Category: Sports

In America, the end of every college football season is celebrated with a variety of “bowl games”: the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl and the Orange Bowl are just a few. And, of course, the NFL took a cue from the college game by naming its yearly championship the Super Bowl.

But why are they bowls? Did the winner get a bowl of roses or cotton or sugar or oranges? A free set of tableware? Did the first trophies look like bowls?

Haha… no. It actually comes from 1914, when Yale University built the first modern football stadium in the United States. Prior to this, most universities just took a large area of flat ground, marked off the football field, then built wooden or metal stands on one side of the field. As the team grew in popularity, the school would then build stands on the other side of the field, then on either end zone as needed. And by that time, the school would enclose the whole area with a fence of some kind, so that only paying customers could watch the game. Or they’d just use a baseball field, which presented its own set of problems.

But Yale’s new stadium was different. For one thing, the entire thing was recessed into the ground, so that the playing field was several feet (meters) below the surrounding ground. Bathrooms and food stalls were included. Access was controlled by various gates, and the entire building was circular. The whole thing kind of looked like a giant bowl from above, and this led people to call the stadium the “Yale Bowl”, which is the name it has today. It was new and it was breathtaking. And it was such a success that the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1921), the Rose Bowl (1922) and Michigan Stadium (1926) copied the basic design.

But here’s the thing: the very first “bowl game” – the Rose Bowl – was originally created to help fund a preexisting event: Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses. If you’re an American, you’ve no doubt seen at least a bit of the famous “Tournament of Roses Parade” on TV every New Year’s Day. Well, what happened was that the tournament was barely breaking even most years, so someone on the organizing committee suggested holding a football game to generate a bunch of revenue.

As envisioned, the game was to feature the best team from the western states playing the best team from the eastern states. However, in the inaugural game – played on January 1, 1902 – the eastern team (Michigan) crushed the western team (Stanford) by a score of 49-0. I don’t know if the Californians’ feelings were hurt or what, but for the next several years other sports were substituted for football. Given the immense popularity of college football today, it’s hard to believe that chariot and ostrich races were more popular than football, but so it was.

15 years later the game was resurrected. The first few games were played in nearby Tournament Park, but the game quickly grew so popular that a proper stadium became necessary. And so, in 1922 the “Tournament East-West Football Game” moved to the “Tournament of Roses Stadium”. Within a year, the stadium was called the “Tournament of Roses Bowl” (thanks to the Yale Bowl), and soon the game itself was just called the “Rose Bowl”.

Continue reading “Why “Bowls”?”

If you’re any kind of fan of professional basketball, you might have noticed that scores from games in the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s look more like NFL scores than NBA scores: 42-35, 31-28 or even 24-21. Why were scores so low back then? Were the all-white teams of the 1930s that bad at shooting the basketball?

Actually, no. The problem was that they hardly ever shot the ball at all. There was no shot clock, so a team could hold on to the ball as long as they wanted to. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for a team to nurse a lead by simply tossing the ball back and forth for 3 or 4 minutes at a stretch!

If that sounds incredibly boring… it was. By the 1950s, attendance at NBA games was nearing all-time lows and NBC was this close to dropping its contract with the league.

The crisis peaked on November 22, 1950, when the Fort Wayne Pistons (now the Detroit Pistons) took on the Minneapolis Lakers (now the LA Lakers). The Lakers had George Mikan, who was 6 ft 10 in and 245 lb. (for those of you outside the US, that’s “one really big dude” in metric). Mikan was named league MVP several times, held several scoring records, was a future Hall of Famer, and was the first commissioner of the ABA.

Needless to say, the outmatched Pistons decided to keep the ball away from Mikan as much as possible. So they held the ball as long as they could. In fact, the Pistons held the ball for ten solid minutes during one stretch of the fourth quarter. There were only four total points scored in the last quarter, and the final score ending up being an embarrassingly low 19-18. And a few weeks later the Indianapolis Olympians and Rochester Royals played a six-overtime game… in which one shot was attempted in each overtime… and that’s one shot total, not one shot by each team.

Continue reading “The Clock That Changed Everything”

Hey, y’all! Simon here! I’m officially 177-88 for the season – let’s see if I can add just one more win to my total! Here’s my final insertion of Simon’s Picks… or, as I like to call it, Mens on Ball!

 

 

SUPER BOWL XLVII

Wow… can y’all believe that this season is almost over? Me and the boys at Mens International are kind of sad that football is going away. No more sweaty Adrian Peterson, no more glimpses of Calvin Johnson’s johnson, no more of that sexy hot chocolate Cam Newton. Mmmmm-mmmmmm, girl! I guess The Simon will have to satisfy himself with pretty hockey mens for now… Bonjour sexy hommes canadiens!

So… on to the Super Bowl. Is there anyone out there who wants to give Simon a ride to New Orleans this weekend? Simon doesn’t care so much about the game, but there are three rest stops and a men’s prison on the way there! Hi-yoooo! But seriously, is Simon funny? Steve Smith said I was the best gag man he’d ever seen! Hi-yoooo! Y’all can see me next weekend at Scorpio’s new open-mike comedy night, “Catch a Rising Johnson”! Hi-yooooo!

OK, seriously now… Is Simon the only one totally tired of the whole “brother versus brother” storyline? He’s not? Awesome! I think the Harbaugh brothers are just awful! They’re so angry and vocal… and they’re always working the refs on the sideline… and that’s my job! Hi-yoooo! So there’s that. And then there’s that goofball Joe “Unibrow McGee” Flacco, who will be giving it deep and long to that chocolate Adonis, Anquan Boldin. Hmmm-ummmm, girl! That’ll be something to see… along with ol’ Ray Ray’s knees. Will they hold out for one more game? Will grandpa need a walker to attend the post game festivities? More importantly, will anyone get stabbed that night? Here’s my advice, honey… if you see Ray Ray in a white suit… run the other way!

And then you’ve got the 49ers. Colin Kapernick is kind of handsome, but can someone get that man a stylist? Have you seen the stupid facial hair the guy has? Colin, you’re pretty hot in Simon’s book, but please go see my friend Longines at the salon, OK? Tell him Simon sent you; he’ll hook you up!

All joking aside, Simon thinks this will be a pretty good game! But he thinks the 49ers will win. Part of this is because that’s just how he thinks the game will play out. But part of this is because seeing  the Ravens hoist the Lombardi Trophy will give my daddy a heart attack. But then, sports makes strange bedfellows sometimes… and I’m not talking about that handsome Belgian boy from the club last weekend! No, my daddy is wondering if the Ravens win will other Ravens retire, too. Boldin, Ed Reed, etc. Daddy would much rather the Steelers play a Ravens team minus Reed, Boldin and others next year. So if the Ravens win and those guys retire, Daddy would be OK with that, too.

Simon wants to thank everyone who read his picks all season long. It’s challenging for a kitty with a brain the size of a walnut to write a full column every week, and if you guys like it then that makes me happy. But not as happy as watching sweaty, sexy mens… is there a college basketball game on?

Enjoy the pick, and have a great off-season!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO!

– Simon

Here’s a cool picture for football fans:

This picture is from a game which took place between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons on December 18, 1966. It might not look like much at first glance, but there’s a lot going on in this picture.

First of all, Steelers QB Bill Nelsen is wearing the dreaded “Batman” uniform the team only wore for the 1966 and 1967 seasons. At the time, the Vince Lombardi-led Packers were dominating the NFL, and teams all over the league were copying not just their playbook, but their style as well.

Although owner Art Rooney was still firmly in charge of the team, he decided to slowly give more control to his son, current chairman Dan. And Dan didn’t want to copy the look of the Packers… he wanted something unique. At the time, the city of Pittsburgh had just completed a redevelopment project for the downtown area called the Golden Triangle. So Dan decided to incorporate this into the new uniforms. He really liked them, as did Steve Sabol of NFL Films, who said the unique uniforms really “popped” on the screen.

The players, however, hated them. Several said that the uniforms made them look like clowns or Batman, which is where the “Batman” nickname came from (the campy 1960s Adam West Batman series being popular at the time). The equipment manager hated them as well. Nowadays, Nike sends players new jerseys for every game. But back then, jerseys were washed and reused after every game, and it proved to be difficult to get grass and blood stains out of the jerseys without fading the yellow triangle.

I’m not sure who the Falcons players are since their numbers are obscured. The player about to tackle Nelsen has to be either Angelo Coia (48) or Bobby Richards (68), as they were the only two defensive players to have an 8 as the second digit of their number. Just from the stance of the man in the foreground, I’m going to guess that it’s Tommy Nobis (60), although if it’s not him then it has to be Richards, as they were the only two defensive players with numbers in the 60s.

Anyway, if you look closely at the Falcons helmets, you can just make out a thin band of gold on either side of the stripes. And that comes from a brouhaha over the Falcons colors.

There are two main college football teams in the state of Georgia: the “University” of Georgia (based in Athens, and whose colors are red and black) and Georgia Tech (based in Atlanta, whose colors are old gold and white). Although UGA has a much larger fanbase these days, back in the 60s Tech’s was much larger than it is now, especially in Atlanta. So it seemed like a total slap in the face to Tech fans that the new NFL team, based in Atlanta, would not only use UGA’s colors.. their road uniforms would be almost identical to UGA’s! A minor scandal ensued, and Rankin Smith – then owner of the team – hurriedly (and grudgingly) announced that gold would be added as an “accent color”. However, the stripes were removed for the 1970 season, and in 1971 the Falcons introduced uniforms that resembled UGA’s even more closely:

The gold stripes have returned, however, in the Falcons’ throwback helmet.

And, for the record… the first picture is from the last game of the Falcons’ inaugural season, and this was the first time the two teams played each other. The Steelers won 57-33 in Atlanta. The Steelers are 12-2-1 all-time against the Falcons. Atlanta has never beaten the Steelers in Pittsburgh, but managed a 34-34 tie in 2002.

BONUS: If you’re any kind of sports fan, you’ve probably noticed that the “G” the Bulldogs have on the side of their helmets looks an awful lot like the Green Bay Packers’ “G”. What’s the deal? Why so similar? Well, the Sports Design Blog has the whole story (complete with lots of cool pictures) but it really comes down to this: in 1961, Vince Lombardi asked his equipment manager, George Braisher, to come up with a new logo. Braisher came up with a logo very similar to what the Packers use today, only taller and less oval than it is now. And in the early 1960s, UGA football was in a pretty sorry state. So when Vince Dooley arrived as head coach in 1964, he decided to overhaul everything, including the uniforms and logo. Georgia had used plain silver helmets for most of their existence, but Dooley played with the colors, even toying with white helmets:

As you can see from the picture, the helmets (both white, the one on the left with a red G and the one on the right with a black G) sport the Green Bay G. Before the season started, Dooley decided on red helmets, which required a stroke around the logo, something the Green Bay G lacked. The “Georgia G” was also not as tall as the Green Bay G, and was more oval…. which, Green Bay incorporated into their logo in 1980. To make matters even more confusing, Grambling asked for, and received permission from, Green Bay to use their logo in 1965. For what it’s worth, Grambling’s G looks more like the original Green Bay G than the Georgia G or the updated Green Bay logo.

Hey, y’all! Simon here! Wow… it’s hard to believe that they’re only three games left in this NFL season. Only three more games of sweaty, handsome mens with their skull-crackin’ thighs… Oh my! I went 3-1 last week, and am 176-87 for the season! Top THAT, y’all! Enjoy the picks for CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND! 

 

Baltimore at New England: Well, Simon was a little off in his prediction last week. Who knew that John Fix would take a knee with 30+ second and three time outs left, when the Falcons would win their game with even less time and two timeouts? Oh Foxy… you’re so not sometimes. Still I think this week will see the end of ol’ Ray-ray’s career. I still think the Ratbirds are overrated, and the biggest reason they won last week was Fox’s stupidity and Manning’s interception. Meanwhile, the Evil Empire has been firing on all cylinders. Rob Gronkowski out? No worries… Tom Terrific will get the job done, and look fabulous while doing it! And Unibrow McGee Joe Flacco? We’ll find out if he’s truly “elite” this week. I have a feeling that Wilfork and Company are gonna rock his world… and not in a good way. I don’t expect this to be the blowout the Pats\Texans game was, but I don’t think there will be much doubt as to who the better team is. Take the Patriots to win, honey: 42-24.

San Francisco at Atlanta: Well, this isn’t good. As you know, my daddy is from the ATL, and he nominally pulls for the Durty Birds, especially in situations like this. But I just don’t think Matty Ice and Company have it in them to pull it off. Sure, Colin Kaepernick has the stupidest facial hair of anyone in the league… but he’s also got them sexy legs which he uses to chew up the yardage for big gains. My little kitty heart really wants the Falcons to win (and especially that handsome hunk of Latino beefcake, Tony Gonzalez). But my intuition tells me that the 49ers will take this game. I think it’ll be close, though. I see the the West Coasters jumping out to an early lead, and Atlanta will close, but the final score will be 31-28, San Francisco. I hope Atlanta rises up, though.

 

Enjoy the picks, y’all! See you in a couple of weeks for my SUPER BOWL picks!

XOXOXOXOXOXO

– The Simon