A team with a losing record in the Hyundai Sun Bowl? What? You’d rather have Duke?
Yuk.
I mean, Duke University is a super power in basketball but it has as much charisma in football as a fly on your nose.
Duke was a possibility this season for our Sun classic. Really. The Blue Devils wound up the season with a 6-6 record and Georgia Tech with a 6-7 mark. However, Georgia Tech finished ahead of Duke in the Coastal Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 5-3 record to Duke’s 3-5.
As a result, not Duke but Georgia Tech, which played in the Sun Bowl last season and has a much better football reputation, will face University of Southern California in El Paso on December 31.
Whew. Sun Bowl officials can breath a lot easier – and sell more tickets.
ALTHOUGH Georgia Tech has a losing record it’s a toughie. It gave ACC Conference champ Florida State all it wanted in the conference title game, losing 21-15. I’m sure it’ll be just as tough for USC, which is coming to the Sun Bowl with a 7-5 record.
The ACC was tough all-around this season. Six of its teams are going to bowl games this season.
Besides Georgia Tech in the Hyundai Sun Bowl, Florida State (11-2) is going to the Discover Orange Bowl, Clemson (10-2) to the Chick-fil-A Bowl, Virginia Tech (6-6) to the Russell Athletic Bowl, North Carolina State (8-4) to the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl and Duke, bless its heart, to the Belk Bowl.
TRIVIA QUESTION: In the first 80 years of the last century there were four heavyweight boxing champions who weren’t citizens of the United States. Can you name them? Answer at end.
SPEAKING of trivia questions, this writer made a boo-boo a couple of columns ago. I asked which Detroit Tiger had hit 18 homers in a single season. It should have read “a single month.” I was surprised how many readers caught the error and knew the answer. I didn’t do it on purpose but it was good to know folks know their sports. Thanks for the calls and emails.
SANTA TERESA Country Club is still hanging in there. The Yucca Course continues closed but The Dagger Course is playable if not in great shape and remains open. Some 30 golfers have kept their memberships and seem to be enjoying having the Dagger Course mostly all to themselves.
Some of the other facilities are still going, too. The restaurant is still open and, frankly, it’s a pretty place to go for dinner considering its big windows and a view of a lighted downtown El Paso. Both the course and restaurant are open to the public. I’m not a member anymore but go there now and then.
NOLAN RICHARDSON, the only coach in Texas to win a national NCAA Basketball Championship plus NIT and Junior College titles, has been turned down again by voting members of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame – so far. He did have plenty of competition. This year’s inductees are Drew Brees, Walt Garrison, Eddie Mathews, Bobby Moegle, Shaquille O’Neal, Catherine Osterman, Ricky Williams and one more individual to be named later. Could the latter be Richardson? Don’t hold your breath. He should have been inducted long before now.
READERS KEEP asking how they can find previous columns I’ve written. Easy. Just Google raysanchezbooks.com on the Internet and the columns will pop right up. They go back a few years. And yes, you can download them.
ANSWER to trivia question: Tommy Burns of Canada, Max Schmeling of Germany, Primo Carnera of Italy and Ingemar Johansson of Sweden.