Starting Five
Notre Dame 35, Army 13. Birth of an empire.
November 1, 1913.
Notre Dame football coach Jesse Harper, unable to find suitable opponents located in proximity to his school’s South Bend campus (we’re looking at you, Fielding Yost), takes his football team to the shores of the Hudson River, to meet the vaunted United States Military Academy.
The Cadets were 4-0 at the time and had outscored opponents 72-6. A young man named Dwight Eisenhower was on the bench with a season-ending injury. Yale, college football’s juggernaut of the age that had won three national championships since the turn of the century (and 13 the previous century), had backed out of its date. So Army accepted Notre Dame’s request for a date.
A pre-jazz age “body bag” game, the Irish would be paid $1,000 for their efforts at West Point. A party of 20, 18 of them players, took the train out from South Bend and rode the rails for 24 hours (no one blasted “Crazy Train”, as they do now before key defensive downs at Notre Dame Stadium).
Harper brought with him All-American quarterback Gus Dorais, who weighed 145 pounds, end Knute Rockne, and a potent new weapon few had seen, the forward pass. Dorais completed 13 of 17 for 243 yards and five touchdowns.
Notre Dame received a $1,000 check to play Army. The school’s bookstore probably takes in that much revenue per minute on a home Saturday.
Army would not lose again, outscoring its last four opponents 168-16.
Notre Dame’s November crusade would continue with stops (and victories) in State College against Penn State, in St. Louis versus Christian Brothers, and in Austin versus Texas (When did these lads attend class, anyway???).
The Irish would finish 7-0, but Harvard would be crowned national champions. Crimson then, Crimson Tide now. Some things never change.
This game’s significance? It put Notre Dame football –still years away from being dubbed the “Fighting Irish”– on the map.
2. Safety Last
Cameron Wake’s game-winning two-point play.
Cameron Wake of the Fish ends last night’s Bengals-Dolphins game in overtime by sacking Andy Dalton for a safety. Just the third time in NFL history that an overtime game has ended due to a sack.
Attendance is announced as 52,388. Sure didn’t look like that many on television. Is Miami now a basketball town?
3. “Even Jon Stewart”
The irascibly funny host of The Daily Show tells everyone else in the media to stop co-opting his message. At one point he plays a clip of a Fox News expert arguing that if “even Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live are making fun of” Obamacare, then that’s a sure sign that it should be scrapped. Of course, as Stewart counters “if that (his show’s lampooning of something) causes things to end, why is the network you are on still on the air?”
If you don’t think about where the roast beef comes from, Arby’s is yummy.
Stewart then notes that mounds of his jokes never toppled Dubya, Dick, Cramer or even Arby’s (Heyyyy! I like Arby’s) before employing a gospel choir to really get the point across.
(Note: I’m not defending Obamacare here. I’m noting that Stewart’s adversaries never take up his cause unless it aligns with theirs.)
4. Staten Island Ferry-is Wheel
The first Ferris wheel.
Gotta admire your pluck, Staten Island. Let’s face it, Staten Island is New Jersey wearing an “I Love NY” T-shirt. And that’s cool. But ask most New Yorkers the last time they visited and their response is, “When was that year I ran the marathon?”
Well, that may soon change. The New York City Council just approved plans for Staten Island to construct the world’s largest ferris wheel. How will it measure up against the world’s first ferris wheel, the story of whose genesis was wonderfully told in Erik Larson’s book “The Devil in the White City?”
Proposed Staten Island Ferris Wheel, which Mayor Bloomberg assures us will be Sharknado-proof.
First Ferris Wheel: 264 feet tall, made its debut in Chicago in 1893. 36 passenger cars, each able to accommodate up to 60 people, for a total of 2,160 passengers.
Staten Island Ferry-is Wheel: 630 feet tall. 36 capsules, each accommodating up to 40 passengers, for a total of 1,440 passengers.
5. Joe Knows Football and Finance
Moglia has gone from TDAmeritrade to TDs at Coastal Carolina.
The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), remember that?
There are by my count 126 FCS programs, and about three of them have garnered national attention this season: Eastern Wasthington, for defeating No. 25 Oregon State in the Beavers’ season-opener, 49-46; North Dakota State, the division’s two-time defending champions, which remains undefeated and welcomed College Gameday in September; and winless Grambling State, whose players staged a one-game strike.
You may soon be hearing about a fourth: Coastal Carolina.
The Chanticleers are 8-0, the lone remaining unbeaten in the FCS besides NDSU and Fordham.
You may recall reading a story about the school’s head coach, Joe Moglia. Two years ago Moglia, 64, began at Coastal Carolina after serving one year as an assistant at Nebraska? Before that? Moglia, who played football at Fordham, was the CEO of TDAmeritrade.
Moglia isn’t worth millions. He’s worth hundreds of millions (if not a billion).
The story of the Wall Street CEO adopting his investment principles and business leadership skills to run a football program was endearing two years ago. But you know what? In less than two years on the job, Moglia is 16-4. You know when people advise, “Don’t quit your day job?” That advice does not apply to Moglia.
The Chanticleers have a tough matchup versus Charleston Southern (8-1) remaining, but there’s a good possibility that they’ll be 11-0 heading into their final game… at South Carolina. Joe Moglia versus the Ol’ Ball Coach. That could be fun.
Remote Patrol
Spurs at Lakers
ESPN 10:30 p.m.
Tony Parker versus Steve Nash. At this stage of their careers, it isn’t fair.
Since 1996, the Western Conference has won 10 NBA Finals, and these two franchises represent nine of the 10 titles. The Spurs came within a Ray Allen desperation three last June of making it 10 of 11, but Gregg Popovich and the gang are back for another run. Six Spurs scored between 11 and 14 points in the season opener on Wednesday. As for the Lakers? Gimme more Swaggy P!