Phone calls and CRUFOTI

                When you move, you know you’ll have to go through a getting-adjusted process, a time when you receive mail and phone calls for individuals who formerly lived at your address or once held your new phone number.

          In Oxnard, we got calls for years intended for Mack’s Hoagie Hut. We finally learned the Hut was not an out of business business. It had a phone number one digit off from ours. After several months of annoyance, we started taking orders, promising quick delivery. We even ate there once and, cards on the table, the food was pretty good.

          The calls eventually slowed and the place went out of business.

          Here in Ohio, we’ve had two serial calls from interesting sources that have refused to stop bothering us, even after we follow their instructions to remove us from their call lists.

          The most impressive, by far, are the attempted calls we’ve gotten from some jailbird. We get a ring and a recording that a prisoner wants to have our number put on his okay to call list. We don’t know any prisoners that would be calling us.

My wife twice followed their process for having the number removed from the list, but we got another call from the same source. I called the company and they told me on the phone the calls would be blocked.

          I tried one more time to follow their process for number removal. If that fails, I have another idea. We call it Plan X.

          We may have to use Plan X on the bill collector that keeps calling us about a debtor. Those automated calls come and give us the name of the person they seek to collect from. “If you are not (this person),” the call says, “follow this process,” to get removed from the call list. So we followed the process and the calls have continued.

          It’s an automated caller, of course, and the voice tells us they are seeking someone named Vanity Brady. A little investigating gave us the proper name of the individual (the first name is not Vanity) for whom they seek and we’ll reveal that as well in the press release.

          I called the debt collector, too, and got assurances the calls would end. We’ll see.

          I’ve been waiting for the chance to use Plan X. It’s a dandy. The idea is to get many, many calls to the offending agencies from a variety of sources.

          Plan X, of course, is to issue a press release to every media member we can locate or think of in our state and the surrounding states about these phone calls. Lots of other people are probably getting these same calls, so we are doing the public a service with this free-of-charge press release.

The press release will include the name of the business that is responsible for the calls, the name of the debtor, the names of the folks we have talked to and the phone numbers we have called. Since our phone retains the numbers of incoming calls for a while, we have the numbers of the companies involved and each press release will include all the appropriate numbers.

          Hopefully, some news agency will pick up the story, one or both of them, and run with it (or them). Back in the old days, when journalism was something other than CRUFOTI (Crud Found On The Internet), newspapers would grab hold of something like a phone service claiming to be licensed by the Ohio state prison system, calling family phone numbers repeatedly, even after the number was supposed to be blocked.

          Heck, maybe the releases can become CRUFOTI, an international internet sensation. Maybe the CRUFOTI will generate annoying phone calls to the callers, just like the ones that bother us.

          If not, at least the calls helped generate another blog.

 

          Thanks for reading it.

Spinning along in my automobile...

 

          You have to understand that my experience with driving on wet surfaces has been limited mostly to driving away from the automated car wash. I lived in Southern California all my life until we moved to Ohio this fall and it just doesn’t rain much in SoCal.

          It is especially dry in the desert, where I lived for 10 years, but you could have figured that out for yourself.

          Amazingly, it turns out that things are wetter in northeastern Ohio, where I live now. It rains in the summer and snows in the winter, my neighbors tell me. The snow, I am informed, leads to ice on the ground and ice is hard to drive on.

          I hit a patch of ice once when I was driving down the side of a mountain a couple of decades ago. The car slewed left and caught the dirt in the median. The car’s rear end kicked back around and I went rushing down backwards. I got far enough down the mountain that the ice gave way to the pavement and I was able to slowdown and get turned around safely.

          I understand the problems with ice now.

          But I was a little unprepared three weeks ago when I had a hard time driving the Mustang up a hill during a rain event (we don’t say storms anymore, do we?) near my home in Ohio.

          I was halted at a signal light and waiting to turn left, facing downhill. The rain was at a moderate rate. When the light turned green, I let the car coast for a bit and dropped the transmission into second gear before turning left and attempting to drive up the next street.

          By coasting and then rolling off in second gear, I was eliminating the possibility that excess torque might cause wheel spin, right?

          No I wasn’t. The tires spun and the car kicked softly right when I tried to accelerate gently. I corrected the drift as I shifted to third gear. ‘There shouldn’t be any torque at all in third gear,’ I figured.

Wrong again. The tires spun and the Mustang drifted sideways again. I corrected the steering again and shifted again.

          Finally, now in fourth gear, I had eliminated the side-slide issue and was trudging up the hill at a sedate 15 miles per hour, despite some minor tire spin.

          That happened in October. January should be really interesting. Interesting, that is, for my wife’s car. The Mustang will live in the garage from the time the first flake of snow falls until I am convinced we are snow-free. I want to avoid getting road salt on the Mustang.

          I mean, come on. It’s the Mustang.

 

          Thanks for reading.

I never saw a finish like it

          The craziest thing I ever saw on a racetrack came at the end of a NASCAR Southwest Tour race at Mesa Marin Raceway in, I believe, 1996. After crashing, a driver won a race, set two records and clinched a championship.

          Mesa Marin was a banked, half-mile track in Bakersfield, California and I loved the place. It was owned and run by the Collins family, just great folks. I used to write in press releases that the track was, The Kern County Jewel. The racing there was always great.

          The Tour’s championship came down to the final two races of the season and a guy named Chris Raudman led the points. His brother, Craig, was next in the standings.

          The race came down to the final laps and Chris Raudman led with a guy named Sean Monroe second by scant inches. Monroe was nudging the back of Raudman’s car as they came down the front straightaway with three laps remaining. Monroe wanted to upset Raudman, maybe ruin his competition.

          But Monroe finally hit Raudman too hard and BOTH cars spun to the infield, making contact with the infield retaining wall. Both cars crashed to a stop. The caution flag came out. The remainder of the cars in the field slowed as they headed down the front straight.

          And Raudman got his car running again, rushing back onto the track. He drove the damaged car. The one that had hit the wall. The car that was bent up with impact damage.

          The race resumed with two laps remaining. Raudman stayed in front and won. But the story is in the details.

          Raudman and Monroe were the only cars on the lead lap when they crashed. Raudman resumed the race without losing a lap. He became the first Southwest Tour driver to post a victory margin of a full lap or more; his victory margin was two laps.

          He clinched the series championship with the win. Mathematically, he could have lost the title by not showing up at the final race of the season, but even then, his brother would have to win the race. The championship leader was very likely to attend the final event.

          By winning the title, he became the first rookie to win the Tour trophy.

          Crazy? By any definition. But that’s racing.

 

          Thanks for reading.

RIP, buddy

LOST A FRIEND THIS WEEK.

RIP, JON KNAPP

 

A few notes...

A few notes this time on scattered topics:

          The recent discovery of papers related to Confederate General John Bell Hood might develop clues that help answer a question I’ve pondered for several years now: Where, exactly, was Hood when he was wounded during the battle of Gettysburg?

It seems evident from the information known at this point that Hood was somewhere on the property of, or near, the Bushman farm when he suffered a severe wound on July 2, 1863. An historian I spoke with in 2011 read from letters written to the general after the war to establish the historian’s belief that Hood was on the Devil’s Den/Little Round Top Side of the Bushman property when he was wounded. From the tone of the letter, it sounded to me as if Hood himself was not certain of the precise spot of where he was hit.

It seems possible that the newly discovered letters and other documents might give more clues to help find an answer to the question.

 

 

The National Hockey League finally got a championship out of the Los Angeles Kings last year. The league itself enjoyed one of its best years ever, financially and in television ratings.

Naturally, the league and its players union have taken this success and thrown it away. Due to a labor dispute, the 2012/2013 season has been delayed. It seems likely now that, if there is a professional hockey season, it will be shortened.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

 

Notre Dame’s football program will begin playing an Atlantic Coast Conference schedule soon and the Fighting Irish will learn a lesson Penn State learned years ago: It is much harder to succeed when you have to play half your games on the road and are not allowed to dictate your scheduling.

When Penn State joined the Big 10 a number of years ago, the Nitany Lions began their march to mediocrity. It’s harder to play in a conference than it is to play as an independent.

Now, the ACC is not on the same level for football as are the Big 10,

the Southeastern Conference or the Pacific 12. Still, it is pleasing to see Notre Dame almost become a member of a conference. That should make the Irish almost considerable for inclusion in the playoff system, which the television networks will create for the NCAA soon.

          I am stuck, however, for a way to explain how South Bend, Indiana is along the Atlantic Coast, just as I don’t fully grasp how Utah and Colorado are in the Pacific region.

I also wonder why the Big 10 is still called the Big 10. Math classes must have been cancelled at elementary schools in the Midwest. Otherwise, someone might count the schools in the Big 10 and get, uh, whatever number of schools they have now.

         

          Ever tried to park in Philadelphia?
           Don’t.

Thanks for reading.

 

John Bell Hood papers found

 

An interesting development in the world of Civil War research. I am forwarding a press release.

John Bell Hood Papers Discovered

Significant historical find changes how Hood has been portrayed

(El Dorado Hills, CA)— The Battle of Franklin Trust Chief Operating Officer Eric A. Jacobson announced today at Carnton Plantation the discovery of several hundred documents, letter and orders of Confederate General John Bell Hood.While conducting research for an upcoming book on the general, West Virginia’s Sam Hood, a collateral descendent and student of the career of Hood, was invited to inspect a collection of the general’s papers, held by a descendent.

Savas Beatie will be publishing this upcoming book by Sam Hood's entitled John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General in spring 2013, a detailed point by point defense of General Hood’s career.

As timing would have it, John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General was completed before this recent document discovery.Much of his book argues that known evidence before the recent cache find has been misinterpreted or blatantly misused by many latter-day authors.Hood critically notes several authors who he believes perpetuated the use of Hood as a target for Lost Cause architects.Some of the newly discovered information on the Atlanta Campaign, the Spring Hill affair, and the Battle of Franklin will be included in Sam Hood’s upcoming book, but since the total collection will take several months to transcribe, more important information on John Bell Hood - the man and the soldier - cannot, by necessity, be revealed until later.

Sam Hood said, “General Hood is certainly no stranger to controversy. During his colorful military career and with historians ever since, he has remained a controversial and tragic figure of the Civil War. Long noted for the loss of Atlanta and what some consider reckless behavior at the November 30, 1864 Battle of Franklin after a lost opportunity for possible victory at Spring Hill, he has often been the subject of ridicule and blame for the demise of the Confederacy in the West."

Eric Jacobson, who has viewed a portion of the collection said, “This is one of the most significant Civil War discoveries in recent history.These documents also tell us as much by what they don’t say.One major example is the discovery of Hood’s medical journal, kept by his doctor, John T. Darby, during the war.As they are being transcribed it will be interesting to see what, if any, use of painkillers is mentioned, and how judicious his doctors were in prescribing opiates.Hood was much more multi-faceted than how he has been portrayed by some as a simple minded and poorly equipped commander.”

Jacobson has been one of only a few contemporary Army of Tennessee historians to give Hood the benefit of fatigue, fog of war and failures of subordinates as part of the breakdown of the Army of Tennessee in late 1864.

Some of the items found include recommendations for promotion, handwritten by Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet.Also uncovered was wartime correspondence between Gen. Hood and generals R. E. Lee, Braxton Bragg, Louis T. Wigfall, and other senior commanders, as well as his four general officer commission papers. Roughly seventy post-war letters from other Civil War notables were also discovered, mostly concerning the controversy with Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and used to compose Hood's memoir Advance & Retreat. Sam Hood added, “This is just the tip of the iceberg on the expansive collection.”

“I spent five days photocopying and inventorying,” added Sam Hood. “I held in my hands documents signed by Jefferson Davis, Longstreet, Jackson and Lee.”

Keith Bohannon, professor of history at the University of West Georgia, says most of Hood’s biographers assumed that Hood’s papers, other than those known to be archived, were lost or destroyed. “Some of John Bell Hood’s official papers were presumably sold to the Federal government near the time of his death in 1879,” Bohannon said. Hood and his wife, Anna Marie, both died in New Orleans from yellow fever and left behind ten orphaned children. Before his death at age 48, Hood was in poor financial condition and was working to sell this information to better the financial plight of his family, according to Bohannon.

“I have been fighting t correct some of the misperceptions and vicious myths of General Hood for years,” added Sam Hood.“These documents will shed a lot of light that will change some of those views.”

Whatever you do, don't remove the hinge covers

          The real world is an ugly place. Let’s face the truth here, we have our own images of ourselves and we dream of how things are going to be just as soon as we accomplish our next goal.

          Let us say, for example, we dream of buying a home and moving to Ohio to live in it. Then things will be perfect. The cost of living will drop and we will live merrily, skipping down the sidewalks of life between the towering snowdrifts.

          Ah, the imagery of it all.

          Well, not so fast, Mr. Sleepwalker. It turns out the total amount of stuff you need to know just to live in a home you own is fantastic. And, Bubba, you’d better learn it all before the next winter shows up.

          If you own a home and rent it out, you call a handyman. If you rent the place where you live, you call the landlord. But if you own the place where you live, you hafta fix stuff yourself.

          The condo we now own was previously owned by a very nice woman who, apparently, weighed less than yours truly. The first casualty of the change in ownership was one of the toilet seats. The hinge for the seat cover gave way and it was time to change the entire assembly.

          After only two trips to the home improvement center, your humble writer brought home the manufactured product of the proper size and shape. Happily, a trip to Pennsylvania was in the offing and the repair job was put on hold for a while. But even thrill seekers prefer to be stable at certain times and eventually the tools were selected from the garage and brought forth for the work at hand.

          So to speak.

          Now, it must seem obvious to toilet seat manufactures that any home improvement store shopper automatically has the knowledge required in order to make this repair. We know this is true because virtually no instructions are included with the assembly. The only instruction on the box the Bemis seat we bought came in was, “Do not remove hinge covers.”

          Sadly, at least one of us assumes nothing printed on the outside of the box is an actual instruction and the hinge covers were removed, first thing. Hinge covers must be very important or you’d be allowed to remove them, right? So the product is now irreversibly damaged.

          Still, we soldier on and eventually discover that the plastic bolt does not go through the little plastic circle protected so valiantly by the hinge cover. Instead, the plastic bolt must be slipped through a canal through the porcelain put there for the purpose and the bolt is tightened from the underside of the bowl flange with a plastic wing nut and the little thing formerly protected by the hinge cover is jammed down over the top of the bolt.

          Got that?

          So, flushed with success, we heroically clamber down the stairs in the expectation that we’ll be showered with praise. In less than 60 minutes, the toilet seat has been replaced.

          At that point it is discovered the garbage disposal in the kitchen sink is not working. A garbage disposal consists of sharp edges, which you can’t see, controlled by electricity, which few people understand. For that, we call a plumber.

          You gotta pick your battles.

 

          As I count my fingers, I thank you for reading.

There is a reason why we call it 'Fall'

 

          It never fails.

          When you move out of California or just head east for a visit, sooner or later everyone you meet will tell you that how wonderful it is that you get to see the leaves change colors. The seasonal change from summer to autumn is so beautiful, your friends say, that you’ll just love to see it.

          And you have to admit the gradually changing hues are nice to look at while the leaves are still on the trees. As long as you still have to look up to see them, the color swatch switch is swell. Seriously.

          But I’ve seen all that stuff. Saw it as a kid in California, deep in the heart of Southern California; I saw the leaves change colors every year. I also learned the bitter truth behind all the colors, the hidden secret nobody here in the eastern third of the country wants you to know when they brag about the color variations. I’ve known it all along, since I was a small boy.

          It’s the reason fathers want sons, the reason child labor laws should extend to the family home and the only thing about the football season that I don’t like.

          You can sum it up in a word: Raking.

          We had a tree in front of our house when I was a kid and it threw a lot of shade in the summer. But when the fall came, the shade-throwing devices (aka leaves) died and fell on the front yard. Guess who had to rake that mess up? My sister didn’t do any raking, I can tell you that.

          I never understood it. Autumn would come and my mother would turn the corner as we drove home and she would marvel at the picturesque colors of the leaves, the reds and yellows that had once been green. Then a week later, when those same reds and yellows were on top of our nice, green lawn, she wanted the hideous yellows and reds gone, banished to one of our trash cans. They would later be hurled to eternity by the city trash collectors.

          I used to love windy days in the fall. For some reason known only to the God of the Prevailing Winds, any time we had a windy day the leaves on our front lawn would blow somewhere else. I could mow the lawn in complete contentment because there would be no leaves to rake in the yard. There were leaves in the back yard, of course, but nobody saw those leaves. I didn’t care too about those leaves.

          We rented houses for the last 23 years we lived in California and I raked a lot. Pine tree needles, orange tree leaves, plum tree leaves and leaves from an avocado tree that dropped leaves all year long.

          In fairness, the oranges, plums and avocados we took from the trees tasted pretty good. The pine needles? Not so much.

          I guess the point here is that the colors of the fall are nice, but I’d prefer to see those infernal leaves stay in their place: On the branches.

 

          Thanks for reading.

The least-appreciated NFL player ever

         He is the least appreciated player in pro football history and he isn’t even a down lineman. He has been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  He played for four different teams in two leagues and played on three championship teams. He was named to the NFL’s 1970s all-decade team but even there he is a second-teamer.

          His name is Paul Warfield. He was a wide receiver on the 1964 Cleveland Browns’ NFL championship team and played on two Miami Dolphin Super Bowl winners in the 1970s.

          Warfield was a Pro Bowler eight times and was voted all-league honors six times. In 13 NFL seasons, he caught 427 passes for 8,565 yards and scored 85 touchdowns. Great stats. He also played a season in the World Football League.

          Go back to the lead sentence and understand the point: When you think about the championship teams Warfield starred on, you think of other offensive players. Yet Warfield made those other players better. He might be among the top five receivers of all time in terms of the quality of his play, yet few recognize that fact.

          Warfield was a rookie wide out for the Browns when that team won the NFL championship in 1964. He caught 52 passes, nine for touchdowns, and gained 920 yards that year. He averaged 17.6 yards a reception over the course of the 14-game regular season.

          But Cleveland’s offensive threat that every team considered first in 1964 was running back Jim Brown. Brown was the best running back the pro game has ever seen and opposing defenses had no choice but to consider him first when game-planning for games against Cleveland. Brown led the league in rushing that year with 1,446 yards, averaging more than 100 yards per game. He terrorized defenses.

          Warfield gave Browns quarterback Frank Ryan a deep threat and that helped the running game. Warfield gave defensive coaches nightmares and that helped Brown and the other Cleveland rushers.

          Skip ahead to the Miami Dolphins of 1972 and 1973. Both teams were Super Bowl winners but, again, Warfield was not the best-known offensive player.

          Those Dolphins teams were dominated by the running of Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick and Mercury Morris. The trio each gained 1,000 yards during the same season, the first time three runners from the same team all rushed for 1,000 or more in a single season.

          Miami’s opponents wanted to concentrate on the Dolphins’ running game. They wanted to stack the defense against the run. They wanted to, but they couldn’t because Warfield was there. He represented such a threat that the opposing defensive coaches had to consider Miami’s passing attack, too.

          Look at this: Warfield caught only 29 passes during the 1973 season. But 11 of the 29 went for touchdowns. Put the stats together and it’s obvious that even if the Dolphins didn’t throw the ball too much, the defense on the other side of the ball had to play as if they might.

          When a player changes a game just by being on the field, which Warfield did throughout his career, he is a great player. A Hall of Famer.

          And yet, he is the not the first player you think of on the ’64 Browns or those great Miami teams. So he looks from here to be the least appreciated member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

 

          But you are appreciated. Thanks for reading.

End of the line for overtime

          In all of sports, there are few ideas more botched than the National Football League’s overtime procedure.

          To begin with, there should be no overtime games during the regular season. The NFL has been slow to understand the national concern over injuries, particularly head injuries, suffered by football players. For that reason, the league should revert to the policy that regular season games end after four quarters.

          We all enjoy the drama the extra sessions bring, but the risk is too great. Make the potential for overtime one of the things that make the post season special.

          The league has limited the amount of contact in practice. What sense does that make if it does not also cut out overtime?

If the league is determined to avoid ties, it should use a football version of soccer’s tie-breaking penalty kicks: Have each team’s kicker line up at a 40 yard line and alternate placekicks, moving back five yards after one kick each. The longest successful kick wins.

If we have to have regular-season overtime, shorten the extra period to a maximum of 10 minutes and bring back sudden death.

Does anyone really like the rules that eliminated sudden death in overtime games? The new rules are silly. If we have to have overtime games in the regular season at all, end the game after the first overtime score.

          If the league insists upon playing the extra quarter in the event of a tie score after regulation ends, the stats generated in the fifth quarter (the fifth fifth?) should not count. Playoff stats don’t count and overtime stats should not count either.

          Most games end after four quarters. Players in those games do not have the chance to generate extra stats and the players in overtime games should not benefit from the additional playing time.

          Maybe we can’t make the game safer but we can make games shorter. Anything done to cut down on the cumulative effects the game has on the players is the right thing to do.

          We love the game and we love the players. We can help both by fixing the overtime mess.

          Thanks for reading.

The Tebow question

          Bear Bryant coached a quarterback named Pat Trammel in the early years of Bryant’s tenure at Alabama. All Trammel could do, Bryant would later say, is beat you.

          That’s all Bryant, or any other coach, really wants from a quarterback: Wins.

          There are quarterbacks out there who do not possess the obvious attributes needed for the position: Arm strength of Elway, accuracy of Warner, swagger of Namath, mind of Unitas and toughness of Roethlisberger. But some of the guys lacking in one skill or another make good quarterbacks anyway.

          You think of Joe Kapp, who played for the Vikings after a successful career in the Canadian League. Kapp threw the ball end over end, but he won games.

          And that’s what the New York Jets may have in Tim Tebow, the ability to win games.

          Forget the controversy over whether Tebow should start instead of current starter Mark Sanchez. That isn’t the question before us. The discussion here is about exactly what Tim Tebow is.

          Sanchez is the starter until Jets coach Rex Ryan says he isn’t and let’s remember that Ryan’s offense has been built around Sanchez. Making the switch from a Sanchez-type passer to a Tebow sort of fella is easier to say than do. One of the under-reported facts about Tebow’s season in 2011 was the masterful job the Broncos coaches did of adjusting their offense to fit Tebow’s skill set. Ryan may figure the Jets’ offensive personnel does not fit a Tebow-kind of guy.

          Looking strictly at Tebow’s performances last season is illustrative. The Denver offense didn’t blow any opponents out of the stadium with Tebow under center (or behind the center in various sets) but the Broncos won games with Tebow in at quarterback.

          Credit the Denver defense for keeping games close, despite the Broncos’ low-scoring production. Credit good special teams play.

          But credit Tebow to delivering late in games, too, and understand that he might be one of those guys who don’t measure up to the image of the modern passer but wins anyway.

          When you check the standings and a team is winning, there is no special column for ugly wins via floppy passes, something we might call The Kapp Column. There are only columns for wins and losses.

          Tebow wins and that is a fairly simple thing to understand.

          Thanks for reading.

The best college team ever

 

            The best college football team I’ve seen was the 1972 USC club. It’s the best team you’ve ever seen, too. An absolutely dominant football team. Unbelievable.

          That Trojan team went undefeated, won every game except one by double figures, sent its backup quarterback to the NFL and had its best receiver win four Super Bowls on his way to Pro Football’s Hall of Fame. If memory serves, the ’72 SC team trailed in only one game, the season opener against Arkansas.

          John McKay was the coach and this was his best team. McKay won several national championships at Southern Cal but he said in his autobiography that the 1972 squad was special. He was right.

          Mike Rae was the starting quarterback and Pat Haden, who later played for the Rams, was the backup. McKay’s teams always ran first and SC had a great fullback in All-American Sam Cunningham. Anthony Davis, who scored six touchdowns against Notre Dame in ‘72, was the starting tailback by the midway point in the season. Lynn Swann, who is now in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, was one wide out and the other guy, a speed burner named Edesel Garrison, seldom gets the credit he should.

          The offensive line included All-American tackle Pete Adams and another All-American, tight end Charles Young. This was a dominant offensive front. A three-yard run in the first half was a five-yarder in the third quarter and a 20-yarder in the fourth. They just wore opponents down.

          The defense was kind of scary, really. I thought the key guy was the nose tackle, Monte Doris. Tackle John Grant and linebacker Richard Wood both made All-American lists but Doris jammed the middle and forced the opposition to run wide or throw.

          There were three games that stick out in my mind, the last three against UCLA, Notre Dame and Ohio State. These were supposed to be tough games but they ended up being blowout wins.

          The UCLA game is always special because of the rivalry between the schools, but this game was supposed to be extra-special. The winner would go to the Rose Bowl.

USC had this amazing team and UCLA was supposed to have a tremendous team as well. The Bruins had won some big games and had a very productive offensive backfield. Mark Harmon, now a TV and movie star, was the quarterback and they had two running backs dubbed Thunder and Lightning.

          My recollection is that Doris, the SC nose tackle, stuffed the UCLA offense. I know he had a big game. USC won 24-7.

          Notre Dame was next and the Irish got their first dose of Davis. He returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and got the LA Memorial Coliseum rocking. The Trojans built a 25-10 lead but Notre Dame had a quality team and fought back to make it close at 25-23 late in the game.

          At that point the Notre Dame coaching staff must have taken leave of its collective senses because, after scoring a touchdown to get close, the Irish kicked deep to Davis again.

          That was dumb. Davis went up the left sideline and got to midfield where he saw one defender between himself and a touchdown. Davis juked and wiggled his shoulder pads and the defender fell flat on his back without touching Davis. This produced the loudest roar I ever heard in the Coliseum and it was blowout time again. The final: USC 45, Notre Dame 23.

          That left the Rose Bowl game against Ohio State. The Buckeyes were ranked third going into the game and they played well for a half. The score was 7-7 at the intermission, but the game was really over as soon as the break ended. USC led 28-14 after three quarters and won 42-17.

          In the final three games, all against high-quality teams, USC outscored its opponents 111-47.

          Through the years, some college teams have had dominant offenses and others, like the 2011 Alabama team, have had dominant defenses. But no team has had such powerful production on both sides of the ball as did that 1972 Trojans team.

          It must be said that McKay’s coaching job was masterful. While his offense was always run-oriented, McKay recognized the stretch-the-field capability his quarterback and receivers gave him in '72, so he turned them loose. And the halftime adjustments the USC coaching staff made were amazing all season long.

          It was fun to watch those guys play the game. They had the best college team I’ve ever seen.

          Thanks for reading.

PFRA presents 2012 Hall of Very Good

As a proud member of the Professional Football Researchers Association, it gives me pleasure to present here the 2012 class of the PFRA's Hall of Very Good. Congratulations to the new inductees!

Please read and enjoy.

Media contact:

Ken Crippen

(215) 421-6994

Ken_Crippen@profootballresearchers.org

 

PFRA ANNOUNCES THE HALL OF VERY GOOD CLASS OF 2012

 

WARMINSTER, Pennsylvania (October 9, 2012) – The Professional Football Researchers Association (PFRA) announced today the Hall of Very Good Class of 2012. The inductees are (in alphabetical order):

 

Bill Bergey

Position: Linebacker

Teams: 1969-73 Cincinnati Bengals, 1974-80 Philadelphia Eagles

 

Curley Culp

Position: DT

Teams: 1968-74 Kansas City Chiefs, 1974-80 Houston Oilers, 1980-81 Detroit Lions

 

Kenny Easley

Position: DB

Teams: 1981-87 Seattle Seahawks

 

L.C. Greenwood

Position: DE

Teams: 1969-81 Pittsburgh Steelers

 

Lester Hayes

Position: DB

Teams: 1977-81 Oakland Raiders, 1982-86 Los Angeles Raiders

 

Jack Kemp

Position: Quarterback

Teams: 1957 Pittsburgh Steelers, 1960 Los Angeles Chargers, 1961-62 San Diego Chargers, 1962-69 Buffalo Bills

 

Eddie Meador

Position: Defensive Back

Teams: 1959-70 Los Angeles Rams

 

Ray Wietecha

Position: C

Teams: 1953-62 New York Giants

 

Swede Youngstrom

Position: G-T-E-C

Teams: 1920-21 Buffalo All-Americans, 1921 Canton Bulldogs, 1922-23 Buffalo All-Americans, 1924-25 Buffalo Bisons, 1925 Cleveland Bulldogs, 1926-27 Frankford Yellowjackets

 

 

Begun in 2003, the Hall of Very Good seeks to honor outstanding players and coaches who are not in the Hall of Fame.

 

The Professional Football Researchers Association was founded in 1979 as a 501(c)(3) educational organization dedicated to research into and the preservation of the history of pro football. The membership includes many of the foremost football historians and authors. The PFRA publishes a magazine, The Coffin Corner, six times each year. More information is available at www.profootballresearchers.org.

 

Previous Hall of Very Good enshrines are:

 

Class of 2011

Ken Anderson, 1971-86 – QB

Cliff Branch, 1972-85 – WR

Bobby Dillon, 1952-59 – DB

Cliff Harris, 1970-79 – FS

Harold Jackson, 1968-83 – WR

Andy Russell, 1963-76 – LB

Lou Saban, 1960-65, 1967-76 – Head Coach

Tom Sestak, 1962-68 – DT

Jerry Smith, 1965-77 – TE

Class of 2010
Robert Brazile, 1975-84 – LB  
Ed Budde, 1963-76 – G
Don Coryell, 1972-86 – Head Coach
Ox Emerson, 1931-38 – G, C, LB
Chuck Foreman, 1973-80 – RB
Bob Gain, 1952, 1954-64 – T, MG, E
Riley Matheson, 1939-48 – G, LB
Jimmy Patton, 1955-66 – DB
Drew Pearson, 1973-83 – WR
Ken Riley, 1969-83 – CB

Class of 2009
Bruno Banducci, 1944-54 – G  
Harold Carmichael, 1971-84 – WR
Blanton Collier, Browns assistant coach 1946-53 and 1962 and head coach 1963-70
Boyd Dowler, 1959-69, 71 – WR
Claude Humphrey, 1968-74, 1976-81 – DE
Ken Kavanaugh, 1940-41, 1945-50 – E
Verne Lewellen, 1924-32 – HB
Walt Sweeney, 1963-75 – G

Class of 2008
Dick Barwegen, 1947-54 – G
Randy Gradishar, 1974-83 – LB
Bob Hoernschmeyer, 1946-55 – HB
Cecil Isbell, 1938-42 – TB
Buddy Parker, 1951-64 – Coach
Spec Sanders, 1946-50 – TB
Jim Ray Smith, 1956-64 – G
Billy Wilson, 1951-60 - WR

Class of 2007:
Frankie Albert, 1946-1952 - QB
Roger Brown, 1960-1969 - DT
Timmy Brown, 1959-1968 - RB
Marshall Goldberg, 1939-1948 - B
Jim Lee Howell, 1937-1947, 1954-1960 - E
Glenn Presnell, 1931-1936 - B
Dick Schafrath, 1959-1971 - T
Jake Scott, 1970-1978 - DB
Ed Sprinkle, 1944-1955 - DE
Tank Younger, 1949-1958 - HB-FB

Class of 2006:
Charley Conerly, 1948-1961 - QB
John Hadl, 1962-1977 - QB
Chuck Howley, 1958-1973 - LB
Alex Karras, 1958-1970 - DT
Eugene Lipscomb, 1953-1962 - DT
Kyle Rote, 1951-1961 - E-HB
Dick Stanfel, 1952-1958 - G
Otis Taylor, 1965-1975 - WR
Fuzzy Thurston, 1958-1967 - G
Deacon Dan Towler, 1950-1955 - FB

Class of 2005:
Maxie Baughan, 1960-1974 - LB
Jim Benton, 1938-1947 - E
Lavvie Dilweg, 1926-1934 - E
Pat Harder, 1946-1953 - FB
Floyd Little*, 1967-1975 - RB
Tommy Nobis, 1966-1976 - LB
Pete Retzlaff, 1956-1966 - HB-E
Tobin Rote, 1950-1966 - QB
Lou Rymkus, 1943, 1946-1951 - T
Del Shofner, 1957-1967 - E

Class of 2004:
Gene Brito, 1951-1960 - DE
John Brodie, 1957-1973 - QB
Jack Butler*, 1951-1959 - DB
Chris Hanburger*, 1965-1978 - LB
Bob Hayes*, 1965-1975 - SE-WR
Billy Howton, 1952-1963 - E
Jim Marshall, 1960-1979 - DE
Al Nesser, 1920-1928, 1931 - G
Dave Robinson, 1963-1974 - LB
Duke Slater, 1922-1931 - T

Class of 2003:
Gino Cappelletti, 1960-1970 - E-K
Carl Eller*, 1964-1979 - DE
Pat Fischer, 1961-1977 - DB
Benny Friedman*, 1927-1934 - TB
Gene Hickerson*, 1958-1973 - G
Jerry Kramer, 1958-1968 - G
Johnny Robinson, 1960-1971 - DB
Mac Speedie, 1946-1952 - E
Mick Tingelhoff, 1962-1978 - C
Al Wistert, 1943-1951 - T

*Voted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame after induction into the Hall of Very Good.