The ONLY Game That Matters!

[SmedIndy]

http://www.wabash.edu/sports/releases/weekly.pdf

The 109th meeting of Wabash and DePauw. One of the best rivalries in all of college football (the most intense per capita, no doubt). It's been featured in Sports Illustrated, broadcast on ESPN2 and ABC, and has no equal, IMHO.

This is really what college sports should be all about. Two teams filled with student-athletes playing for nothing but the love of the game (and a huge railroad bell).

[Craig S.]

Now, if you could take the athletes on teams like Miami and Ohio State, and give them the selflessness of these small-college guys, that would be good.

As it is, I'd still rather watch the big teams, with all their bravado and swagger.

Now, why a railroad bell?

[poorme]

Originally posted by Craig S.

Now, why a railroad bell?

It must have something to do with the "wabash cannonball".

does the train still go through town. is the town wabash? does the wabash river run through town?

[SmedIndy]

http://www.depauw.edu/ath/football/monon/index.asp

Here's DePauw's site.

The Monon Railroad went through both Crawfordsville and Greencastle, and they donated it to the schools for the game back in 1932.

Craig - you need to watch this. There's plenty of bravado here, and the football is excellent. People mistakenly give the lower divisions short shrift when they play as hard or harder and with even more passion than those on scholarship (especially the elite D-3 teams).

[rcartman28]

Is there, along with the mighty bell, a Division III playoff berth riding on this game ????

[Max Power]

Why am I picturing this game being played by guys wearing leather helmets?

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by rcartman28
Is there, along with the mighty bell, a Division III playoff berth riding on this game ????

No. We are in because of winning the NCAC, DePauw won't get in because they only have THREE (count 'em) at-large teams in D-3 playoffs (thanks to an inane pool system).

Max - some of our players would wear leather helmets if it would help in getting the bell.

But the players in this game will either be doctors, lawyers, professors, or owners of companies that the D-1 players work for! :D

[KCBOOMER]

From the great Atlantic Ocean To the wide Pacific shore
To the queen of flowing mountains
To the southbell by the door
She's long and tall and handsome
And loved by one and all
She's a modern combination
Called the Wabash Cannonball

Oh listen to the jingle
The rumble and the roar
As she glides along the woodlands
Through the hills and by the shores
Hear the mighty rush of engines
Hear the lonesome hobos' call
We're travelling through the jungles
On the Wabash Cannonball

The eastern states are dandies
So the western people say
From New York to St. Louis
And Chicago by the way
Through the hills of Minnesota
Where the rippling waters fall
No chances can be taken
On the Wabash Cannonball

Oh listen to the jingle
The rumble and the roar
As she glides along the woodlands
Through the hills and by the shores
Hear the mighty rush of engines
Hear the lonesome hobos' call
We're travelling through the jungles
On the Wabash Cannonball

Here's to Daddy Klaxton
May his name forever stand
And always be remembered
Through the courts throughout the land
His earthly race is over
Now the curtains 'round him fall
We'll carry him home to victory
On the Wabash Cannonball!

[gyb13]

ah, the dreaded smed thread we've all been waiting...:D

[sweaver]

Quiet, I'm listening to Boomer sing.

[VNV Nation]

Ah, proof that white guys DO play college football.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by KCBOOMER
From the great Atlantic Ocean To the wide Pacific shore
To the queen of flowing mountains
To the southbell by the door [to the southland by the moors]
She's long and tall and handsome
And loved by one and all [loved quite well by all]
She's a modern combination [she's the regular combination]
Called the Wabash Cannonball

Oh listen to the jingle
The rumble and the roar
As she glides along the woodlands
Through the hills and by the shores
Hear the mighty rush of engines
Hear the lonesome hobos' call
We're travelling through the jungles
On the Wabash Cannonball

The eastern states are dandies
So the western people say
From New York to St. Louis
And Chicago by the way
Through the hills of Minnesota
Where the rippling waters fall
No chances can be taken [no changes can be taken]
On the Wabash Cannonball

Oh listen to the jingle
The rumble and the roar
As she glides along the woodlands
Through the hills and by the shores
Hear the mighty rush of engines
Hear the lonesome hobos' call
We're travelling through the jungles
On the Wabash Cannonball

Here's to Daddy Klaxton
May his name forever stand
And always be remembered
Through the courts throughout the land
His earthly race is over
Now the curtains 'round him fall
We'll carry him home to victory
On the Wabash Cannonball!


the [inserts] are the more standard lyric to the song as sung for 60 years by the great Roy Acuff

Of course Dizzy Dean used to butcher the song on his radiocasts

[Craig S.]

Congrats, Smed. Not even close.

[SmedIndy]

Yeah, when you sprint out 35-0, it kind of takes the sting out of it.

Now, MacMurray in the playoffs.

http://web2.wabash.edu/sports/more.cfm?sport_releases__ID=698

[sweaver]

It was a Colonel Ruppert game. He liked the ones where the Yankees went ahead 9-0 in the first inning "and then slowly pulled away."