Big Ten, we’re begging you to use your Rand-McNally

Barry Alvarez, Dr. Tom Osborne, and Joe Pa, we're begging you, don't be foolish. Get out your Rand-McNally Atlas and go with it!

The Big Ten Conference is about to convene to discuss how to align its 12 members in two football divisions, then consider realignment for the other 20+ sports. Every official quoted so far has talked about a variety of criteria, with "geography" and "competitive balance" being the most prominent suggestions.

In the name of normalcy, please go with geographic sensibility.

With the addition of Nebraska at the western edge of what now are nine contiguous states of the Big Ten, the league has a natural six-pack each of western and eastern teams. The west group should include neighbors Nebraska and Iowa joining the two most northwestern schools—Wisconsin and Minnesota—and the pair of Illinois-based schools—Northwestern and Illinois. The east should be made up of eastern-edge Penn State, Ohio State, the two Michigan schools—Michigan and Michigan State—and the two Indiana schools—Purdue and Indiana. It's a perfect fit with big-city Chicago serving as a kind of border axis.

Consider the politically-correct disaster that is the Atlantic Coast Conference, the most recent league to split into divisions to create a football championship game. The ACC acquiesced to relatively new members Miami and Florida State, thinking those two great programs of the 1980s and '90s would continue on into ACC competition. Conference fathers allowed Miami and Florida State to play their annual match early in the season, so as to have less influence on the loser's year-end national rank, and placed the two in opposite divisions with the expectation the Hurricanes and Seminoles would meet often in the ACC title game. It hasn't happened yet in five years.

Follow the other lack of logic: The ACC chose to divide its four members that reside in the state of North Carolina. Duke and North Carolina stayed together to maintain their rivalry but don't always reserve the season's last week for the game. But, Wake Forest and North Carolina State are separated from their in-state rivals, the Blue Devils and Tar Heels. Also, Georgia Tech and Clemson, relative neighbors, are separated. At least, the two northern members—Maryland and Boston College—play in the same division, and the two Virginia schools—Virginia and Virginia Tech—are grouped together.

Maybe this ACC confusion means very little. But after a 1-9 record in BCS Bowls this past decade, the ACC struggles to find a solid national reputation. In no way does it help the league's image around the country to have a slim number of fans know what ACC teams play in what divisions.

Big Ten, please don't follow the ACC's lead by splitting Purdue and Indiana or attaching Penn State to Wisconsin or Northwestern. Do Michigan's two straight bad seasons and six straight losses to bitter enemy Ohio State mean the Wolverines should be sheltered from the 2009 Big Ten champion Buckeyes? It could, if "competitive balance" rules the day.

Big Ten, get out your atlas and do the smart thing.

--Bob Boyles

Pac 10 Embracing Rockies

With the smoke cleared from the recent conference expansion frenzy, it is time to evaluate some of the moves that did take place. The Pac 10 expanded by two, pulling in Colorado and Utah from the Big 12 and Mountain West conferences respectively.

Sportswriters are raving about the aggressiveness of the conference in landing these two programs and almost landing the package of four programs from the state of Texas, led by the University of Texas. The focus appears to be on television revenue, with the Pac 10 getting a boost from both the ability to add a playoff game and its expansion into the Salt Lake City and Denver markets. And bully for the conference, if that is all that being in a conference is all about.

But my focus as a blogger and fan of college football is on the product on the field, and I do not see an improvement in that regard. I liked that the Pac 10 members each played the other during the regular season. But that's gone. I liked that the Pac 10 did not have a championship game. But that's gone. I also liked that the conference featured any given team--well except for Washington State--having a shot against any other. It made for some compelling late night viewing last year. And while that level of competition is not gone, it is muddled.

To be honest, I do not know if the last two programs to join the ranks of the Pac 10 have been fully integrated yet. And Arizona State and Arizona have been in the conference for more than 30 years. This should help them in that the two Arizona schools are more similar to the newcomers that the others and may be able to develop rivalries with them that they could not with the California and Pacific Northwest schools. Of course, the two Arizona schools now have two more competitors for the second-tier California prospects, but recruiting is a job for the aggressive and it will be up to every Pac 10 school to fight off Utah and Colorado.

The other interesting question from all of this is to predict how good Utah, and Colorado, will be once they join the conference. With the Buffs it will come down to coaching as their current head man, Dan Hawkins, is on his last legs. This is his fifth year in Boulder and unless he pulls off a miraculous season, some new blood with better Pac 10 credentials will be on board for 2011. Colorado does play at Cal in September in what could be a sign of things to come. As for Utah, they certainly have a nice track record against BCS competition in recent years. They have an excellent program, with top-notch facilities, coaching, support and talent. They should do very well once they make the move, although the Utes do have one major adjustment to make. They will have to be able to handle a much tougher schedule that will no longer feature the number of weak opponents they currently face (through no fault of their own). Last year's squad, which never cracked the top 15, nonetheless was favored by 13 or more seven times. Having that many weaker opponents--and you must give them credit for getting business done against those squads--makes it not only easy to reach double digit wins on an annual basis, but also allows them to get up for the bigger games on the schedule without worry about dropping games in between. A similarly skilled Oregon State, by comparison, was favored by 13 or more only three times and one of those occasions was against a Washington team that had beaten USC. Utah will have a good test run this season once late October arrives as they play on the road at Air Force, TCU at home and on the road at Notre Dame in consecutive weeks. They then play at an improved San Diego State before tussling with rival BYU at home. That five-game slate should be a fine indicator of what to expect from the Utes in the Pac 10 for 2011.

What Bud Selig dreamed, college football may deliver

Don't care what you say as a rabid fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars or the Colorado Rockies—and truly there are not that many of you—the worst idea ever perpetrated, without question, by professional sports has been its over-expansion.

Bigger always has been perceived as better by sports leagues, when real quality had been achieved by less. Expansion may never wreck sports but it has watered it down terribly.

There are too many races in NASCAR, too many baseball, basketball, NFL teams in remote places, too many PGA golfers nobody has ever heard of, and way, way too many faceless guys with Finnish names skating amid Crosby, Kane, and Ovechkin in the NHL. Quickly, name a single Columbus Blue Jacket!

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig dreamed of doing something about his sport's over-population a few years ago when he suggested the major leagues contract by dropping the Minnesota Twins. Ohmahgod, you'd have thought he sought to dismantle the United States and divvy the land between Mexico and Canada.

Frankly, Bud had a great idea; he simply picked the wrong team to start with. Face it, baseball was at its very best when it had 24 teams in two divisions in each of two leagues. No wild card, real pennant races within balanced schedules that rewarded regular-season play, and pressure-packed league championship playoffs.

Today, if the two Florida-based baseball teams, Arizona, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and tap any other choice like Cleveland, Colorado, Oakland, Toronto, or Washington would hardly be missed if they evaporated tomorrow. The woeful Pirates, for example, have maybe two legitimate major leaguers on their roster.

Somewhere somebody is waling that "it isn't fair" that Columbus, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Sacramento, or Oklahoma City should lose its team: "Why can't we have big league sports?" Well, you can, if you suspend your need for a team to represent you city and your city alone. In the baseball model, it would be so easy for the Cincinnati Reds or Cleveland Indians to absorb the best players the Pirates have to offer and play 40 percent of their games in PNC Park in Pittsburgh. It is a beautiful ballpark in a terrific city. So play games there with a regional—and far more competitive—team in a condensed Major League Baseball.

We all know the National Football League is king of the American sports world. The NFL currently has nice scheduling symmetry with 32 teams in eight divisions, which the bigger is better wizards soon will ruin with an 18-game schedule. Frankly, the NFL was a better league when it had fewer teams. It flourishes in its current bloated format because it enjoys the world's greatest, deepest—and completely free—farm system, known as college football.

This brings us to recent developments in college football. Colorado and Utah have gone to the Pacific-10. Nebraska has migrated to the Big Ten. The Big 12 South nearly blew up its whole conference with a wholesale switch to the Pacific. The University of Texas, holding all the cards in the Big 12, chose to stay put…at least for the time being.

Lost in Texas's decision was the wrecked possibility of four super-conferences that would have forever crushed any serious championship hopes of non-BCS conference members Boise State, BYU, Houston, SMU, and TCU and would have meant the death blow to major football programs at Baylor, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, and virtually all of the Big East.

The prevailing opinion is that this spring's upheaval is only the beginning. Look for the Big Ten to raid more teams, the SEC possibly to snatch some plums from the ACC, and don't faint if Texas decides to go it alone as an independent fueled by its own all-sports TV network.

Would football fans really miss Baylor, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, SMU, and Syracuse playing in football's big time? I doubt it.

Keep the riffraff out and let the big dogs run.

Bob Boyles

View From Bennett Avenue

This is a bit late, but I was readying a piece on Utah's move to the Pac 10 on Sunday when the idea of spending more time with my family became much more appealing. Being celebrated for my own paternity made me think of my father, of course, who is never too far from my thoughts.
As I have mentioned here before, Dad introduced me to college football. Although I remember watching Rose Bowls and the like as a youth, and my first live game pitted Army and Lafayette, the world of college football revolved around Notre Dame. My father became a fan after watching Knute Rockne All American as a young child, and then became a passionate follower during the great run of Frank Leahy. Like many other members of Notre Dame's Subway Alumni, those years stamped my father as someone who felt that Notre Dame should be in the running for a national title on an annual basis. And as he entered his teen years Notre Dame was in the middle of their great run from 1946 through '49, when they went 36-0-2 and won AP national titles for 1946, '47 and '49. So while Notre Dame could not keep up that pace, they did have my father hooked.
And so by the time I was born in 1964, in the middle of the glorious first season enjoyed by coach Ara Parseghian, I had no choice but to be a fan of the Irish. Like my father I came of age during a nice run by the Irish, with titles in 1966 (okay, so I do not remember that one), 1973 and 1977. I too was hooked. Tom Clements, the quarterback from 1972 - '74--was one of my first sports heroes and my youth was spent rooting for Steve Niehaus, Ross Browner, Bob Golic, et al.
Unlike my father, though, I had time to appreciate the entirety of the sport. Given the choice between a televised match-up between an undefeated Oklahoma versus a one-loss Texas or a solid Notre Dame playing a struggling Purdue, my Dad would pick Notre Dame every time and would stick with the game even if the Irish opened a big lead. I would listen with him to the radio broadcast but sneak into the living room to watch the more important game. Still, the majority of my time was spent listening to the Irish game on the radio as that was bonding time for the two of us.
As the fourth of five kids, it was crucial for me to enjoy these games with my father, especially with how busy he was with work, politics and local organizations. And that remained so into the 1980s despite my being busy with school and then work. We were able to enjoy one more run to a title together, in 1988, before my father passed away in April of 1989. The Irish have not won a national championship since.

View From Bennett Avenue

I just finished Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer's biography of Pat Tillman. The book is well written and worthy of your time, although you have to get through the first half which, in establishing Tillman's character, bogs down a bit. The material from Tillman's war experiences is difficult to read beyond that we know the ending--and it is not a pretty one. As someone who is fond of both military history and football, and a proud American, I am drawn to lives like those of Tillman. But reading this book continues the almost never ending puncture of the fantasy of war while prolonging the feeling of disconnect I have with bureaucrats.

Power Shift

Within three years of Alabama being put on probation, with scholarship losses, in 2001, SEC West rivals Auburn and LSU turned in glorious seasons with Louisiana State winning a share of a national title in 2003 and Auburn enjoying a 13-0 season in 2004. Coincidence? Maybe, but it is clear that the two sets of Tigers did benefit from their rival's self-inflicted misfortune. When a major power slumps, others benefit.

Who stands to gain the most from the recent sanctions leveled onto the Southern California program? The obvious answer is nearby UCLA, who has always gone head-to-toe with the Trojans for many of the star players produced by area high schools. Typically the Trojans win those battles, but the tide had turned a bit in recent years and coach Rick Neuheisel can smell blood. But the Bruins need to win, and win soon, to attract the type of player that was attracted to the great success enjoyed by USC the past 10 years. If the Bruins are indeed one of the programs gaining a major boost from this situation, we may not see the major bowl they gain for a couple of years. California, Oregon, and Oregon State may be the programs better suited to vault themselves up the rankings with help from USC's troubles. Also look out for Arizona and Stanford, two programs on the rise that may be able to cash in on better recruits and a better record against USC to move into the Top 10. It is not just a boost in recruiting that these squads hope to enjoy but more chances to beat the Trojans.

The other situation to monitor is with the national recruits who have recently chosen between powerhouses like USC, Florida and Ohio State. USC's woes will help all of those programs, plus Notre Dame, who not only has a better chance to reverse a horrible recent record against their longtime rivals but can possibly pluck an additional star recruit who may have been headed to the land of Troy.

Of course, these sanctions do not guarantee years of agony for USC fans. USC is still allowed to play games with all of the talent currently on the roster. If coach Lane Kiffin wants a model to follow he should look at the Miami Hurricanes of Butch Davis from the mid-to-late 1990s. After a similar hit from the NCAA Miami definitely dropped from their standing among the game's elite, which helped Florida and Florida State in the top 3 and Syracuse in the Big East. But Davis still recruited well and played the kids, who grew into the powerhouse program that would win nine games in each of the 1998 and 1999 campaigns before running off 46 wins with a national title from 2000-03. For Kiffin to do as well he needs to not only make the limited number of scholarships work, but also recruit more four-year players than normal. Play the kids and keep the kids. It worked for Miami.

Is it Finally Over?

So the Big Ten conference now has 12 programs and the Big 12 has 10. Got it? The Pac 10 can no longer brag about being the only true league with every conference member playing each other during the season as they are now too big to do so. Once the Pac 10 adds Utah, or some other fortunate soul, to be the 12th team in the conference, they will be done expanding for now. And that is good, because no one was ready for the myriad changes to the sport their expansion to 16 teams would have unleashed.

Will the Big 12 miss Colorado and Nebraska? Sure, at least competitively on the football field (well, Nebraska anyway and the basketball programs just saw their RPIs go up with the loss of two lowly programs). But considering that funeral dirges were being played moments earlier, losing two programs is a problem that can easily be solved. And as an aside, why do sports journalists love to kill off conferences before their time? They did so with the Big East too in the mid 2000s.

As far as competition goes, Boise State's move to the Mountain West may be the biggest news of all. If the conference can hold on to Utah, it will be loaded with big-time programs. Nebraska moving to the Big Ten is big too, of course, but the conference will still be under-appreciated until they can win a national title. Perhaps the Cornhuskers will help there. Penn State almost won it all in their second year of conference play. Meanwhile, Big 12 fans are warning the Huskers that they may not be able to recruit Texas as well as they did in the past, and perhaps the two or three players they lose there will find themselves on rosters of Iowa State, Missouri, Kansas and/or Kansas State, thus helping those schools too.

So the conference realignment craze is over for now. There are no super conferences and we can now, I hope, focus on the upcoming season.

View From Bennett Avenue

Well I was hoping to post on conference realignment but may as well wait until there is some more definite news. I do find it ironic that on the week that Colorado lost scholarships due to grades, they get welcomed into the Pac 10. But of course their inclusion is solely for their proximity to the Denver market. Of course if the Buffs continue to stink up the joint on the field, the good people of Denver will do something other than watch football each weekend.
The craze for markets is driving a lot of this discussion, but there seems to be a lot of misinformation. For example, I live in New York City where there are about 20 people who care about Rutgers football. I happen to be one of them, but New York City is a pro town except for some folks who liked Seinfeld and Sex in the City and moved here. But those folks still root for the school they went to or their hometown team. They did not switch to Rutgers, which is a good hour drive west and does not warrant any media coverage here in New York. So how does Rutgers bring New York sets to the Big Ten, which already has a ton of graduates of their current schools residing in metropolitan New York City?
Meanwhile I find it hilarious that no one has brought up Boston College and their move to the ACC when discussing all of this musical chairs. Every graduate that I know hates that the Eagles left the Big East. And did all of the extra money they earned by selling out get funneled back into their sports department? The reason I say that is I do not see any improvement from their teams due to any extra cash. Perhaps they will get the last laugh if the Big East folds, but maybe they could have kept it together.
I am off to the beach, from where I will write again about USC. I feel that is appropriate.

Got Those Reggie Bush Blues

Did anyone see this coming? Fans of the University of Southern California were expecting a slap on the wrist. Fans of everyone else feared a slap on the wrist. There was talk of how the legal team at USC was running rings around the NCAA. After all, if the NCAA had something on the Trojans for actions taking place years ago, something would have been decided long ago.

Or so the story went. Even when head coach Pete Carroll seemed to be jumping ship by taking the Seattle Seahawks head job just a few weeks after the 2009 season ended, the apologists chalked it up to Carroll getting a situation in the pros that he could not refuse. What did he have to prove in the college ranks? And why would Lane Kiffen leave the head job at Tennessee if he thought that the sky would fall on Troy.

But now the sky seems to have fallen. And being that Kiffen was around during the glory days, there is something appropriate about his holding the bag. And for those worried about the current USC players paying for past sins, well they did sign on with a program that was under investigation and some of the signees were attracted to the glamorous life of a Trojan football player--a life built, somewhat, on lies.

Which brings us back to Carroll. In looking at some of the posts by USC fans today on various sites, Bush seems to be getting the lion's share of vitriol. but the responsibility for this problem lays at the feet of Carroll, his coaching staff, athletic director Mike Garrett, the behind scenes powers that be and multiple men who have held the job of school president. To return to glory a decade ago the school decided that they would do anything to build a winner. Included in the design was the acquisition of the best possible talent. And so Carroll and his boys rounded up some impressive recruiting classes using whatever means necessary. Along the way Carroll established a laissez faire approach to running a program reminiscent of Oklahoma in the 1980s or Miami in the '80s and '90s. But like those two programs you can only go so far before you crash and burn. I hope the Trojans brought a fire extinguisher. So if you are going to surround yourself with the type of player attracted to wine, women and song, well you really cannot complain if some of those players took care of themselves beyond what is legal.

More to follow tomorrow.

View From Bennett Avenue

I had hoped to use the usual late spring down time on the college football schedule to continue my series of salutes to the recently elected members of the College Hall of Fame. But there has been so much news lately that I have to post on all of it and get back to the celebration of past greats as soon as possible.

With the NCAA finally coming down on Southern California today and the talk of BCS powers moving from one conference to another I thought I would quickly touch on some news from earlier this week before it disappeared forever, buried under an avalanche of bigger news. Perhaps the most significant story from the recent past concerns former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, whose one-year ban from the squad was made permanent after he was arrested for the second time in 2010. Earlier this year Masoli was nailed for breaking into a fraternity and walking out with some stuff that did not belong to him. The current situation involved his being stopped for driving through a stop sign and then resisting arrest. He was then found to have some pot in the car. At the very least, Masoli has unbelievably bad judgement. At the worst, he is bad guy who cannot stop himself from breaking the law and until he wises up we will see his name on police blotters in the future.

Of course Masoli is also very talented and perfectly fit to do damage to opposing defenses in the Oregon offense. But Oregon already began to move on due to the one-year suspension Masoli was given after crime number one. They have veteran Nate Costa and youngster Darron Thomas competing for the starting quarterback job. That is one of the biggest differences between the college game and the NFL. Because college players can only give a program four good years--and many do not do that--we, the national college football fan--do not get caught up in individual player situations but in the team as a whole. Oklahoma and Texas will play this year without either Bradford or McCoy. The game will still be hugely important and should produce a national title contender. Florida fans are sad to see Tim Tebow move on, but still expect the Gators to compete for the SEC crown and therefore have a shot at a national title. BYU won their sole championship, in 1984, despite losing Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young and the same happened to Tennessee, who despite needing to replace Peyton Manning, went on to become title holders in 1998.

Contrast that to the situation in Pittsburgh with the Steelers, who did not have to boot quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for good. The individual player in this case is getting too much bad press in a way that is detrimental to the team as a whole. The Steelers cannot move on the way the Ducks did with Masoli as the pro quarterback, especially one with two Super Bowl rings, is the franchise. They are in bed with ol' Ben (willingly in their case) and must win with him, despite all of the off-the-field distractions. And the Steeler faithful has been let down by their quarterback. The Oregon faithful are angry in that Masoli's stupidity may have cost them a shot for a title, but the situation is a less personal one. There are no Masoli jerseys to discount or pictures to take off of city zoo press campaigns.

Devils Days

I do not often get the chance to remember the history of Duke football, but will now follow Bob's profile of former Duke player Sonny Jurgensen by honoring new college Hall of Famer Clarkston Hines of the late 1980s Blue Devils. Hines rewrote the Duke record book as an outstanding target for Duke quarterbacks during a brief golden period of football in Durham, ushered in by coach Steve Spurrier in 1987. With the help of Hines, Spurrier led Duke to 20 wins in three seasons, capped by a shared ACC crown--their first since 1965--in 1989 and spot in All American Bowl. That game, a 49-21 loss to Texas Tech, did not go so well, but with Hines--who topped 1,000y receiving for final three seasons--and Spurrier departing the program would return to mediocrity.
One of Hines's greatest performances occurred on Veterans Day, November 11, 1989 in a key conference match-up with rival North Carolina State. As written in The USA TODAY College Football Encyclopedia, Hines had a record-breaking day while leading Duke to a win that earned them the no. 25 spot in the ensuing AP Poll:
DUKE 35 North Carolina State 26: Arm-weary NC State (7-3) QB Shane Montgomery attempted NCAA-record 73 passes, but could not rally his charges. Duke (7-3) was led by record-setter of its own in WR Clarkston Hines (6/131y), who caught 2 TD passes from QB Dave Brown to set mark for career TD catches at 35, although his record was tied later in same day by WR Terance Mathis of New Mexico. Brown threw for 374y and 4 TDs, while TB Randy Cuthbert added 158y rushing as Blue Devils O outlasted Montgomery's constant aerial barrage. WRs Reggie Lawrence (5/129y) and Al Byrd (5/126y) were NC State's leading targets as Montgomery ended his game with 37-73/535y.

It’s Always Sonny in Philadelphia……on April Fools Day

Donovan McNabb was dealt from Philadelphia to Washington in April. It is not the first time the Eagles surprised by sending their star quarterback to the nation's capitol.

On April Fools Day, 1964, quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, who had set an NFL record for passing yardage in 1961, was stunningly traded by the Philadelphia Eagles to the Washington Redskins.

In an interview on the 46^th anniversary of the trade, Jurgensen told Bob Boyles of sundaymorningquarterbacks.com: "They had Joe Kuharich as the new coach and Jerry Wolman as new owner. I had a great meeting with them: we talked about two hours on how we were going to turn it around (after the Eagles suffered through a last-place finish of 2-10-2 in 1963). So, I left and went to have lunch at a place called Dave's Delicatessen. Some guy walks in and says you just got traded to the Redskins. I go, 'Yeah, yeah, April Fools Day.' He says, 'No, I just heard you got traded for real.'"

In exchange off the Redskins roster, Philadelphia saw the beauty others failed to see in quarterback Norm Snead and cornerback Claude Crabb. Snead, who was doomed to play on bad teams nearly all of his 16-year NFL career (not to mention his college career at Wake Forest), had been thrown right into action as a Washington rookie in 1961 and in three years owned a 48.6% completion percentage and a 46-to-71 TD-to-INT ratio. Crabb intercepted six passes as a rookie in 1962 but was so badly embarrassed by New York Giants receiver Del Shofner in a game at D.C. Stadium that year his future as a less-than-mediocre defender seemed sealed.

The Eagles, just beginning a bundle of ill-fated trades, suffered through losing seasons in nine of the next 10 years. Jurgensen was bound for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and would lead the NFL in passing yards five times. That was a league record later matched by Miami's Dan Marino. Hall of Fame coach Vince Lombardi briefly coached Jurgensen in Washington and said of Sonny: "He may be the best the league has ever seen. He is the best I have seen."

Those who remember Hall of Fame passer Jurgensen might be surprised by his modest collegiate stats for Duke, a team that nonetheless earned a combined 20-8-3 record, two ACC titles, and an Orange Bowl victory during 1954 to '56. Starting at quarterback in his junior and senior years, Jurgensen directed a run-oriented "Belly Series" option-read offense and threw very sparingly in his career: 77 completions in 156 pass attempts for 1,119 yards with six touchdowns and 16 interceptions, not exactly the numbers of a future pro passing record-holder. As a safety in the Blue Devils defensive backfield during two-way play of the 1950s, Jurgensen surprisingly intercepted more passes (10) than touchdowns (6) he threw on offense.

"Bill Murray (Duke's future Hall of Fame coach, not the comedian of SNL and movie fame) recommended me as a safety to the Eagles. I told them: 'I won't last a week as a safety,'" said Jurgensen.

"The guy who got Philadelphia to think of me as a quarterback was Ace Parker (Pro Football Hall of Famer and Duke's College Hall of Fame halfback from the 1930s), my backfield coach at Duke," said Jurgensen. "He told me in my senior year that our offense was 'kind of a waste of time for me because we just didn't throw it enough.'

"That's just the way football was in those days; lots of teams used a running style partly because players had to go both ways. I was just happy to be playing. Hey, we were good enough to go up to Ohio State (in 1955) and beat a really good team with (Heisman winner) 'Hopalong' Cassady and (Hall of Famer) Jim Parker."

"Ace really promoted me to Charley Gauer, who was an Eagles assistant coach. Charley came down to Duke to scout me; it was almost like a 'Pro Day' but a lot less formal than you see today. Charley lined up a receiver out wide and brought him straight across the field (for passes), first at 10 yards downfield, then 15, and 20. I did all right, but it is the toughest throw you ever have to make because throwing even a little bit behind him exposes you if you are inaccurate."

Had Jurgensen been more impressed with a bold 1950s fashion statement it might have placed him on a different path to college. He might have employed his passing talents with greater proclivity: "In my senior year in high school after the Shrine Game (high school all-stars from North and South Carolina pitted against each other in Charlotte)," Jurgensen recalled, "I was flown down to Georgia to work out for their coach Wally Butts. He watched the workout from his car, and when it was over he walked over to me and said, 'Young man, you should come to Georgia.' I asked him why, and he showed me this hand-painted tie he was wearing with a painting on it of (his current All-America and future pro quarterback) Zeke Bratkowski. Butts said, 'At Georgia, we throw the ball more than anybody in college football and we have the most sophisticated passing attack in college football. If you come to Georgia, I'll have a Sonny Jurgensen tie one day.' If I really had pro aspirations right then, I should have gone to Georgia, but I was from North Carolina, figured I'd earn my living in North Carolina, and felt I needed to play college ball in my home state."

Had Butts' fancy neckwear attracted Sonny to Georgia the coach would have had a virtually-unbroken stretch of Bratkowski, Jurgensen, and Fran Tarkenton throwing for him. Instead, the Bulldogs suffered through Jurgensen's collegiate years with a feeble passing attack and a 13-15-2 record. With Sonny, maybe Georgia could have attracted better players and gone to more bowl games in the '50s and '60s. Maybe Joe Namath and Ken Stabler would have followed Tarkenton to Georgia to create "QB U." Maybe Alabama's Bear Bryant might not have owned the SEC as he did during the '60s and '70s.

So, had it not been for a decision here or there, Jurgensen might have been an All-America passer as a Georgia Bulldog, or a lifetime Philadelphia Eagle for that matter. Today, Sonny is happy things worked out the way they did—he becoming a long-time Washington radio analyst and one of the best-loved Redskins of all time—and he has kept his sense of humor about his April Fools surprise: "I liked playing on the road (in the NFL); getting booed reminded me a lot of playing in Philadelphia."

Always Sonny!

For more on Sonny Jurgensen and more than 130 of football's most fascinating personalities—famous and barely known—see the release this coming August of The USA TODAY College Football Encyclopedia, available wherever fine books are sold.

by Bob Boyles