the forgotten ghosts of college football wsj october 30, 2009

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SPORTS OCTOBER 30, 2009

The Forgotten Ghosts Of College FootballFour schools that had it alland lost it

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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."

On a few campuses across the country, ghosts now reside where packed football stadiums oncestood. At these schools, the autumn Saturday experience cherished at so many other collegesa

big game against a hated rival, with a championship possibly at stakeis gone, or is a shadow of

what it used to be. T he reasons run the gamut from high-minded academic standards, low-

minded rule-breaking, changing times and just plain bad decisions.

Tulane University in New Orleans, a charter member of the Southeastern Conference, withdrew

after the 1965 season from what would become the country's best football conference. It figured

it would be better off as an independent. In 194 9, Tulane won the SEC, but the school soon

became uncompetitive following a financially motivated decision to trim scholarships.

Minnesota, which won five national titles in the 1930s and 1940s under coach Bernie Bierman,

has never been the same since he left to serve in World War II . After he returned, his teamsstruggled to adapt to changes in strategy. Minnesotasave for a blip in the 1960shas struggled

ever since, as its local football talent has waned.

More so than any other sport, college football is beholden to tradition. The best high-school

players flock to the best programs, since that's where the crowds and the championships are.

Because of this, top teams seldom vanish for goodbut it happens. "We haven't ev en won

occasionally," says Minnesota Athletic Director Joel Maturi. "We haven't been in the top two of

the Big Ten since 1967."

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In some ways, the disappearance of top-notch football from these campuses has had effects

beyond the field. It has shaped public perception of these universities, for better or worse, just as

"football schools" like Penn State and Ohio State have become known for six-figure crowds on

game day and boundless school spirit, which in turn aids fund raising. "It's definitely a positive,"

says Rennie Cook, executive director of the alumni association at Oklahoma. "The coolest thing

it does is it also allows us to shine a light on what's going on at the rest of the university."

To this day, Southern Methodist University in Dallas is trying to ov ercome the stain of having its

football program suspended in the late 1980s because of repeated rules violations, a rare

punishment known as the death penalty. Now SMU resides in a minor conference with faraway

schools like East Carolina and Central Floridainstead of being associated with nearby giants

Tex as and Tex as A&M.

"That death-penalty phrase is not part of our vocabulary," says athletic director Steve Orsini,

who in his 3 -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."

Other schools are more modest in their aspirations. Tulane, off to a 2-5 start this season, is just

trying to boost interest. T he team plays its home games before sparse crowds at the Superdome,and last month Tulane and ancient rival LSUwhich face each other Saturdaymutually agreed

to discontinue their series. "T he mood around campus is very apathetic toward football," says

Tulane junior Nick Peruffo, the sports editor at the student newspaper.

Minnesota has at least solved its stadium issue: The team moved into the $288.5 million TCF

Bank Stadium this season, ending its stay at the Metrodome, whose climate-controlled

environment didn't attract warm-weather recruits as was hoped. Coach Tim Brewster, whose

team is 4-4, talks of someday reaching the Rose Bowl, an honor that traditionally goes to the Big

Ten champion. But conference rivals Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State all have stadiums with

more than double the capacity of T CF's 50,805, and all three more than doubled Minnesota's

$24.3 million in football revenues in the 2007-08 fiscal year. "I do think the Ohio States,

Michigans and Penn States have an advantage that the other schools don't have," says Mr.Maturi. "But it's also been proven that the other Big Ten schoolsquite frankly ev eryone outside

of Minnesota and Indianahave found a way to do it on occasion."

The most famous ghosts of the gridiron are Yale, Harvard and their fellow members of the Ivy

League. After shaping the sport's rules in the late 19th century and dominating its early days, the

schools that would later form the Ivy resisted the national shift toward awarding athletic

scholarships and lowering admissions standards for players. T oday, Ivy teams quietly live out

life in the lower-level Football Championship Subdivision. The Yale Bowla landmark that

inspired the Rose Bowl and Michigan Stadiumhad 3,879 for the Lafayette game Oct. 3.

But even the Ivies didn't go as far to demonstrate their commitment to education as Chicago. Mr.

Hutchins, the school's president from 1929 to 1951, was convinced that football had the samerelation to education that "bullfighting has to agriculture."

Mr. Hutchins never would've had enough support to ax the football team in 1939, historians say,

if Chicago's teams had still been the mighty Monsters of the Midway. (That nickname, now

associated with the NFL's Chicago Bears, originated with Mr. Stagg's Maroons; "Midway" refers

to a park that runs through campus.) Aiding Mr. Hutchins's cause was Chicago's massive decline

on the fielddue in part to Chicago's higher academic standards. In 1939, Chicago's final major-

college season, the Maroons lost 85-0 to Michigan and 61-0 to Ohio State and Harvard.


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Dropping football helped build Chicago's image as a top destination for serious-minded graduate

students and faculty. Over 80 Nobel Prize winners have studied, taught or researched at

Chicago. "That's part of the magic of Chicago," says Robin Lester, who wrote a book about Mr.

Stagg and Chicago football. "T hat's their thing. It's still a serious place for kids to get an

education."

Today, Chicago is once again embracing athletics as part of a larger push to invest in campus life

beyond the classroom. Last week, the school celebrated the 40-year anniversary of the return of

varsity football; Chicago now plays on the non-athletic-scholarship Division III level. "We're still

being true to the notion that it's not in the interest of universities to create mass-entertainment

spectacles," says John Boyer, dean of Chicago's undergraduate college. "I always tell people that

those games in '39 were the best thing that ever happened to us."


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the forgotten ghosts of college football wsj october 30, 2009

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