EC's South Island League

[Eugene Church]

Got back home Saturday evening... ain't no place like the good old USA... even with all of its problems... it is really good to be home.

Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Germany are nice places to visit and might be wonderful places to live... but I'm glad to be home in the good old USA... yep, it is true -- there ain't no place like home.

[Eugene Church]

MY LIFE IN 1958
EC's Hopin' Life's Great in '58

OK, all you buckaroos and little darlin's, too, it 's time to wrap up the sports year of 1958 with college football and the World Series... it was an historic time in football-crazed Bayou Land... the LSU Tigers won the national title with an unbeaten season, coached by Paul Dietzel and led by Billy Cannon and Johnny Robinson, two of the star players.

EC was never an LSU fan... when I lived in New Orleans in the early 50s, I always pulled for the hapless Tulane Green Wave or Greenies... take a gander at the attendance in '58 for the LSU-Tulane game -- 83,221 people -- also listened to the Alabama Crimson Tide every Saturday afternoon in the mid to late 1950s in Mobile with Maury Farrell and John Forney doing the play-by-play and analysis... yep, EC lived and died every Saturday... mainly died most of the time, the Tide didn't roll much in the 1950s.

Boy, I mean to tell you, the LSU Fightin' Tigers was really something that year... don't like admittin' it, but yep, the Fightin' Tigers were a heck of a team in 1958... the LSU White Team (first team), Go Team (second string offense) and Chinese Bandits (second string defense) were something to behold... the White team were the first stringers and stars... Paul Dietzel just created special names for the second and third teamers to make them think they were special, too... and it looks like it worked... the second and third stringers thought they were good, too... and yep, they were.

Saturday, October 25, 1958 was big day for Dietzel and LSU... everything came together in their favor so they could jump passed Army and Ohio State in the polls... thank goodness for tie games... otherwise LSU just might have lost the national title that year.

For the top-ranked teams, a tie was only slightly better than a loss... No. 1 Army played to a 14–14 tie against the Panthers at Pittsburgh, and No. 2 Ohio State tied with Wisconsin at home 7–7... No. 3 LSU beat Florida 10–7, and the win was enough to propel the Tigers to first place.

The Tigers went on to wrap up an unbeaten 11-0 season with a 7-0 victory over the Clemson Tigers in the Sugar Bowl.

[Eugene Church]

Junior running back Billy Cannon, one of the greatest college players ever, finished third in the Heisman Trophy Poll... he would win it easily in 1959.

EC really and truly believes back injuries kept Cannon from being a star NFL player... yep, I do believe a healthy Cannon would have starred in the NFL and would now be in the NFL Hall of Fame.

One of my all-time favorites, Don Meredith, both as a player in college and the pros, and also as part of one of the greatest broadcast team in history on Monday Night Football with Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford, Dandy Don Meredith, came in pretty high in the Heisman poll two years in a row.

Danderoo was a heck of a guy... and a fairly decent country singer on occasion on Monday Night Football... at least, EC thinks Dandy Don was a better country singer than Cosell or Gifford.

Dandy Don Meredith always sang a great Willie Nelson song when the game was decided on Monday Night Football... "The Party's Over".

Yep... yep indeed... EC's got that classic for all you frats, cats, teeny boppers, buckaroos and little darlin's, too.

Here's that classic little country ditty from Dandy Don.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saMUmG4HU1E

[Eugene Church]

Quote:
Originally Posted by jg2977 View Post
Glad you're back, hope you had a nice vacation!

Yep, EC did... my wife really had a wonderful time... she really loves to travel... she has never seen a museum, church, castle or gift shop that she didn't like... the Viking Tour folks treated us like the Royal Family of Denmark, Norway and England, all rolled into one... we were pampered in every way possible... my favorite part, of course, was the musical entertainment on the ship... it was quite good every night, ranging from pop, rock and country hits to Broadway... my favorite was a guitar picker and singer... he sounded like John Denver, America, Neil Diamond, Bread, Air Supply and the Eagles... as an old DJ for 32 years, the young singer made my trip truly enjoyable... he was a man after my own heart... he played only Top 10 classics that everybody knew and loved and could sing along with... there was also pretty young blond that should be on Broadway... really fine voice and good dancer... each night in the lounge a guy and a pretty young lady entertained with all the great rock and pop songs of all-time... the lady was beautiful and both of them could capture the hearts of the audience... you should of seen the old teenboppers from the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s swinging and swaying and rocking and bopping to all the hits on the dance floor... even EC got up and bopped with my lovely wife... yep, EC is the same guy who didn't ask girls out in high school because he didn't know how to dance... yep, it is sad that I had such a warped sense of reality... I really missed out on the some of the enjoyment of high school.

[Eugene Church]

Monday, May 26, 1958

MYSTIC UPSETS MERAUX... ENABLES DELTA TO TIE TIGERS FOR SUPREME LEAGUE LEAD
Last year's South Island Supreme League champion Mystic has not fared well in 1958, however the Mariners stood out supremely Sunday afternoon at home... they whipped the league-leading Meraux Tigers 5-3 and enabled the Delta Stars to climb up into a first-place tie... the Stars were victors this weekend over last place Moon Valley 6-4... it is now a 6-team race down-the-stretch... slow-starting Jackson got back in the pennant chase by knocking off the Kofa Kings 5-1 and depriving them of first place... Bar Harbor nipped St. Dominic 2-1 and stayed close to the top teams... the Anderson Ravens kept pace by banging the St. Pete Pelicans 8-5... and Zebulon got by also-ran St. Luke's Place 5-2 to wrap up the weekend action.

[Eugene Church]

[Eugene Church]

[Eugene Church]

[Eugene Church]

[Eugene Church]

[Eugene Church]

[StLee]

Originally Posted by Eugene Church

MY LIFE IN 1958
EC's Hopin' Life's Great in '58

OK, all you buckaroos and little darlin's, too, it 's time to wrap up the sports year of 1958 with college football and the World Series... it was an historic time in football-crazed Bayou Land... the LSU Tigers won the national title with an unbeaten season, coached by Paul Dietzel and led by Billy Cannon and Johnny Robinson, two of the star players.

EC was never an LSU fan... when I lived in New Orleans in the early 50s, I always pulled for the hapless Tulane Green Wave or Greenies... take a gander at the attendance in '58 for the LSU-Tulane game -- 83,221 people -- also listened to the Alabama Crimson Tide every Saturday afternoon in the mid to late 1950s in Mobile with Maury Farrell and John Forney doing the play-by-play and analysis... yep, EC lived and died every Saturday... mainly died most of the time, the Tide didn't roll much in the 1950s.

Boy, I mean to tell you, the LSU Fightin' Tigers was really something that year... don't like admittin' it, but yep, the Fightin' Tigers were a heck of a team in 1958... the LSU White Team (first team), Go Team (second string offense) and Chinese Bandits (second string defense) were something to behold... the White team were the first stringers and stars... Paul Dietzel just created special names for the second and third teamers to make them think they were special, too... and it looks like it worked... the second and third stringers thought they were good, too... and yep, they were.

Saturday, October 25, 1958 was big day for Dietzel and LSU... everything came together in their favor so they could jump passed Army and Ohio State in the polls... thank goodness for tie games... otherwise LSU just might have lost the national title that year.

For the top-ranked teams, a tie was only slightly better than a loss... No. 1 Army played to a 14–14 tie against the Panthers at Pittsburgh, and No. 2 Ohio State tied with Wisconsin at home 7–7... No. 3 LSU beat Florida 10–7, and the win was enough to propel the Tigers to first place.

The Tigers went on to wrap up an unbeaten 11-0 season with a 7-0 victory over the Clemson Tigers in the Sugar Bowl.

EC was never an LSU fan BOOO!!!!!!

You posted the 1956 poll instead of the 1958 one, but that was a great year for LSU. It was not the best year for LSU, but they were a good team. A lot of people think Billy Cannon's punt return was in the national championship year, but it actually happened the next year in the Heisman year. LSU could've been back-to-back champions but dropped a game by a point to Tennessee in 1959 in the game following Cannon's game-winning punt return.

Two seasons better for LSU than the 1958-1959 seasons? 1908! (Results = 41-0, 81-5, 26-0, 55-0, 10-2, 50-0, 89-0, 32-0, 22-0, 36-4) and 2019.

[Eugene Church]

Thanks for pointing out the poll error, St.Lee... I will fix it.

Sorry to say I am a long-suffering Green Wave fan from 1950s... lived in New Orleans with a lot of other Tulane fans... but there were many, many Tiger fans in the Crescent City, too... probably even split in numbers.

[Eugene Church]

MY LIFE IN 1958
EC's Hopin' Life's Great in '58

St. Lee, as an ardent LSU fan, I'm sure you know all of this about the 1958 National Champion LSU Tigers... this is just some more about Coach Paul Dietzel's football philosophy that might give everyone a feel for what it was like in college football at the time... they had unique substitution rules... there was no free substitution at this time.

Special thanks to Wikipedia for this article:

[Eugene Church]

Monday, May 26, 1958

UNBEATEN YANKS DODGE A BULLET... CUBS ARE CLINGING CLOSE... SAILORS, TOO
I don't know how they did it, but the New Yerby Yankees won their 8th consecutive game to remain perfect for the South Island Secondary League... the Grin Hill Smileys were grinning ear to ear going into the bottom of the 8th frame ahead by a 6-1 score... no one can come back from that kind of deficit, but the Yanks did, finally prevailing with a startling rally 8-6... a 7-run inning wiped that smile off of the Grin Hill faces.

Delacroix stayed right on the heels of New Yerby, winning a big game from the Cherrywood Stouts 7-5... the second-place Cubs are clinging close just one game behind with 3 games remaining in the pennant race... third place Gull Lake took care of the Parkland Perfectos 4-1 and are now 2 games back in the race.

In other Secondary League play Billings fell to the Braxton Bruins 12-6... Littleville went on a home-run rampage and toppled the Pelham Oaks 7-4 in 11 innings... and Columbia clipped the Guedon Gators 7-4.

[Eugene Church]

1958 Secondary League Stars of the Week

[Eugene Church]

[Eugene Church]

[Eugene Church]

[Eugene Church]