A brief history of the Big East, courtesy of what happens to be available (and palatable) on YouTube...
- - -
The Big East wasn’t founded until 1979 and didn't produce its first (and only) national champion until 2001, but no excuse to watch Jim Brown romp over the 140-pound whisps of 1956 to the unrestrained delirium of leaping, megaphone-tossing male cheerleaders should be missed:
A Heisman winner actually shows up for a big game? Imagine. Tony Dorsett – or, uh, Dor-sit, if you prefer – caps a fun-sounding week against Georgia in the 1977 Sugar Bowl:
Cavanaugh, incidentally, is Matt Cavanaugh, who was more successful as a Pitt quarterback than he’s been his first three years as a Pitt offensive coordinator – Tony Dorsett/sit will do that for a guy. But was that Penn State’s lion mascot in a Pitt scarf?
(Also for Pitt fans: watch this on Dorsett’s recruitment by a dogged young Jackie Sherrill, crooked to the core even in his formative years, and be sure to stick around for the inestimable eloquence of Johnny Majors, if nothing else).
West Virginia at undefeated Syracuse, 1987, a ‘"miraculous and beautifully-played game," despite Don McPherson’s four interceptions. Watch for a young Tim Brando masterfully directing traffic in the studio, West Virginia’s rarely seen, era-specific "flex" defense, over-the-top official hand-signing and a new record for uttering "McPherson" in a single five-minute window:
More Syracuse-WVU, this time from 1992: Marvin Graves clears benches, stays in the game and leads the Orangemen to a 20-17 win. Don Nehlen calls Graves a criminal, and the refs his accomplices:
The next year, WVU pounded Syracuse 49-0 in the Carrier Dome en route to another undefeated regular season, a la 1988, the apex of which came on forgotten star Robert Walker’s winning touchdown against mighty Miami in front of a rather, shall we say, raucous crowd of mountain folk. Yeah, that’s it, raucous:
The unmistakable ascension of an obscure freshman quarterback in 1999:
And though neither team is still in the conference, I can’t imagine a single play that could more perfectly sum up the respective Big East experiences of both Miami and Temple in a few seconds:
Loading comments...