Sports Then and Now

The final game of the 1999 regular season did not mean a whole lot to the Oakland Raiders, but meant everything for the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Chiefs entered the game with a 9-6 record and needed to defeat the Raiders plus have the Seattle Seahawks lose to win the AFC West title (The Seahawks owned the tiebreaker because they won both of their meetings with the Chiefs).

Even though a loss to the Raiders would keep them out of the playoffs, the Chiefs had to be very confident as they had lost to Oakland twice during the entire decade of the 1990s and had not lost to the Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium since 1988.

Kansas City was under first-year head coach Gunther Cunningham, who had replaced Marty Schottenheimmer after a decade in which he led the Chiefs to nine playoff appearances, and quarterback Elvis Grbac.

Grbac had spent the previous two seasons in Kansas City in a quarterback controversy with backup Rich Gannon, as Gannon had filled in nicely for the starter and won 10 of his 16 starts during the 1997 and 1998 seasons.

After the 1998 season, Gannon left the Chiefs and signed as a free agent with the arch rival Raiders, where he was named the starting quarterback for head coach Jon Gruden who was entering his second season as the Raiders’ head coach.

Oakland entered the game at 7-8 and were eliminated from playoff contention, but a victory of the hated Chiefs to prevent them from moving on to the postseason, would make the season for the Raiders. Read the rest of this entry →

Iowa Wins at Home

The planets aligned almost perfectly for the Mighty Zultan this past week as the all-seeing seer did his best prognosticating so far in the 2011 season.

Going eight for ten, Zultan was bested by only six who had astrological influences that outweighed Big Z’s crystal ball.

Zultan is pleased to report that Mom is out of the “Home” and back on the front porch after Iowa took care of the always dangerous Northwestern foes. This week Mom is serving hot Hoosier ham, in honor of the Big Game in Iowa City.

It seems that “travel” in the Big Ten is recommended in Week 8 for most teams. Zultan also sees an abundance of Fat Cats skirting the gridirons, waiting for a chance to pounce.

Those who surpassed Zultan in week seven will be listed at the end of the article where the all-seeing seer will sing their praises. If you wish to test your prognosticating skills against the mighty Zultan as we head into college football’s week eight, click here to make your selections. See if you can scale the heights and outguess the Big Z who sees “all” with the aid of his trusty crystal ball.

Game 1: Big Ten Indiana Hoosiers (1-6, 0-3) at Iowa Hawkeyes (4-2, 1-1)

Because Iowa was able to get the “Wildcats” off  their backs, the Hawkeyes will be ready to hunker down and send the Hoosiers home, feeling a bit used and unsettled.  The next few games look very manageable for the high flying Hawks. New Hoosier Head Coach Kevin Wilson will learn that life in the Big Ten can be very cruel and unforgiving.

Pick Iowa at home.

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When it comes to the toughest stadiums to play in college football, the LSU Tigers’ Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana is generally regarded as the toughest, especially on a Saturday night.

Over the years, “Death Valley” has been voted as the scariest place for a visiting road team to play a college football game because of the loud decibel levels that are provided by the partisan LSU faithful.

One night in October 1988, the LSU fans got so loud after the game-winning touchdown against Auburn, they produced an “earthquake” on the LSU campus.

LSU was playing host to #4 Auburn, who entered the game having won their first four games of the season by a combined score of 161 to 44.

The Tigers were led by head coach Pat Dye, who was in his eighth season at Auburn and complied a 61-21-2 record in his first seven seasons.

Even though he had enormously successful at Auburn as he won two SEC championships and had defeated arch rival Alabama four times during his tenure, the 1988 team was perhaps Dye’s best team as it featured a defense that allowed only 79 points through the 11 games of the regular season and had the best defensive player in the country in defensive lineman Tracy Rocker.

While Auburn came into the game on a roll, LSU came in limping as they had dropped their last two games and entered the game with a measly 2-2 record.

The Bayou Bengals were under the direction of second-year head coach Mike Archer who directed LSU to their first 10-win season in 25 years the previous season.

LSU was having a difficult time replacing all-American wide receiver Wendell Davis and 1,000 yard rusher Harvey Williams as they evident by their 19-6 loss to Florida the week before the Auburn game.

Junior quarterback Tommy Hodson and the LSU offense had their work cut out for them as they faced with the nation’s best defense on a Saturday night in “Death Valley”.

In the first quarter, Auburn drove into LSU territory three times but each time could not get into or were taken out of field goal range and were forced to punt the ball all three times.

Meanwhile, LSU mounted very little offense as they were unable to cross midfield at all during the first quarter.

Looking for a spark on offense, Archer took out Hodson and replaced him with backup Mickey Guidry on LSU’s first possession of the second quarter.

But Guidry was unable to move the Tigers either as LSU did not mount a drive in the first half as they punted on all seven of their possessions. Read the rest of this entry →

During the 1950s, the Detroit Lions were the elite team in the National Football League as they won three NFL championships between the years 1952 and 1957.

But following their 1957 NFL title, the Lions traded quarterback Bobby Layne to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who was so angry about the transaction that he allegedly said that the Lions would not win for 50 years.

For the next 25 years, the Lions did not win as they made the playoffs only twice in 1970 and 1982, with the latter coming because the NFL expanded the playoffs to 16 teams following the strike-shortened season.

But in 1983, Detroit fans were hopeful as the Lions won their first division title since the 1957 season as they won the NFC Central Division title despite a 9-7 record.

The Lions were coached by Monte Clark, who was in his sixth season as the Detroit head coach, after a seven-year stint as the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers in which the team won three NFC West titles.

Detroit won the NFC Central in 1983 because of their stingy defense which allowed the second fewest points during the regular season and all-pro running back Billy Sims, who had gained over 1,000 yards for the third time since he was taken as the #1 overall pick of the 1980 Draft.

The Lions’ opponent in their 1983 NFC Divisional Playoff would be the San Francisco 49ers, who were two years removed from their Super Bowl championship season.

The 49ers struggled in their defense of their Super Bowl title as they went 3-6 in the 1982 season and failed to make the expanded playoffs because of their 28th ranked rushing offense.

Needing to bolster the running game to help quarterback Joe Montana, the 49ers used their first round pick in the NFL Draft to select Nebraska’s Roger Craig and acquired Wendell Tyler from the Los Angeles Rams. Read the rest of this entry →

Penn State won in Week 6.

Zultan is sad to report that after the Iowa Hawkeyes self-destructed in Happy Valley on Saturday, Mom had to be carted off the premises by the guys in the white coats.

Now in rehab, Mom sings the Iowa Fight song from sun up to dusk.  The only thing that can possibly restore her sanity is a win this week over the ever-ruinous Northwestern Wildcats.
After all, Zultan needs Mom to cook his meals.  Come on black birds—win one for the old lady!

The All-Seeing Seer is also forced to report that the “Show-Me” state showed little in the way of winning last Saturday as Missouri failed to upend the Kansas State Wildcats in a Big Z upset. Okay Bill Snyder, you “showed” up the mighty Zultan in Week No. 6.

The ultimate lesson came from Northwestern and their newly refurbished quarterback who showed all the right signs to upset the Michigan Wolverines making their first road trip—but sadly, Persa failed to deliver and Zultan was saddled with three—count them, three losses.

Still – it was better than four from the previous week.  The dozens of you who outguessed the mighty Zultan will be applauded at the end of this article and given your due respect by the All-Seeing magnanimous one.

It is now time to turn our focus to the crystal ball and week seven.  At the conclusion of this weekend of action, the BCS will unload their ranking for the first time this season.  We are already halfway through the 2011 season.

Click here to enter your picks for this week’s slate of ten games and see if you can surpass the mighty Zultan this week. Zultan feels mighty lucky but that could be from a lack of Mom’s Goodwill brownies.

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When it comes to the football rivalry between the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans, some observers see it as Big Brother vs. Little Brother with the Wolverines cast as the big brother and the Spartans as the little brother.

Heading into their 1990 meeting, Michigan had a confident feeling they were going to their little brother another beat down as the Wolverines entered the game as the #1 team in the country while Michigan State came in with a losing record.

The 1990 season was the first season in 21 years that Michigan did not have legendary head coach Bo Schembechler roaming the sidelines.

Gary Moeller, a Michigan assistant coach for 17 of Schembechler’s 21 years at Michigan, took over as head coach and guided the Wolverines to the #1 ranking despite a 28-24 loss to Notre Dame in the season opener.

Michigan had an offense that featured running back Jon Vaughn, the nation’s leading rusher at with 168 yards per game, sophomore quarterback Elvis Grbac, and a sophomore wide receiver named Desmond Howard, who was starting to make a name for himself in college football.

While the Wolverines came into the game as the top-ranked team in the country, the Spartans entered the game with a 1-2-1 record and were coming off a 12-7 loss to Iowa the week before.

This was the eighth season for Michigan State with head coach George Perles as head coach, who had complied a 46-33-3 record in his first seven seasons and had taken the Spartans to a Rose Bowl victory following a 1987 Big Ten championship season.

However, Perles had a 2-5 record against Michigan and had been held to an average of less than seven points in the previous five meetings against the Wolverines. Read the rest of this entry →