A Few More Top 25 College Football Trivia Nuggets

September 30, 2011 – Here are some trivia nuggets for the rest of the Top 25 and the opponents they face tomorrow.

UCLA visits #6 Stanford for the 82^nd time.  UCLA leads the series 45-33-3.  The Cardinal won the last two games in the series and can make it three in a row.  The last time Stanford won three in a row or more against the Bruins was in the beginning, when Stanford won the first five games from 1925-31.  The last tie at UCLA was in 1974 and the last tie at Stanford was in 1969.

The #9 Oregon Ducks host the California Bears.  Cal leads the series 39-32-2.  However, the Ducks are 11-5 against the Bears since 1992.  During the early part of the series, Cal shut out Oregon nine times out of ten between 1918 and 1938, including six games in a row from 1927-38.  Outside of the 0-0 ties in 1905 and 1953, the lowest scoring game in the series was when Oregon beat Cal 2-0 in 1900.

The #10 South Carolina Gamecocks take on the Auburn Tigers at home.  Auburn dominates the series 8-1-1, winning the last six straight.  The Gamecocks’ only win against the Tigers was a 16-14 victory in 1933.  Their only tie occurred the previous season.  After South Carolina’s win, the next time these two teams played each other was 63 years later, in 1996.

The #11 Virginia Tech Hokies host the #13 Clemson Tigers.  Clemson leads the series 17-12-1, but Virginia Tech won the last six since 1998.  The Tigers won most of their games against the Hokies between 1935 and 1989, going 16-2 in that span.  Virginia Tech last shut out Clemson in 1998, winning 37-0 and Clemson last shut out Virginia Tech in 1979, winning 21-0.  Their lone tie was a 0-0 score in 1906.

The #14 Texas A&M Aggies go to Arkansas to take on the Razorbacks.  Arkansas leads the series 40-24-3, winning the last two games.  Texas A&M is 12-5 against Arkansas since 1977.  The last time the Razorbacks won three straight against the Aggies was a 6-0 run from 1977-82.  The last time the Aggies won three in a row against the Razorbacks was also a 6-0 run from 1938-43, including five consecutive shutouts after a 13-7 win in 1938.

The #19 Michigan Wolverines host the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Ann Arbor.  Michigan owns the series 70-24-3.  The only time Minnesota dominated Michigan was when they won nine straight from 1934-42.  Since 1968, the Wolverines are 36-3 against the Golden Gophers.

The #20 TCU Horned Frogs welcome the SMU Mustangs.  TCU leads the series 44-40-7, winning the last four.  SMU went 19-2 from 1966-86, including the Eric Dickerson years.  TCU has gone 17-5 since then. 

Here are a few historical scores on September 28 of this week’s top 25 games…

1933 – Stanford 3 – UCLA 0

1950 – California 28 – Oregon 7

1989 – TCU 28 – SMU 10

2006 – Florida 28 – Alabama 13

2006 – UCLA 31 – Stanford 0

2006 – Baylor 17 – Kansas State 3

2006 – Michigan 28 – Minnesota 14

Last Place Update

September 29, 2011 – This is the final Last Place Update for the Major League Baseball season.  As stated in the previous update, the 56-106 Houston Astros are MLB’s Worst Champions.  They are the only team to have more than 100 losses this season.  The 63-99 Minnesota Twins are in second and the 67-95 Seattle Mariners are in third.

The honorable mention was supposed to go to Minnesota, but they lost that, too, because their collapse didn’t cost them playoff spots.  Instead, honorable mentions go out to the 90-72 Boston Red Sox and the 89-73 Atlanta Braves for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  The Braves went 12-21 since August 23, losing their last five games. The Red Sox went 7-20 in September.  Both teams missed the playoffs by losing the last game of the season.  At least the Astros went 9-16 in September and 14-20 since August 23.

Houston’s 2011 record was a game behind the 2010 champion Pittsburgh Pirates record of 57-105.  It’s the worst finish since 2005, when the Kansas City Royals also went 56-106.

The Last Place Updates are a tongue-in-cheek look at the worst teams, but it's also a fact that it takes a special kind of athlete to earn the privilege of wearing a professional sports uniform, whether it's for a season or a long Hall of Fame career.  Only a tiny percent of people are good enough to wear the uniform of a professional sports team whether it's a world champion team or even the cellar dwellers.  Hats off to all the MLB teams for a good 2011 season!!

Congrats to the St. Louis Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for doing what Boston and Atlanta couldn’t do.  Good luck to all the teams in the playoffs.

Note: The Last Place Updates for the NFL’s Kings of the Cellar begin next week.

A Few College Football Trivia Nuggets - The Top 5 Edition

September 28, 2011 – Here are a few trivia nuggets for the top 5 college football teams this week.

#1 LSU faces Kentucky this weekend, but had only played each other three times ever in September.  The Tigers lead the series 38-16-1.  However, the Wildcats lead the September series 2-1, both of their wins shutouts.  Kentucky’s September wins are from the first two times the teams ever played each other in 1949 and 1950.  LSU’s September win came in 1955.

The #2 Oklahoma Sooners play the Ball State Cardinals this weekend for the first time ever.  May it be a great game.

The #3 Alabama Crimson Tide goes to Gainesville the week to take on the Florida Gators.  Alabama leads the series 23-14 and lead at Florida 9-2.  The series goes in streaks, with one team winning a couple to several in a row against the other.  There was only one time in the series when each team scored a single win among a streak of losses.  Florida’s happened between 1925 and 1950.  The Crimson Tide went 7-1 during that time, with the Gators’ lone win coming in 1927.  Alabama’s happened between 1987 and 1998.  The Gators also went 7-1 during that time, with the Tide’s lone win coming in their national championship year in 1992.

#4 Boise State faces Nevada at home on Saturday.  In recent years, this has been a high scoring rivalry.  It became more heated after the Wolf Pack crushed the Broncos’ hopes of a national championship with an upset win last season.  The rivalry is famous for games such as Boise State’s 69-67 win in 2007 and even a 59-52 Nevada win in the Division I-AA Semi-Finals in 1990.  The last time neither team scored 30 points or more in a game was in 1986 when Nevada won 21-16.  The Broncos should dominate the Wolf Pack in Saturday’s game, but never count Nevada out.

The Kansas Jayhawks visit Stillwater to take on the #5 Oklahoma State Cowboys.  The series is tied 29-29-3.  Like the Alabama-Florida series, this is one that tends to run in streaks.  The Jayhawks’ 2007 win broke a five game win streak in the series by the Cowboys from 1998-2006, but that streak broke a six game series win streak by the Jayhawks from 1990-95, which broke a 14-0-3 streak by Oklahoma State from 1973-89.  The teams faced each only one time in September.  The Cowboys won the game in 1998 38-28.

Here are a few historical scores on September 28 of this week’s top 25 games…

1935 – Clemson 28 – Virginia Tech 7

1985 – SMU 56 – TCU 21

2006 – Auburn 24 – South Carolina 17

Today in 1981 - Buffalo Bills vs Cincinnati Bengals

September 27, 1981 – Today in 1981, the Cincinnati Bengals hosted the Buffalo Bills at Riverfront Stadium in a Week 4 game.

After a scoreless first quarter, Cincinnati got on the board in the second quarter with a 13 yard touchdown pass from Ken Anderson to Cris Collinsworth.  Buffalo answered with a 9 yard touchdown pass from Joe Ferguson to Frank Lewis and a 4 yard touchdown pass from Ferguson to Mark Brammer.  Jim Breech kicked a 23 yard field goal for the Bengals and at halftime, Buffalo led 14-10.

The third quarter went scoreless like the first.  In the fourth quarter, the Bills increased their lead on a 5 yard touchdown pass from Ferguson to Lewis.  But the Bengals would not be denied.  Ken Anderson threw two 16 yard touchdown passes to Steve Kreider to take the lead for the first time in the game, 21-17.  Nick Mike-Mayer kicked a 40 yard field goal to send the game to overtime tied 24-24.

In the overtime period, Jim Breech kicked a 28 yard field goal to win the game.  The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Buffalo Bills 27-24.

Joe Ferguson passed 25-45 287 yards and 3 touchdowns for the Bills.  Frank Lewis had 8 receptions for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns.  For the Bengals, Ken Anderson passed 28-40 for 328 yards and 3 touchdowns.  He also had 2 rushes for 21 yards.  Cris Collinsworth had 10 receptions for 111 yards and a touchdown.

The Cincinnati Bengals went to 3-1 with the win and finished the season at 12-4.  They played the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl and lost 26-21.

The Buffalo Bills fell to 2-2 with the loss.  They finished the season at 10-6 and lost to the Bengals 28-21 in a divisional playoff game.

Notables

• There were 3 Hall of Famers either playing or coaching in this game, all with Cincinnati: Anthony Munoz, head coach Forrest Gregg, and assistant coach Dick LeBeau.
  
• This was Gregg’s second season coaching the Bengals.  He coached the team from 1980-83.  He also coached the Cleveland Browns from 1975-77 and his former team, the Green Bay Packers, from 1984-87.
  
• Chuck Knox was in his fourth season coaching the Bills.  He coached the team from 1978-82.  He also coached the Seattle Seahawks from 1983-91 and the Los Angeles Rams from 1973-77 and 1992-94.
  
• Bills’ linebacker Jim Haslett went on to coach the New Orleans Saints from 2000-05.  He was the head coach when the team got its first ever playoff win in 2000.

Other scores on this day for teams facing each other this week…

1952 - San Francisco 49ers 31 – Philadelphia Eagles 21

1959 – San Francisco 24 – Philadelphia 14

2009 – San Diego Chargers 23 – Miami Dolphins 13

Game stats can be found on Pro-Football-Reference.com at Buffalo Bills vs Cincinnati Bengals - September 27, 1981.