The Sports Grouch

Could it be 150 years? For us diehard college football fans, it seems like only yesterday we were strapping on leather helmets and going head to head at the scrimmage line.

Those 150 years travel from Pop Warner to Dabo Swinney, from Rutgers/ Princeton to Alabama/Clemson, from no helmets to today’s state-of-the art helmets. College football has come light-years from its birth in 1869 as a campus oddity to a dominant sport annually churning out billions.

That was also the year before Uncle Josh Harman founded the Lexington Dispatch in 1870.

We will be celebrating our own 150th year in 2020.

The good ol’ days

Remember Red Grange, the Galloping Ghost? Knute Rockne and the Gipper?

Remember Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice at North Carolina and Charlie Trippi at Georgia, running behind his quarterback, Walter McGuire of Lexington?

This year, many college teams are bringing back uniforms from their glory days.

The Gamecocks have been out-shone by our national champion Clemson Tigers.

Blame it on Howard’s Rock, named for long-time Coach Frank “The Baron of Barlow Bend” Howard.

This hunk of white flint that all Clemson players rub for luck as they storm down the hill before games came from Death Valley, Calif., a gift to Coach Howard. The team started rubbing the Rock in 1967.

Stirring openers

There may be no better pregame buildups than Carolina’s stirring “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” the theme of the movie “2001, A Space Odyssey,” or when the Clemson Tigers take a bus around the stadium just to touch Howard’s Rock.

This year, Carolina plans to bring back the uniforms of the 1984 Black Magic season – garnet helmets, garnet or black jerseys and white pants and shoes.

Remember that season with Coach Joe Morrison on the sidelines, Mike Hold and the late Alan Mitchell of Batesburg-Leesville alternating at quarterback and that fabulous Fire Ant Defense?

That reminded me of Paul Dietzel’s GoTeam and Chinese Bandits defense at LSU before he came to USC.

More nostalgia

Remember Lou Holtz, whose Notre Dame team won a national title before he came here to an opening 0-11 season?

Remember Red Blaik’s West Point ‘Lonesome End’ – the position that launched today’s wide receivers and spread offense formations?

Remember Coach Steve Spurrier’s Fun & Gun offense that humbled the mighty Crimson Tide?

Today’s coaches need to use more showmanship like this. The fans love it.

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