20th anniversary of the 1998 season

[PeteRasche]

Tulane football 1998 reunion to include Tommy Bowden, Rich Rodriguez

http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/20 ... iver_index

Better warn the female cheerleaders....

So glad we are definitively the bigger people for his homecoming. RichRod swallowing a very big piece of humble pie.

I mean is WVU or Michigan or Arizona inviting him back to get honored?

What would they be honoring him for?

He did well enough to merit a return trip to WVU (winning or co-winning the Big East 3 times in 4 years, winning a BCS Sugar Bowl title, and being a Top 10 team for the good part of four years). Problem there is he made a lot of enemies and burned bridges with contractual stuff. Eventually they'll probably honor an anniversary of their Sugar Bowl team and if it's been long enough, maybe they'll forgive and forget and invite him back. But certainly not at UM or UA.

[Rotorooter]

Tulane football 1998 reunion to include Tommy Bowden, Rich Rodriguez

http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/20 ... iver_index

Better warn the female cheerleaders....

So glad we are definitively the bigger people for his homecoming. RichRod swallowing a very big piece of humble pie.

I mean is WVU or Michigan or Arizona inviting him back to get honored?

What would they be honoring him for?

He did well enough to merit a return trip to WVU (winning or co-winning the Big East 3 times in 4 years, winning a BCS Sugar Bowl title, and being a Top 10 team for the good part of four years). Problem there is he made a lot of enemies and burned bridges with contractual stuff. Eventually they'll probably honor an anniversary of their Sugar Bowl team and if it's been long enough, maybe they'll forgive and forget and invite him back. But certainly not at UM or UA.

Hell, WVU might hire him back. Not kidding.

Dr.H, just a joke. R-E-L-A-X.

[sr]

98 seconds … first installment.

https://twitter.com/MorseCodeRed/status ... 70112?s=20

[Fan Since '54]

Thank you sr. That was marvelous!!!

And Tulane struck lighting in a bottle with TB & RR. The "O" was pretty much in it's infancy in major college football. No one had yet figured out how to defend it. Plus we had just the right players to run it. There was only one (BIG) thing wrong in '97 and '98. LSU wasn't on the schedule. They had stopped playing us after '96. Talk about great timing on their part. If we had played them, especially in '98, 62 wouldn't be the highest number of points scored by either school in the history of the series. Tommy would have seen to that.

Fan since '54

[Fan Since '54]

I would like to make a prediction for 09/08/18, and it has nothing to do with the score. At some point there will undoubetly be highlites from '98 being shown on the big screen. When that happens I believe that for those of you who were there in '98 and are there on that night, there won't be a dry eye among you. Tears of joy. And that's a good thing.

Fan since '54

[GretnaGrn]

Went back into the Tulane archives and did some math. Tulane allowed 292 points that year. 4 times they allowed 30+ points, 7 times they allowed 20+ points, and once they allowed 7 points. There were no shutouts. They gave up 24.33 ppg. That is, at best, a mediocre defense. If you knew these stats beforehand, could you have predicted 12-0? But the "O" made up for that in every instance. Whoulda thunk it?

Fan since '54

The stats are really deceptive, though--a lot of those were rolled up during garbage time. I can remember the defense making big plays when they were needed multiple times.

[TUPF]

Went back into the Tulane archives and did some math. Tulane allowed 292 points that year. 4 times they allowed 30+ points, 7 times they allowed 20+ points, and once they allowed 7 points. There were no shutouts. They gave up 24.33 ppg. That is, at best, a mediocre defense. If you knew these stats beforehand, could you have predicted 12-0? But the "O" made up for that in every instance. Whoulda thunk it?

Fan since '54

The stats are really deceptive, though--a lot of those were rolled up during garbage time. I can remember the defense making big plays when they were needed multiple times.

I agree. In particular I remember being at Rutgers when we kicked the crap out of them early. They scored later but it was never in doubt, not even close. Only one game did I worry: Louisville in the Dome was a tight one.

[long green]

The front line on the '98 D was not as good or as deep as the same group in '97.

[PeteRasche]

The front line on the '98 D was not as good or as deep as the same group in '97.

But the defensive backfield stepped up when needed. Crucial plays against USM (strip before the goal line on a would-be-TD that turned into a touchback for us, and multiple interceptions), the goal-line stop against Louisville, a crucial late fumble recovery against Army, and of course, Jordan's pick-6 against BYU which completely turned the momentum.

[1401973]

One of the cruelties of my life of being a TU fan was the end of the '98 season. Spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws for a family gathering. They live in a podunk town in north LA that got very poor radio reception. Tried every room in the house. At some point I thought I heard a score that sounded like we were comfortably in the lead, but wasn't sure. Had instructions to my old man to call me, no matter how late, with a score when the game was over. What a call that was!
Then for the bowl more pain. Months in advance my parents had planned a great Xmas gift for the family - a family Cruise - yep from Xmas thru New Year's Day. My whole family - TU nuts all - went. We were in port in whatever location when the game started. When the ships were in port they got no TV service. And of course radio was unavailable. We were so desperate we asked if the Capt could pick up a score and the answer came back no - but they would be sailing soon.
We finally put out to sea and all of us were crammed around the TV waiting for the first sign of score. What a relief when the game finally came on - and we were up 40 something to 20 something.
So wasn't able to witness the regular season finale nor experience the joy of an undefeated season bowl win.

[PeteRasche]

Spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws for a family gathering. They live in a podunk town in north LA that got very poor radio reception. Tried every room in the house. At some point I thought I heard a score that sounded like we were comfortably in the lead, but wasn't sure.

Unless there were massive power lines just outside their house causing interference, you were doing something wrong, because I listened to the game on the radio at my grandparents' house that night, loud and clear on WWL, 800 miles away in Cincinnati!

[Roller]

Spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws for a family gathering. They live in a podunk town in north LA that got very poor radio reception. Tried every room in the house. At some point I thought I heard a score that sounded like we were comfortably in the lead, but wasn't sure.

Unless there were massive power lines just outside their house causing interference, you were doing something wrong, because I listened to the game on the radio at my grandparents' house that night, loud and clear on WWL, 800 miles away in Cincinnati!

You were probably getting a skip signal.

[Cheerleader]

A fellow Tulanian and I flew to Cincy from Washington for the opener. It was the most exciting night of my Tulane career except for the 73 LSU win. We were so fired up, we hired a driver to take a bunch of us to Rutgers and watched them kick ass there, too. I made it a point to be in NO for the Louisville game and was in the Dome for the close win. Great memories and am looking forward to the rest of the documentary I just watched on Twitter.

[PeteRasche]

Spent Thanksgiving at my in-laws for a family gathering. They live in a podunk town in north LA that got very poor radio reception. Tried every room in the house. At some point I thought I heard a score that sounded like we were comfortably in the lead, but wasn't sure.

Unless there were massive power lines just outside their house causing interference, you were doing something wrong, because I listened to the game on the radio at my grandparents' house that night, loud and clear on WWL, 800 miles away in Cincinnati!

You were probably getting a skip signal.

I get WWL here whenever the weather is cool. Not a skip, WWL and Cincinnati sister (former Voice of America) WLW reach a lot of the US east of the Rockies when the weather isn't too warm. I can't speak for WWL but WLW reaches 38 states at night when lower power stations shut off. My parents listened to every game when I was playing basketball for the Wave... Something which has lost its impressiveness in the internet streaming age.

Sad thing is that there's literally no reason for me to ever listen to WWL anymore.

[RI WAVE]

So for years we went to Bermuda for Thanksgiving. I was the only Tulane fan in the group. I would be on a balcony facing south with a radio tuned into WWL for every Tulane LSU game. I think I started listening from Bermuda in 1979. Was not always a clear signal and had to fiddle with the dial from time to time but it was great to be able to listen to that game after waiting so many years for that 73 win. WWL was a critical piece of building the fan base in those years.

[Cheerleader]

I spent many an hour in my car in the driveway listening to WWL and the Tulane games back in the 70's when I was in DC. Inside radio wouldn't pick it up. Static always came at just the wrong time in the broadcast. "He's wide open in the end zone! Here comes the pass.....Static, static, static."

[sr]

In Loving Memory of JaJuan Dawson -

https://twitter.com/GreenWaveFB/status/ ... 46432?s=20

My son still has his No. 20 Dawson t-shirt ...

[GreenieBacker]

Dawson was just a very special player, loved watching him play.

[sr]

Since JaJuan is highlighted today, here is an article by Lenny VanGilder from July 2015 just after his tragic passing.

https://crescentcitysports.com/former-t ... an-dawson/

[waverider]

In Loving Memory of JaJuan Dawson -

https://twitter.com/GreenWaveFB/status/ ... 46432?s=20

My son still has his No. 20 Dawson t-shirt ...

The only TU football jersey I own is #20 that I got in ‘98.

[sr]

In Loving Memory of JaJuan Dawson -

https://twitter.com/GreenWaveFB/status/ ... 46432?s=20

My son still has his No. 20 Dawson t-shirt ...

The only TU football jersey I own is #20 that I got in ‘98.

We came in for the Homecoming game so it must have been given out then. I was so lucky to be able to expose my son to such a great, achieving football team and their Coach (before he decided to jump ship). We were able to sit down with Coach Bowden (one on one) and have him talk with my son on the importance of grades and being careful with the girls … Roll Wave!

[djh]

In Loving Memory of JaJuan Dawson -

https://twitter.com/GreenWaveFB/status/ ... 46432?s=20

My son still has his No. 20 Dawson t-shirt ...

The only TU football jersey I own is #20 that I got in ‘98.

+1