Follow-Ups

Tim Linecum Signs:  When Los Angeles of Anaheim signed pitcher C J Wilson  I wrote on December 10, 2011 that it would cost the Angeles  $1 million a win.  That's cheap!  Yesterday the Giants signed Tim Linecum and I figure it will cost them over $1 million this year and close to $2 million next year for every win Tim records  The Giants were very fortunate that they didn't get stuck with a another worthless long term contract.  Tim has too many red flags that we know of to trust him long term which includes his sloppy appearance, excessive bar hoping, drug possession charges and his recent law suit for destroying his former apartment after he moved out.

Warrior Fans:  On November 29, 2011 I wrote that the Warriors fans were the envy of the NBA. I happened to catch the Warriors blowing a 20 point lead in their loss to Memphis the other night on the NBA Channel.  I could not believe the way the Warriors played the last minute of the game.  They were horrible, a disgrace and a total embarrassment.  I would have booed them off the court.  After the game Warrior forward Dorell Wright said we should have been booed.  When the game ended Oracle Area was very quiet and I believe that the loyal Warrior fans were too shocked to boo.  Help is on the way.  I have heard from a very reliable source that Jerry West is working out and should be in uniform next week.

The Super Bowl:  Great game!  The New York Giants won for the NFC and the winning TD is scored as the defense tries to let the runner score and runner tries not to score.  NFL strategy at its best. The 49ers missed a real opportunity to win their 6th Super Bowl.  Oh, if they only had the New York receivers!  (added February 6, 2012)

Homer Sweeney

Devastating

Roger Craig

The San Francisco 49ers have a great history of Super Bowl wins which makes them one of the elite franchises in the NFL but they also create disasters for themselves by having a unique practice of blowing playoff games at home.   Kyle Williams kept this tradition alive Sunday and should be wondering if he will be with the team next year.  His two incredible fumbles will be remembered for fifty years as the only reason the 49ers did not play in Super Bowl XLVI.

The great 49er running back Roger Craig playing on his last leg was forgiven for his fumble in 1990 that cost the 49ers a playoff game against the Giants and their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance. The 49ers did not recover in time and they missed making the 1991 playoffs for one of the few times during this historic era. The hangover did not last long for it was just a few years later that the 49ers were World Champions for the fifth time.

Preston Reilly a reserve wide receiver was traded after he muffed an on-side kick in 1972  allowing Dallas to rally with two touchdowns in the closing minutes to beat the 49ers.  The Forty Niners won only 5 games the following year ending in last place in their division. Then one that really hurt was back in 1957 when the 49ers blew a 20 point 3rd quarter lead to the Detroit Lions who then the following week went on to win the NFL Championship game by 44 points. The Forty Niners never recovered in 1958 which included a 56 -7 thrashing by the Los Angeles Rams before 96,000 fans at the LA Coliseum.

This Forty Niners loss Sunday cannot be calculated because it is so devastating.

The offense was very inept at times but the defense and kicking game seem to have control of the game until the first Williams fumble gave the Giants great field position which resulted in a touchdown and the complexion of the game changed.

The Forty Niners probably would have won their sixth Super Bowl XLVI since New England does not have one of their great teams this year and is very vulnerable.

The seasons following very disappointing playoff losses have been a disaster for the 49ers.  It's been my experience that teams that 'blow' championship games do not recover.  The 2002 San Francisco Giants had the World Series Championship in their grasp when they let game 6 slip away and it took the Giants eight years before they returned to the series.

The Ty Willingham curse is now hanging over Highbaugh. New coachers that far exceed their expectations in the first year rarely follow with similar success. (See November 30, 2011 article)

The 49ers 2011 season was a real test and a hugh success until the Giant game. The challenge will even be greater in 2012 because the expectations will be so high.

Homer Sweeney

Football Observations

Giants -  49ers:   I would give the 2011-12 49ers  the same advise I gave 30 years ago.  If you're going to lose in the playoffs lose early.  It's too late to lose!

Television:  Last weekend the 49ers played the first of four NFL games on Playoff Weekend.allowing the networks to feature Tim Teabow and the Denver Broncos.  This is a deparature from the policies followed in the 20th Century when the 49ers usually played the last game on the weekend because of their location and time zone. The NFL discovered that fans would attend night games even in January and in zero degree weather to the delight of the networks, doctors and morticians. 

Pac 12 Bowl Record:  Match ups hurt the Pac 12 this bowl season and was the major reason for their poor 2-5 showing. The Pac 12 normally sends their #1 team to the Rose Bowl, #2 team to the Alamo Bowl, #3 Holiday, #4 Sun, #5 MAACO and so on. This year because Stanford received a BCS invite and USC was ineligible, #4 Washington  played in the Alamo, #5 California in the Holiday,  #6 Utah in the Sun and #7 Arizona State in MAACO Bowl.

Homer Sweeney

USF Football 60 Years Later

Sixty years later and it is still an amazing story!

It was not a surprise when I saw the name of Ollie Matson on the brim of the University of Phoenix Stadium while waiting for the start of the 2012 Fiesta Bowl.  The Glendale Stadium is also the home for the Arizona Cardinals and Matson started his great NFL career with the Cardinals when they were located in Chicago. Four years ago on January 2, 2008  the Fiesta Bowl honored the Undefeated, Untied and Uninvited 1951 University of San Francisco Dons a team which Matson was an All-American.

The 1951 Dons have been called the best college football team ever. They certainly had the talent but never had the opportunity to prove such a bold claim. USF had 38 players assigned numbers on the roster, nine of which made the NFL. Five of the nine made All Pro and three Ollie Matson, Bob St.Clair and Gino Marchetti, voted the best defensive end in first 50 years of the NFL, are in the NFL Football Hall of Fame along with USF Athletic Publicist Pete Rozelle who was NFL Commissioner during the time of pro football's greatest growth.

USF was invited to the Sugar Bowl game as long as they did not bring their two African American players. During that period teams from the deep south did not play integrated teams. USF refused the invitation and did not receive another bowl bid which is the major reason given why during my freshman year USF terminated football at the end of the 1951 season.

USF dropped football because they lacked the money to continue since the teams in the Pacific Coast Conference such as Stanford and California would not schedule them. If the BCS existed in 1951 the Dons would have not even been considered for a bowl because of weakness of only a nine game schedule which included two games against service teams, two against San Jose State, a major game in New York against Fordham, Santa Clara, Idaho, Loyola and I can remember being part of the overflow crowd of 41,607 that witnessed the big game of the year at Pacific Memorial Stadium in Stockton against the previously undefeated College of Pacific Tigers which USF won 47-14.

1950 game program

There was plenty of speculation about the reasons USF was not scheduled by Pacific Coast Conference teams.

One very popular argument was that teams were afraid to play USF because by the end of 1950 season it was obvious they would be tough to beat in 1951. The Dons record in 1950 was 7-4  which however included losses to the Stanford Indians 55-7 and to the Rose Bowl bound California Bears 13-7 in the 'Mud Bowl' a game that thrilled hundreds of seagulls in the pouring rain at Strawberry Cannon.

Although neither Stanford nor California teams were integrated at the time race was never considered a factor. They both scheduled and played other teams with African American players and UCLA a member of the PCC had baseball immortal Jackie Robinson playing football for them in the late 1930's.

Columnists speculated that the PCC wanted the independents eliminated. The press had to live with both Stanford and California so this possibility was easily denied although history shows that actions speak louder than words.  In a short three year span of time a great era of college football was ended when the Galloping Gaels of St. Mary's (1939 Cotton Bowl, 1946 Sugar Bowl), USF and the Santa Clara Broncos (Sugar Bowl 1937, 1938, Orange Bowl, 1950)  all dropped major college football.

The birth and success of the San Francisco 49ers in 1946 contributed to the competition for the entertainment dollar and the big three independents schools lost their decades of monopoly for Sunday afternoon football at Kezar Stadium..

Input usf football 1951 into your computer search for many additional articles and videos on the Dons.

Homer Sweeney

Sources:
Undefeated, Untied and Uninvited
History of the Fiesta Bowl
University of California Football Programs
Stanford University Football Programs
St. Mary's and Santa Clara Bowl Records

The NFL Playoffs

Upset of the weekend - Giants over the Packers!

Homer Sweeney

The Fiesta Bowl 2012

A few comments about attending the Fiesta Bowl and other related events while renewing old friendships with my Stanford relatives and friends.

1. The game was an old fashion western shoot out between Cowboys and Indians at the UP Coral.

2. The Oklahoma State fans were a sea of orange and their Cowboy team was dressed in black from helmet to shoe while the Stanford Cardinal wore white uniforms and their supporters were in red or cardinal.

3. It looks like a Guinness Book of Records might have been broken at the Stanford Tail Gate Party. It is believed that those in attendance broke the all time cumulative SAT score for a party attended by less than 10,000 people. The College Board is still in the final stage of verifying scores of those in attendance who incidentally did not have to be a Stanford grad to count. The total attendance at the party was so close to breaking above 10,000 that it will be recounted in order that the record can be certified.

4. I was very disappointed when a Stanford cheer leader told me that they would not be doing the famous AX yell during the game. I had practiced the yell with a group at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, with friends at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel and again at the tail gate party but then forgot to lead this traditional historic yell as promised with 5 minutes remaining in the game. Besides eliminating the AX yell, I am told by a reliable source that the spell out yells formerly done at the start of games had been dropped because university presidents would feel embarrassed if their school name was misspelled. Additional changes such as the Stanford band (above) and cheer leaders attire have taken place over the decades. The male yell leaders of my day were dressed in full uniform and led yells while today's cheerleaders are female wear little and hold up signs that say 'Noise'.

5. To attend a game at the indoor University of Phoenix Stadium was a complete delight with a great view of the game, very comfortable indoor conditions and padded seats instead of wooden benches. Oh how football games have changed!

Homer Sweeney