It Is In the Air

Posted on 23/07/2016 by Grumpa Joe

FOOTBALL IS COMING SOON

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1. “Gentlemen, it is better to have died a small boy than to fumble the football” – John Heisman

2. “I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.” – Bear Bryant / Alabama

3. “It isn’t necessary to see a good tackle, you can hear it!” – Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

4. “At Georgia Southern, we don’t cheat. That costs money, and we don’t have any.” – Erik Russell / Georgia Southern

5. “The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely to be the one who dropped it.” – Lou Holtz / Arkansas – Notre Dame

6. “When you win, nothing hurts.” – Joe Namath / Alabama

7. “A school without football is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.” – Frank Leahy / Notre Dame

8. “There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.” – Woody Hayes / Ohio State

9. “I don’t expect to win enough games to be put on NCAA probation. I just want to win enough to warrant an investigation.” – Bob Devaney / Nebraska

10. “In Alabama , an atheist is someone who doesn’t believe in Bear Bryant.”

– Wally Butts / Georgia

11. “I never graduated from Iowa. But I was only there for two terms – Truman’s and Eisenhower’s.” – Alex Karras / Iowa

12. “My advice to defensive players is to take the shortest route to the ball, and arrive in a bad humor.” – Bowden Wyatt / Tennessee

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13. “I could have been a Rhodes Scholar except for my grades.” – Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

14. “Always remember Goliath was a 40 point favorite over David.” – Shug Jordan / Auburn

15. “I asked Darrell Royal, the coach of the Texas Longhorns, why he didn’t recruit me .” He said,”Well, Walt, we took a look at you, and you weren’t any good.” – Walt Garrison / Oklahoma State

16. “Son, you’ve got a good engine, but your hands aren’t on the steering wheel.” – Bobby Bowden / Florida State

17. “Football is NOT a contact sport, it is a collision sport. Dancing IS a contact sport.” – Duffy Daugherty / Michigan State

18. After USC lost 51-0 to Notre Dame, his post-game message to his team was, “All those who need showers, take them.” – John McKay / USC

19. “If lessons are learned in defeat, our team is getting a great education.” – Murray Warmath / Minnesota

20. “The only qualifications for a lineman are to be big and dumb. To be a back, you only have to be dumb.” – Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

21. “We live one day at a time and scratch where it itches.” – Darrell Royal / Texas

22. “We didn’t tackle well today, but we made up for it by not blocking.” – John McKay / USC

23. “I’ve found that prayers work best when you have big players.” – Knute Rockne / Notre Dame

24. Ohio State ‘s Urban Meyer on one of his players:”He doesn’t know the meaning of the word fear. In fact, I just saw his grades and he doesn’t know the meaning of a lot of words.”

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25. Why do Tennessee fans wear orange? So they can dress that way for the game on Saturday, go hunting on Sunday, and pick up trash on Monday.

26. What does the average Alabama player get on his SATs? Drool.

27. How many Michigan State freshmen football players does it take to change a light bulb? None. That’s a sophomore course.

28. How did the Auburn football player die from drinking milk? The cow fell on him.

29. Two Texas A&M football players were walking in the woods. One of them said, “Look, a dead bird.”The other looked up in the sky and said,”Where?”

30. What do you say to a Florida State University football player dressed in a three-piece suit? “Will the defendant please rise.”

31. If three Rutgers football players are in the same car, who is driving? The police officer.

32. How can you tell if a Clemson football player has a girlfriend? There’s tobacco juice on both sides of the pickup truck.

33. What do you get when you put 32 Arkansas cheerleaders in one room? A full set of teeth.

34. University of Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh is only going to dress half of his players for the game this week; the other half will have to dress themselves.

35. How is the Kansas football team like an opossum? They play dead at home and get killed on the road.

36. Why did the Tennessee linebacker steal a police car? He saw “911” on the side and thought it was a Porsche.

37. How do you get a former Illinois football player off your porch? Pay him for the pizza.

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Following A Secret Dream

Posted on 18/03/2011 by Grumpa Joe
Presented here is a photo of Soldier Field, Ch...

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FOOTBALL

The football team at Mendel was as young as the school; one year old.  The young team played games, but always against the Freshmen/sophomore teams in the Catholic league.  Football in the Catholic league was a huge sport.  Since most of the Catholic schools were boys only or girls only, the teams meant a lot to a school.  The dominant footballs teams were from Carmel, Leo, Fenwick, Saint Rita, and De LaSalle.  There were others, too, but these schools dominated the league.

I remember reading about “Red” Gleason, the coach from Leo High School. Leo played in the championships often.  Winning the Catholic school championship meant playing at Soldier Field against the public school champions for the All City Title.  My brother Bill went to St. Leo when Red Gleason coached the Leo team to a championship.

I secretly dreamed of joining the football team.  My limited association with the game came from playing “tackle” on the lawn next to the rectory. Tackle games were few because we had to wait for an evening when Father Horvath was out. I didn’t know about shoulder pads, hip pads, padded pants, jerseys, or helmets. None of my friends did either. Most of the time we played “tag” games in the schoolyard, or on the street in front of the house.

One day, during the spring of my first year, an announcement came: “Anyone wishing to try out for the football team should come to the gym at 3:30 to meet Red Gleason the new head coach.”

Wow!  I thought, Red Gleason, a chance to meet ‘the man’ himself. I couldn’t wait for the day to end so I could rush to the gym to sign up.  Finally, the last bell rang and we rushed to our lockers to put away our books.  There was plenty of time to get to the gym, it was only 3 p.m.  I got there early to stand in line with what seemed like  at least two hundred boys. All of them were anxious to try out for football.

At three-thirty, Fr. McNabb walked into the gym with a short dumpy man, rather portly, with thinning reddish hair.  I recognized him from the pictures I had seen in the newspapers. Red Gleason is really here.

Father directed us to line up single file and shoulder to shoulder. The coach and Father McNabb passed by the line for inspection.  Coach stopped in front of each boy and looked him over head to toe.  Sometimes he asked for a name, or some other question, and occasionally, he even shook a boy’s hand.

It took forever but he finally got to me.  He stopped, looked at me hard and asked, “How much do you weigh, boy?”

I really didn’t know my weight so I answered, “about 90 lbs.”

“Be sure to come to tryout in summer.”

I was in heaven.  Red Gleason asked me to try out for the team!

Of course, the largest obstacle I faced was not the team tryout, but it would be talking Mom and Dad into letting me do it.  Neither of them knew much about the game except that you could get hurt.  I had all summer to do it; now I just wanted to celebrate.

Ideas flooded my mind for how to convince them. After a days of deliberation I decided to work hard all summer to earn my tuition so they would have to let me do it.   The summer of 1953 became the longest summer of my life, and  was also the one that changed my course in a way that tested me beyond all of my dreams.

Filed under: Biography, Characters I knew, family, Jun-e-or, Memories, Sports | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »