WSJ:The Forgotten Ghosts of College Football

[dcpony]

You guess it. SMU's one of the schools.

http://tinyurl.com/yjk5hy5

Here's the big take away excerpt: "That death-penalty phrase is not part of our vocabulary," says athletic director Steve Orsini, who in his 3½ -year tenure has made a point of not using the death penalty as an excuse for continued failure. "I wouldn't be here and June Jones [SMU's $2 million-per-year coach] wouldn't be here if we didn't believe we could return to the glory days of old."

The Wall Street Journal
The Forgotten Ghosts of College Football
Four schools that had it all—and lost it
By DARREN EVERSON


There was a time once when the University of Chicago was known for something other than economics and eggheads.

A century ago, Chicago was one of the kings of college football. Legendary coach Amos Alonzo Stagg prowled its sidelines. Seldom did Chicago even play road games. Foes came to the South Side because the paycheck was too good.

But 70 years ago this winter, the school disbanded its football team. The stadium became the birthplace of the atomic bomb, when the first controlled nuclear chain reaction was performed under its stands in 1942. Now a library stands there, which is exactly how Robert Hutchins would've liked it. "When I am minded to take exercise," said Mr. Hutchins, the school president who led the push to ax the team, "I sit down and wait until the mood has passed."

[peruna11]

thank god we seem to be getting some traction with the administration, it pains me to think how close we were getting to this point.

thank you to all the donors and to the leaders on campus who have fought for our program. it feels like we are finally making progress.

Go Ponies, Beat tu!!

[NavyCrimson]

Interesting, or rather sad, how the author didn't mention the 30's & 40's teams. Those were the teams that put us on the national map & blazed the path for the future - including the Pony Express years. Without those years, you could probably argue that the PE years would have never happened because the coaches were using our history in their recruiting efforts. (Forget the jokes about the cash b/c everyone else was there, too - guys).

[jtstang]

Having a hard time seeing the connection between the 30's and 40's and the Pony Express--unless you know something I don't about paying players in the 30's and 40's.

[PonySoprano]

Bear Bryant was paying players at aTm in the 50s (as was documented in Jim Dent's book, The Junction Boys).

[RunPeruna]

Having a hard time seeing the connection between the 30's and 40's and the Pony Express--unless you know something I don't about paying players in the 30's and 40's.

Paying players has been around in college football just about as long as the sport itself. Iowa, Yale, and UCLA are just a few schools found to have slush funds at different times.

http://books.google.com/books?ei=Ru3qSv ... d+football

[Mexmustang]

The few SMU professors that still dream of that the U of Chicago should be SMU's model, would not be qualified to be hired nor certainly become tenured there (think of our mediocre Spanish Department)!

[NickSMU17]

Interesting to note that U of C is a big ten charter member and feasibly could ask back in as they still do have an affiliation with the conference...

[dcpony]

I bet Tulane wishes they could have a do-over on leaving the SEC. That BCS money could have come in handy after Katrina.

[jtstang]

Having a hard time seeing the connection between the 30's and 40's and the Pony Express--unless you know something I don't about paying players in the 30's and 40's.

Paying players has been around in college football just about as long as the sport itself. Iowa, Yale, and UCLA are just a few schools found to have slush funds at different times.

http://books.google.com/books?ei=Ru3qSv ... d+football

Interesting. It's too bad would could not come up with enough cash to keep both Doak Walker AND Bobby Layne at home.