Fordham's PL Feature

[JoltinJoe]

The Patriot League website is featuring each of the schools with a tribute write-up during the league's 20th anniversary season. Since we've been so bad this year, it's nice to remember how good we once were.

Now I'm back into hibernation, waiting for the 2006 season.


http://patriotleague.collegesports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/101205aac.html

The Rams of Fordham are one of the most storied programs in the history of college football. They are ranked 14th in all-time wins coming into the 2005 season with 720. During Fordham's 106 years of football, the Rams appeared in the first six national rankings put out by the Associated Press, a record matched only by Duke. Fordham is the only Division I-AA institution to play in two major college bowl games, having played in the 1941 Cotton Bowl and the 1942 Sugar Bowl.

[colgate13]

You guys will be back winning games soon... Keep your head up Joe.

[JoltinJoe]

You guys will be back winning games soon... Keep your head up Joe.

Thanks. But don't cheer me up, only to have your 'Gate club pin a huge "L" on us Saturday.

[Hansel]

St. Mary's played in the Cotton Bowl and the Sugar Bowl... but they discontinued their program so are now longer IAA :bawling:

[JoltinJoe]

St. Mary's played in the Cotton Bowl and the Sugar Bowl... but they discontinued their program so are now longer IAA :bawling:

Yes. Believe it or not, Fordham/St. Mary's was one of the biggest annual games in all of America during the 1930's and early 1940's. As big as Notre Dame/Army or Notre Dame/USC.

[Hansel]

Yes. Believe it or not, Fordham/St. Mary's was one of the biggest annual games in all of America during the 1930's and early 1940's. As big as Notre Dame/Army or Notre Dame/USC.
I'm aware, I beleive you had something about St. Mary's in your signature line at one time :)

[JoltinJoe]

I'm aware, I beleive you had something about St. Mary's in your signature line at one time :)

Yes, I did. That signature is from a Grantland Rice poem that appeared in the nation's newspapers on November 1, 1936, published in tribute to the "Seven Blocks of Granite." "The Gaels" referenced in the poem are none other than Slip Madigan's St. Mary's Gaels, back then one of the most popular teams in the country. The whole poem is at the end of the post.

As for St. Mary's 1938 Cotton Bowl bid, St. Mary's was a front runner for the nod, but Madigan was not one for taking chances. So he arranged for a party for the selection committee at a swanky San Franscisco night spot one night during the committee's visit to the St. Mary's campus.

Using his connections, Madigan managed to get the sultry actress Marlene Dietrich to attend and arranged a dance for the committee chairman with Dietrich. xsmoochx

Needless to say, the Gaels were in Dallas on New Year's Day, where they beat Texas Tech, 20-13.


Great, mighty Minnesota fell, upon a fateful day;
Both Yale and Army felt the axe and tossed their crowns away.
Big Holy Cross, an early Boss, hears no more winning bands.
Yes, strange things happened everywhere, but the Fordham wall still stands.

Once Carthage ruled an ancient coast, but where is Carthage now?
The Grecian phalanx no more wears the winning olive bough.
And where are Persia's ruling hosts that ruled all warring lands?
Their day is done by sand and sun, but the Fordham wall still stands.

Who took the brutal thrust of SMU and rolled its charges back?
Who stood the Gaels upon their heels, and broke up each attack?
Who held young Goldberg at the line with willing hearts and hands?
The answer rings from coast to coast: the Fordham wall still stands.

[ngineer]

Yes, I did. That signature is from a Grantland Rice poem that appeared in the nation's newspapers on November 1, 1936, published in tribute to the "Seven Blocks of Granite." "The Gaels" referenced in the poem are none other than Slip Madigan's St. Mary's Gaels, back then one of the most popular teams in the country. The whole poem is at the end of the post.

As for St. Mary's 1938 Cotton Bowl bid, St. Mary's was a front runner for the nod, but Madigan was not one for taking chances. So he arranged for a party for the selection committee at a swanky San Franscisco night spot one night during the committee's visit to the St. Mary's campus.

Using his connections, Madigan managed to get the sultry actress Marlene Dietrich to attend and arranged a dance for the committee chairman with Dietrich. xsmoochx

Needless to say, the Gaels were in Dallas on New Year's Day, where they beat Texas Tech, 20-13.


Great, mighty Minnesota fell, upon a fateful day;
Both Yale and Army felt the axe and tossed their crowns away.
Big Holy Cross, an early Boss, hears no more winning bands.
Yes, strange things happened everywhere, but the Fordham wall still stands.

Once Carthage ruled an ancient coast, but where is Carthage now?
The Grecian phalanx no more wears the winning olive bough.
And where are Persia's ruling hosts that ruled all warring lands?
Their day is done by sand and sun, but the Fordham wall still stands.

Who took the brutal thrust of SMU and rolled its charges back?
Who stood the Gaels upon their heels, and broke up each attack?
Who held young Goldberg at the line with willing hearts and hands?
The answer rings from coast to coast: the Fordham wall still stands.


I wasn't a literature major, but that has always been one of my favorites. Probably the best 'sports poem' ever penned other than "Ode to an Athlete Dying Young" (although that is really an anti-war poem).

[Pard94]

Fordham's wall's better remain standing lest the student body have to resort to arming themselves. That was out of line...sorry.