GA Tech football trivia

stinger78

stinger78

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Maybe not only trivia, but a couple of fun facts to know and tell as well as thoughts on the shift of power in college football.

Heisman's 1917 GA Tech MNC team was only the second southern school to be named national champs. LSU being the first in 1908.

TAMU shared a championship with Harvard, Illinois, and Notre Dame in 1919 to become the third.

Alabama became the fourth team with back-to-back championship trophies in 1925 and 1926.

Then GA Tech tied Bama at 2 each with the 1928 championship. Through 1929, southern schools with football trophies were: GA Tech/Alabama - 2 and LSU/TAMU - 1. The first 50 years of college football saw only 6 trophies for southern schools.

From 1930 through 1949, Alabama (1930), TCU (1938), and TAMU, (1939) were the only southern schools to win trophies (though UGAg claims one in 1942, it is not recognized by the NCAA). College football's top-shelf was most often comprised of teams from the Midwest (Big Ten plus ND), with teams from the east (Pitt, Army, etc.) and west coast school (USC and UCLA also making a statement or two). Only 3 trophies over the next 20 years - 9 over the first 70 years.

However, 1950 was the year that southern schools emerged in the MNC race. From 1950 through 1999 (50 seasons) trophies for southern schools were abundant with 32 MNC's:
Alabama (7)
Oklahoma (6)
Miami (4)
FSU (2)
Tennessee (2)
Texas (2)
Arkansas (1)
Auburn (1)
Clemson (1)
Florida (1)
Georgia (1)
GA Tech (1)
LSU (1)
Maryland (1)
Mississippi (1)

From 2000 onward (23 seasons), the MNC club has shifted to an almost exclusive club of southern schools with 20 total trophies:
Alabama (6)
LSU (3)
Clemson (2)
Florida (2)
Georgia (2)
Auburn (1)
FSU (1)
Miami (1)
Oklahoma (1)
Texas (1)

Only OSU (2) and USC (2) [with 2004 being stripped] have broken that iron-fisted hold on the MNC in the 21st century.

Whereas the first 70 years saw only 9 trophies in southern football trophy cases, the last 73 years have seen 52. Suh is the shift in the power core of college football over the years.
 
bobongo

bobongo

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stinger78 said:
We consider it so, but the NCAA doesn't recognize out 1952 championship.
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Some would say that that's the result of bias by northern sportswriters at the time, since Tech richly deserved it.
I wonder if that purported bias could be one reason why southern teams didn't win too many before 1950, and the bias lingered for a time after 1950.
 
stinger78

stinger78

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bobongo said:
Some would say that that's the result of bias by northern sportswriters at the time, since Tech richly deserved it.
I wonder if that purported bias could be one reason why southern teams didn't win too many before 1950, and the bias lingered for a time after 1950.
Click to expand...
I might be inclined to agree with you, though I (obviously) wasn't there. Perhaps as the US south began to prosper post-WWII and southern media began to be heard, and games played, more teams were awarded the opportunity to play for the brass ring in the post-season bowls. However, the Rose Bowl was perhaps the biggest reason that the southern teams never got much of a look until the other bowls took shape in the decade prior to 1950. The Rose Bowl has been for almost 100 years a showcase of Midwest (B10) vs. West Coast (P8-10-12) "champions."

We were passed over in 1952 by Michigan State. I believe I have read where CBD was desperately wanting to play MSU in a bowl that season but was denied.
 

yeti92

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stinger78 said:
I might be inclined to agree with you, though I (obviously) wasn't there. Perhaps as the US south began to prosper post-WWII and southern media began to be heard, and games played, more teams were awarded the opportunity to play for the brass ring in the post-season bowls. However, the Rose Bowl was perhaps the biggest reason that the southern teams never got much of a look until the other bowls took shape in the decade prior to 1950. The Rose Bowl has been for almost 100 years a showcase of Midwest (B10) vs. West Coast (P8-10-12) "champions."

We were passed over in 1952 by Michigan State. I believe I have read where CBD was desperately wanting to play MSU in a bowl that season but was denied.
Click to expand...
I read somewhere that MSU was not allowed to play in a bowl that year because of conference changing or something of the sort, and Tech had already accepted an invite to the Sugar Bowl like halfway through the season.
 

Heisman's Ghost

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bobongo said:
Some would say that that's the result of bias by northern sportswriters at the time, since Tech richly deserved it.
I wonder if that purported bias could be one reason why southern teams didn't win too many before 1950, and the bias lingered for a time after 1950.
Click to expand...
Alabama was cheated out of a national championship in 1966 because of the civil rights controversy. A book was written that clearly detailed that bias. It was called "The Missing Ring". That was some football team. They had six shutouts and absolutely destroyed Nebraska in the Orange Bowl which had huge linemen 34-7. The only serious challenge came at Knoxville where Tennessee gave the Tide all they could handle before losing 11-10.
 
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