What football in Fenway Park looked like in 1963

Football in baseball stadiums still seems odd to me, but we have witnesses it happen a number of times over the years. The Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl is hosted in the home of the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants. The Beef ‘O Brady’s Bowl takes place in Tropicana Field, home of baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays. The relatively new Pinstripe Bowl takes place inside the newer Yankee Stadium, which also hosts an occasional game during the regular season as well. Illinois and Northwestern attempted to play a game in historic Wrigley Field, but that turned out to be a disaster.

The appeal of playing a football game in a baseball stadium is a novelty that will continue to draw some sort of interest though, and I am curious which baseball stadium would be next to give football a try. As a baseball fan I find it almost sacrilegious to cross football with one of baseball’s all-time meccas, Fenway Park, the home of the Boston Red Sox did once serve as the venue for football.

Source: Boston Red Sox

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Don Draper missed out on a great Cotton Bowl

Don Draper missed one heck of a moment in college football history.

I’m a big fan of the show Mad Men, which aired the latest season premiere Sunday night. In the episode we see our favorite ad man Don Draper share an elevator ride with someone who works in his office that he barely recognizes. It turns out this employee of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, Bob Benson in accounts, is able to get tickets to the 1968 Cotton Bowl between Alabama and Texas A&M. Benson appears to admire Don’s work and wants to try and emulate his success. This will surely be a story that develops throughout the season now that Peggy Olsen has moved on to bigger and better things after years as Don’s upcoming apprentice of sorts.

Don appears to have little time to waste on sports throughout the series. It just doesn’t seem like his thing. Don would rather be smoking a cigarette, sipping on an Old Fashion (neat) and either coming up with new ad campaigns on a napkin or scoping out his latest woman to fancy, when his eye somehow wanders away from his lovely wife and aspiring actress Megan.

So, what game did Don miss out on? One of the greats.

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Column: Missing out on Woody Hayes

I did not truly grab a hold of college football in the early 1990s. My parents owned season tickets to Penn State games so I was able to attend a few games, but before I actually learned about the game I often got bored and was ready to leave at halftime (much to my father’s chagrin). As I grew up I wised up of course and now today I can’t get enough of the sport.

Much of what I learned about the sport growing up I learned by watching Penn State football, led by Joe Paterno. Watching the games with my dad also carried some influence, as my dad would teach me why Miami had all the bad guys in the sport and why I should never root for Ohio State. Again, as I grew older I learned to form my own opinions on the game, its players and coaches and mechanics and more. But I also wanted to learn more about the game, where it came from and just why my dad thinks I should hate Ohio State.

If 11-year old me read what I am about to say in my next sentence, he might go ahead and tell on me.

Woody Hayes may be the one coach I wish I had a chance to watch or cover in person. Without question. … Continue Reading

Bradbury Robinson, Father of the Forward Pass

Bradbury Robinson’s name may not be recognizable to casual or even hardcore football fans today, but his influence on the sport has made the game what it continues to be today. In an era where passing rules are amended to protect the quarterback and make things easier for wide receivers it can be difficult to remember that the game once rarely featured a single pass in the game. In fact, it was illegal until Robinson suggested to that be changed.

Robinson, born in Ohio and raised in St. Louis, attended the University of Wisconsin in 1903, with his arrival to the football team was reported to be a sigh of relief. As one unidentified reporter explained at the time, Robinson’s unique athleticism would help the “football eleven” fill a void after losing one of their star players from the year before who had accepted a job as a high school coach for a sum of $500. Wisconsin’s “Cardinal team” (Wisconsin fielded two separate football teams, reminiscent to Varsity and JV or freshmen squads) finished the season with a 6-3-1 record, finishing sixth in the Western Conference (today’s Big Ten). Robinson became a rising figure in the sport with two touchdowns in an 87-0 victory over Beloit (a Division 3 school in Wisconsin today).

“Robinson’s star work seems to show [the] second eleven is not far behind the first,” a newspaper report on the game described. Robinson’s influence on the game was about to change in a much greater way though when President Theodore Roosevelt sought suggestions on how to make the sport of football safer and more enjoyable.

Robinson’s suggestion? The forward pass. … Continue Reading

Joe Flacco has been proving himself to be elite since college

Before Joe Flacco as a Super Bowl MVP, he showed off his arm against college football’s elite.

Delaware’s own Joe Flacco said he deserved to be considered among the elite quarterbacks in the NFL. After leading the Baltimore Ravens to a Super Bowl championship and being named the game’s most valuable player, any argument against that idea, for now, is rendered moot. To be honest, I now readily admit I view Flacco in a much different light today than I did prior to Flacco’s Super Bowl performance. But should it really be a surprise to see Flacco now entering his name in the mix alongside the top quarterbacks in the NFL today? After all, this is a player who has had to prove himself his entire career, and a player who has thrived on having to do so among other quarterbacks considered to be superior.

We all know Flacco’s story by now, probably. The New Jersey native started his collegiate career at Pittsburgh, where he was unable to get playing time ahead of Tyler Palko. Perhaps this was one of the biggest mistakes, especially in hindsight, of Dave Wannstedt’s tenure in Pittsburgh. Flacco transferred to Delaware and was not given a transfer exception from Pitt, meaning Flacco had to sit out an entire season without a scholarship despite moving from FBS to FCS. Pittsburgh would go on to have three straight bowl-less seasons while Delaware moved Flacco in to the starting job under center and eventually grew in to an FCS title contender. Flacco led the Blue Hens to the national championship game in 2007 but fell short against the powerhouse from Appalachian State, 49-21. This was the season Appalachian State toppled Michigan to start the season. It must have been something about those winged helmet designs.

Unfortunately I did not get a chance to watch a whole lot of Flacco at Delaware, a result of not being able to watch FCS football too closely until the playoffs kick off. This means I am left with the few highlights I can recall of Flacco’s college career, which means a flash back to his performance in the college football all-star skills competition.

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