Saturday, October 07, 2006

October 7

cumberland college, 1916Today is the 90th anniversary of the worst defeat in college football history, as the George Tech Yellow Jackets eviscerated the Bulldogs of Cumberland College by the score of 222-0. By the end of the game, curiously, neither team had scored a first down -- Cumberland failed to advance the ball more than a few yards in any series, and Georgia Tech never failed to score within two or three plays.

Cumberland College, a tiny school in Lebanon, Tennessee, had actually discontinued its football program in 1906, then resumed it after several years before suspending the program again in 1916. Before the start of the 1916 season, the new Cumberland student manager George Allen wrote letters to the teams his predecessor had contracted to play that fall; in the letters, he passed along regrets that Cumberland would be unable to field a squad and requested that his school be released from its contract. He neglected, however, to send such a letter to Georgia Tech, who insisted that Cumberland either play the game or pay the $3000 no-show fee outlined in the contract. After trying unsuccessfully to entice ringers from Vanderbilt to join the Cumberland team, Allen assembled a makeshift squad of fraternity brothers and other hangers-on and brought them to Grant Field in Atlanta, where they were pounded unmercifully from the opening kickoff. In the play-by-play account published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the final minutes of the game were described in all their clinical horror:
Fincher kicked off to Edwards who returned 10 yards to the Cumberland 10. Murphy lost 3 and Edwards lost 5. McDonald's pass was complete to Murphy for 10 yards to the 12 (Cumberland's longest gain of the game). McDonald punted 28 yards to Fellers who returned 40 yards for a Tech touchdown. Fincher converted and it was 208-0.

Fincher kicked off to Murphy who returned it 3 yards to the Cumberland 18. Edwards rushed for no gain. Murphy fumbled on the line of scrimmage, Senter recovering and returning it 3 yards for Tech.

Fellers got 15 yards at left end for the Tech touchdown. Fincher converted. Georgia Tech 215-0.

Fincher kicked off for Tech to Warwick who returned 5 yards to the Cumberland 15. Edwards and McDonald were each stopped for no gain. McDonald's pass was intercepted by Senter who returned it 30 yards for the game’s final touchdown. Fincher's conversion made it 222-0.

***


Ten years ago today, Rupert Murdoch commenced a bold new initiative to rescue conservative commentators like Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity from the penury to which they had been reduced by the totalitarian exclusions of the mainstream media. Were it not for the vigilance of the Fox News Channel since 7 October 1996, the United States would quite possibly be enduring the fourth term of a horizonless Clinton presidency; the Islamofascist caliphate would have crept to the Canadian and Mexican borders; and the untimely disappearances of literally several young, white women would have gone sadly unremarked by the rest of the world. Lest anyone doubt that freedom is “on the march,” the following summary of Fox News’ geographic reach should set those worries to rest.
800px-Fox_News_world_providers
|