Herbert Hoover had made a promise that he couldn\u2019t keep.<\/p>\n
Before he became the 31st<\/sup> president of the United States, and the politician who famously promised \u201ca chicken in every pot\u201d just before the Great Depression hit in full force, Hoover was in a somewhat lesser position \u2013 that of student manager of the Stanford football team.\u00a0 And so, in 1892, he was in charge of many things, including publicity for the games, taking tickets, and ensuring equipment was ready to go.\u00a0 Someone had come up with the idea to have Stanford\u2019s team play a team from the University of California, and Hoover got down to work.\u00a0 By the day of March 19, 1892, the day of the game (yes, spring football wasn\u2019t just about practice back then) everything looked ready to go.\u00a0 Hoover had found a place to play the game, in San Francisco\u2019s Haight Street Grounds.\u00a0 He had publicized the game such that afterwards $30,000 worth of tickets had been purchased \u2013 an astronomical amount for a game in those days.\u00a0 Hoover\u2019s hard work was paying off \u2013 this was truly going to be a big game.\u00a0 There was just one little detail that Herbert Hoover had overlooked.<\/p>\n He had forgotten to bring a football.<\/p>\n Frantically, he and the California student manager \u2013 who for some reason didn\u2019t have a football either, but who is spared similar ignominy because he didn\u2019t become President later \u2013 scoured the city for a ball to use.\u00a0 However, recall that this was the 19th<\/sup> century; goods weren\u2019t as easy to come by as today, especially something as frivolous as sporting equipment.\u00a0 (It\u2019s a bit ironic given that this area is now the home of tech giants that let you purchase anything you want with the tap of a finger, isn\u2019t it?)\u00a0 Finally, they found a general store that had a ball.\u00a0 However, this wasn\u2019t a football as you or I might recognize one.\u00a0 It was more of an inflated bladder.\u00a0 But it was close enough to a football for their needs, and so Hoover raced back to the field, having delayed the start of the game by an hour or so.\u00a0 Stanford won, 14-10, and the \u201cBig Game\u201d was born.\u00a0 The teams play for the 118th<\/sup> time this weekend at Stanford.<\/p>\n Rivalry games are one of my absolute favorite parts of football, and indeed all of sports.\u00a0 And rivalries give us some of the most interesting tidbits and factoids.\u00a0 For example:<\/p>\n These are just a few of the little things that make college football cherished by so many.<\/p>\n Congratulations to pachyderm<\/strong>, who takes week 11 with 208 points! Jeff4Bama<\/strong> was second with 207 points, and AUBrian<\/strong> and bamaken<\/strong> tied for third with 203 points each.<\/p>\n Standings after 11 weeks (dropping two lowest weekly totals):<\/p>\n This weekend features no less than six games between top-25 teams!\u00a0 It will be a tough week for sure, and with so tight a race at the top, every point matters, so pick wisely and well!\u00a0 The first games are Saturday, November 21 @ Noon ET<\/strong>, so make sure to get your picks in by then!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Herbert Hoover had made a promise that he couldn\u2019t keep. Before he became the 31st president of the United States, and the politician who famously promised \u201ca chicken in every pot\u201d just before the Great Depression hit in full force, Hoover was in a somewhat lesser position \u2013 that of student manager of the Stanford […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.e-systems.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\n 1st<\/sup><\/td>\n AllySun <\/strong><\/td>\n 1857<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 2nd<\/sup><\/td>\n Jeff4Bama <\/strong><\/td>\n 1851<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-3rd<\/sup><\/td>\n AUBrian <\/strong><\/td>\n 1848<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-3rd<\/sup><\/td>\n JagRag <\/strong><\/td>\n 1848<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 5th<\/sup><\/td>\n Ralphie <\/strong><\/td>\n 1846<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-6th<\/sup><\/td>\n JagAL <\/strong><\/td>\n 1826<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n T-6th<\/sup><\/td>\n Crimson White <\/strong><\/td>\n 1826<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 8th<\/sup><\/td>\n pachyderm <\/strong><\/td>\n 1822<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 9th<\/sup><\/td>\n bevo <\/strong><\/td>\n 1820<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n 10th<\/sup><\/td>\n Maestro <\/strong><\/td>\n 1818<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n