Tag Archives: College Football

Trouble on the Horizon for Ohio State.

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Maurice The Beast Clarett has spoken out about alleged misconduct by the Ohio State Athletic Department. Clarett names OSU Coach Jim Tressel and his brother Dick with helping arrange cars & cash:

Clarett says that while he was at Ohio State in 2002 and 2003 head coach Jim Tressel, as well as certain members of his staff and boosters, provided him with improper benefits. He says he covered up Tressel’s improprieties during the NCAA investigation and afterward, Ohio State “blackballed” him from the football program.

According to Clarett, Tressel arranged loaner cars for him and Tressel’s brother, Dick, found him lucrative landscaping jobs that he did not even have to show up for. He says members of Tressel’s staff also introduced him to boosters who’d slip him thousands of dollars, and the better he played, the more cash he’d receive. He says boosters eventually began inviting him into their homes or would meet him out in the community.

“When you’d leave, [the booster] sets you straight,” Clarett told The Magazine. “They say, ‘You got any money in your pocket?’ They make sure your money’s straight.”

Tressel and OSU Athletic Director are scheduled to speak around noon today about the matter. Meanwhile ESPN’s SportCenter will have more info at 6pm tonight and Sunday’s OutSide the Line’s.

135 Years to the Day.

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Today is the 135th Anniversary of College Football. The first game was played by between Princeton University and Rutgers University on this day in 1869. Rutgers eked out a 6-4 victory on that mythic fall afternoon:

The game, which bore little resemblance to its modern-day counterpart, was played with two teams of 25 men each under rugby-like rules, but like modern football, it was “replete with surprise, strategy, prodigies of determination, and physical prowess,” to use the words of one of the Rutgers players.

William J. Leggett, captain of the Rutgers team who later became a distinguished clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, suggested that rules for the contest be adopted from those of the London Football Association. Leggett’s proposal was accepted by Captain William Gunmere of Princeton, who later became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

At 3 pm on that memorable afternoon, the 50 combatants and about 100 spectators gathered on the field. Most of the assemblage sat on a low wooden fence and watched the athletes doff hats, coats and vests and use suspenders as belts. To distinguish themselves from the bareheaded visitors, 50 Rutgers students, including players, donned scarlet-colored scarfs which they converted into turbans.

Today Princeton University will host Penn University and Rutgers University will head to Boston College.

The Game Prevails.

The Game will continue to be The Game, after an outcry from supporters at both universities the Administrations decided to ax the deal.

“As we attempted to move forward, it became apparent that this agreement could detract from the great tradition of the game itself,” Ohio State Athletic Directory Andy Geiger said. “Given that possibility, and the fast-approaching date of this year’s game, the two universities agreed it was in their best interest not to pursue the arrangement at this time.”

As usual, OSU Coach Jim Tressel managed to say absolutely nothing about the subject:

“There’s a lot of different ways you can look at any of the things we do, evolving from just going out in the yard and playing a pickup game to where we are today. I’m sure there’s a lot of things you could discuss as to ‘Is that the right direction?”