James M. Redwine

Rose Bowl

Chance Favors the Prepared

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At the IU Bookstore. Photo taken by Peg Redwine

Roman soldiers cast lots, gambled, on which soldier would take Jesus’ tunic/robe (See John 19:22-29). The New Testament refers to this shameful activity to help portray the crucifixion as even more humiliating. Each of the Gospels mentions this story that helps set forth the evil of the event and how Jesus was demeaned. In other words, gambling is not an admired activity, at least when it comes to stealing the clothes of Jesus.

Indiana University had no knowledge of Brendan Sorsby’s gambling addiction while he played quarterback for IU his red-shirt freshman year of 2022. The NCAA informed Indiana University after Sorsby’s illness came to light while he played at Texas Tech; he had also played at Cincinnati after he left IU and gambled while there too, although there’s no evidence Cincinnati was aware of it.

In a podcast from Texas Tech, Tech’s president, Lawrence Schovanec, the head Athletic Director, Kirby Hocutt, the assistant AD, Grant Stovalle, and the head football coach, Joey McGuire, all defended the court decision that ruled against the NCAA’s ban of Sorsby from playing college sports. Their strong, collective position was that the most important issue was dealing with Sorsby’s gambling addiction. No mention was made of any potential harm to college sports.

If someone bets a beer on who will win the Rose Bowl, unless that someone is a player in the game, no harm results. However, if a quarterback bets thousands on his team to lose, questions should arise. It is not that people do not have sympathy and understanding of addictions. The difficulty is integrity of a college sporting contest as affected by the addiction. These must remain completely separate issues and should be dealt with accordingly. Help the former player deal with his or her mental problem but do not enable them to help tear down legitimate competition. In other words, ban them from college sports. They can still go pro if good enough and if they do not bet on the game.

I have no wish to see Brendan Sorsby’s life further destructed by his illness. I hope he gets treatment and that it is successful. However, I cannot help feeling great relief that Sorsby was not at IU in 2024-26 as we climbed out of obscurity to be national champions. We have suffered too many years of losing to see our moments of glory besmirched.

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Time Is On Our Side

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Over the two or three hundred thousand years we homo sapiens have created and destroyed countless cultures there has been a recurring philosophical debate over whether time is linear or circular. Do things occur once or do events repeat themselves? Is life finite or eternal? Will we find life after life has always been the great mystery. Most people are hesitant to test their hypothesis whichever they believe, hope or dread. Also, most of us who puzzle over the conundrum of time, who are most of us, agree with Viking Cruise Line Chairman Torstein Hagan who says, “Time is the only truly scarce commodity, so spend it wisely”.

Of course, whether we are investing our time or squandering it is about as difficult for us to determine as The College Football Playoff Selection Committee found the choices of which teams should be one of the twelve chosen to vie for the national championship. But one choice was as non-controversial as history made it absolutely phenomenal: THE Indiana University is not only IN, it is at the top of the class!

Photo by Peg Redwine

I attended my first class at IU in the autumn of 1963 when the United States Air Force sent me there for foreign language training. That was my introduction to IU’s reputation as the doormat of college football. By the time I had completed my law degree in Bloomington in 1970 I fully understood. Each year began with hope and ended with despair. We almost always found a new way to snatch defeat from the jaws of a narrow victory. Regardless, Peg and I fell victim to each ray of hope engendered by the rare bright spots such as the 1967-68 Rose Bowl; we lost. She and I were born too late to celebrate the 1945 championship season; well ok, Peg wasn’t even born yet.

As you can tell, Gentle Reader, in the 130 years of IU football the field has remained quite barren. Yet, Peg and I always donned our cream and crimson along with our rose-colored glasses. We just knew if we lived long enough time would reward us. It only took from 1963 to 2024-25. Now, what are we to believe about eternity, if there is such a thing?

At the IU Bookstore. Photo taken by Peg Redwine

 

Forty Bowl Games And Counting

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Americans rushed to California in 1849 seeking gold. Most found what the little boy shot at. But now there is gold to be found by college football teams heading to California, and Florida, Texas, etc., etc., to play in one of the college bowl games. It is estimated that in excess of half a billion dollars will change hands between the first bowl game on December 16, 2017 (The Celebration Bowl played between Grambling and North Carolina A & T in Atlanta, Georgia) and the National Championship Bowl to be held January 08, 2018 in the same place.

My alma mater, Indiana University, will not be among the 80 colleges participating. We will, however, share in a portion of the bowl revenues that other Big 10 universities will rake in. Maybe we can use the money to help fund the one event I.U. students always get to play in, the Little 500 bike race. Okay, enough sour grapes. Let’s move along with the main topic which is the college football bowl season.

Less than forty years after the end of the Civil War (1902) the first college bowl game was held between the University of Michigan (representing the east) and Stanford University (representing the west). America’s Civil War wounds were still too raw to pit a northern team versus a southern one. The game was conceived as a fundraiser to help Pasadena, California defray the expenses of the Rose Parade that was always held to celebrate the New Year. Unfortunately, Michigan beat Stanford so badly that Stanford walked off the field and quit in the third quarter (49-0). This was so embarrassing the Rose Bowl game was not held again until 1916.

However, due to the financial success of games from 1916 up to the time of the Great Depression other communities jumped on the bowl bandwagon. Miami, Florida started the Orange Bowl in 1933, New Orleans added the Sugar Bowl in 1935 and Texas started the Sun Bowl in 1936 and the Cotton Bowl in 1937. A true gold rush was in full swing.

The 2018 Rose Bowl will be held New Year’s Day between The University of Oklahoma and the University of Georgia. Each school’s conference will be paid $40 million dollars and each of the two schools playing will get paid over $2 million as “compensation for expenses”. My guess is each university will use the money to snag five star recruits and build evermore state of the art practice facilities. I say we should not expect the money to be invested in each university’s academic needs. On the other hand, Peg and I have not seen fit to buy any tickets to watch the exciting lectures on physics at I.U. instead of the moribund football games!