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Well, I found my way over here, and my previous name was too long.
But it's here, finally. In two days, it will be game day.
So we start off the 2011, season. With a game against Fordham, with a whole bunch of questions to answer.
Time to steal some thunder from the seven blocks of granite.
The Fordham university starting linemen, in 1936, consisted of Leo Paquin, Ed Franco, Al Barbatsky, Nathan Pierce, Al Wojciechowsky, a slick guy that would become head coach at Boston College, and later head coach at Notre Dame named Johnny Druze, and a guy you may have heard of, named Vince Lombardi.
That 1936 team never allowed more than 7 points in a game, shut out 3 teams early in the season - SMU, #3 nationally ranked Pittsburgh and Purdue all put up zero's against the 1936 Fordham Rams and their offensive and defensive line consisting of the seven blocks of granite.
The 1936 team missed on an undefeated season, and playing in the Rose bowl, because several players among that group were moonlighting, playing semi-pro football across the hudson river in North Jersey. When they tied Georgia in the second to last game of the season at the Polo Grounds in New York, and then lost to NYU on the last day of the season at Yankee Stadium, it was because those guys were playing with no rest, on injuries they got playing in the tough, semi-pro leagues in north jersey in the 1930s.
They missed out on playing in the Rose Bowl - because they were more interested in a couple bucks, and the fame that went with playing in north jersey pro leagues. A lesson they would all later regret, and Vince Lombardi never even was able to talk about.
Let that be a lesson. You get one chance to play this game - do it right.
So - I'm glad it's fordham in 2011, and not 1936, although I'd take the last two games of 1936 vs. them for reasons stated.
It's not the big east opener. It's not the big house and Michigan. It's not even a BCS team.
But it is a college football team. And they will be in OUR HOUSE. And they will be looking to make a mark.
And anybody that thinks that any football team out there, can't win on any day. Doesn't belong on the field. This game is about TEAM.
The better TEAM wins. The better athletes, the stronger athletes, the bigger athletes, the smarter athletes always have an advantage.
But the better TEAM wins.
It's the first time we get to see our team. Against a program with as much history, and nearly as many wins all time, that we played last year - when we opened the season.
As Coach P has said, they like to think they invented football in the SEC. But they didn't. It happened right here, in our backyard in Connecticut, and with teams like the two that are matching up on Thursday night.
It's time to start reclaiming where FOOTBALL came from, to it's rightful owners, and it happens one day at a time, one week at a time, one WIN at a time. And it starts right now with the 2011 season, and CONNECTICUT!
GO UCONN!
But it's here, finally. In two days, it will be game day.
So we start off the 2011, season. With a game against Fordham, with a whole bunch of questions to answer.
Time to steal some thunder from the seven blocks of granite.
The Fordham university starting linemen, in 1936, consisted of Leo Paquin, Ed Franco, Al Barbatsky, Nathan Pierce, Al Wojciechowsky, a slick guy that would become head coach at Boston College, and later head coach at Notre Dame named Johnny Druze, and a guy you may have heard of, named Vince Lombardi.
That 1936 team never allowed more than 7 points in a game, shut out 3 teams early in the season - SMU, #3 nationally ranked Pittsburgh and Purdue all put up zero's against the 1936 Fordham Rams and their offensive and defensive line consisting of the seven blocks of granite.
The 1936 team missed on an undefeated season, and playing in the Rose bowl, because several players among that group were moonlighting, playing semi-pro football across the hudson river in North Jersey. When they tied Georgia in the second to last game of the season at the Polo Grounds in New York, and then lost to NYU on the last day of the season at Yankee Stadium, it was because those guys were playing with no rest, on injuries they got playing in the tough, semi-pro leagues in north jersey in the 1930s.
They missed out on playing in the Rose Bowl - because they were more interested in a couple bucks, and the fame that went with playing in north jersey pro leagues. A lesson they would all later regret, and Vince Lombardi never even was able to talk about.
Let that be a lesson. You get one chance to play this game - do it right.
So - I'm glad it's fordham in 2011, and not 1936, although I'd take the last two games of 1936 vs. them for reasons stated.
It's not the big east opener. It's not the big house and Michigan. It's not even a BCS team.
But it is a college football team. And they will be in OUR HOUSE. And they will be looking to make a mark.
And anybody that thinks that any football team out there, can't win on any day. Doesn't belong on the field. This game is about TEAM.
The better TEAM wins. The better athletes, the stronger athletes, the bigger athletes, the smarter athletes always have an advantage.
But the better TEAM wins.
It's the first time we get to see our team. Against a program with as much history, and nearly as many wins all time, that we played last year - when we opened the season.
As Coach P has said, they like to think they invented football in the SEC. But they didn't. It happened right here, in our backyard in Connecticut, and with teams like the two that are matching up on Thursday night.
It's time to start reclaiming where FOOTBALL came from, to it's rightful owners, and it happens one day at a time, one week at a time, one WIN at a time. And it starts right now with the 2011 season, and CONNECTICUT!
GO UCONN!
