Latest / Unicorn Football Talk / College Rivalries
Transcript
- Emily: Hi, this is Emily from Unicorn Football Talk. Hillary and I recorded an episode on rivalries, but it ran a little long. Last week I released the first part of the conversation on NFL rivalries. Today you'll be hearing the second half of our conversation where we talk all about our favorite college rivalries. I hope you enjoy. Hilary: All right. are you ready to move on to NCAA? Emily: Yeah, let's talk NCAA. we haven't talked a lot about college so far in this podcast. You know, I love the NFL, but I don't think the NFL can touch college when it comes to rivalries. That's my opinion. And right, like on top Hilary: I agree. Yeah. Emily: of all of the elements that we talked about earlier. In college, you have this loyalty to a school that is really unmatched, I think. I know I'm a total Seahawks fan. I'm a die-hard Seahawks, but it just doesn't match my passion for University of Tennessee. It's like nothing else. the rivalries we're talking about are also really old, have been around forever. And there is a ton of passion for them, even if a team is having a down year, they can they can hopefully play the spoiler role or something like that. So it even Hilary: Yeah. Emily: carries weight on on the years where a team is down, which I have a lot, a lot of experience in as of late. agree, disagree? Agree. Hilary: agree. Agree. Emily: All right. Well I'll kick off and I'm gonna talk about my team, Tennessee. I became a vol fan when I moved to Tennessee in high school. So I wasn't going to school there. but it is a huge part of life in Knoxville is Tennessee football. And it stayed with me for life. I'm a vol for life. They call it VFL. I didn't go to undergrad there. I went to Northwestern, but I am not A Northwestern. I I'm like, yay, we're Northwestern, but I'm just I am loyal to Tennessee. I ended up going to Tennessee for graduate school and I got to experience it firsthand as a student. And there's just nothing like going to a game there, in my opinion. when I became a fan, Tennessee was dominant overall. And their main rivals were Alabama and Florida. But I picked Alabama to highlight for this podcast. The sports hate in Tennessee really has always been about Bama. but I will point out it's a little bit one sided. Alabama's biggest rival is Auburn. They play in the Iron Bowl every year at the end of the season. but for us, we don't really have an in state rival. I mean, Vanderbelt's kind of been coming on, but we don't really consider them a big rival. So Tennessee Bama is the one I am highlighting. do you know that the rivalry game is known as the third Saturday in October? Hilary: I no, I don't know that. I don't know much about either team. Emily: it is called that because that is the date that the game is played on. I don't know if you've ever noticed it's always on that date. They first played each other in nineteen one and they locked in on that specific date starting in nineteen twenty eight. So it's been on that date for a long time. The SEC was a 10-team conference for a long while, actually. It expanded in 1991, in 2012, and 2024 by two teams each time. And throughout this growth, the SEC has prioritized keeping Tennessee, Alabama on the schedule. For example, when the SEC added teams in 1991, they created an East and West division. Tennessee and Alabama are not in the same division. So the SEC created a permanent cross-divisional rival format to ensure that that game would always be on the schedule. The current format, the SEC has 16 teams. divisions have now been eliminated. The SEC is now in what they call a three-sixths. scheduling model where six of the games are rotated every year for each SEC school. So they will ensure that every few years you'll play to everybody in the SEC. But then there's three teams that are locked in as permanent rival schedule where they have to play them every single year. Tennessee and Alabama is locked in as a permanent game and it continues to be on the third Saturday in October. Hilary: That's a cool history. Emily: Yeah, and it's gonna be hard for me to share highlights because the last 20 plus years has been brutal for us Tennessee fans. But I'm gonna pick out a couple because unfortunately there's probably only two highlights. The overall record is 60, 40, and eight advantage to Alabama. And really it's all because the last 20 plus years. my recent favorite memory is we won in 2022 and we snapped a 15 year losing street. Like it's it's been painful, Hillary. It's really been Hilary: Wow, okay. Emily: it's been hard. but I mean I was I was in my house in the Pacific Northwest watching by myself with no Tennessee fans, which was pretty sad. but as you can imagine, the city went nuts. you know, in college football, you have people storming the field, which we also don't have in the NFL. And they stormed the field, they took down the goal posts, they marched the goalposts down the strip, which is the main drag of bars there. And then they threw it into the Tennessee River. You don't get that in the NFL, Hillary. It just doesn't happen. the excitement that they felt, they just couldn't contain themselves. Moving on, in nineteen ninety-five, we broke a several year losing streak and started our own winning streak of seven years. This is when we had the great Peyton Manning playing for us. In 2003, we had the longest game in the rivalry. It was a five overtime marathon in Tuscaloosa. And I'm happy to say that we won. The good guys won, 51 to 43. And one more I will call out, even though this was before my time, Tennessee and Alabama have had some legendary coaches. Back in 1982, Bear Bryant, coach of Alabama, was riding an 11-game winning streak against the Vols. And my unranked Vols pulled off a major upset, led by coach Johnny Majors. There's a picture of Johnny Majors being carried. Off the field by the players after the game. and there's a picture of him reaching down to shake Bear Bryant's hand on what would be Bryant's last game against the Vols. So this rivalry has been streaky, and it is sports hate at its finest. I don't think you have any love for Alabama either. Hilary: I do not really personal when we lost our head coach to Alabama after Nick Saban's retirement, I'm still a little bitter about that. Emily: I bet. And it gives me extra fuel. Hilary: And I'll and I'll I'm gonna leave it. I'm gonna I'm gonna leave it at that. Emily: Yeah. Yeah. And I I know we're gonna move on to the Huskies next. I have sort of adopted them, and it's an extra reason for me to hate Alabama. It's an extra dimension for me to add on to the rivalry. are we ready to move on? Hilary: Yeah, Yeah. Emily: So let's move on to your team, Hillary. Tell me about the rivalry you picked. Hilary: Okay, well, I picked the Washington, Oregon rivalry. But before I jump into that, I do want to say there is a longstanding traditional rivalry, University of Washington versus the Washington State Cougars, and it's called the Apple Cup. And it's a cross-state rivalry, and it's been around for a long time. And in recent years, the Cougars have all have often been willing to play the spoiler on that. But what's different is I would say for most fans I know most of the year we're neutral. Like we don't like the Cougars, right? But like we're gonna cheer for their other sports teams. If the Cougars are having a game against another team outside of our Division. I'm gonna cheer for them. I hope they do well. I hope they represent well in the bowl games. Okay. Oregon. Sorry. I am not cheering for anything Oregon ever. In fact, I'm fantasizing about the bumper sticker I'm gonna put on the back of a car when I see the Oregon license plate to cover up that plate. It is animosity at a whole different level. You know, if you if you've got a rivalry like this for NFL or college, you know this feeling, right? Emily: I do know the Hilary: It's just Emily: feeling. Hilary: it's flat out animosity. It is personal. in the UW Oregon series, the UW holds a lead over Oregon, 63 wins to to 50. This game has been going on since 1900. the early games were pretty close matches. and you know, the rivalry is just really stoked by fan behavior, press, coaches, comments in social media, and even the players themselves. everybody kind of has a hand in keeping it going. But key moments. As I said before, first game in 1900, Oregon won. The early games were close matches. UW was in control in the 30s and 40s. And the rivalry really shifted toward that kind of super hatred zone in 1948. So in that year, both Oregon and Cal were undefeated in what was then called the Pacific Coast Conference. And instead of holding a playoff between those two teams to determine who was going to be the conference champion. The other teams in the conference voted of who they thought was the better team and who would better Emily: What? Hilary: represent them. Right. So allegedly, Washington convinced Montana to vote for Cal instead of Oregon, and that blocked Oregon from going to the Rose Bowl, and Cal went instead. Emily: that's a great story. Hilary: So that launched some decades of bitterness. the teams traded their largest blowout wins in program histories in back-to-back years. in 1973, Oregon won 58 to nothing. And in 1974, UW won 66 to nothing. So yeah, Emily: Whoa. Hilary: The UW was dominant in the eighties and nineties. That's the coach Don James era. a favorite fact I found in nineteen ninety-one, Huskies went to Oregon and the Oregon fans threw dog biscuits on the field as a sign of disrespect. And we had a linebacker named Dave Hoffman and he picked them up off the field and ate them in front of the fans. And the Huskies went on to win the national championship that year. Emily: great story. I did not know that. Hilary: Yeah, right. That was just kind of one of the things. so there are a couple other, you know, highlight moments, I guess. One is called the pick. In October of nineteen ninety-four, UW was driving to take the lead and a freshman from Oregon picked off Damon Heward and ran it back ninety-seven yards to win the game. And it broke the winning streak by Washington and Oregon won the conference that year and went on to the Rose Bowl. since 1994, Oregon leads the series 26 to 19. Huskies lost 12 in a row from 2002 to 2015. So, next big highlight in the rivalry 2016, the Huskies again traveled to Oregon. And I don't know if anybody listening has ever been to Audsen Stadium in Eugene, but it is a Packed house every game. Crazy fans. It is a really awesome home field advantage for the Ducks. It's really hard to win there. So fun fact, Justin Herbert was the starting quarterback for Oregon that year. And Jake Browning for the Huskies and on one of the first plays from scrimmage he ran the ball in for a touchdown and as he was running the ball in, he held out his finger and he pointed at the defender who was not supposed to block him and he ran it in. It's known as the point and the Huskies hung 70 points on the ducks that day and it's the second most points ever allowed by the Oregon defense. So that one, yeah, that one Emily: Remember that. Yeah. Hilary: lingers, right? Okay. And then we come to the 22, 23 season when the UW is and Oregon for that matter, are closing out their tenure in the Pac 12. They would go on to the Big Ten the next year. I'm wearing my last official Pac 12 jersey. The UW closed that series out by beating Oregon three times in a row in the 2022 season and then twice in the 2023 season. And that's the year the Huskies went on to play in the national title game. And Washington Husky fans, we just take such pride in the fact that Oregon still doesn't have a national title. I Emily: Yeah. Hilary: Washington has wash they do Emily: I never thought they don't, do they? Hilary: not Washington has two and Oregon zero. Emily: Zero. Hilary: Mind you that's a zero not the Oregon O, okay? Emily: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hilary: So that's that Emily: Wow. Hilary: rivalry for me. Emily: Yeah, I know. I know this rivalry well. I don't feel it like you at all. Like I have no hatred towards Oregon. I just generally root for the Huskies, but if Oregon's playing, I'll root for them. So obviously we're not we don't feel these, these teams the same way. Hilary: Okay. We haven't converted you yet because I am pretty sure you were in the stadium for the win in twenty twenty-three at home. Emily: I was. I went to that game and I was rooting for the Huskies. It was a great game and it was really fun. I think game day was there. Hilary: They were. They were. Emily: before we move on, we should point out our teams are gonna play each other in a few years. There's like a back to back series. I'm looking forward to that. Hilary: Okay, circling that one on the calendar. Emily: All right. I think we're gonna move on. We've got two more college games to talk about. So we each picked one rivalry that stood out to us as college football fans. I picked Michigan, Ohio State. It's known every year as the game. Many people Hilary: Yeah. Emily: believe it's the greatest rivalry in all sports. we all feel like our rivalries are probably the biggest rivalry in all sports. But it's a big one. It's always the final game of the regular season, and they hate each other, which is just a key component of a rivalry. They have played 121 times going back to 1897. And I learned a fun fact that just cracked me up. Supposedly, the hatred of each other predates football. In 1835, they fought a skirmish, a border skirmish over the city of Toledo. known as the Toledo War. Obviously Ohio won that. and then also in Ohio they refuse to even mention Michigan by name. They call them the team that plays up north or that school up north. Hilary: Is there a reciprocal? Emily: there's a guy I listened to on sports radio that's a Michigan fan, and he does also call Ohio State that team down south. So I don't know if he did Hilary: Okay. Emily: if they did that in response to Ohio doing it first, but I think Michigan does that if he does that. All right, So some key things I researched or found out or wanted to call out for today, there was a period between 1969 and 1978 that they refer to as the 10 year war, marked by brutal physical games. I guess I really like brutal physical rivalries. and in 2006. They call it the game of the century. Boy, they're kind of full of themselves, actually, if I think about it. They're Hilary: Yeah. Emily: like, they call their game the game, the and the game of the century. they met as number one and two ranked with a BCS Hilary: wow. Emily: on the line, if we remember the Bowl Championship series. Hilary: Yeah. Yeah. Emily: Ohio State won that game. And in 2016, they were ranked two and three. And the game went to overtime for the first time, and Ohio State won that. And they had a controversial call, as you talked about what makes a good rivalry. They had a controversial Hilary: Yeah. Emily: call in there about whether Ohio State had picked up a first down on fourth and one or not. recent memory game I have, Michigan won in 2024 at at Ohio State, and they planted their flag on the logo. Do you remember that? Hilary: do remember that. That was big. That was a big deal. Emily: It it was a big deal. It was ugly, actually. It did cause a brawl. I'm not really a a fan of going that far. it caused a brawl. It was not the finest moment for that for that rivalry. But yeah, they don't like each other. another thing, before I hand off to you that I learned is there is a tradition on the Ohio State side, if they win Each player gets a gold charm shaped like football pants. Have you ever heard that? I Hilary: Really? No. Emily: had no idea until I was looking into this rivalry. It goes back to 1934. The head coach at the time, when he was getting his team ready to play Michigan, he said they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. And a local businessman created the Gold Pants Club. after Ohio State won that game thirty four to zero. you can actually go online and Google like what they look like. They're just little yeah, they look like football pants. And I had no idea. Hilary: Okay, well, I have a fun fact for you on this too that has to do with a tradition. I mean, it's related to the game and but also to the band. So the Michigan marching band and the Ohio State marching band both have drum majors who use batons to lead their teams. And they used to the same style and they used to order them from two different manufacturers. And back in the 30s, the manufacturer That made the one from Michigan closed and they were forced to go to the other baton maker who was also servicing Ohio, the Ohio state. And to this day, every baton that is shipped to Michigan has an inscription on it. And I don't remember the exact wording, but it basically says, Go Buckeyes Beat Michigan or something like that. And so that's why the Michigan drum majors have their batons taped over because it's taped over the inscription. Emily: What? How did I not know this? That's that's a great little tidbit. All right, are we ready to talk about our last rivalry? Hilary: We are ready. And I'm excited about this one. I chose to highlight the Army Navy rivalry, the Black Knights versus the Midshipman. And I chose to highlight this rivalry for a couple of reasons. It's one of the oldest. The first game was in November of 1890. And it has so many cool and unique traditions by both academies. in the week leading up to and pre-game that I really wanted to highlight those. And despite not hearing a lot about it in the press as much anymore, it's just really true and passionate emotions between the two academies. And right now, leading into the next 10 years or so, this rivalry has the rights to be the very last broadcast during the regular season for college football. So after the regular rivalry weekend and all of that kind of stuff, this game is in, I believe, the second weekend of December to not have the competition with the other matchups. Which I thought that was kind of cool. The traditions. So neither academy has a very big stadium. So most of the time, there have been a couple of exceptions, but most of the time this is played on a neutral field. And they're scheduled to play at MetLife in 2026. I think last year it was in Maryland at I'm blanking on the name of the stadium. I'm going to call it the Commander's Stadium. I think it just changed names with a new sponsor. But anyway, the point is they're playing in big stadiums before a lot of fans and They have the neutral field. they have something called the pre-game march on. And backing up here, the entire student body from each school attends the game. Everybody. Emily: I d Hilary: entire student body. And then they pre-game do what's called the march on, the entire student body from both schools marches onto the field in formation. and there's a small ceremony, and then they retreat to the opposing stands on either side of the field. also pre-game, they have a huge flyover. you know, not just one airplane, but four to six aircraft from each service. last year, the group from the army featured Apache, Chinook, and Black Hawk helicopters. They had four FA 18 super hornets for the Navy. Big deal, big a lot of pride there. they also have a prisoner swap. and the prisoners are the students from the opposing. Academies who are doing like rotational study at the opposing school. So like there's Navy students at Army for that semester and Army students at Navy. And so they bring them out to the middle of the field and they swap them out and they're allowed to sit with their school for the game. And then they also have this other really cool tradition post game, and it's called Sing Second. Okay, I want you to think about this for a minute. Each Academy sings the opposing teams alma mater as a sign of respect and the bond of service. The losing team sings first, the winner sings second. Can you even imagine Tennessee singing for Alabama or Michigan singing Ohio's Carmen Ohio alma mater? I d no way, right? Emily: my gosh, if if we could force Alabama to sing Rocky Top, that would make my day. I cannot believe they have to do that. I had no idea. I mean, I guess I feel bad because I feel like I turn the game on, but like every 'cause it's the only game on, but I'm not really watching. So I'll have something to look out for next time. Hilary: Yeah, I again just super, super cool traditions. multiple presidents have attended the Army Navy game. And if they do, they're expected to do the coin toss. And they're also expected to sit one half of the game on each side of the field to not show a favoritism for either service. okay. My absolute favorite thing about this. Rivalry is their mascots. Okay. So the Army mascot is the mule, and the Navy mascot is the goat. And the Navy always names their goat Bill. They're on Bill number 36, just to throw that out there for fun, right? But there's a long history of the schools trying as a prank to steal the opposing school's mascot. So the Army calls those attempts spirit missions. And they have been successful 12 times across the history of the rivalry. And in 1965, they had their girlfriends cry in front of the Marines that were guarding the pen so that they could steal the mascots while the Marines were taking care of their girlfriends. Emily: Huh huh that's great. That's great. Hilary: This is awesome, right? Okay. In 1972, they hid the goat for weeks and they took out an ad in the New York Times saying, Hey Navy, do you know where your kid is today? The core sure does. Emily: That's great. Hilary: and then in 1995, they stole all of them, not just the acting mascot, but all the goats. And so that led to a ban on that, because I'll get into it in a minute, but there was in there was a retaliation by Navy. and then despite the ban in 2002 they stole them again, disguised in Grateful Dead t-shirts and Navy's last successful mission. of Bill was in 2012, and the goat was found tied to a tree next to the Pentagon. So Navy's only been successful once in 1991, but they stole all four mules. And I just want to think about how you might do that. But Army, Army definitely has the upper hand. the game's been televised continuously since 1943. it's played As I mentioned before, the second Saturday of December, the winner of the game is awarded the commander in chief trophy and the team is honored at the White House to receive the trophy. Emily: that was some great information that I didn't know. Hilary: Yeah, yeah. And so two fun facts for you here. Did you know that instant replay debuted in the Army Navy game in 1963? No? Okay. Emily: No, did not. Hilary: Second fun fact, what's credited to be the first football helmet was used in 1893, Made out of leather by a navy player. Emily: didn't know that either. You're full of good information. I'm glad you picked this one. That was really interesting. Hilary: So there you go. I am full of fun facts. Yeah. Yeah. I I really learned a lot on that one. Emily: It's been really fun to talk about rivalries with you today. I feel like I'm getting really stoked for the football season Hilary: Yeah, maybe I gotta go circle a few more games on my calendar now, right? Emily: Well, we hope you all enjoyed learning about rivalries. It's always fun talking with you, Hillary, and we will see you all next time on Unicorn Football Talk. Hilary: Good to talk with you today, Emily. See ya soon.