A Grip on Sports: Has 60 years been long enough to hold a grudge? Not really, though tonight’s CFP title game tests our resolve

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Notre Dame. Ohio State. The two teams in the championship game of the first 12-team playoffs. How did the CFP get so lucky?
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• If luck is the residue of design and the CFP committee’s design was to have the season end with two blue-blooded schools, then, yes, luck had a little something to do with it.
After all, there are about a dozen football programs in the nation who qualify for blue-blood status, making the chances at least one of them would ascend to these heights this year. But two? Yes, that’s lucky. Lucky for those of us with memories dating back into the mists of seasons long past.
We have them about the Buckeyes. And the Irish. In fact, our first college football memory is about Notre Dame. Of a loss that shaped the school’s history. And ours. It happened in 1964, just about the time of the nation’s Beatle infestation, as Captain Sunshine, aka our father, called it.
But at my Catholic elementary school, St. Rita’s, the Beatles were not a big deal for 8-year-old boys. How Notre Dame football was faring? That was. It was the first year of the Era of Ara (Parseghian). The start of modern Irish history.
Parseghian had been hired that year from Northwestern. Hired to turn around Notre Dame’s languishing fortunes. He did. In one season. Game after game, the Irish found a way to win. After starting the season unranked – they were 2-7 in 1963 – Notre Dame arrived at their annual showdown with USC in late November ranked No. 1. Nine games. Nine wins. Those of us who had been indoctrinated our whole life that Notre Dame’s players were not just athletes but crusaders, were giddy. And it didn’t hurt this Southern California boy the two Notre Dame stars, quarterback John Huarte (Mater Dei) and Jack Snow (St. Anthony’s), were L.A.-area high school products.
One win over the hated Trojans and Notre Dame, which didn’t play in bowls back then, would finish this Rudy-like story more than a decade before the dimunitive guy stepped on campus.
Except they couldn’t finish off the 6-3 Trojans in the Coliseum.
Little Vince Grippi listened – I don’t remember actually watching the game on TV, but I still have clear recollections of hearing USC announcer Tom Kelly’s voice in the house – as the Trojans matriculated down the Olympic stadium’s turf with time running out. They trailed the double-digit-favorite Irish by four, after being behind by 17 in the first half. Quarterback Craig Fertig had caught fire. USC was at the Irish 15. It was fourth down. And everyone in the Grippi household was either holding their breath or mumbling Hail Marys under it.
Fertig dropped back, tossed the ball into the air. It came down in the hands of Rod Sherman, who attended the same Pasadena high school, John Muir, as Jackie Robinson and, before the war intervened, my father.
Sherman held on, the Trojans held off the Irish’s last gasp and Notre Dame’s perfect season, national championship dreams and Parseghian’s hope of being elected the first Presbyterian Pope, were over.
I was inconsolable. Crying, this kid wandered back into the empty screen porch, shivered in the 50-degree cold, found a quiet spot in the corner and asked questions folks have been asking of God since Job’s time. Why? Why the Irish? Why me? Why? All I wanted was one more win.
There was no answer. OK then. That 8-year-old kid made a vow. Never again would he root for Notre Dame. Losing a bet to that loud-mouth USC fan in class may have had something to do with it, but he could find a quarter somewhere to shut her up. It was more than that. It was the whole idea he could pray all week for a Notre Dame win and this was the answer? A last-second loss? His faith was not just shaken. It was gone. Not in the big guy upstairs. In the Fighting Irish.
And that 8-year-old’s vow is still in effect. Still guides who he will root for this evening’s (4:30, ESPN) national title game in Atlanta.
As much as he hates Ohio State, the alma mater of his Cinderella-like stepmother, he’ll be hoping the Buckeyes roll to a win.
• The epilogue of this story? A decade later I walked into the athletic offices at UC Irvine for the first time. Earned a walk-on spot with the baseball team. And met assistant athletic director Rod Sherman.
Yep, the same Rod Sherman who had ruined my 8-year-old life.
Turns out he was a great guy. Laughed at my story of anger over his catch. Reveled in it a little. It was USC/Notre Dame, after all. Still, he welcomed me into his fold of followers.
Sherman led UCI’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ bible study. Turned into a mentor. Found me one job and almost led me to another. Helped me make a fateful decision that resulted in a change of chosen career path. And, in a tangential way, played a role in my realizing the right person to spend my life with was walking those same department halls every day. Helped get us together.
One play. One catch. One kid. Mysterious ways indeed.
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WSU: Around the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, ff the Buckeyes win tonight, it will not only disappoint Notre Dame fans everywhere, it will make Michigan’s future positively rosy. After all, Ryan Day will be cemented in Columbus. And he hasn’t figured out a way to defeat that school up north consistently. … Ohio State is pretty much everyone’s favorite. … Jon Wilner goes a little off book today, listing in the Mercury News the 25 folks he feels have the most influence on college football. With a major caveat. These are the people behind the scenes, not coaches or athletic directors or whatnot. … John Canzano takes us behind the curtain in Atlanta. … An Arizona assistant realizes he’s part of a long list of exceptional coaches that held the same job. … Among the future Pac-12 members in the Mountain West, the new Fresno State football staff is almost complete. … In basketball news, the Oregon women hit a last-second shot and defeated visiting Iowa. … Oregon State has played quite a few overtime games. … The San Diego State men are already lamenting the home loss to UNLV.
Gonzaga: The Zags are historic this season. And not in a good way, especially on the defensive end. Theo Lawson took some time Sunday to research and then delve into a bunch of longstanding marks and records this group has seen end a little more than halfway through its season. … Elsewhere in the WCC, it was an odd weekend for a couple of the conference’s top teams.
EWU: The Rams lost yesterday in the snow and cold of Philadelphia. It’s not just the end of their season. It very well could be the end of the Cooper Kupp era in Los Angeles. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana State’s win Saturday against Weber State was coach Matt Logie’s 300th of his career. Most of them came at Whitworth. … In football, UC Davis coach Tim Plough shared his thoughts on the recently completed season.
Seahawks: Funny, when Mike Macdonald’s first season began, Ernest Jones IV was not even in Seattle. Now keeping the linebacker there is a top offseason priority. … Sunday’s two winners, the Eagles and the Bills, did it, in part, due to being at home. Only one, Philadelphia, will host next week. But both will play familiar foes, Buffalo at their playoff roadblock, Kansas City, and the Eagles welcoming NFC East compatriot Washington to the City of Brotherly Love. … Once again Lamar Jackson was let down by his Raven teammates.
Mariners: Yes, the M’s could contend even with the awful offseason. But does it matter? With a chance to cement the loyalty of its fans with a few well-placed moves, the franchise decided to go cheap and ignore a closing window. … We find out tomorrow if Ichiro is a unanimous choice and whether Felix Hernandez stays on the ballot. Our friend Tim Booth explains why he voted for both.
Kraken: One shot is sometimes all a team needs to earn a victory.
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• You don’t know how hard it is for me to even contemplate hoping Ohio State wins. But, being Sicilian, a grudge is a life-long thing. Though I want Notre Dame to lose, I won’t shed any tears if Ohio State doesn’t win either. Being the optimistic sort of person I am, I’ve decided whoever loses is a win for me. Sorry 8-year-old Vince. Until later …