after four games played in Moscow. The “Summit Series” never garnered as much attention as the 1972 Munich Olympics, but the hockey was riveting, with Cold War tensions spilling onto the rink nearly a decade before the United States would win the “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY.

Most hockey aficionados – fans, experts, and players alike – expected the mighty team of Canadians to dominate the Soviets. Canada is considered the historical home of ice hockey, the game originating there in the 1800s and the first official match taking place in 1875. Open professionals from the NHL, which comprised the roster of team Canada, could not compete in the Olympics at the time, so this series was the first true opportunity for the pros from Canada to take on the Soviets, a team comprised of Russians who had dominated international amateur hockey for a couple of decades (the Russians were “amateur” in name only; they played hockey for a living).

On September 2nd, the Soviets stunned the Canadians with a 7-3 victory in the first game, overcoming a quick goal by Phil Esposito with flashy speed and precision on offense, especially from forward Valeri Kharlamov who scored twice and would become the USSR star of the series (along with goaltender Vladislav Tretiak). Canada came back to win Game Two on September 4th in Toronto (the same night the Olympic Village in Munich fell into peaceful slumber – hours before the terrorist attack), and the teams played to a tie in Winnipeg on September 6th.

When the Soviets prevailed 5-3 on September 8th in Vancouver, and then 5-4 two weeks later in Moscow, the USSR held a 3-1-1 lead in the competition. Team Canada would need to win the three remaining games – all in Moscow – to salvage the series.

And they did.

In one of those remarkable turnarounds that happen only in sport, Canada eked out a 3-2 win in Game 5 with Paul Henderson (remember the name) scoring the clincher. In Game 6, the great Esposito willed Canada to another clutch victory by scoring two goals, with Henderson again punching in the game-winner in the 4-3 final. In the last game, Canada trailed 5-3 in the third period but surged to a 6-5 thrilling win when Esposito scored two more goals and Henderson – yes that man again – slammed in a rebound with seconds remaining to secure the Summit Series.

The 1972 Munich Olympics.

The 1972 Summit Series.

These overlapping competitions forty Septembers ago provided simultaneous examples of tragedy and drama, sport and politics, seen neither before or since.

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The jackals of American media loosed themselves fully on old Joe Paterno last week.

Whether attacking alone or as a pack, the nation’s self-appointed pundits and protectors of the truth – sportswriters, sports talk radio hosts, even national network news readers who rarely deign to dirty their hands in the world of sports (unless a fresh scandal is ripe) – all of them tore away at the old man’s legacy, trying to rip away any last flecks of flesh from the bare carcass of the once revered man’s reputation.

On Thursday (July 12), the day the Freeh Report was made public, I spent nearly seven hours listening to talk radio while driving from north Georgia to the panhandle of Florida. The weather – alternating between cloudy gray skies and heavy downpours of rain – aptly fit the mood generated by the report. Starting with the Atlanta stations in the morning, switching to national big hitters during lunch, finding a small-town south Alabama program at mid-day, and finishing up with the ubiquitous Paul Finebaum in late afternoon … virtually all the conversation focused on the Freeh Report and what it said about Paterno.

While recognizing the sickening and horrific nature of the crimes committed by the serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky, the comments I heard from hosts and their guests (not the callers so much – they were much more measured) about Paterno still felt too ugly, too hateful and hate-filled, opinions toppling out in near unanimous chorus with little room for nuance, discussion or reflection, the obligatory condolensces occasionally cast toward the victims seeming incidental, even empty. Almost all the vitriol spewed straight at Joseph Vincent Paterno. By the end of the ride, had I not known better, Paterno could have been the molester instead of Sandusky.

The jackals proposed an array of penalties for the dead man. Remove the statue from Penn State’s campus. Strip Paterno of his wins from 2001 forward. Take his family’s pension. Put the football program on probation for a year, two years, five years, or just shut it down permanently.

Unfortunately, none – NONE – of the hosts, guests, or callers had read the Freeh Report that day. None of them had read the report. Let that register. They couldn’t have read the full report because it was released only that morning. The findings run one hundred and forty-four pages (144) in length, with another hundred and twenty-three pages (123) of end notes and addendums, for the oft-cited (and somewhat misleading) total of two hundred and sixty-seven (267) pages. I know the count – I read every word on every page … all of them … again and again before sitting down to the keyboard.

In their rush to judgment, the jackals had to be first, had to be loudest, had to outshout everyone to make sure they were heard, or their websites got the most clicks, or their editors could preen and publicize their appearances on ESPN, Finebaum, Rome, Yahoo, and the rest. I don’t have a great deal of respect for many of them.

[As an irritating example - Christine Brennan of the Washington Post (whom I usually admire and enjoy reading) tried to equate Paterno's legacy with that of disgraced former President Richard Nixon (the irony hopefully not lost on her of the animosity Paterno felt toward Nixon dating to 1969). In making her case, she tried to cite what she called the many positives of the Nixon years ... opening relations with China, passage of Title IX legislation, the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. Wait a minute. What? Yes, in a discussion about a terrible child abuse case, Brennan felt it appropriate to cite a court ruling that has resulted in the _______ murder/termination/killing/aborting (choose your term) of between 30 and 50 million unborn American babies - again, while discussing a child predator case. That's in poor taste. For good measure, Brennan - in arguing for the termination of the PSU football program - proclaimed how much she loved, loved, loved, loved college football, especially Penn State and recalled watching the famous 1973 Alabama-Penn State Sugar Bowl. Ummm ... Christine, as every Finebaum listener probably knew, Alabama played (and lost to) Notre Dame in the 1973 Sugar Bowl. She meant the 1978 game, but the sloppiness is indicative of the work done by media that day. I lost a lot of respect for Ms. Brennan on that drive.]

So, the excesses of the jackals aside, what about the Freeh Report?

Here is my personal opinion of the Freeh findings:

* Louis Freeh and his the Special Investigative Counsel (SIC – the group that conducted the inquiry and developed the report) draw stronger conclusions about the role of Joe Paterno “covering up” the scandal than their own evidence warrants.

* The SIC purposefully emphasizes information most damaging to Paterno (through wording, their own italicized font, etc). I found this curious.

* While the SIC boasts of examining more than 3.5 million “electronic data and documents,” three emails refer to Joe Paterno. Read that again … three emails reference any involvement of Joe Paterno. (See Exhibits 2A, 2C, and 2F)

* Of those three emails, only one (2F) indicates any information that might be construed as damaging to Paterno. More in a minute on the emails.

* The SIC falls into a trap of looking at evidence with the advantage of hindsight (they should have had historians on the team). Freeh and his investigators already knew that Sandusky was a pervert and monster … Paterno, PSU President Graham Spanier, Vice President for Business and Finance Gary Schultz, and Athletic Director Tim Curley did not know in 1998 and could have only suspected so in 2001.

* Those who believe Paterno would face or be convicted of criminal conduct as a result of this report are – again, in my opinion, wrong. I don’t see the evidence in this report to make that claim.

Were the four primary leaders at Penn State without blame or fault in letting Sandusky’s reign continue for a decade or more? Absolutely not … but to condemn them based on the Freeh Report is premature.

Allow me to close using the method of the SIC … here is my own executive summary:

* Freeh’s conjecture that Spanier, Schultz, Curley, and Paterno “covered up” the Sandusky case to protect the institution and their jobs is just that – conjecture. None of the emails or other supporting documents (that I can find) support that claim. It seems more likely to me that the men were overly sensitive to Sandusky’s feelings (that seems foolish now, but again they were acting without knowing what we do now), and completely unaware and inept in recognizing how to handle suspected child abuse situations.

* There was absolutely no inappropriate conduct by Joe Paterno in 1998. State College police and the Department of Public Welfare investigated a complaint against Sandusky between May 4-May 30 before concluding that no crime had taken place (read the full report if you want the details of the accusation – my focus is on Paterno and his actions). The District Attorney declined to prosecute Sandusky. On May 4th, AD Curley responded to a Schultz email by noting that he had “touched base” with Paterno. Eight days later he asked for an update from Schultz, mentioning Paterno was “anxious” to know of any news. That’s the last time Paterno is mentioned. It seems reasonable to me for Paterno and Curley to want to know more information … again, there is no evidence to suggest they knew he was a predator.

* The worst part of the report for Paterno was an email Curley sent in 2001 (Exhibit 2F) that suggests (my emphasis added) Paterno might have (my emphasis added) changed the direction of the University’s response to the 2001 incident that eventually broke the case nearly a decade later. See how we can influence opinion by adding an emphasis here or there (Freeh always used this strategy to make Paterno look as bad as possible – in my opinion). Again, we benefit from hindsight and current knowledge, but the Penn State leaders – including Paterno – made a series of misjudgments in handling this allegation against Sandusky. I’ll spare the details (again I encourage you to actually read the report), but any number of people could have stopped Sandusky at this point. Mike McQueary doesn’t know what he saw based on his conflicting comments of the time and should have went straight to the police (instead of calling his father, waiting overnight to alert Paterno and then being vague in his story); Paterno should have called Curley immediately instead of waiting overnight; the list goes on. None of them called the police as they should have done and were required to do by law. Poor – and tragic – mistakes.

* Blaming Paterno and the football “culture” at Penn State for personal cowardice is taking the easy way out for Freeh. Two people actually saw Sandusky committing crimes – a janitor in 2000 and Mike McQueary in 2001 – neither went to the police. That Penn State janitor reported seeing Sandusky assaulting a child in late 2000 (in the same shower as the 1998 case), informed two other custodians, but all three failed to notify anyone else – reportedly for fear of losing their jobs. The SIC repeatedly takes the four senior leaders at Penn State to task about not informing authorities, but why are these men not held to the same standard? Because they don’t make as much money or wield as much power, they shouldn’t be expected to report what the witness claimed (a decade later) was worse than anything he saw in Korea? Unlike this man, Paterno and the others were not witnesses. The same for McQueary. He obviously panicked, grew flustered, and couldn’t think straight that night in 2001 when he walked into the Lasch Building and saw Sandusky. He should have stopped what was taking place and called the police. It’s what any of us would (or should) have done. Blaming Paterno for the personal cowardice or mistakes of these men is not right.

The sickening saga at Penn State carried out for more than a decade (and probably longer). It was tragic for the many victims of a monster. It is merely sad for Joe Paterno, a man who stood alongside John Wooden, Dean Smith, Pat Summitt, and others as one of the true leaders of intercollegiate sport in America.

Like Joe said, he should have done more.

Now the jackals have moved in to devour his remains.

[Click to view the full Freeh Report]