It Was 50 Years Ago

If you don't believe lightning can strike twice in the same place, consider the lede from a Boston Globe story (LINK):

“I just got a notice in the mail that our 50th class reunion is canceled,” said Bob DeSaulniers, a senior defensive lineman for the 1969 (Holy Cross) Crusaders. "Reminded me of what happened to us back then.''

What happened back then?

Fifty years ago last fall the Holy Cross college football season was canceled after two games . . . because of an outbreak of a virus.

As it turned out, the players were sickened as a result of drinking hepatitis-infected water from a faucet near the practice field. The Crusaders' final game was at Dartmouth where the Big Green beat a team  that had players literally throwing up on the sidelines, 38-6. From the Globe story:

In the next day’s Globe, sports editor Ernie Roberts led his story with, "This report should be going to the American Medical Journal. Unbeaten Dartmouth demolished a Holy Cross team hobbled by seven hospitalized starters . . . ''

A story last fall in the Worcester Telegram noted that upon returning to Massachusetts after the game Holy Cross players not in the infirmary were quarantined in a campus dormitory for weeks. From the story (LINK):

The players kept up with their studies the best they could. Tutors took notes for them, and they took exams in their rooms. Their professors were very supportive, players said.

And this:

“The funniest thing,” (Holy Cross co-captain Bill) Moncevicz said, “was when people would come to bring you food. It was like the lepers in (the movie) ‘Ben-Hur.’ They would leave food and treats at the door and then we would open the door and we would pull them in.”

Green Alert Take: The season was the first as Holy Cross head coach Bill Whitton, who had spent the previous dozen years as an assistant at Princeton. He went 0-2 that fall, 0-10-1 the next season and eventually ended up as head coach at my old high school.

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The absolute best parts of the evening news each day (if you can bear to watch it) are the examples of people helping people, and it is happening a lot.

Concerned about the difficulties faced by a deli that frequently supplied food for the University of Toldeo football program, head coach Jason Candle gave the business a boost by swooping in and buying lunches for the city’s police and fire departments, in the process inspiring a local movement.

As Pete Hamel wrote for a Yahoo Sports story, Candle "rarely seeks the spotlight," but with an eye toward what might happen, he allowed Toledo to pull together a press release. The result?

The next day, (the deli owner) said his phone rang more than 10 times the amount it had the day before Candle’s gesture. There were calls for food orders, which were welcome. But there were also copycats of Candle’s benevolence, people wanting to make orders to both support the restaurant and help others.

Read the full story HERE.

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With college football potentially in jeopardy because of a possible resurgence of COVID-19 this fall the idea has been floated about pushing the season up and playing in the summer when the hope is the virus will subside. Voices in the know suggest the idea is "absurd," and "makes no sense." Writes another (LINK):

Not knocking this reporting but no AD or coach I've talked to over the last week views this is a viable option. Most don't even think they'll get their guys back on campus until June/July let alone trying to start a season then

FootballScoop has the, uh, scoop HERE.

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Managed to miss this one a couple of weeks ago but Steve Thames, who spent the past two years as an assistant at Fordham, has moved on to Georgetown as receivers coach. He was a quality control assistant at Dartmouth in 2016 and ’17. (LINK)

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EXTRA POINT
A few emails came in after yesterday's PAT on my favorite sports movies. One mentioned a flick that may well have replaced another in my Top-10 if I had thought of it – Brian's Song. A couple of other lists included a movie that as a Penn Stater I certainly should have considered: Something For Joey, based on Heisman winner John Cappelletti's relationship with his kid brother.

Another emailer couldn't believe Rudy wasn't on my list. ;-)

Here are four other Top-10 lists sent in:

Remember the Titans (No. 1)
Rocky
Sandlot
Brian's Song
Raging Bull
Field of Dreams
Secretariat
Friday Night Lights
The Natural
Miracle

The Bad News Bears
Hoosiers
Slapshot
Major League
Victory
Chariots of Fire
Rudy
Rocky
The Karate Kid
Moneyball

The Natural
A League of Their Own
Fever Pitch
The Blind Side
42
Bad News Bears
Bang the Drum Slowly
Bull Durham
Field of Dreams
Friday Night Lights
The Rookie

(The writer notes that he – like me – has never seen Raging Bull or Invictus.)

Field of Dreams
Hoosiers
Rocky
Something for Joey
Remember the Titans
Hoop Dreams
Miracle
Rudy
Bull Durham

Major League

Green Alert Take: Not many surprises on the list but I have to admit, I had to look up Victory. I don't remember ever hearing of it.

Green Alert Take II: Seeing The Rookie on the list makes me smile. That Certain Dartmouth '14 and The Certain Nittany Lion '16 used to love The Rookie when they were younger. They actually called the movie, "Dennis Quaid As The Rookie."