“The University of Louisville is on a collision course with the National Championship. The only variable is time.” – Coach Howard Schnellenberger
I never heard anyone laugh the day Howard Schnellenberger first uttered those words. If you laughed, I didn’t hear you. Eyebrows were raised. Heads turned sideways. Then it was watch and wait time. The legend continues.
Not long before Coach Howard Schnellenberger took over as the Head Football Coach at the University of Louisville in 1985 many folks were laughing. In the few years before Coach Pipe took over, Coach Bob Weber was dealing with waning support. Tickets could be purchased at Convenient Food Marts for $3. Not many were. Some say there was serious talk of shuttering the football program that was relegated to playing in an ancient minor league baseball stadium. These days, as you look to the west just south of the U of L campus as you are driving on Interstate 65 in Louisville, you see an L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. This is the home of the Louisville Cardinals Football Team. This is The House that Howard Built.
This photo was taken on October 1, 2011. Two former Miami high school quarterbacks, Teddy Bridgewater of U of L and Rakeem Cato of Marshall, squared off. The Herd won that day 17-13. Since then, the end zone in this picture has been added with more seats. There was a time when the sight of a stadium like this wasn’t even yet a pipe dream.
Your old Uncle Dan can tell you about what happened 40 years ago. The Homecoming Game of 1983 at the old baseball stadium didn’t bring very many people back home. The attendance that day was 17,064. That was a day that saw the Louisville Cardinals defeated by the Southern Miss Golden Eagles 27-3. I was probably there.
My Dad graduated from Southern Miss. When the Golden Eagles and the Cards got together in Louisville in the late 70s and early 80s, my Dad was usually in attendance. So was I. I wish I could remember more. Two of these contests do stand out vividly in my mind, like a file cabinet drawer opened up with a Cardinal Red folder sticking out of it.
The 1979 game between U of L and USM, both Independents in the world of college football at the time, ended in a 10-10 tie. I remember a Southern defender intercepting a last minute pass to seal the tie. What can I say? You can’t expect much for a three dollar ticket. Attendance that day was 13,085.
Two years later on November 21, 1981, history was made in old Cardinal Stadium for the game against Southern Miss. There were television cameras strategically placed around the grounds. Below the cameras on tripods in the stands and placed on each side of the stadium and end zones were banners that had ABC SPORTS on them. For the first time in the history of University of Louisville Football, ABC was in town for a regionally televised game primarily meant to be seen in the south. Why? In the previous two weeks Southern Miss had beaten #15 Mississippi State 7-6 and #20 Florida State 58-14. Southern Miss was waltzing into Cardinal Stadium ranked #9 in the land. Their record was 8-0-1. In the fifth game of the season USM tied #7 Alabama 13-13.
A trip to Louisville was going to be a piece of cardinal pie for the Golden Eagles, right? Not exactly. After playing in 71 degree weather the week before in Tallahassee, Southern Miss ran out of the dug out onto old Cardinal Stadium and the temperature was 31 degrees. Snow flakes were flying along the third base line. Some of you remember that if you were along the first base line on offense you were happy. You were in the end zone.
Southern Miss had a running game a team can only dream about these days. Reggie Collier was the quarterback and Sammy Winder and Ricky Floyd were behind him. They were all great. Except on this day they were not. Louisville upset Southern Miss 13-10. The boys from Hattiesburg never got started good. They were too cold.
The hearty U of L crowd that day of 12,940 made more noise than that place had heard in a while. Maybe that was the genesis of the Crunch Zone? I can only believe so.
Look, for someone who was there when this program was nearing life-support to witnessing the hiring of a legend in Coach Howard Schnellenberger to seeing a science fiction looking stadium rising from the ground to watching one of Howard’s boys take over the reigns as Head Football Coach in former U of L QB Jeff Brohm and absolutely shell the corn to a 5-0 record moving into October this season is a script I could not make up. But I am glad I can write about it. I am glad I was there for it. Like being there on the cold November day in 1990 when a freshman named Jeff Brohm had to replace injured starter Browning Nagle and help the Cards defeat Boston College 17-10 in old Cardinal Stadium (thanks in large part to LB Mark Sander and a defense that picked off five of Glenn Foley’s passes). Attendance that day? 37,636…about as many as you could pack into that old relic. The 1990 Cards finished 10-1-1 after a 34-7 victory over Alabama in The Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Now? Why not? Yes. I think the Louisville Cardinals will beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday. Look, the Duke Blue Devils played Notre Dame to the last minute losing 21-14. Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham is not exactly the most frightening place to play a road game. There are guys in that crowd afraid they’re going to get something on their tie. Louisville’s home crowd has been waiting for a game like this for a long time and some of them will be half-naked and half-baked. One guy will be holding up a large capital D and another piece of cardboard meant to resemble a FENCE. That’s goofy crazy this many years on.
This is U of L’s time. This coming from a man with a master’s degree from the school and little desire to root for the Cards outside the fact that I enjoy football and want to see our local teams do well.
Still. I will be glued to a screen somewhere far away from Kentuckiana when the Cards take on Notre Dame Saturday night. I doubt many in Massachusetts will know what I am yelling about. I refuse to chant out the spelling of the name of any mascot with only one vowel in it. But I will say this. Go Cards!
Speaking the rights.
Danny Johnson