Friday, May 29, 2015

The Holy Cross story

It was a beautiful fall day in 1942  just meant for football. Boston College was undefeated, having outscored opponents 249 to 19 and on the way to the Sugar Bowl to play Tulsa for the national championship.  The opponent this  day was little Holy Cross, with a 4-4-1 record.  Then the impossible happened --- Holy Cross won 55-12 in the greatest  upset ever in sports.

The story does not end there,  sadly.  Many fans were celebrating at the Coconut Club when a fire broke out and 492 were burned  or trampled to death.

The entire Holy Cross backfield were officers on the USS Pickens.  A the time I did not understand why they persisted in  boasting  about  beating Boston College.  The only college football team I knew was LSU.

When we were able to  relax on a vacant island we swam and played touch  football  The Holy Cross backs were on the opposite team from I and I continually created problems for them  by crashing into the backfield.  Two of them blocked me on the thighs at the same  time, against the rules but effective because I could barely walk. 

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