Anniversary

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Buzzboy

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Today is the anniversary of the greatest a## whooping of record in college football. On this day in 1916, Georgia Tech dismantled Cumberland University 222-0. By the way.....The Hell with Georgia.
Thanks and have a great day.
 
Wow, I had no idea they beat them that badly on a Wednesday! The game must have been on ESPN2 or something.
 
Here's to Heisman!

tech_vs_cumberland1.jpg
 
GiveEmHellJackets said:
There used to be a lot more houses located in the stands than there are now.
Click to expand...

I think that may be Piedmont Park. I dunno if it was on Grant Field yet, but I could be wrong. I can see where that street could be Techwood going downhill to Bobby Dodd Way...

I also noticed that we beat Mercer 105-0 just two years earlier under Heisman
 
Im pretty sure that we played at Grant field while Heisman was here, since part of his pay was ticket sales and we built a fence around the thing to make sure that there would be sales.
 
RamblinPeck said:
Im pretty sure that we played at Grant field while Heisman was here, since part of his pay was ticket sales and we built a fence around the thing to make sure that there would be sales.
Click to expand...

oh, that's right. Therefore, I am wrong. :(

Its kinda cool to see Techwood as it was back in the day...
 
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

The Game of the Century: Lopsidedness

http://bozosapiens.blogspot.com/2009/10/game-of-century-lopsidedness.html


​
Root, root, root for dear old Cumberland,
Bow-wow for bold C.U…
But they’re bigger, they’re faster,
We’re hurtling toward disaster,
And a loss by two hundred points and twenty-two.


It is aptly called the Game of the Century. On this date in 1916, the gallant gridiron heroes of Cumberland University, a small liberal arts school in the mountains of Tennessee, debouched at Terminal Station in Atlanta, eyes aflame, to do battle with the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech. The air was crisp, the sun glowing with promise; this was a day to make history.


It must be said that the Cumberland team was not there altogether willingly: the university had dropped football from its roster of sports the year before and the players, though fully equipped and uniformed, were hardly seasoned. They included a few fraternity brothers of the manager, possibly persuaded at the end of a long evening, and a local reporter who had come along for the fun. It was hardly the best squad to meet the mighty Tech and its fire-breathing coach, John Heisman – he of the Heisman Trophy – inventor of the snap, the power sweep, the word “hike,” and the hidden-ball play… the acknowledged wizard of what he called the “prolate spheroid.” His approach to the game was severe and uncompromising: “Better to have died a small boy than to fumble this football.”


In 1916, Heisman had extra reason for his ire: that spring, a Cumberland baseball team had descended from the hills to trounce Georgia Tech 22-0; Heisman suspected, rightly or wrongly, that this team had contained several Nashville semi-pro ringers. His amour propre was touched. So, smiling a crocodile’s welcoming smile, he offered a $500 guarantee and all expenses to Cumberland's football team, with the proviso of a $3,000 forfeit if they didn’t show up. Hence the uneasy mix of anticipation and trepidation in the breast of each visiting Bulldog.


The morgue at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution contains a bare-bones description of the epic struggle that followed. The first few plays (“Gouger hit left tackle for 3 yards. McDonald failed to gain”) saw the teams matched in score, if not in ability. The fifth, though, was a Georgia Tech touchdown – and the rout began. Cumberland fumbled the next kickoff and Tech scored again; Cumberland fumbled on the first play of the next series… and Tech scored again. By the end of the first quarter all the Cumberland players must have wished they had died as small boys.


Heisman would say, “when you have found your opponent’s weak point, hammer it” – and Cumberland was mostly weak points. Tech kept up a metronomic pattern: 63 points at the quarter, 126 at the half. Neither team ever made a first down, though for slightly different reasons: Tech scored immediately on all its possessions, while Cumberland’s total yardage was -28. The game assumed a splendid improbability, where the pain of loss transmuted into farce. On one of their many fumbles, the ball rolled toward Cumberland’s “Bird” Paty. The man who’d lost it shouted, “pick it up!” Paty, shrugging, replied, “well, you dropped it; pick it up yourself.” The final score of 222-0 remains the most lopsided result in the annals of the prolate spheroid.


There is a theory that Heisman allowed the score to rise so high, not merely as punishment, but as an artist’s protest against the relentless intrusion of statistics into the game. He failed in both goals. Football, like all sports, is now measured in every aspect to three decimal places. And, while Georgia Tech may win or lose this year, Cumberland’s glorious name is forever associated with one of the superlatives of sporting history.
 
wait.... they were the Cumberland Bulldogs? That just made this win that much better...
 
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