Game Savers (post of my new article on espn.com)
In the world of college football, there are games … and then there are Big Games.
Year in and year out, annual contests between certain pairs of gridiron rivals produce a special aura of divine madness. You know the games I mean. When a contest against a particular, historically inevitable rival school rolls around, students, alumni, the media and, of course, the members of the team all start to get a strange look in their eyes. It’s a look that says, “Get out of my way. This is serious.”
Take that intense look and multiply it by several hundred thousand people, all gathered in the same place at the same time, and you have the special combination of Mardi Gras, tribal pilgrimage and military combat that is a Big Game.
I wondered: With rival groups of partisans all converging on the same stadium, with spirits high and with media types swarming all over the place, why don’t we see more things going disastrously wrong on game day?
The answer, I found out, lies in the efforts of a special breed of people I call Game Savers. They have many different job titles, but all have one common mission: to keep the pregame, game and postgame revelry from descending into chaos.
I tracked down four people, each responsible for bringing sanity and order to a little corner of one Big Game, and asked each, “How on earth do you do it? And has anything weird happened while you were trying to do it?”
You probably have never heard of these folks before or thought about all the stuff they have to do to prepare for a Big Game. My sense from talking to them is they like it that way.
The Big Game: Ohio State vs. Michigan
The Game Saver: Larry Romanoff, director of football external relations, Ohio State
“Michigan Week is different, that’s for sure,” Romanoff said when I reached him by phone. “The week before that game, we close everything down. Normally, if there’s a former player or a major donor or an alumni from one of the military services or some other kind of special guest who wants to get in and sit in on a practice and watch the players, we can arrange that. But during Michigan Week, we always say no. That week, there are to be no distractions.”
Romanoff, who’s been with Ohio State for decades, has the presumably thankless job of handling security and other logistical issues for Michigan players.
“It’s my responsibility,” he said, “to make sure every visiting team is safe and is treated with respect and dignity, but we do take a lot more precautions with regard to the visiting team when we’re planning for Michigan Week. I have to make sure that there aren’t crazies out there yelling and screaming at them the night before the game.”
Like all of the Game Savers I spoke to for this article, Romanoff seemed wary about revealing too many details in print, which makes sense, given the maniacal lengths to which some of the off-the-field participants in the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry have gone.
Back in the mid-1970s, Romanoff watched at ground level as a Michigan fan tried to run out of the tunnel and onto the field in the stolen costume of Ohio State mascot Brutus Buckeye, which had been painted Michigan blue.
“Our security people saw him and pretty much destroyed the guy before he got on the field,” Romanoff said. “Not a pleasant experience for that young man, I’m sure. That’s the kind of thing we keep from happening.
“It’s always a bigger challenge when the game is against Michigan,” he continued, “because a lot of the fans have such very strong emotions. But those are the fans. It’s important to remember that the coaches and the players and the security people all have enormous respect for each other.”
Even on game day?
“It’s just like Woody and Bo,” he said. (They would be the legendary coaches Hayes and Schembechler, of course.) “On game day, they weren’t going to be best buddies, but as soon as the game was over, they were the best of friends.”
The Big Game: Florida vs. Georgia
The Game Saver: Greg McGarity, executive associate athletic director,
University of Florida
McGarity helps coordinate a game that is held in neutral territory — Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, home of the NFL’s Jaguars. That means he works with his Georgia counterparts and with a private contractor for each and every year’s Big Game — although much of the logistical responsibility for the Big Game falls to Florida’s people.
“The good thing about our two institutions,” McGarity said, “is that our administrative staffs have always been very close. We’ve worked well with each other, because that’s been necessary to make a neutral-site game happen each year. Both sides have always had a tremendous amount of respect for each other.”
Working at an NFL stadium to set up a major college game carries both challenges and opportunities; the organizational template is different.
“There’s much more of a tailgating environment for our game as opposed to an NFL game,” said McGarity, who worked at archrival Georgia back in the late ’70s. “So you’ve got to coordinate the parking and you’ve got to coordinate when the gates open, that kind of thing. When do the teams get to practice? When do the referees come in?”
There’s also the question of what to do about tailgate participants continuing the party once inside the stadium.
“If I could make one of my game day problems just go away,” McGarity said, “it would be the problem of underage drinking. We’ve made some progress in that area on game day, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Game organizers have taken a big step toward addressing the drinking problem by harnessing the texting powers of modern cell phones.
“If you experience a problem in the stands with someone who’s had too much to drink and is being abusive or bothering you, you can just send a text message to a stadium number, and then law enforcement or someone from game operations is going to respond to that,” McGarity said.
“So if someone who’s sitting behind you will not sit down and you feel threatened, or if someone is using vulgar language you don’t want your kids to hear or you don’t want to hear, you even don’t have to talk into the phone in order to get some help.”
The Big Game: Army vs. Navy
The Game Saver: Jason Boothe, associate athletic director of operations,
United States Naval Academy
“We don’t have a lot of problems like that,” Boothe said politely when I told him about the occasional challenges some schools had reported with pranks and excessive, alcohol-driven exuberance in the stands. “Our concerns are a whole lot bigger.”
For this Big Game, more than 4,000 Navy midshipmen and an equal number of Army cadets — the future military elite of the country — are bussed in the morning of the contest. The biggest logistical hurdle Boothe could recall was a big snowstorm in 2003 that briefly appeared to threaten the arrival of both student bodies to the tilt, which was held at a neutral site that year.
Those 8,000-plus students are pretty well behaved before, during and after the game, Boothe said, thanks to a disciplinary system at both academies that operates with military precision.
He was understandably reticent when it came to discussing the most interesting security problems he faces. You would be, too, if your work regularly intersected with the Department of Defense and the Secret Service. Attendees typically include 4,000 senior military officers, assorted VIPs, the secretaries of both the Army and the Navy, and, “every couple of years,” the president of the United States.
“It’s pretty obvious what the game is and who’s going to be here,” Boothe said, “so it’s fair to say that the security for Army-Navy is a step above some of the other college games.”
I asked him to think of a time when something unexpected happened at one of these contests; he had to think for a while. Eventually, he recalled an incident involving President George W. Bush at the 2004 game, which was played in Philadelphia.
“He deviated from his schedule and went onto the field pregame to mingle with the players, cheerleaders, fans and so on,” Boothe said. “It didn’t affect us so much, but the Secret Service went nuts.”
The Big Game: Harvard vs. Yale
The Game Saver: Ryan Bamford, senior associate athletic director, Yale University
The annual Harvard-Yale contest might well be the Big Game with the longest, most illustrious pedigree in American sport. Bamford estimated it drew 100,000 attendees in 2007, when both teams were in contention for the Ivy League title.
That’s a pretty impressive number, especially when you consider the Yale Bowl holds only about 60,000 people. (An estimated 40,000 people crowded the parking lot, a situation presenting significant security challenges.)
I asked Bamford about the weirdest thing that has ever happened on his watch, and he immediately started talking about student pranks. The chief instigators on his list, though, were not Harvard students or Yale students, but MIT students, who have a proud tradition of launching complex, engineering-driven stunts to disrupt the Harvard-Yale game.
“In 1982, the MIT kids somehow found a way to embed a big weather balloon at the 50-yard line,” he said. “It inflated automatically during the game. For the 2003 game, they placed a mechanism on the Yale Bowl scoreboard, but our security personnel took it down before it could be activated.”
The strange device was supposed to display a huge message on the scoreboard: “SCHOOL ON MONDAY.” This apparently was designed to taunt the Harvard and Yale students, who didn’t have the Monday after Thanksgiving off, while MIT students did.
It gets worse. In 2006, two male MIT students executed a comparatively low-tech prank: streaking across the playing field naked during the Big Game, each with “MIT” painted on his back.
Bamford, a devoted student of MIT shenanigans, was circumspect when I asked him what steps he’s taken to intercept the next wacky disruption of the Big Game.
“I wouldn’t want it to be part of the article,” he said, “but let’s just say we have safeguards in place.”
It must be noted that Bamford’s counterparts at Harvard have had to deal with pranks as well. At the 2004 game at Harvard Stadium, Yale students disguised as the non-existent Harvard Pep Squad handed out white and crimson placards to fans on the Harvard side of the stadium, which was comprised primarily of Harvard alumni.
The group told the crowd that by displaying the placards at the same time, they would spell “Go Harvard.” The placards actually were arranged to spell “We Suck.” Harvard got the last laugh, however, by beating Yale 35-3.
This article can be found on ESPN.com
No Comments »100 Sporting Events You Must See Live by Blogger Tiffany Norris
This post can be found on tiffanynorris.blogspot.com by Tiffany Norris
Robert Tuchman runs a company that specializes in sports event travel. Who better than to compile a list of the top 100 events to see live?
What a daunting task! Of course, he admits, there will be omissions, and people will wonder why a particular event did or didn’t make the list and why it was ranked as it did.
Yes, Tuchman not only culled 100 must-see events, but he also ranked them.
OK, I know you’re all dying to know: #1–The Masters.
Already I have a disagreement!
I would have put the Iron Bowl at #1, which Tuchman only ranks as #41. But at least he suggests seeing it in Tuscaloosa.
Check back in with me Monday, and I’ll have an interview(!) with Tuchman about the book and his process.
Meanwhile, if you’re a sports fan, this is a must-read.
Traveling to a sporting event makes the intangible tangible. People long for an interactive experience.
And Tuchman describes that whole experience in the book, listing quotes about the events, their significance, history, and, of course, travel and tourist suggestions for the cities themselves.
The list is about the entire experience and not just the sporting event itself.
What else is on the list? No-brainers such as the Super Bowl, World Series and Final Four. But you’ll also find non-mainstream entertainment like Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, the Westminster Dog Show and the X Games (although that was an honorable mention) and plenty of international options as well.
Again…sports fans? Read it. You’ll love scouring it to find if your favorite event is included and, if so, what is said about it. And don’t forget–the interview is coming Monday.
No Comments »Backyard Brawl in Morgantown
We’re less than 10 days away from one of the classic college football rivalries and the 88th event listed in the 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live. The “Backyard Brawl” between West Virginia and Pittsburgh takes place in
Morgantown this season and will be played under the lights on November 27th, starting at 7:00 pm. This year’s chapter of the “Brawl” pairs the Big East’s second place, 8th ranked overall, Pitt team against the Big East’s third place Mountaineers.
Being played a day after Thanksgiving, on Black Friday, this matchup will be a treat. This will be the 102nd meeting between these two schools who are separated by just over 70 miles. Pitt has owned the rivalry with an all-time record of 61-37-3, but the Mountaineers have done well in recent hitsory winning 12 of the last 19 meetings, including five straight from 1992 to 1996. The last 10 games have been an even split between the two sides.
Two years ago, in the 100th version of the “Backyard Brawl”, the Mountaineers would have earned a trip to the BCS National Championship with a win over Pitt. The Mountaineers, ranked number two in the country at the time, were 28 point favorites over the 4-7 Panthers. Pittsburgh upset West Virginia by a score of 19-15 and ended the Mountaineers’ national title bid. The upset was voted “Game of the Year” by ESPNU. Games like this are what makes rivalries in College Football sp special.
Morgantown is a great place to be in the fall, especially around Thanksgiving. So bring your leftovers and tailgate all day Friday before the “Backyard Brawl”.
Guest post by Rich Santonocito
No Comments »At Least Three Chances Left to See Packers at Lambeau this Season
One of the most brutally cold sporting events in the United States ranks at #29 on the list of 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live; A late season Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field. November, December and January games at Lambeau can yield freezing temperatures, single digit wind chills, and blizzard like conditions. An atmosphere only true football fans sit through. Remember the NFC Championship overtime thriller a few years back when the Packers hosted the eventual Super Bowl Champion Giants in sub-zero temperatures?
Does this picture not say it all? Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin’s bear skinned face was red from windburn and the bitter cold but was healed when his team won in the frozen tundra. The ice cold water cooler shower he received after the game was probably warming compared to the excruciatingly cold weather that day.
There are three more chances to see the Packers play at Lambeau in the 2009 regular season where you can have a contest to see whether you can get your cheeks redder than Coughlin’s. The Packers host the 49ers November 22, the Ravens December 7, and the Seahawks December 27. If we’re lucky enough, the Packers will get hot as the weather gets cold and get a high enough seeding in the playoffs that they’ll host a playoff game.
Brett Favre may have left Lambeau, but the archaic temperatures haven’t. You won’t find the freezing cold weather in the Metrodome like you would Favre. Lambeau Field is a special place to watch a football game in the latter part of the season when a 4:15 pm game gets dark at halftime.
Guest Post by Rich Santonocito of Empire Sports Now
No Comments »ACC Basketball Tournament
College basketball is tipping off and it’s not too early to start thinking about March Madness. If you can’t make it to the Final Four (ranked 20th in the 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live) an alternative would be the ACC Championship (ranked 60th). The Georgia Dome will host the “Grandaddy of College Hoops Tourneys” this year starting on March 12th.
Whether you’re a fan of the baby blue, Terrapins, orange and purple, Blue Devils, or just a fan of college and ACC basketball in general, this is the tourney to go see. The ACC proves to be one of the strongest NCAA basketball divisions as they are consistently well represented in the NCAA tournament year after year. You’ll also find a handful of these teams in the top 25 throughout the year. To begin the 2009-2010 season, the ACC has five members in the AP top 25 including #6 North Carolina, #9 Duke, #21 Georgia Tech, #22 Clemson, and #25 Maryland.
No matter who wins the ACC Tournament fans won’t be disappointed. Future NBA players will be on display over the ACC Tournament weekend and if it comes down to the usual suspects of Duke and North Carolina, future NBA All-Stars will be on display. If there’s one NCAA basketball conference tournament to see, it’s the ACC Tourney. That’s why it’s ranked #60 in the 100 Sporting Events You Must See live.
Guest post by Rich Santonocito
Agassi a Complete 180
I was fortunate enough to find two tickets (one for the wife who made me get them) to go hear Andre Agassi speak on Wednesday night at the New York Times Theater. Thank God some guy couldn’t make it and posted his seats on craigslist, or my wife would have chopped my nuts off.
Agassi was being interviewed by New York Times long time writer George Vescey. I can’t tell you how much I despised Agassi when he burst onto the scene back in the early 90’s. Remember the “Image is Everything” campaign for Cannon? I really thought he was a punk. I guess Jimmy Connors did as well. Agassi shared a story about how he was playing Connors during his first US Open. He grew up watching and idolizing Connors. In awe when he ran into him in the locker room prior to their match. Agassi went over to him, Connors started calling him a punk and then actually started cursing at him. Agassi was shocked and taken for a loop, he said it continued during change overs in their match. It didn’t stop there, Connors just continued to be a dick. Agassi said in his lifetime he has probably spoken to Connors for seven minutes and this incident made up five of them. Well I always knew Connors was a jerk. That one is easy to see but I must admit I was completely wrong
about Agassi.
With his new book Open now hitting stores we all know he was putting on a facade in his early days from the hair to the attitude. That was not the real Andre. The real Andre seems like a great guy. He seems really comfortable with himself and completely honest. I can’t imagine how much therapy the guy has had to have coming from the dysfunctional grip of his over bearing father but it certainly has worked.
I don’t understand how, with his recent acknowledgment of taking drugs (not performance enhancing drugs) that several players like Martina and Sampras have slammed him. Wouldn’t you think they would understand the pressures and loneliness of the tour? This was a guy who was at the bottom and made a mistake. He only hurt himself. The good news is he dug himself out of it, which gives hope to all who have been at the bottom especially in sports.
No Comments »Game Day Experience at Penn State
You can watch all of Penn State’s home games on television but until you visit Happy Valley for yourself, you have no idea how special of an event every Penn State home game truly is.
After visiting with clients in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Friday afternoon I decided to stick around town and take in the Hershey High School football season finale with my travel buddy the Sham man. I was starting to get real excited for my trip to the land of Happy and the Friday night lights Hershey game was the warm up. After Herhsey High thumped some team we got in the car and traveled to a hotel about 45 minutes away from Penn State’s campus with plans on going to the Penn State-Ohio State showdown at 3:30 on Saturday. Shammy’s mother, a Penn State alumni, started school there the first year Joe Paterno was head coach. She was going to meet us up there at the game with her husband Dave. We left our hotel or should I say motel at 8 am and headed toward campus. The highway drive to the game had cars decorated in Penn State colors with flags streaming and Nittany Lion pride showing. I already knew this was going to be scene like no other.
The town and campus transforms from an academic setting to a football frenzy on football Saturdays. These weren’t students, these were die-hard Penn State football fans. I didn’t see one student with a book bag the entire day. No joke. I assume for at least one day a week, the students put down their books in favor of a white Penn State t-shirt and a passion for Nittany Lion football. Judging by the partying going on these kids might never pick up their books. I sure miss college!
The town was incredible. We bought some white Penn State gear expecting a complete white-out but it turned out it was only a student white-out. John Cappelletti, former Penn State running back and 1973 Heisman Trophy winner, was sitting inside one of the stores signing autographs. The campus itself was a site to see. We waited on line for over 30 minutes at the creamery in the middle of campus which is known for the best ice cream in PA. It was worth the wait.
The tailgating scene outside of Beaver Stadium was unreal. I’ve never seen tailgating like that at any sporting event I’ve been to. It looked like a modern day Woodstock. Walking toward the stadium and looking down the hill at the parking lots,
there were cars and cars for miles. In all directions it was a sea of white and blue with tents and smoke along with the aroma of grilling. People were barbecuing, drinking and having a blast. Each individual tailgate party put their own Nittany Lion spin on tailgating. It was an unbelievable site. I love this country.
This one day of Penn State football made me once again second guess my choice of school. Boston University didn’t have anything like this. All we had was hockey. If I had visited Penn State on a game day when I was in high school I would be a Penn State alumni today. Well actually I probably wouldnt have got in considering my stellar grades back in high school.
For the game we had great seats on the 10-yard line, 30 rows up. The whited-out student section never sat down. The passion and energy out of the student section is indescribable. I loved it when during a timeout the 
student section broke out singing “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. That brought me back to my college days.
Expecting a nightmarish traffic situation after the game with over 100,000 people pouring out of Beaver Stadium, I took off in the second half. Chris stayed until the end and spent two hours in the parking lot. I was able to make it back to New York City in just over three hours. No traffic at all, not even on the GW.
Penn State was a fascinating experience. The students, tailgating, and overall atmosphere of the University and Happy Valley itself on a fall football Saturday goes unmatched to anything I’ve experienced before. It’s an event I just might have to add to the 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live next year!
2 Comments »Victory Parade Recap
Just got back from the parade – what a madhouse. Poppa Foges’ office is right near the parade route, and he called to tell me that the Broadway was packed hours before the first float even left Battery Park. At this point I was still getting the sleep dust out of my eyes, so I threw on my Yankee fitted and ran out the door. Sure enough, when I got off the R train at Rector street I was greeted by an ocean (not a sea, an ocean) of navy and white.
I battled my way through the crowd, running past a guy in a Phillies jersey (whaaaattttt) getting serenaded with expletive-laced chants. Only a person with some sick tendencies would show up to a championship parade in the losing team’s uniform. Strangely enough, this guy looked confused, as if he expected something else to happen. Definitely not from New York.
Anyway, this was my first championship parade in the canyon of heroes, and the first thing you notice is the noise. As I rounded the corner onto Church street, it felt like there was a war going on. The parade route is called “the canyon of heroes” because Broadway is literally like a canyon, surrounded on both sides by huge buildings. This means that the crowd noise echoes off those buildings, and the effect is almost indescribable. As some of the more popular Yankees went by you could feel the ground shaking. Awesome.
Some things I noticed: The loudest ovation went to Jeter, with honorable mentions for Mariano Rivera and Hideki Matsui. Nick Swisher also got a great reaction, mainly because he was taking pictures on his phone and looked like he was having the time of his life (a great example of why Swisher was so important to the team – his ability to relax and have fun made this the loosest Yanks squad in years).
There were conflicting reports on just how crowded the parade was. Two guys I talked to said there were people on Broadway at 2PM yesterday, but a passing construction worker said that was false. He said there was still free space around 6 this morning, and people really started pouring in around 7AM. Regardless of when people showed up, there was alot of them.
And based on my experience, more people = more characters. The crowd favorite in my section was “Godzilla” aka a drunk guy with a Godzilla stuffed animal on his back. The award for most intricate shaming of an opposing player went to “Who’s Your Daddy” – it was a guy carrying around a Phillies casket, complete with a Pedro baby and the infamous Post cover. I can’t properly describe either one, so you’ll just have to see the photos.
Overall, a great day. If a major sports team ever wins a championship in your city, file it under a sporting event you must see.
For more from Dan Fogarty, visit his blog Get a Job, Dan! Photo of Andy Pettite courtesy of Rodney.
Godzilla Crushes NYC for the Last Time
This is probably the last time we’ll see Hideki Matsui in a Yankee uniform, and although the idea of letting the World Series MVP go through free agency initially sounds absurd, it makes sense when you think about it. Matsui and his surgically-repaired knees can’t hold up in the outfield and the Yanks need the DH spot to give guys days off (Posada, A-Rod, Jeter, to a lesser extent).
This still doesn’t make it hurt any less. Matsui was a great Yankee for a number of reasons. For one, his low-profile endeared him to Yankee fans. Maybe it was easier for him because he had the added buffer of his translator, but his demeanor with the media was a welcome change of pace in Yankeeland (especially during news cycles when A-Rod would decide to date a bear or something).
So if Matsui leaves town, I’d like to wish him well. Unless it’s with the Mets.
For more from Dan Fogarty, visit his blog Get a Job, Dan!
No Comments »New Yankee Stadium Set For Biggest Stage Yet
*This is a guest blog written by Rich Santonocito of Empire Sports Now
The stadium address has changed but the product on the field remains the same as any year of baseball in the Bronx. It’s only fitting the Yankees are playing in the World Series during their inaugural season at the new Yankee Stadium. It was 86 years ago when the Yankees opened up their original ballpark with a World Series win over the New York Giants. They won that series in six games but the World Series clincher came away, at the Polo Grounds. This season, the Yankees can clinch the World Series at home in front of their Bronx faithful.
Every stadium, ballpark and venue has had its share of big moments. None of them, however, can compare to the original Yankee Stadium. If there is a stadium that has any chance at coming close to the old Yankee Stadium, it has to be the new park located right across the street. In one season, the new stadium has made its case that it has the ability to produce big moments on the big stage, just like the structure it replaced.
The new stadium has had its fair share of big moments already. Derek Jeter broke Lou Gehrig’s record for all-time hits as a Yankee at the new park. There was also a four-game sweep of the Red Sox at the new stadium in early August. There’s only one way to cap it off; To win the World Series in front of the home crowd.
The “Core Four” (Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Pettitte) won four titles together at the old Yankee Stadium. They were there when the door closed on the old park and they can go down in Yankees history as being there to open the new park as champions.
No Comments »