Sure, we were all quite excited for Appalachian State University when its football team won its first I-AA national championship a couple of years ago. The second one (the very next year) was even more special.
But nothing beats what the Mountaineers did on Saturday. Against Michigan. Fifth-ranked Michigan. In the Big House.
"Even if you’re not a sports fan, you have to feel good for the 'little' school in Boone and what its football team managed to accomplish," writes Winston-Salem Journal columnist Scott Sexton.
"The summer’s sporting news has been filled with headlines and stories that made stomachs turn. ...
"Then along comes the feel-good story of Appalachian beating the 5th-ranked team in college football in one of the most impressive venues in sports. (I know; I once spent a Saturday afternoon in the Big House wedged between a pair of 240-pound, beer-and-brat Midwestern types during a Michigan-Wisconsin game.)
"About the best that even the most rabid ASU alum could hope for was a respectable defeat.
"Yet when the sports ticker crawling across the bottom of ESPN kept showing that Appalachian was putting the wood on Michigan, a funny thing happened. My phone started ringing with updates and people at a Pop Warner midget football game headed to their cars to see if they could find the game on the radio. ...
"When the horn sounded, ASU put Boone squarely on the map for a lot of people.
" 'Nobody knew where Appalachian is. The fans up there couldn’t even pronounce Appalachian right,' [alum] Elizabeth Witt said. 'They kept saying App-a-lay-chian’with the long a instead of App-a-lachian with the short a like it’s supposed to be.'
"It’s a sure bet that the maize-and-blue crowd does now. And it’s equally certain that ASU will bank a lot of name recognition that even back-to-back Division I-AA football championships couldn’t generate."
And ESPN.com's Pat Forde writes, "hats off to Appalachian State, which completed a week like none in school history.
"First came word via 'The Today Show' of a recruiting coup for the little school in the North Carolina mountains. Caitlin Upton, the freshly famous Miss Teen South Carolina, whose dingbat answer to a beauty pageant question became an instant YouTube classic, told Matt Lauer she planned to attend Appalachian State. This might not have dazzled the academic folks on campus, but I guarantee the male students are stoked. ...
"This wasn't a No. 16 seed beating a No. 1 -- that would be an insult to the two-time champions of the Division Formerly Known As I-AA. More than anything else, Appalachian State proved Saturday that the best of the little fellers can play exceptional football. That they must be accorded respect. That they are not as far behind the big boys as we've always assumed.
"But given the difference in stature between the two programs, this is still a Buster Douglas-beats-Mike Tyson upset. It's a 15 beating a 2, at least. ..."
2 comments:
WOO-HOO!!! The cover of Sports Illustrated!
I just heard about that. That's awesome!
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