OCTOBER 7th - At Least The Kicker Had a Bad Day



This day in 1916 was the biggest blowout in college football history. Georgia Tech beat Cumberland College of Lebanon, Tennessee 222 - 0. That’s 222. To Zilch. Now Cumberland had actually discontinued their football program for the 1916 season, but Georgia Tech’s coach wasn’t having that. Coach John Heisman of trophy fame (though not at that point) also happened to be the Georgia Tech baseball coach. And Cumberland had beaten the tar off his boys the previous spring 22-0. Worse than the score though, Heisman suspected that Cumberland had used professional ringers, cheating their way to a lopsided score. So he wasn’t just going to let them off the hook because they no longer had a team. If they didn’t play, they were going to pay. 3Grand for the forfeit fee. So student manager George Allen hodge-podged a team of 14 together, mostly consisting of his fraternity brothers, to go down to Atlanta and play the Engineers. How bad could it be right? Really bad. The score was 126 - 0 at halftime. I hope they were hung over. You’d think they could have accidentally done something positive. They did complete a ten yard pass on 4th and 22. That's something. Neither team finished the game with a first down. That means that Georgia Tech always scored on its 1st, 2nd, or 3rd play. They wound up 978 yards of offense and not one of those yards was a passing yard. Now I’m never one to advocate dirty play, but if I were one of those players on Cumberland I would have had to start going for some knees or groins. Throwing some punches or something. I guess you have to respect the men for staying in there and taking their beating. But 222 - 0? That’s a little ridiculous. What’s worse is that they weren’t even able to enjoy the 22 - 0 baseball score. They weren't the ringers. While I can’t totally take Heisman to task for running up the score being that he was settling a score, it is bit like getting your ass beat by 20 year-old man and then roughing up his 10 year-old brother to even the score. On the flip side maybe it’s true that cheaters never prosper. Or, perhaps more appropriately, you shouldn't cheat against someone who will hold a grudge. 222 - 0. That’s 32 touchdowns. Georgia Tech’s kicker had a bad game and missed two extra points. Otherwise things could have gotten really embarrassing.

This day has been Marked.

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