College football news and memories; National Football Foundation honoring Wilber Marshall

I'm watching this now!

-----------------------------------

Some college football news worth reading about from some emails I received over the weekend straight from the National Football Foundation.

You'll note that former Gator great Wilber Marshall is among the new class,whom I watched and followed closely with the great Super Bowl-winning Bears and Redskins teams while I was living in Chicago/Evanston in the mid-'80's, and then later in Washington, D.C.

He was such a joy to watch!

Just the sheer anticipation of the hits he was about to deliver used to get my friends literally jumping out of their chairs when we'd watch them on TV.

I'd love to see a game b/w that '85 Bears team and the '91 Redskins team that was so methodical and powerful. Having seen both in person, at Soldier Field and RFK Stadium, it'd be a hell of a game to watch.

Now that I think about it, that's one of those match ups that ESPN should've thought of a few years ago when they had that series that incorporated contemporaneous film footage to have teams of different eras play one another to determine who was better.

I usually avoided watching those qhen they were on TV, mostly because I disagreed with the selection of the teams, since it always seemed to have the bias that because the great Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowls, they'd win the fantasy games.

But the problem is, as we know, that the best team doesn't always win, which is why having the 1968-69 Baltimore Colts team that lost to the Jets in Super Bowl III play the Len Dawson-led Chiefs team that won the Super Bowl a year later against the Vikings, would've been a great match. Don Shula and Unitas/Morrall against Hank Stram and Len Dawson?

Or what about the the great high-powered Vikings team with Randy Moss that choked against the Giants in the NFC championship, actually play the Ravens team that won that year?

Hell, I'd watch those games now!

See Jon Saraceno's great USAT column on Wilber Marshall before the Bears-Colts Super Bowl downpour down here: Marshall's torments not likely to fade

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/saraceno/2007-01-31-wilber-marshall_x.htm

I'm someone who from an early age, while growing up in San Antonio, then Memphis and finally Miami, followed college football more closely than just about anyone I ever met, reading Sports Illustrated and SPORT magazine from cover-to-cover, devouring all the books, films and videos on the subject and its history, while also meeting lots of people involved in it from the 1970's on.

That also included someone who played for one of the best teams of the era, the University of Michigan Wolverines, who was also football family royalty of a sort.

The person in question is Dave Elliott, a Wolverine defensive back from the early 1970's and the son of former Illinois and later U-M head football coach Pete Elliott, who himself later became the Executive Director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, who was one of my counselors when I attended the Bob Griese-Karl Noonan sports camp up in Boca Raton, three summers in a row from 1971-'74.

His personality and mine were somewhat similar, so we spent a lot of time talking about what it was like to play at a prominent big name school like Michigan, where there were always big expectations, plus, having a family name that was as well known as his was in the Midwest.

Plus, of course, his name was Dave, also.

He was also a key witness to my making an interception of Bob Griese in a flag football game and running about 80 yards for a touchdown, using my speed and moves to twice fake out a lunging Griese, who was my then-idol.

This was back in a time and place when I and all the fellow campers there in pre-cable, pre-ESPN America also knew where every single pro athlete who was at camp had gone to school, with Big Ten schools Purdue and Iowa being most prominent because that's where Griese and Noonan had gone and starred.

(This is the same camp where I first met future Emmy-winning sportscaster Roy Firestone, who I'd stay friends with for years -and who recommended I go to Syracuse- back when he was a U-M student who also toiled at Ralph Renick's WTVJ-Channel 4, back when they had the best sports talent in town under Bernie Rosen.

Roy and I kept in touch for many, many years, even after he left Miami and was doing very well out in LA. When it came time to consider schools, after the financial aid situation made it clear that USC was untenable, much to my disappointment, Roy recommended Syracuse to me over IU because of the growing pub of the Newhouse School of Communication, and the possible synergy b/w my own personality and career interests.
I stuck with IU and dropped him a line every so often of what was going on in Hoosierville as Coach Knight made college basketball relevant to someone who grew-up when the U-M didn't have a team.

Years later, when Roy came back for a family visit to Miami, and I was home from Bloomington for either the summer or Christmas, I showed up unexpectedly with my mother at WKAT over on Miami Beach -which had been the Braves weekend affiliate- when Chris Myers -now of FOX-TV- had a radio show, and had announced the night before that Roy would be a guest.

I figured I'd just say hi and talk for a few minutes before he had to go inside.

To Roy's surprise and mine, because Chris and I and the producers had chatted for a bit before the show, Chris surprised me by inviting me -and my mother- to go on the air with Roy for about an hour, as he recalled one great Roy anecdote after another, and I threw in a few when I could.

It was quite a blast.

Even now, I still recall a younger Roy up in Boca Raton going back and forth with Earl Morral's son, Matt, also a counselor, about whether the rock group Deep Purple would remain a studio band, or would tour. Odd the things your brain remembers!)

My conversations with Dave Elliott and his descriptions of what it was like to live in a real Midwestern college town like Ann Arbor, plus all the other stuff I had observed and absorbed by osmosis, are one of the reasons that I always knew from junior high school on, that I'd leave South Florida in the rear view mirror when it came time to go to college.

I wanted a college experience that was more like the ones I saw broadcast every Saturday on ABC's college football broadcasts with Keith Jackson and Chris Schenkel, than the all-too apathetic and blase reality of late '70's South Florida.

Bloomington offered me all the things I wanted -and much more.

I was totally captivated by the college experience that ABC presented in their three hours and knew that was exactly what I wanted, and that while Gainesville or Tallahassee might be fine for some of my friends, I and most of my smarter friends were getting the hell out of Florida, toute-de-suite!

That's why we headed to Princeton, Charlottesville and Boulder...

I recall having game programs of the Liberty Bowl games when I was six, asking my father's friend to get the game program for me for the 1968 Alabama at U-M game at the Orange Bowl, the first night college football game ever televised in color, and years later, when I was at North Miami Beach, seeing the photos of the NMB head football coach and an assistant coach who had played for that Hurricane team.

At my South Beach Hoosier blog, http://www.southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/ I mention the following under the split-U logo and Sebastian the Ibis:

South Beach Hoosier's first U-M football game at the Orange Bowl was in 1972, age 11, against Tulane in the infamous "Fifth Down" game.

In order to drum up support and attendance for the U-M at the Orange Bowl, that game had a promotion whereby South Florida kids who were school safety patrols could get in for free IF they wore their sash. I did.

Clearly they knew that it was better to let kids in for free, knowing their parents would give them money to buy food and souvenirs, perhaps become a fan and want to return for future games.

The ballgame made an interesting impression on The New York Times, resulting in this gem from the "View of Sport" column of Oct, 14, 1990, labeled 'Fifth Down or Not, It's Over When It's Over.'

"In 1972, aided by a fifth-down officiating gift in the last moments of the game, Miami of Florida defeated Tulane, 24-21. The country and the world was a much different place that fall because The New York Times took time and space to editorialize on the subject.

''Is it right for sportsmen, particularly young athletes, to be penalized or deprived of the goals for which they earnestly competed because responsible officials make mistakes? The ideal of true sportsmanship would be better served if Miami forfeited last week's game.'

South Beach Hoosier hardly needs to tell you that this was YET another New York Times editorial that was completely ignored!

Before going to my first U-M game at the Orange Bowl in 1972, a friend's father often would bring me home an extra 'Canes game program. That's how I came to have the Alabama at U-M game program from Nov. 16, 1968, which was the first nationally-televised college football night game in color. (A 14-6 loss to the Crimson Tide.)

After that first ballgame against Tulane, as I often did for Dolphin games if my father wasn't going, I'd get dropped off at the Levitz parking lot near the 836 & I-95 Cloverleaf in NMB, and catch a Dade County Park & Ride bus, going straight to the Orange Bowl.

Once onboard, I'd get next to the window and listen to WIOD's pre-game show on my Radio Shack transistor radio.

A few times, I was just about the only person onboard besides the bus driver, which was alright by me. Once at the Orange Bowl, if I didn't already have a ticket, I'd buy a game program for myself and one or two for friends or teachers before heading to the ticket window, since you usually couldn't find a program vendor once inside.

I probably had a friend or my father with me for just under 40% of the U-M games I ever went to, but you have to remember that the team, though blessed with several talented players, like Chuck Foreman and Burgess Owens, was just so-so to average at best, and the games were usually played on Friday nights, so it wasn't exactly high on every one's list of things to do.

Depending upon the opponent, if I was alone, I'd often have entire areas of the Orange Bowl to myself. (Wish I had photos of that now!)

For instance, I had a good portion of the East (open) End Zone to myself against Oklahoma in the mid-70's, when the Boomer Schooner and the Schooner Crew went out on the field after an Oklahoma TD, and the Schooner received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the refs, as would happen years later in an Orangle Bowl Classic game. (Against FSU?)

I was there for the wins and losses under Pete Elliott, Carl Selmer & Lou Saban, and the huge on-field fight in '73 when under eventual national champion Notre Dame (then under Ara Parseghian), they called a time-out with less than a minute to go, and already up 37-0.

Their rationale? To score another TD and impress the AP football writers; final score 44-0.

Well, they got their wish and beat Alabama 24-23 for the title at the Sugar Bowl.

A year later, thanks to my Mom's boss, who had tickets he couldn't use, she and I saw Ara's last game as head coach of the Irish in the Orange Bowl Game from the East End Zone -in front of the Alabama cheerleaders!!!- in an exciting 13-11 Notre Dame win over Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide, and a rematch of the '73 national title game.

I was also present for the U-M's huge 20-15 win under Pete Elliott against Darrel Royal's Texas Longhorns, the week Sports Illustrated's College Football preview issue came out with Texas on the cover, above.

I was also present for lots of wins against schools called College of the Pacific, UNLV and Cal-Poly San Luis Obsispo, which I'd then never heard of before.

__________________

excerpt

from Philip Marwill Dec 5
MEDIA ADVISORY

Contacts: Phil Marwill, the National Football Foundation

Email: pmarwill@footballfoundation.com
Dan Sabreen, CBS College Sports Network Email: dsabreen@cbs.com

THIS JUST IN...... from CBS College Sports Network
CBS College Sports Network announced today that the network will broadcast live the National Football Foundation's press conference for the 2008 NFF Annual Awards Dinner, including the induction of this year's College Football Hall of Fame Bowl Subdivision Class.

The press conference will air live from the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York on Tuesday, Dec. 9 from 9:30 - 11:30 AM, ET.

CBS College Sports Network will also provide live streaming video of the press conference available for free to all fans.

The press conference features National Football Foundation Chairman Archie Manning, 2008 Distinguished American Award recipient T. Boone Pickens, NFF Gold Medal recipient John Glenn, NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell and the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame Class, which includes Troy Aikman (UCLA), Billy Cannon (LSU), Jim Dombrowski (Virginia), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Wilber Marshall (Florida), Rueben Mayes (Washington State), Randall McDaniel (Arizona State), Don McPherson (Syracuse), Jay Novacek (Wyoming), Dave Parks (Texas Tech), Ron Simmons (Florida State), Thurman Thomas (Oklahoma State), Arnold Tucker (Army) and coaches John Cooper and Lou Holtz.

CBS College Sports Network is available through local cable operators and nationally via satellite on DIRECTV Channel 613 and Dish Network Channel 152.
For more information on how to watch or subscribe to CBS College Sports Network, log on to http://www.sportsline.com/cbscollegesports/ _________________________________________
MEDIA ADVISORY

Dec. 9 Press Conference for NFF Annual Awards Dinner & College Football Hall of Fame Bowl Subdivision Inductees

WHO: Former U.S. Senator John Glenn, 2008 NFF Gold Medal recipient

T. Boone Pickens, 2008 NFF Distinguished American Award recipient

2008 College Football Hall of Fame Class - Football Bowl Subdivision (See list below)

2008 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class (See list below)

Archie Manning, NFF Chairman Steve Hatchell, NFF President & CEO

WHAT: Press Conference with access to John Glenn, T. Boone Pickens, the members of the 2008 hall of fame and scholar-athlete classes and the announcement of the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year Finalists.

WHERE: The Empire Room at the Waldorf-Astoria, 301 Park Ave., New York, NY, 10022

WHEN: December 9, 2008 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. EST

HOW: * In person * Conference call by clicking here to register.* Live satellite feed from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (See below for coordinates) or clean feed via a Vvxy line at Circuit #1847 at the Waterfront (Ascent Media) in NYC. You may also contact your news service (ABC NewsOne; NBC NewsChannel; CBS Newspath; Sports News Service, CNN Newsource, Fox Feed, etc.) for specific footage. Permission is granted for use for news purposes only.

NOTE 1: Live satellite and clean feed available of dinner ceremonies starting at 7:30 p.m. (See below for coordinates) or clean feed via a Vvxy line at Circuit #1847 at the Waterfront (Ascent Media) in NYC. You may also contact your news service to request specific footage. Permission is granted for use for news purposes only. The Draddy Trophy winner will be announced live between 8:30 and 9 p.m. during this feed.

NOTE 2: Limited media opportunities at a 4:30 p.m. photo session in the Empire Room and the 6:30 p.m. Awards Dinner (Black Tie Required) in the Grand Ballroom. Previous notification required to Phil Marwill to cover all events.

PHOTOS

For Media Only: The National Football Foundation has established a Web site to distribute photos taken by its photographers during the NFF Annual Awards Dinner and surrounding events on Dec. 9 in New York City. Photos will be provided at no cost for one-time use and for news purposes only with a proper photo credit to: "The National Football Foundation." All other rights will be reserved. High resolution photos will continuously be posted throughout the day. To obtain access and/or to be placed on the email list for alerts when particular photos are available, please contact NFF Photographer Gene Boyers

Dec. 9 Press Conference Coordinates(Waldorf-Astoria Empire Room, New York)
9:30-11:30 a.m. ESTG 16 Transponder 6 Slot ADownlink 11804 VSymbol 3.978723Data 5.5FEC 3/4

Dec. 9 Dinner Coordinates (Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom, New York)
19:30-23:30 p.m. ESTG 16 Transponder 6 Slot ADownlink 11804 VSymbol 3.978723Data 5.5FEC 3/4

Note: The morning press conference will provide sound bites from each member of the 2008 College Football Hall of Fame Class, U.S. Senator John Glenn, and T. Boone Pickens. Time permitting several interviews with the NFF National Scholar-Athletes may occur during the morning feed. The dinner feed will feature all of the honorees accepting their awards.
The 2008 Hall of Fame Class: Troy Aikman (UCLA), Billy Cannon (LSU), Jim Dombrowski (Virginia), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Wilber Marshall (Florida), Rueben Mayes (Washington State), Randall McDaniel (Arizona State), Don McPherson (Syracuse), Jay Novacek (Wyoming), Dave Parks (Texas Tech), Ron Simmons (Florida State), Thurman Thomas (Oklahoma State), Arnold Tucker (Army). Coaches: John Cooper and Lou Holtz.

The 2008 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class: (Football Bowl Subdivision) Chase Daniel (Missouri); Graham Harrell (Texas Tech); Quin Harris (Louisiana Tech); Jeff Horinek (Colorado State); Alex Mack (California); Ryan McDonald (Illinois); Darryl Richard (Georgia Tech); Brian Robiskie (Ohio State); and Louie Sakoda (Utah). Football Championship Subvision: Andrew Berry (Harvard); Ryan Berry (South Dakota State); and Casey Gerald (Yale). Division II: Ryan Kees (St. Cloud State, Minn.). Division III: Brian Freeman (Carnegie Mellon, Pa.); and Greg Micheli (Mount Union, Ohio).

The 2008 Major Award Winners: Former U.S. Senator John Glenn (Gold Medal Recipient); T. Boone Pickens (Distinguished American Award) ; Bill Battle (Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award); Gene Smith, Ohio State (John L. Toner Award); Thomas Robinson, long-time WAC/Mountain West official (Outstanding Football Official Award); and Bob Curtis of Idaho and posthumously Dick Galiette of Yale (Co-recipients of the Chris Schenkel Award).

ABOUT THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL FOUNDATION & COLLEGE HALL OF FAME

Founded in 1947 with leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 121 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, Play It Smart, the NFF-FWAA Football Forum, the NFF Gridiron Clubs of New York City, Dallas and Los Angeles, and scholarships of over $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes.

The NFF awards the MacArthur Trophy, the Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings.

Learn more at www.footballfoundation.org

______________________________

Orange Bowl Stadium

Orange Bowl Stadium, 1501 N.W. 3rd Street, Miami, FL 33125

See also: http://www.orangebowlstadium.com/

Memorial Stadium

Memorial Stadium, Indiana University, 1001 East 17th Street, Bloomington, IN 47408

Liberty Bowl

Liberty Bowl Stadium, 335 South Hollywood Street, Memphis, TN 38104

VCR Alert for Wednesday's college football films on TCM

Today, I wanted to give you a head's up in time for Wednesday Sept. 3rd, since there to celebrate the beginning of a new college football season, Turner Classic Movies will be showing a series of interesting college football-centered films that are not usually run on TCM.

In many ways, it reminds me of the good old days of American Movie Classics, AMC, when they had Nick Clooney -George's father and brother of Rosemary- the very popular longtime Cincinnati newscaster, play the role of friendly and genial host who introduced films with some good anecdotes and would wrap-up afterwards with some pithy remarks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWFclvtnseg&feature=related

During the first weekend of the baseball season in April, they'd run a whole marathon of baseball-related films that were interesting for me, especially when they were filmed at the real MLB parks of the era. I was always a sucker for old film of those stadiums. In some cases, they were minor comedy classics, but in every case they were all pre-1964 and thus, films which in the pre-VCR era I grew-up in, I'd heard of but never seen.

Films like Rhubarb, The Pride of St. Louis, It Happens Every Spring, The Kid from Left Field, Pride of the Yankees, The Kid from Cleveland, the original Angels in the Outfield -Original trailer at http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=64328&titleId=16 - It Happened in Flatbush, The Stratton Story, Damn Yankees and one of my personal favorites, The Winning Team, starring Ronald Reagan and Doris Day, with the future president playing Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander. http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/detail.jsp?playerId=110127

Alexander's personal comeback and performance leads to his becoming a baseball legend, coming off the bench and leading the Cardinals to victory over the heavily-favored Yankees in the 1926 World Series, one of the greatest 'clutch' moments in American sports history.
While I've read the comments of some modern baseball "analysts" who've discounted the film, in my opinion, the melodrama is much more believable than lots of films being made today, sports or otherwise, and it's my favorite of President Reagan's many films, since I always loved biopic films as a kid. That explains a lot I suppose.

I first saw it on the original SuperStation WTBS one summer night in 1972, while my family and I were staying at the Davis Brothers Motor Inn in Valdosta, on the way to a family vacation in the mountains near the Asheville, NC area, back when Asheville was an Oriole affilate.
I mader sure before we left for the trip that our station wagon had an 'animated' Oriole bird bumper decal on it.
To help me keep my sanity, with my two younger sisters in the back seat, I read about a half-dozen pro and college football guides in the back seat on the way up and back, most of which had Cowboys QB Roger Staubach on the cover, just months after they'd beat the Dolphins in the Super Bowl. I was enraged to see how many of the NY publications predicted the Dolphins falling back to the pack, the exact opposite of what was to occur that coming Perfect Season.

(For details of the baseball films above, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Baseball_films )

Even a truly awful, almost painful to watch film had a reason for me seeing it, as Safe at Home was filmed in Ft. Lauderdale at Little Yankee Stadium, i.e. Ft. Lauderdale Stadium. with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
To get a sense of the cheesiness, watch the original trailer at http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=183384&spid=121475

If what I'm saying seems hard to fathom, this was back when AMC showed much higher quality, older films, sometimes actual "Classics," more consistently and didn't have commercials during the film. Ah, the Nineties, I remember it well!

Speaking of George Clooney... see Sarah Larson cheated on The Clooney?! Impossible! at
http://thesuperficial.com/2008/08/sarah_larson_cheated_on_the_cl.php

Tell me whether or not you, too, notice what's ironicabout the storyline below for College Coach at 11:30 a.m.? Original trailer at http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=138573&titleId=2541
Pat O' Brien in a film about chemistry and football? (Co-starring Dick Powell and dozens of All-American football playersof the era.)
Well, seven years later, he plays Knute Rockne in Knute Rockne: All American, whose simplistic storyline could very well be as follows: Norwegian-born football-playing chemistry major becomes Asst. Chemistry prof and then head football coach at small Catholic college in Indiana, becoming a living legend in an era full of them.
_________________
from my South Beach Hoosier blog:
The Original Notre Dame Legend Knute Rockne, November 7, 1927;
Sixteen months after his cover appearance, Rockne perished in an airline crash over Kansas on a business trip to California.
"Knute Rockne, All American," the wonderful 1940 film about Rockne's life, starring Pat O'Brien, with Ronald Reagan as ill-fated Irish football legend George Gipp, is a film I've seen at least two-dozen times.
Like the best of films, every new viewing makes me appreciate some aspect of it I'd never noticed before, even though I know it by heart.
Just like 1942's "The Prideof the Yankees" starring Gary Cooper as Yankee legend Lou Gehrig. -----------------------------
My favorite part of Knute Rockne: All American was always the end, when there's a VO over film showing all of "Rock's boys" who become college head football coaches, finally ending with Elmer Layden, dapper in his hat and suit on the sidelines in South Bend, as the latest Notre Dame head coach, as the ND fight song plays in the background. Original trailer of Knute Rockne: All American at: http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayer/?cid=27603&titleId=80476

Every time I've ever heard some sports writer -or sports fan call up as ports radio talk show- bloviate about the "Bill Walsh tree of coaches"over the past 25 years, I always think back to that film which I first saw as kid in 1973 one night when I was twelve at the Bob Griese-Karl Noonan summer sports camp in Boca Raton, which I attended three years ina row.

As noted previously in a South Beach Hoosier post, that's where Roy Firestone was one of my counselors and first became a friend of sorts, while he was still a student at the U-M.
Years later, because I always kept in touch, when Roy was doing the Noon and Weekend sports here at Channel 10, before he left for Los Angeles, he urged me to go to Syracuse instead of IU because of the Newhouse School.

Perhaps if I'd done that, I'd personally know all the very annoying Syracuse grads we all see at ESPN and the TV networks, the ones who always want to tell you about how they used to make audition tapes when they were kids. Yeah, we know, we know!

Listening to those tapes must surely qualify for one of the 'Rings of Hell' at Syracuse. Guys on campus constantly walking around talking to themselves, trying to come up with signature taglines!
Myself, back then I was taping former Hoosier grad school Dick Enberg's play-by-play on Eddie Einhorn's syndicated TVS of Notre Dame's upset of UCLA to end their 62-game winning streak on my Radio Shack tape recorder.

To me, as impressive as Bill Walsh's disciples/branches became,they were never as influential on the sport as Rockne's.
But then I've seen the Rockne film about three dozen times and can still picture the scene when Rockne pal and ND QB Gus Dorais is throwing a pass to Rockne while they're summer lifeguards, which gives Rockne the idea of instituting more specialized passing plays in that era of the 'passing box,' which leads to their famous upset win over Army in 1913, which only, well, changed their lives forever.
And Notre Dame's.

Realistically, my only real disappointment with the list of football films being televised are that it doesn't include: a.) Number One, from 1969, starring Charlton Heston as the Saints QB, back when future Redskin Billy Kilmer was there, whose poster I recall as a kid at the theater.
See http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=18960&atid=23995&category=overview and http://www.imdb.com/media/rm560635136/tt0064743
b.) the 1987 remake of Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty.

Last might I watched the Big Ten Network for the first time since June and saw the replay of IU's home opener against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.
Since we don't play Ohio State or the Maize and Blue of Michigan this year, there's really no reason for IU to be anything less than 7-4, but then I'm an optimist.
Now IF they could only recruit in the state of Florida -for a change- to continue their upward trajectory!

See the College Football Hall of Fame at http://www.collegefootball.org/ and http://www.collegefootball.org/psa.php , plus The National Football Foundation at http://www.footballfoundation.com/

I get the Football Foundation's great email newsletter, which really gives you a wealth of facts and information that you simply can't find on your own, no matter how much you love college football
---------------------------------
6:00 am Freshman Love (1936) A college coach uses a beautiful blonde to woo athletes into joining his team. Cast: Frank McHugh, Patricia Ellis, Warren Hull. Dir: William McGann. BW-67 mins, TV-G

7:15 am Hold 'Em Jail (1932) Two salesmen sent to jail on trumped-up charges build a prison football team. Cast: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Edna May Oliver. Dir: Norman Taurog. BW-66 mins, TV-G

8:30 am Huddle (1932) A steelworker's son becomes a college football hero. Cast: Ramon Novarro, Madge Evans, Una Merkel. Dir: Sam Wood. BW-103 mins, TV-G

10:15 am Sport Parade, The (1932) College team mates follow different paths after they graduate. Cast: Joel McCrea, William Gargan, Marian Marsh. Dir: Dudley Murphy. BW-65 mins, TV-G

11:30 am College Coach (1933) A timid chemistry major becomes a college football star. Cast: Dick Powell, Pat O'Brien, Ann Dvorak. Dir: William A. Wellman. BW-76 mins, TV-G

12:47 pm Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Pro Football (1934) BW-9 mins

1:00 pm Gridiron Flash (1935) A college football team recruits a tough convict.
Cast: Eddie Quillan, Betty Furness, Grant Mitchell. Dir: Glenn Tryon. BW-64 mins, TV-G

2:15 pm We Went To College (1936) Three middle-aged men try to recapture the joys of their college days. Cast: Charles Butterworth, WalterAbel, Hugh Herbert. Dir: Joseph Santley. BW-68 mins, TV-G

3:30 pm Big Game, The (1936) A quarterback stands against gangsters out to control the college sports scene. Cast: Philip Huston, James Gleason, June Travis. Dir: George Nichols, Jr. BW-74 mins, TV-PG

4:45 pm Over The Goal (1937) A college football star risks his health to play in the big game.
Cast: June Travis, William Hopper, Johnnie Davis. Dir: Noel Smith. BW-63 mins, TV-G

6:00 pm Saturday's Heroes (1938) A college football star rebels against the exploitation of the game and its players. Cast: Van Heflin, Marian Marsh, Richard Lane. Dir: Edward Killy. BW-60 mins, TV-G

7:00 pm Cowboy Quarterback, The (1939) A football scout tries to get a legendary runner back into the game. Cast: Marie Wilson, Bert Wheeler, William Demarest. Dir: Noel Smith. BW-56 mins, TV-G