I liked this comment on the online version of the article.

Yeah, Eagle66, you beat me to the punch.  I was going to post the same response.  Pretty funny, huh?

Indeed, but now it's time for Peay.

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That story is amazing when you consider it was Landon himself who brings attention to an obscure moment some 42 years previous, and as a journalist, attempts to use that moment to drum up hatred within a current Marshall player who wasn't even around back then. Does it occur to Landon that the only story the Marshall player hears is filtered through Chuck himself? He's actually manipulating a Marshall player with some BS story he remembers from long ago, and then basing his entire column on it. Not to mention, the story itself is a bit hard to believe. Something tells me the college student Chuck may have gotten himself all lathered up over something quite benign--and is still fuming about it.

Crazy.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I believe we are undefeated this year in ConfUSA.  Actually, we are 2-0 in that conference and supposedly have defeated two of their "better" teams.  So, perhaps we should move to CUSA because this year it appears we own that conference.

GO BOBCATS!

I'm guessing Marshall does spend more money and does have better facilities.

And, I know for sure they do have more rabid fans.

Yet, we win.  3 years in a row including a 44-7 blowout.

Our students cared so little they walked out en masse because they couldn't wait 2 hours to have a beer.  Walked out on a rivalry game.  What serious football program has that happen?

I don't understand how we beat them given all of this.

So, I can appreciate Chuck Landon's disbelief.  And die hard Marshall fan's disbelief.

They indeed should be a better program and should beat us.

Yet, we win. 

Hee hee.....

Well, yes, Jeff, I have a different take on this and on Chuck.  Do I think he went overboard on his statements about the Ohio program vs. the Marshall program in yesterday's paper?  Yes.  Do I think he needs to have a little more forgiveness in his heart?  Yes.  Do I understand where he is coming from?  Yes.   I, too, remember that Miami butt-whipping.  While I wasn't there, as Chuck was, I was listening to it on the radio.  As I recall this game occurred the week after the miracle upset of Xavier in Marshall's first post-crash home game.  No one was surprised that Marshall lost, but it was very clear that Miami was running up the score.  Frank would never do that to any team, and especially not to a team that was coming off the greatest sports tragedy in US history.  That was plain wrong.  

Look at it this way.  Chuck got the Marshall team so emotionally high for the Miami game that they probably couldn't duplicate that level of intensity against us.  So, he may have done us a favor, unwittingly.  

I will always have a fond spot in my heart for Chuck, despite my many disagreements with the opinions expressed in his column.  For it was Chuck who came in a took over as the sports editor of The Parthenon when Jeff Nathan was killed in the crash.  Chuck worked long hours and devoted tremendous energy to revitalizing the student newspaper's sports reporting.  He and I had many a conversation in the newsroom that year, and I recall often disagreeing with him even then; however, I always admired his work ethic and his commitment getting the story and digging for details.  (Yes, I was appalled at the grammatical error in the lead paragraph of the game story yesterday.  I'd be willing to bet that Chuck didn't make that error but that some numbskull copy editor did.)

Part of the problem is I doubt many of them know it's a rivalry game.  Unless you are a rabid fan who has researched Ohio athletics to find out who are the rivals and such (that is if you weren't raised a Bobcat), then you aren't going to know who's our rival outside of conference foe Miami.  Most of the students who show up are just the casual fans.  They don't know Marshall was once a conference rival and still remains our regional rival (given the temp and time of night on a saturday, I doubt many would have cared anyway).

You're saying that a copy editor changed the tense of the word?  Come on, Chuck made the mistake and the copy editor didn't notice it.

Or maybe Vernon Alden changed it.

As to the Miami game, is it not true that Miami didn't throw the ball in the second half?  Yet you, who were not there, insist that they ran up the score?  Should they have put a knee down on every play?

Just because the score was high does not mean they ran up the score. Were the starters still in? Were they throwing the ball? I recall a game, years ago that ended up 77-7. The winning team was on the road, so they had only a travel squad of 60 players, and no 4th stringers to put in. They did play offensive linemen on defense, and defensive linemen on offense, and the kicker played linebacker, a position he had always wanted to play, while a wide receiver took over the kicking. They ran the ball up the middle on every play in the second half. Even with all that, they still won the fourth quarter, 14-7. Were they running up the score? I think not.

Losing teams often claim that the other team ran up the score. Sometimes it is true, but often it isn't. You put your last-string players in, and you call predictable plays, and vanilla defenses, but you still want the players that are in to do their best. I disagree with having players take dives, or miss tackles. If you want to insult the other team, that's even worse - you're saying "You are so bad, you can't even tackle us, so we're just going to make a mockery of this".

I disagree, LC.  I thought it real class that Hess directed his team not to score in the latter part of the 4th quarter.  As a fan at the time, I wanted him to run up the score.  I was disappointed when I saw our RB Garry ("Carry on the carry" as the PA announcer said all game) break through the center of the line at about the UK 25 with nothing but green space ahead and fall flat on his face as he tripped over the 20 yard line.  But, in retrospect, I think it was the right thing to do.  Why Garry was still in the game at that point I don't know.  Lots of other backups were playing.