The "Bowl" Season

My alma mater, Bowling Green State University has been selected to play in (drumroll, please)...

the GMAC Bowl.

Yeah... quite impressive.

It used to be that the better college football teams in the country would be showcased in what was probably ten or so post-season bowl games. It's really gotten out of hand the last few years, as it seems almost any town south of the Mason-Dixon line that has a football stadium has one to offer to some of the best mediocre teams in the land. Even Detroit, with the Motor City Bowl (the Cherry Bowl didn't quite work out a few years ago) has its own bowl game. I'll bet the University of Hawai'i would love to play in that one!

There also used to be something rather romantic about the bowl games... they were named, for the most part, for regional specialties: Orange Bowl (Florida), Sugar Bowl (Louisiana), Cotton Bowl (Texas), Citrus Bowl (Florida), Gator Bowl (Goddamned Florida again!)... Anyway, you get the idea.

Now, we're lucky if those names still share the marquee with the current names: Champs Sports Bowl, MPC Computers Bowl, Insight.com Bowl, Continental Tire Bowl. Clearly, money has no room for tradition or aesthetics.

Bowls.

Meandering...

When I was a Senior at my earlier alma mater, our football team won the Blue Division of Toledo's City League – no small feat for the only AA school in the league (the rest of the schools – particularly the public schools – were much larger AAA schools).

We trudged to the University of Toledo's Glass Bowl Stadium to witness the City League's Shoe Bowl championship game on a fairly cold, snowy day. I rode with Bill McNally ("Far Ouuuuut!") with Eric Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard ("I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy...") blaring on the car stereo. Our opponent was Libby High School, a huge school on the south end of Toledo. We were given no chance of winning the game, but our offense marched up and down the field racking up yard after yard after yard of offensive production. Libby, on the other hand, was a pathetic representative of the Red Division, as they hardly moved the football the entire game. If I recall, the final offensive yardage stats of the game were something like 300+ for Stritch and less than 50 for Libby.

We lost. 6-0.

Our quarterback, Gary Clinker, fumbled a snap from center at our own three yard line late in the game and Libby had just enough offense to punch the ball into the end zone from that distance.

Despite moving the ball so well all game, we never scored.

That was over thirty years ago...

Red vs. Blue...

Superior talent vs. incompetence.

A fumbled opportunity.

Incompetence won.

Jaysus!