Some Football Officials Seem To Want to Make Their Own Rules! (See"NEWS") 
An Excerpt From My Memoirs- Before I Go On Oprah! (See"NEWS") My Offensive System My Materials for Sale My Clinics Me 
January
31, 2005 - "Hope is the power of being
cheerful in circumstances which we know to be
desperate." G. K. Chesterton- *********** Coach - Thought you might appreciate this little conversation I overheard my wife having with another gal in our neighborhood regarding football:
- A friend of ours saw a kid she knew signing up for our new football team. The kid did not play for me last year but wanted to move over to my club and was getting ready to sign up. The gal told my wife basically that, "Oh is that little Joey signing up? He is a terrible kid! A bully and disrespectful too. All the teachers hate him at school and he is a little smart ass...". She then mentioned to my wife that we may not "really want him on our team". I heard my wife tell this gal, "It sounds like this kid needs football more than football needs him. Besides, do you think he will get away with any of that behavior with Coach?".
- I was laughing my butt off! What a wife I have huh?
- John Torres, Castaic, California
- *********** Hello Coach Wyatt: Your recent columns regarding the NFL's negative influence on our game has brought to mind two recent incidents that I wanted to share with you.
- Recently, I was discussing O-line play with the local HS coach. I wanted to get his thoughts on the virtues of his HS technique of "hands blocking" vs the traditional shoulder blocking as I teach it. "Is not the idea of locking out on a defender, gaining separation, counterproductive to what we are trying to achieve as blockers?" His response was "sure, but with shoulder blocking you cannot hold! A referee told us this year flat out that grabbing of the jersey inside the plane of the shoulders is not holding, and they will not call it unless the jersey stretches or they see a 2-point takedown. We can control defenders better using the hands method because we can hold them."
- Last night I attended a Riddell sponsored clinic in Pittsburgh. I went to a seminar on O-line practice organization by the Head Coach of --------- HS in eastern Pa. He started off by saying that he was an "Old School" coach with old school ideas. He then proceeded to say that he now teaches hands blocking vs the shoulder blocking that he used to teach. Why, might we ask? "BECAUSE IT ALLOWS US TO HOLD!!!!!!!!" He actually said that! He teaches the shooting of the hands to the breastplate, and the grabbing of cloth. His guys only let go when the defender attempts to disengage, so that the jersey does not stretch.
- It seems to be the way the game has evolved. I don't like it any more than you do, and refuse to teach it as I believe it to be incompatible with our system. However, am I doing a disservice to my kids, putting them at a competitive disadvantage by my refusal to teach it, when everyone else seems to be doing it now, with full knowledge of the officials?????
- Mark Rice, Brighton Township Bears, Beaver, Pennsylvania
- I used to think that the worst thing about getting old was that I couldn't ever be sure how many years I had left to coach. Now, considering the direction the game is taking, away from the game I grew up with and away from all the principles that were once so sacred to the game, I find myself feeling grateful that I won't be around to see much more of it.
- It is sad, indeed, that football has reached the point where tacklers use their shoulders but not their hands while blockers use their hands but not their shoulders.
- There is cheating going on ("it's not holding if you don't get caught"), and I despise it, but it's another thing entirely when a coach is virtually encouraged to teach holding by officials who tell him that they're not going to enforce the rules against it. It is hard to blame coaches for dealing with the hard reality that officials have decided they're going to overlook holding.
- Rule 9-2-1-(c): An offensive player (except the runner) shall not... use his hands, arms or legs to hook, lock, clamp, grasp, encircle or hold in an effort to restrain an opponent.
- What part of "hook, lock, clamp, grasp, encircle or hold" don't they understand?
- I don't see anything following the text of the rule that says, "unless an official sees fit on his own to allow hooking, locking, clamping, grasping, encircling or holding..."
- What is this, baseball? Where every umpire seems to think he has a right to "his" own, personal strike zone?
- If officials are not going to enforce the rules of the game, they should get the hell off the field, because otherwise, ipso facto (by that fact), they have as good as rewritten the rules. On their own. Without the authority to do so.
- Amazing to think that officials, the ones who love to shut us up by saying to us "you do the coaching and we'll do the officiating," seem to think that someone has given them the power to make the rules as well as enforcing them.
- What arrogance!
- In everyday life, the parallel is the "activist judge" - no matter how carefully lawmakers craft a law, no matter how many people vote to pass an initiative, he will throw out their law based entirely on his own inclinations and prejudices.
- Activist judges are bad enough, but rogue officials are even worse. They are like police who simply refuse to enforce a law - because they disagree with it, or because it's too much work for them.
- When that happens in society, the result is anarchy. When it happens in football, the result is much worse - grass basketball. HW
- *********** I know that there are people who hate Dick Vitale, and I will admit that he is so omnipresent and so over the top in the things he says (and the way he says them) that he has become a self-parody, like John Madden and the late Howard Cosell, but he is possibly the best promoter college basketball has ever had. In that role, though, he frequently seems to play suck-up by saying excessively positive things about this coach or that program, to the point where it's often laughable. He reached such a point Saturday afternoon, when he said, "There's so much respect between these schools..."
- Yeah, respect. He was calling the Texas-Oklahoma game.
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- *********** During WWII, the Japanese were searching for a way to demoralize the American forces that they faced. Their Psychological warfare experts came up with a message that they thought would work well. They gave the script to their famous broadcaster, "Tokyo Rose", and every day she would broadcast the same message, packaged in various ways, hoping to have an impact on American GI morale. What was the message?
- It had three main points:
- 1. Your President is lying to you.
- 2. This war is illegal.
- 3. You cannot win the war.
- Sound familiar?
- *********** Coach Wyatt, It's an honor and a pleasure to be corresponding with you. I found your website a few days ago and I have been staying up late at night trying to catch up with all that I have missed over the years.
- I have a suggestion, if you will. Why not start podcasting? I'm sure there are tons of people who would love to hear you talk about what is going on in football today. I know I would!
- Your website is awesome. As a young coach, I very much appreciate all you have to offer. It's like having another mentor on the coaching staff.
- Keep up the good work and God bless!
- Ben Westbrook, Godley, Texas (The idea of podcasting is something I have given some thought to. I have a video iPod of my own, and I am amazed at its capabilities - such as being able to show a video clip to a kid out on the field. I guess as much as anything, it is a matter of "what?" and "why?" HW)
- *********** They always said that the Senior Bowl was its participants' first experience as pros, and now I believe them - two guys were ejected from Saturday's game. But they were not really ejected. They were allowed to continue playing, because, see, it wouldn't be fair to their future careers as pros not to let them showcase their talents in front of the pro scouts...
- *********** My love of football dates back to Christmas, 1944. World War II was going on. I was six, and my adopted father, Frank Leahy, was home on leave from the Navy. I was thrilled just to see him, but I knew I was the luckiest lad in America (dad always called me "Lad") when he handed me a football, signed by all the members of his 1943 national champion Notre Dame team, including the great Angelo Bertelli, who won the Heisman Trophy that year.
- When Dad returned from the service, in time for the 1946 season, I was old enough to be the water boy at Notre Dame practices and games, and I can still see those great All-Americans - Johnny Lujack, Jim Martin, Leon Hart - leaning over the water bucket and winking at me. Those guys were my heroes, and they knew I'd never tell the coaches that they swallowed the water, instead of spitting it out as the coaches insisted.
- Many's the practice that I'd stay out afterwards, as Lujack taught me how to throw a spiral, and Martin taught me how to placekick.
- One of the biggest thrills of my young life was when Dad said I could go with him and the team to New York for the Army game, in Yankee Stadium. That was 1947, and both teams were unbeaten.
- All the New York papers (there were probably a dozen of them back then) called it the "Game of the Century." Of course, as we now know, there have been several "Games of the Century" since, but to me, a nine-year-old kid, it still remains the biggest game I've ever seen.
- It was an incredibly hard-fought game - the final score was 0-0 - and as I walked across the field with Dad to shake hands with Army's Coach Blaik, who should walk up to Dad but Army's Number 41, "Mister Outside" himself, the great Glenn Davis,
- "Nice game, Glenn," Dad said to him, shaking his hand.
- "Thanks, Coach," he told my dad, and then, looking down at me, asked, "Is this your son?"
- "Yes," Dad said. "This is my son, Hughie. Hughie, say 'hello' to Mr. Davis."
- "Hi, Hughie," said the great Glenn Davis, "Pleased to meet you."
- He extended his right hand to shake mine, and with his left, he handed something to me.
- "Here's something for you," he said, handing me his chin strap.
- Years later, I still have it. It is old and stiff now, but it is my most prized possession.
- How do my memoirs sound so far? They tell me the book should sell well, and I've been invited to talk about it on Oprah.
- I admit that some of the details have been "creatively enhanced," but all the characters are real.
- *********** I hope I convey through my writing my appreciation of the great gift that is the English language. One of my Christmas presents was a book about commas. Yes, commas. Punctuation, actually, and its importance in a day when "writing teachers" neglect teaching punctuation and grammar for fear of stifling their students' "creativity," and teenagers "communicate" with txt msgs.
- The name of the book, by Lynne Truss, is "Eats Shoots and Leaves."
- Here's why:
-
- A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
- "Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit.
- The panda produces a badly-punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
- "I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."
- The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
- "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
- *********** A youth coach who has decided to move from Pennsylvania to Maine notes, "This is going to be a change from the fervor & plethora of the Friday night lights of western PA. There are only 67 schools in the entire state of Maine fielding teams over 3 classes:
- A - 27 (3 leagues)
- B - 22 (2 leagues)
- C - 18 (2 leagues, this is Boothbay's class)
- It is all relative. In a town of 5,000, a crowd of 1,000 passionate people is impressive.
- For playoffs, the state is divided in two - Eastern Maine and Western Maine, and what we would call state semifinals, they call the Eastern Maine Championship and the Western Maine Championships. Then those two champions play. South Carolina has somewhat the same format, with an "Upstate" and "Downstate" championship before the ultimate state final game.
- The interesting thing about Maine is that every year, a few more schools decide to take up football for the first time. These are not brand-new schools, either, but instead, schools that never before played football, and whose patrons have finally awakened to the fact that they have been depriving their schools and their communities - not to mention their young men - of the chance to partake of a major part of American culture. (I suggested he contact my friend Jack Tourtillotte, in Boothbay Harbor, one of America's most picturesque towns.) HW
- *********** Coach, I just recently purchased your 2005 virtual clinic, dynamics of the double wing, and playbook. I have just finished watching the virtual clinic. I am very impressed. I have no doubt that you are an excellent coach and a credit to the profession. I could go on, but I do not want to make this long.
- I was wondering if you were going to do another video for this year's clinic and if so when will it be ready for purchase. I want to get to a clinic, but I like being able to have a DVD (so I can watch it over and over).
- Chris Hagerman, Head Football Coach, Phelps High School, Phelps, Kentucky (Coach, Glad you like the Virtual Clinic video. I plan on producing another one following this year's clinic schedule, which won't be over until June. Then I'll work on producing it, and depending on whether I coach again next year, I'll hope to have it ready by the start of the season. HW)
- *********** Wednesday is letter-of-intent signing day.
- Breathlessly, college football fans - those who don't have to work - will sit in front of their TVs and await the pronouncements of the college versions of Mel Kiper, Jr. Who did well? Who didn't?
- Expect a full day of Tom Lemming on some cable channel telling us about all the studs that Notre Dame has signed.
- Colleges themselves have Web sites on which you'll be able to follow the process of the signings as they come in.
- "We can save you some time," writes Ryan White in the Portland Oregonian. "Every coach, every team, got exactly what it needed. All the players are excited."
- *********** That "12th Man" business that Seattle's been getting away with? That oh-so-clever stunt that they shamelessly act as if they invented?
- You may remember my mentioning a few days ago that the original "12th Man" story is Texas A & M's, and dates back to the 1920s.
- Turns out that A & M has "12th Man" trademarked. Twice - in 1990 and 1996 - Texas A & M has registered trademarks for "The 12th Man" label as pertains to "entertainment services and products," such as caps, tee-shirts, novelty buttons and jewelry. They've told the Seahawks this - and the Seahawks seem to think that they can ignore the Aggies.
- Aggies' AD Bill Byrne said he's received e-mails from Texas A&M supporters complaining about the Seahawks' "brazen use of the 12th Man theme at their home playoff games."
- Byrne said he'd written to the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills in the past about putting a stop to their 12th man themes, and both stopped once the university made them aware of the trademark registrations. A & M has contacted Seattle, too, but Seattle is different.
- Seattle, said Byrne, "has been slow-rolling us."
- Based on the Clintonian comments of Lance Lopes, the Seahawks' vice president of corporate partnerships/legal affairs, Byrne seems to be spot on.
- "I will say this," he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "Our fans have been the folks that have run with the 12th man. It has not been the organization itself. We raise a flag with a 12 on it, it doesn't say 12th man or anything like that. We retired the jersey Number 12 many, many years ago and we've always sort of kept it under that context. But, in terms of this whole 12th man derivative, if you will, that's occurred in the mass media and the public here locally. It has not been generated by the organization, per se."
- Whew. What a dodge.
- In other words, "We just stood helplessly by and watched as the fans came up with all this '12th Man' business."
- Right. And we're just going along with our fans by selling Number 12 jerseys, and Number 12 flags (to the point where our team's pro shop is sold out of both). And to think - we don't make a nickel off the sales of either one. What's that? You say we do? Oh. Well, then, we donate all proceeds to a charity. Whatever.
- Said Steve Moore, Texas A&M's chief marketing officer, "In the normal course of action, once someone becomes aware of it and they understand that you have a registered trademark, normally they cease. In this case, they have chosen not to, but we are still hopeful that they will, quite frankly."
- The real irony in all this is that Seahawks' owner Paul (Richest Owner in All of Sports) Allen owes his entire fortune to a business (Microsoft) which is heavily dependent on the sanctity of copyrights and trademarks. So you would think that an organization owned by a guy who got rich because the government stood by to enforce the laws regarding intellectual property would respect someone else's trademark.
- But so far, you'd be wrong.
- *********** Don't know where he got his statistics, but I read an article on high school cheerleading in which Kevin Kendro, the athletic director at Urbana (Maryland) High School is quoted as saying, "There are more injuries in cheerleading than in football."
- *********** Coach Great Stuff on Tom Nugent !!! Nugent who I consider a Major Figure in Massachusetts Football History and Both major Boston papers just run the Blurb that the AP ran and we get 12 F***kin pages of a GM for the Red Sox that May or May Not come Back ? And we think we are a Great Sports Town.
- I believe Nugent played for the Legendary Mark Devlin at Lawrence High,when Lawrence was in there Glory days in the 30's,40's & 50's ( Coach BTW - If you are ever feeling depressed in Your Life, Please Go To Lawrence ,Mass You will even get More depressed once you get there, But when you Go back to where you came from you will feel a 100% better LOL !!! I know that I am from Lynn which is NOT exactly Bel Air Christ I grew up in McDonough Sq and Lynn maybe only be a step or a step 1/2 ahead of Lawrence, but Jiminy X-Mass, Lawrence was Never Mary Poppins Neighborhood, But if you drive through the Place Now you see that all the Old Mills and Factories that were part of the shoe and textile business are Shut Down and/or Burnt Out, Lawrence at one Time had one of the Largest Irish, Italian and French -Canadian Populations North of Boston, Now let's just say there many probably Un-Documented residents up there, and 65-70% of the commercial businesses do not have their signs in English )
- Great Story About Nugent / Howard !! One of the Best Frank Howard quotes I ever heard, is I think it was Keith Jackson and ABC doing a Game at Clemson in the late 60's when ABC started their College Football package, There must be a Big Lake on the Clemson Campus, so Keith Jackson and the ABC crew ask Howard if Clemson ever thought about starting a Rowing Team and Howard said " I ain't payin' for NO sport where you sit on your ass and go backwards !!!
- Coach- you see the Pride of Massachusetts, that F***kin Irish A***hole Ted Kennedy, go after Alito on the Police Brutality case in New Jersey ? Coach, If I was Alito I would have Shot Back, " Senator Kennedy, you and your Family have the Luxury and Privilege to live in communities where you do NOT have to worry about Drugs and Violence and Thugs , so I will do all that is in my Power to Protect the good ,working-class people of Newark !!! ( yet these LIBERAL-elite Morons in this state will Vote him in again ) - see ya next week Coach - John Muckian Lynn, Massachusetts (The rowing story is correct, and that's about what he said. I think it was a little earlier in the 60s. I believe it came about because they'd just built a dam that created the lake! Nugent used to accuse Howard of letting tobacco juice dribble onto this shirt.
- Another great thing Nugent did - at Maryland he had a soccer-style kicker from Chile named Bernardo Bramson. (He was a trifle pudgy, and the other players called him "Chile Bean.") In 1962, Nugent turned him into the "human scoreboard," increasing his jersey number every game to reflect his point total for the year. I kid you not. The kid started the season wearing Number "0" for the first game, and finished as Number 44. Coach Nugent got credit for the idea, but he very graciously said he'd gotten it from some Washington, DC sportswriter. Now, of course, human rights organizations would accuse any coach doing that of humiliating the youngster.
- Probably the best Nugent fact of all - and something that went completely unnoted by the great historians in the news media who wrote about his death - was that it was under Coach Nugent, in 1963 at Maryland, that Daryll Hill became the first black athlete to play football in the ACC. In his first season as a Terp, Hill, a transfer from the Naval Academy, set a single-game school record with 10 pass receptions - against Clemson. HW)
- *********** Doing further research on the Wilt Chamberlain legend, Christopher Anderson, of Palo Alto, sent me a list of the number of times someone in the NBA has scored 60 points of more. The tally is: Chamberlain 32, Everyone Else 24. The great Michael Jordan did it on four occasions. It's when you get to games of 65 points or more that Wilt really pulls away - Chamberlain 15, Everybody Else in the History of the Game 6.
- *********** My wife is a big tennis fan, and I enjoy watching a good match. So it was dismaying to see the way the women's final of the Australian Open ended.
- With a packed house of 18,000 on hand to watch a match that had culminated a two-weeks-long tournament, Justin Henin-Hardenne fell one set down to Amelie Mauresmo, then folded. Just quit. Said she felt so bad she couldn't go on.
- In a scene reminiscent of great quitters like Sonny Liston, losing his title to (then) Cassius Clay while sitting on a stool in his corner, and Roberto Duran saying "Uncle" (actually, "No mas!") and refusing to fight any more, Ms. Henin-Hardenne just said she was sorry, but she just couldn't continue - and walked off the court.
- And that was that. Match over.
- Not exactly a show of grit. Not exactly the sort of "giving it a go" that Australians appreciate in a competitor.
- Not exactly a strong argument for paying women tennis players the same prize money as men.
- Too bad it was a tennis crowd. A fight crowd would have booed her out of the joint.
- *********** If you're teaching economics and you can use a good lesson in why socialism inevitably fails...
- A friend wrote to tell me about a very successful fundraiser his football team had conducted, raising some $7500.
- Unfortunately, his AD, one of those "all sports are equal" guys, informed my friend that while this year he would be able to spend the proceeds on his program, next year he was going to have to share with the girls. Title IX and all that.
- Lesson plan:
- First, tell your kids this story.
- Then ask them to guess whether they think the boys will raise more or less than $7500 next year.
- See who will be first to figure out that the football players won't work as hard at next year's fundraiser if they know that half the money they make will go to people who didn't do a damn thing to earn it.
- *********** Scott Paulsen, a Pittsburgh radio guy (http://www.scottpaulsen.com/scott/), writes some great stuff about Pittsburgh and the Steelers, none better than this case for calling the Steelers "America's Team"...
-
- Think about this the next time someone argues that a professional sports franchise is not important to a city's identity:
- In the 1980's, as the steel mills and their supporting factories shut down from Homestead to Midland, Pittsburghers, faced for the first time in their lives with the specter of unemployment, were forced to pick up their families, leave their home towns and move to more profitable parts of the country. The steel workers were not ready for this. They had planned to stay in the 'burgh their entire lives. It was home.
- Everyone I know can tell the same story about how Dad, Uncle Bob or their brother-in-law packed a U-Haul and headed down to Tampa to build houses or up to Boston for an office job or out to California to star in pornographic videos.
- All right. Maybe that last one just happened in my family.
- At this same time, during the early to mid-eighties, the Pittsburgh Steelers were at the peak of their popularity. Following the Super Bowl dynasty years, the power of the Steelers was strong. Every man, woman, boy and girl from parts of four states were Pittsburgh faithful, living and breathing day to day on the news of their favorite team. Then, as now, it seemed to be all anyone talked about.
- Who do you think the Steelers will take in the draft this year?
- Is Bradshaw done?
- Can you believe they won't give Franco the money &endash; what's he doing going to Seattle?
- The last memories most unemployed steel workers had of their towns had a black and gold tinge. The good times remembered all seemed to revolve, somehow, around a football game. Sneaking away from your sister's wedding reception to go downstairs to the bar and watch the game against Earl Campbell and the Oilers - going to midnight mass, still half in the bag after Pittsburgh beat Oakland - you and your grandfather, both crying at the sight of The Chief, finally holding his Vince Lombardi Trophy.
- And then, the mills closed. Damn the mills.
- One of the unseen benefits of the collapse of the value systems our families believed in &endash; that the mill would look after you through thick and thin &endash; was that now, decades later, there is not a town in America where a Pittsburgher cannot feel at home. Nearly every city in the United States has a designated "Black and Gold" establishment. From Bangor, Maine to Honolulu, Hawaii, and every town in between can be found an oasis of Iron City, chipped ham and yinzers. It's great to know that no matter what happened in the lives of our Steel City refugees, they never forgot the things that held us together as a city - families, food, and Steelers football.
- It's what we call the Steeler Nation.
- You see it every football season. And when the Steelers have a great year, as they have had this season, the power of the Steeler Nation rises to show itself stronger than ever. This week, as the Pittsburgh team of Roethlisberger, Polamalu, Bettis and Porter head to Denver, the fans of Greenwood, Lambert, Bleier and Blount, the generation who followed Lloyd, Thigpen, Woodson and Kirkland will be watching from Dallas to Chicago, from an Air Force base in Minot, North Dakota, to a tent stuck in the sand near Fallujah, Iraq.
- I have received more email from displaced Pittsburgh Steelers fans this week than Christmas cards this holiday season.
- They're everywhere. We're everywhere.
- We are the Steeler Nation.
- And now, it's passing from one generation to the next. The children of displaced Pittsburghers, who have never lived in the Steel City, are growing up Steelers fans. When they come back to their parents' hometowns to visit the grandparents, they hope, above all, to be blessed enough to get to see the Steelers in person.
- Heinz Field is their football Mecca.
- And if a ticket isn't available, that's okay, too. There's nothing better than sitting in Grandpa's living room, just like Dad did, eating Grandma's cooking and watching the Pittsburgh Steelers.
- Just like Dad did.
- So, to you, Steeler Nation, I send best wishes and a fond wave of the Terrible Towel. To Tom, who emailed from Massachusetts to say how great it was to watch the Patriots lose and the Steelers win in one glorious weekend. To Michelle, from Milwaukee, who wrote to let me know it was she who hexed Mike Vanderjagt last Sunday by chanting "boogity, boogity, boogity" and giving him the "maloik". To Jack, who will somehow pull himself away from the beach bar he tends in Hilo, Hawaii, to once again root for the black and gold in the middle of the night (his time), I say, thanks for giving power to the great Steeler Nation.
- All around the NFL, the word is out that the Pittsburgh Steeler fans "travel well", meaning they will fly or drive from Pittsburgh to anywhere the Steelers play, just to see their team. The one aspect about that situation the rest of the NFL fails to grasp is that, sometimes, the Steeler Nation does not have to travel. Sometimes, we're already there.
- Yes, the short sighted steel mills screwed our families over.
- But they did, in a completely unintended way, create something new and perhaps more powerful than an industry.
- They helped created a nation.
- A Steeler Nation.
- http://www.scottpaulsen.com/scott/
- For those of you who plan on watching the State of the Union Address (or for those of you who didn't), Scott Paulsen has a great idea, which he calls it the State of the Bourbon Address:
- (1) Decide beforehand on a beverage of your choice and an appropriate glass to drink it in;
- (2) Watch the State of the Union Address
- (3) Every time the President says "Health Care" - take one drink
- (4) Every time the President says "Alternative Fuel" - take one drink
- (5) Every time the President mentions any foreign leader (even Saddam or Osama) - take two drinks
- (6) When the TV shows the "Regular Citizen" (there always is one) invited to sit next to the First Lady - take three drinks
- (7) When Senator Hillary Clinton is shown - Empty your glass
- (8) When the President says the Super Secret Catch Phrase - Drain the Bottle (This year's Super Secret Catch Phrase: "The American Dream")
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GIVE THE BLACK LION AWARD TO ONE OF YOUR PLAYERS! |
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Army's Will Sullivan wore his Black Lion patch (awarded to all winners) in the Army-Navy game |
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Don't know whether the photo at left is authentic, or
just something crafted with PhotoShop, but true or not,
it works, because most of us are all too familiar with
cheerleaders who don't have the foggiest notion what
sport they are watching, let alone which team they are
cheering for. Anyhow, the photo has given rise to the
following MasterCard takeoff...
This
photo was taken while TOM
NUGENT was head coach at Maryland, where he
served from 1959 through 1965, compiling a record of
36-34. Coach Nugent came to Maryland from Florida State,
which was not then the power that it is today. In fact,
he played a major role in Florida State's transition from
a formerly all-female institution to a football power: he
also served as Florida State's athletic director, and it
was during his tenure there that FSU first played
Florida. Before Florida State, he was head coach at
Virginia Military Institute (VMI) where he is credited
with having invented the I-formation, in 1949. A 1950 VMI
upset of mighty Georgia Tech earned Nugent and his
formation some recognition in the South, but it was not
until Bernie Crimmins, a Notre Dame assistant, visited
VMI the following spring, and Notre Dame decided to use
it, that the I-formation became nationally famous.
Crimmins returned to South Bend with films and notes
(Coach Nugent later recalled that he actually staged a
spring game just for the benefit of Coach Crimmins), and
the Irish' successful use of the I that fall, at a time
in those early days of television when Notre Dame was on
the tube almost exclusively and almost weekly, brought
the I-formation to the nation's attention. Although it
became identified with Notre Dame, Irish coach Frank
Leahy wrote an article giving full credit for the
invention to Coach Nugent. It was a "Stack I" from which
Coach Nugent's teams frequently shifted into more
conventional pro sets. In fact, he liked to refer to it
as the "Shifty I." Hank Stram's "Offense of the Future,"
with which he won a Super Bowl appears to have borrowed
heavily from Coach Nugent. At the time, wanting to be on
the cutting edge, I copied the Chiefs and ran quite a bit
of the Stack I back in the early 70's, often shifting in
and out of it but occasionally running from it. Later, I
found it to be a useful gimmick as part of my Delaware
Wing-T offense, and so it wasn't that difficult for me to
install it as part of the Double-Wing attack when I saw
what a California Coach named Jerry Pugh was doing with
it. (It's shown and explained in 
***********
Jim Parker died last July, but along with his teammates
on those old Colts' (Baltimore) teams, he'll live in my
memory as long as I do...
