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The Daily Dose/December 5, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
   
Notes from around the Human Experience! Plus Morgan Fairchild is the Column Four Foto!
TEN-HUT! The 109th Army/Navy game is Saturday, although not too many people care about the Army/Navy game anymore. It has no BCS significance, and Navy has already accepted an invitation to something called the EagleBank Bowl in Washington D.C.
The EagleBank What? The Eagle Bank Bowl. We are not making that up, though, honestly, we wish we were because there are already too many bowl games.
Or so we thought. Last off-season the NCAA decided there weren't enough bowl games and authorized two more, the 33rd and 34th. We did some research and it turns out the game will be played at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, where the Redskins used to play, and Navy will play the ninth place team from the ACC. The ninth place team! Talk about dumbing down. Good gravy, you go 6-6 and come in ninth place and you get to go to a bowl game.
FunFact: The other new bowl game will be played in a baseball stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida. The name of it is irrelevant.
Quit Your Sniveling: The Army/Navy game's only real relevance nowadays is that it's been about the only constant college football fans have had over the years. The bowl system we grew up, which wasn't perfect but wasn't all that bad, either, is long gone. The Rose Bowl is now nothing more than a consolation prize for Big 10 and Pac-10 teams not good enough to qualify for the BCS title game.
But the Army/Navy game persists, still nothing more than what's always been: a bunch of officer candidates playing football for their schools, their teammates and themselves.
America's Game: For the 81st time the game will be played in Philadelphia, but it's also been played in Princeton and East Rutherford, New Jersey, Baltimore, Chicago, plus Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds in New York City. Even the Rose Bowl's hosted it once, and each service academy has hosted it three times, twice each in the first years of the series, and again once each during World War II.
Anchors Aweigh: Navy has won six straight, the longest winning streak in the series, and has also won nine of eleven, which follows a streak of Army winning nine of eleven, including five straight.
Make Your Ticket Plans Now: Beginning next year, the game will be played a week later, on the second weekend in December, meaning it will no longer have to compete with conference championship games and whatever mess the Pac-10 wants to foist on us.
The Pregame Show Is Brought To You By Hertz: Navy comes into the game 7-4 and, as noted, has already accepted a bid to the EagleBank Bowl, though why anyone would want to play or watch and outdoor football game in our nation's capital at that December isn't entirely clear because the average high temperature for December in Washington is 47 degrees.
And In This Corner: Army, as usual, blows. They're 3-8, soon to be 3-9 after Navy destroys them, and haven't had a winning season since 1996, when they lost to Auburn in the Independence Bowl. They come into the game on a strong three-game losing streak, the second time this season they've lost at least three straight, and the Black Knights of Confusion haven't won since late October.
This ineptitude contrasts nicely with our Navy boys, who routinely play in official, NCAA-sanctioned post-season games, having done so the past five seasons. This season will be the sixth straight bowl game for our Midshipmen. This will also be the sixth straight time Navy has won the Commander In Chief's Trophy, given to the best service academy football team, which this year, as with the previous five years, would be Navy.
AS LONG AS WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT: Official Writer's Shack fave the Mount Union Purple Raider football team continues it's quest for it's tenth NCAA Division III national championship Saturday in a big quarterfinal game against Cortland State. Last week Mount Union defeated Hobart 42-7 in the second round and they were also dominant in their opener, defeating Randolph-Macon 56-0.
Get Out Your History Books: Mount Union running back Nate Kmic became the leading rusher in D-III history in the victory over Hobart. Kmic rushed for 235 yards (and four touchdowns), giving him 7,449 career yards, topping the 7,353 yards gained by Grove City College's R.J. Bowers from 2004-07.
Oh Yeah: Kmic is the second leading rusher in NCAA history, trailing only Danny Woodhead of Division II Chadron State, who rushed for 7.962 yards from 2004-07.
Hut, Hut Hike: Elsewhere in the D-III quarterfinals Wheaton is at Franklin, Washington and Jefferson is at Mary Hardin-Baylor and Wartburg is at defending national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater.
SHOULDN'T THIS BE A TRIVIA QUESTION? On this date, in 1782, the eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, New York, the first president born after the formation of the United States.
On This Date: On this date, in 1831, former President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives, the first former President to serve in Congress and the only one to serve in the House. He would serve 17 years. Former President Andrew Johnson would later serve in the Senate.
I'll Drink To That: On this date, in 1933, a good stiff drink is legal again as Utah become the 36th state to ratify the Twenty-First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This amendment repealed the 18th Amendment, which was ratified in 1919 and had outlawed booze in the country.
Whoops, Our Bad: On this date, in 1969, Life Magazine breaks the story of the My Lai Massacre. The My Lai Massacre, a massacre of several hundred Vietnamese civilians, most of them women, children or old men, by US troops, had actually happened in March, 1968, but had been covered up fairly well and its reporting may have been even more delayed had a soldier who had heard about the massacre second hand not written some letters to various high ranking government officials.
Thought For The Day: In the city, people paid to hear other people sing and watch other people feel. Passion has become a spectator sport supported by emotional cripples. Love and suffering were knacks possessed by the talented paid to display their gifts. - Lawrence Sanders, The Third Deadly Sin
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Schools from what is now the Ivy League have won 48 mythical national football championships since 1869.
Today's Stumper: Who is the leading rusher in NCAA I-A/FCS history? - Answer next time!
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