I have to admit that I have abandoned my wife, at least for the next few days. I have left the real world for that place that can only be found once a year, but which often allows me to see more football in a few days than in all of the regular high school, college, and pro-football season combined. I am of course talking about College Bowl Week.
I always start the college football season intending to keep track of my favorite teams, an almost impossible task considering how many favorite teams I have at the start of the season, as well as those I may adopt during mid-season. My favorite teams are picked, not by the possibility that they may end up in the Rose Bowl, but merely because...I like these teams, for various reasons. Not always because they are winning teams, either.
For instance, my list of favorite teams starts with my standards: Texas Tech, the two Floridas and the Hurricanes, Marshall's Thundering Herd, the UTEP Miners, the Oklahoma STATE Cowboys, and the Grambling Tigers. Usually by the second or third game, I have adopted other "favorite teams" such as Army and Navy, the Mich. Wolverines, the Colorado Buffaloes, the Vols, the USC Trogans, and...well, I think you get the drift. In fact, there have been several college seasons where I have never had to "lose" a bowl game because both of the teams playing in a given bowl were my "favorites." That is the ultimate win-win scenario.
Then there are the teams that are not my favorites, but I like to see them win anyway. That list includes the Texas Aggies, SMU, TCU, Ohio State, and ANYONE playing against Oklahoma. I know this will probably cause a drop in my readership (in the US of A) but the Texas Longhorns are not on my favorite list, except if they are playing Oklahoma. Truthfully, I would be for the North Korean Nuclear Missile Control Squad if they were playing against Oklahoma!
I have a special place in my heart (that sounds awfully sentimental) for two teams: the Marshall Thundering Herd, and the Grambling Tigers. For reasons made obvious by the movie, I will always have a soft spot for Marshall. I have admired the Grambling team because they were a determined and disciplined team over the years, and they were coached by the second most winningest coach in history (though he may not be all that well known), Eddie Robinson. Mr. Robinson coached the Tigers from 1941 to 1997. In that time his teams won 408 games, losing less than 170 games. Around 200 of Robinson's former players have gone on to the pros. Mr. Robinson was stricken with Alzheimer's at some point in or around 1996. Some felt that he was losing his grip on his team in the late nineties and this could very well be attributed to his declining health. But he was a great coach and a great man. Unfortunately Eddie Robinson's Alzheimers took a turn for the worse in 1998, causing him to lose his ability to communicate or to recognize people, other than his bride. He spent the last few years of his life in her care. He died in 2007.
So I am once again in Hog(skin) heaven...and I have to go...NOW! Halftime is over!
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