Unlike the Sunday version of the gridiron sport, college football is about traditions, rivalries, and tailgates. Unlike professional version that started almost 80 years ago, the collegiate version has been around since the latter part of the nineteenth century. While the origins of the sport are open to debate, the traditions are not. Long-standing rivalries such as Lehigh vs. Lafayette, Army vs. Navy and Harvard vs. Yale has been around for over one hundred years.
The college football history is about George Heisman, the coach of Georgia Tech who introduced the passing game. His team also defeated one team 222 to 0; ironically, the award bearing his name is given to the individual who demonstrates sportsmanship on and off the field. When one thinks of the game’s rich history, one cannot forget the exploits of Red “Galloping Ghost” Grange who pounded opponents of the Fightin’ Illini or the “Four Horsemen” of Notre Dame. The history is filled with New Year’s Day Bowl traditions which probably started as a marketing ploy to sell more roses, oranges, cotton, peaches, and sugar.
The college game, like the professional version, begins its season around Labor Day. It winds down around the Thanksgiving weekend that is usually reserved for the bitter rivalries. It means Florida State look to chop down the Gators of Florida, the Trojans of Southern California looking to bear down on UCLA and Michigan fighting Ohio State. In the pros, a good player is rewarded with endorsement deals and lucrative contracts. In college, the good players are the ones with all the buckeyes, tomahawks, and other cool stickers on their helmets. Throughout the season where half the starters graduate, drop out, seek employment in the NFL or McDonald’s, there are certainties. Florida State will win at least 10 games, Joe Paterno will pace the sidelines at State College as he has done for the last 34 years, and Ohio State will find a way to choke at the end of the season.
