Dooley and Roosevelt, BFF

I can’t find the article now and it’s driving me crazy, but somewhere I read: there are some new safety rules out and Tennessee Coach Dooley has gone on record with calling the people that created them pansies (my paraphrase). I remember he said something about concussions, like they’re bad or something, but that injuries are part of the game and if this kept up we’d be playing flag football in a few years.

So yeah, Roosevelt and Dooley would get along just fine.

Football Profiles: Teddy Roosevelt

I had presumed it was common knowledge college football (and thus must likely it’s descendant professional football) would not be with us today were it not for the meddling of President Theodore Roosevelt. As this is not the case, let me share the story.

It’s 1905. This year alone twenty-one young men have perished on the field. Magazines and newspapers are running sensationalist stories about the violence and sleaze frequently associated with the sport. Schools are beginning to ban the game. It’s unfavorable comparisons to being more sinful than cock-fighting are threatening what is to become America’s favorite past time.

This worries many presidents of the Ivy Leagues. Surely of some concern is their investment in not-insignificant coaches’ salaries and facilities, such as 50,000 seat stadiums. But their interest is more than pecuniary. The Ivy Leagues at this time are less concerned with academic pursuits as they were with athletic prowess. In 1881, Harvard president Charles Eliot went on record in favor of sports because they could change “the ideal student…from a stooping, weak, and sickly youth into one well-formed, robust, and healthy.” The culture of the Ivies and its feeder schools was one of manliness and machismo. President Roosevelt, a Harvard man himself, gave a speech inveighing “We cannot afford to turn out of college men who shrink from physical effort or from a little physical pain” because of the country’s need for men with “the courage that will fight valiantly alike against the foes of the soul and the foes of the body.”

In other words, good football players could become good soldiers.

So, President Roosevelt hosts a conference at the White House in October 1905, inviting representatives from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (the equivalent of today’s Florida, Alabama, and USC) to affect reforms “relating to roughness, holding, and foul play.” Though this does not immediately revive some of the canceled programs, the President declares schools refusing to reinstate football or considering banning it are “doing the baby act” and being “mollycoddle[s]”.

Thus Roosevelt almost single-handedly saved college football from extinction and ushered it into the modern era.

(If you don’t believe me, check out The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton by Jerome Karabel.)

Ivy League Economics

I’m currently reading “Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.” Like any good college book, it’s grounded in football.

It’s elementary that the term Ivy League originates from the sports league and was not an academic marker. What I didn’t know was that the coaches’ salaries were all ready out of control by the turn of the century. In 1905, Harvard’s football coach was making $7,000 a year (approximately $165,000 by today’s standards)—more than any of the professors.

The more things change, as they say...

Why Football Matters: The University Benefits

I know people (by which I mean snobby, pretentious people like I used to be) hate it when football and academics mix. After all, athletics (at least big sports like football and basketball) are for meatheads and have no business being supported in any fashion by institutions of higher learning.

First, I have to wonder what exactly they profess the purpose of a university education is. I turned to the mission statements of the universities that ended up in the Top 3 last season. Here are key phrases:

1. Alabama: As one of the major residential campuses in the State, the University enhances the academic and personal growth of its students through its on-campus environment.
2. Texas: Core Value- Discovery - Expanding knowledge and human understanding.
3. Florida: The university and its components benefit from the richness of a multicultural student body, faculty and staff who can learn from one another.

These statements are not dissimilar to many other universities that mention personal growth and greater cultural understanding. Football is a component of reaching these aims. I can use myself as an example; anyone who knows me know I despised football until I started college. By learning to tolerate, and eventually love, the sport, I opened myself up to a whole range of opportunities. I began to evaluate other opinions I held, because if I was wrong about sports, maybe I was wrong about other things. And note: it wasn’t just football. I went to basketball and volleyball games. I kept up with our soccer, rugby, and baseball teams. No one bats an eye when sports fans are required to attend a play for class, yet an athletic event can make one connect with the community and rethink the world in just the same way. Not only are athletics congruent with most universities’ missions, they support them.

But that’s all hippy trippy. What we really care about are numbers. And yet, even though there are demonstrated spikes in applications after a university wins a national championship, and money that gets funneled from the athletic department to the academic side, and copious amounts of money that are channeled into the local economy via expenses of traveling fans and merchandise, naysayers of college ball still cling to their ironically close-minded position.

So did this provost. Then his university created a football team. Now he’s a believer. If you’re disinclined to read the article, I’ll summarize his points:

1. Football teams foster a sense of community that even non-sports fans appreciate, thereby increasing enrollment.
2. That community also increases alumni donations.
3. College athletics opens educational doors to students who could not afford to attend without scholarships.

The lynchpin, of course, is communication and recognition of this symbiosis between the academic and athletic departments. But it’s an excellent article and recommended for anyone who cares about college or sports.

Sentimental Ruminations

I’m currently reading “Orange-Blooded: The Veins of My Life.” The back cover proclaims, “Relive the joy and pain of each [UT] game since 1982 through the memories of the author!” A decent premise, but the author is an utter failure. The prose so bland, it didn’t take me three pages to figure out this was the work of a vanity press. I want so badly to chuck it but: 1) it was a gift, so I feel duty bound to finish it, 2) it raises some interesting points about Vol fandom, and 3) not even prosaic writing can cover how gosh-darn glorious it is to be a Tennessee Vol.

It’s the middle point on which I want to elaborate. The book actually begins in 1970 with the arrival of Bill Battle. The book ends in 2007, just before our maelstrom of turmoil began. However, I’ve only gotten to the 1985 season. 1970-1985 is before my time both as a football fan (that happened in 2001) and as a person (that happened in 1984), but it’s a tale all too familiar. Narrow victories, heartbreaking losses (either because we fell short by seconds or we were completely blown out), lack of confidence in coaching decisions, and one marquee win that leaves us clinging on to hope.

I read about our team under Battle and Majors and know where we are now, and think to myself, ‘Ay me, is there any fan so put upon as the Vol fan?’ (I know there are- South Carolina and Kentucky come immediately to mind, but please don’t interrupt my despondent fantasies with facts.) I wonder how we could languish generation after generation with such die hard devotion to a team seemingly mired in overachieving mediocrity, on a team that cycles as the cicada, that teases us with what it could be and settles for what it is.

Then I remind myself- this book begins a mere three seasons after we won a national championship. Another one is in the not so distant future. Our program may ebb, but it will survive. We may be entering our darkest age, but we are Tennessee, and we have much to fight for. (I can’t find the exact stat, but it’s something like we have the fewest losing seasons, or something. We definitely have the longest active winning streak against one team to hang on to.)

So trying to hold on to this hope, I stumbled upon the bizarrest play in UT history. For those of you who don’t know this story, it’s 1998. We went into the Arkansas game undefeated and riding high in the polls. With less than two minutes to go, the Razorbacks had this game wrapped up. All quarterback Stoerner had to do was take a few knees. They did this instead. UT maintained their perfect record, including beating Florida State in that season’s National Championship.

I’ll admit, when the band struck up Rocky Top after the fumble, I got a little teary eyed. I thought about my Dad who as that game, and how much this program has meant to my family, and the hours I spent in the stadium with my best friend and the miracle plays we saw together, and the similar moments I have to look forward to the future.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is why it’s great to be a Tennessee Vol.

Battle of the Bands: #1 Tennessee

Tennessee (Pride of the Southland)

-One of the oldest collegiate band programs. It dates back to 1869, and they’ve been performing at halftime since 1902.
-Our pregame is a show unto itself worth the price of admission. It’s basically been the same since the 1960’s so it’s like a great big security blanket that gives you the warm fuzzies. And nothing- not Thus Spake Zarathustra, not the dotting of the I, not the running down the hill- nothing is more exciting than the opening of the T.
-This also always has to be mentioned when we talk the band talk: Rocky Top is not our fight song. Officially, it’s “Down the Field” which the band plays as a lead in to Rocky Top and also to underscore the kicker on extra point attempts.
-We have the Circle Drill. Game over.
-The Pride has played at the past twelve presidential inaugurations.
-There are three related sublinks on Wikipedia: Tennessee Pregame, Rocky Top, and Circle Drill, so really, we have four Wikipedia pages, which is a record for SEC programs.

Battle of the Bands: #2 LSU

LSU (Tiger Marching Band)

-Voted unanimously in 1997 by the band directors as the best band in the SEC. First of all, weird, that the SEC bands would have a vote for themselves like that. Secondly, I wonder how LSU finagled that.
-Won a Sudler Trophy.
-Won an ESPN fan vote contest-y thing.
-Their pregame sounds a lot like the Pride of the Southland’s, but an acceptable way. Theirs as well dates back to the ‘60’s, and they also use the peak step.
-They get points off, though, for calling their flag girls Golden Girls.

Battle of the Bands #3: Alabama

Alabama (Million Dollar Band)

-Won a Sudler Trophy.
-They play Greenday’s “Basket Case” between the third and fourth quarters. I don’t like it when bands play random songs with no connection to the school.
-The mystery of the Les Mis/Look Down defensive cheer has been solved! In the past, they have done Les Mis halftime shows, so they just cribbed this part, and, I have to admit, it sounds great when they do it.

Battle of the Bands: #4 South Carolina

South Carolina (Mighty Sound of the Southeast)

-Cocky the Gamecock has won four mascot competitions since 1980. I have no idea how that compares to other mascots, but will give South Carolina what we can.
-Let’s discuss Thus Spoke Zarathustra. It could be a really cool entrance. However, the fact that it’s piped in completely ruins it. Canned music is for the NFL, period. Wikipedia defends the practice by saying it gets too loud for the band to play. Boo. Hoo. Hoo. It’s not going to get any louder than Neyland, which doesn’t resort to cheap tricks. I wish I could give them props, but I can’t.
-I have to point this out because it can’t be mentioned enough- their fight song is a showtune, an obscure song from an obscure musical called “How Now, Dow Jones.”

Battle of the Bands: #5 Auburn

Auburn (Auburn University Marching Band)

-Somehow they take their lack of a name as a source of pride. One former president spouted some nonsense about other bands needing descriptive names to praise their bands but Auburn is soooo good they don’t need to do that. Methinks he doesn’t understand the concept of nicknames. It’s not praise to be the “Pride of the Southland” or the “Million Dollar Band” anymore than it’s praise to call a pencil yellow. Gah. I hate Auburn.
-They call their flag girls “Tiger Eyes.” That’s kind of creepy.
-Their pregame sounds like a low rent version of the Pride of the Southland’s.
-They did get a Sudler Trophy.

Battle of the Bands: #6 Florida

Florida (Pride of the Sunshine)

-Singing the alma mater/fight song at the conclusion of a game is a “new tradition” ushered in by Urban Meyer. It’s sad that a total outsider introduced what I figured everybody does. Although, now that I think about it, I don’t recall it happening at any stadiums besides Neyland (not that I’d be paying attention to what our opponents were doing). Maybe at Notre Dame, but I might be confusing that with the Irish Jig. Hmm…

Battle of the Bands: #7 Georgia

Georgia (Redcoat Marching Band)

-Won the Sudler Trophy. Went to China. The end. Seriously. They have a measly paragraph.

Battle of the Bands: #8 Arkansas

Arkansas (Razorback Marching Band)

-Even though they have a fairly long, it just details how marching bands work. For example, one student serves as a drum major.
-They did, however, win a Sudler Trophy.

Battle of the Bands: #9

Kentucky (Wildcat Marching Band)

-The Wildcat Ban practices two fewer hours a week than the Pride of the Southland.