Although I am a fan of many different sports teams, I consider myself a fan of sports first and a fan of my team second. I am not one who believes my team is the best and every other team is garbage, or that a player on a team other than my favorite team is not a good player simply because of the uniform he wears. Great players are great players, uniforms are irrelevant. I consider myself a casual fan of hockey, and a big fan of baseball, professional football and basketball. College football however, is my area of expertise. I have learned that over the years, pretty much nobody knows anything about college football. The history of the game gets more and more warped as the years go by. In most forums, people seem to be under the impression that college football began in 1980.
My first college football game was the all time classic 1974 match up between Notre Dame and USC. Notre Dame jumped out to a 24-0 2nd quarter lead. USC scored a TD right before halftime, but failed on a 2 point conversion attempt and went into the locker room trailing 24-6. USC head coach John McKay addressed his team at halftime and told them Anthony Davis was going to return the opening kickoff of the 2nd half for a TD, and USC was going to win the game. Notre Dame kicked off to start the 2nd half and Anthony Davis returned the kick 102 yards for a TD, USC never looked back. USC turned a 24-6 halftime deficit into a 55-24 victory. USC scored as many TDs in less than 20 minutes as Notre Dame surrendered in all of their other games combined in 1974. Needless to say, I became a fan of college football. I was present at Honda Center when the Anaheim Ducks hoisted the Stanley Cup, have been to hundreds of Dodgers and Angels games, countless Lakers games including Western Conference Championship contests and other playoff appearances. I have been to Sweet 16 and Elite 8 match ups, the Pac 10 Tournament, the Rose Bowl, numerous Holiday Bowls including one of the greatest comebacks of all time in the 1980 Holiday Bowl when BYU erased a 20 point deficit with less than 4 minutes to play to defeat SMU 46-45. I also attended the 100th Apple Cup between Washington and Washington St. I have been to nine different college football stadiums in five different states. When I was a child my father used to take me to the 12:30 USC or UCLA game back when they shared the Coliseum (whoever was home on the given week), then we would get into the car and drive down to San Diego for the 7:30 San Diego St game. We did this trip two or three times a season.
I have long considered outlining misrepresentations in the world of sports, but reached my breaking point recently when I attempted to correct blatant falsifications of facts on a Wikipedia page referring to the University of Alabama's football team and national championships claimed. My factual corrections continued to be deleted by people whose main interests clearly were painting the rosiest possible picture of Alabama's history, and had no concern in regards to the facts. Despite my repeated attempts to delete incredibly false claims from the section, it was I who was labeled as "vandalizing" the page and was blocked from future edits. Therefore, it should be no surprise that first up on my list is Wikipedia and the University of Alabama's football page.
