Cards from the 1977-78 Sugar Bowl (Alabama -OSU) for Strat-O-Matic College Football
Dropbox Link for the 1977 Alabama Crimson Tide
Dropbox Link for the 1977 Ohio State Buckeyes
Link to Other SOM CFB Content on this Blog
This is the first of a series of posts featuring teams from the Forum's BigStew11, Chris Stewart, a West Point grad who hails from the great State of Texas. He is running an Eighties College Football Replay that caught my attention, as he made his own cards, enough for 26 teams from the 1977 season. I contacted him and as one would well expect, he's a dedicated guy. Collecting the data by box scores took him a total of ten years, and he wrote programs to call offensive and defensive plays so he could test the teams against the best representations of their schedules. Looking at the teams I loved them, and so he gave me the okay to start posting them. SOM CFB content is easily the most popular material I can post, so I am very much in his debt.
New Year's Day was on Sunday in 1978, and so the major college bowl games were played the following day. The 44th 1978 Sugar Bowl was thus played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Monday, January 2. It matched the third-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the #9 Ohio State Buckeyes of the Big Ten Conference. The teams were led by their respective hall of fame head coaches, Bear Bryant and Woody Hayes, who at the time were the winningest active coaches.
Slightly favored, Alabama won in a rout 35–6, and finished second in the nation on a wild weekend where both teams that had been ahead of theme were bested, but the team behind them, Notre Dame, beat Texas who had been ranked #1. Notre Dame took home the title in both polls.
Bear Bryant entered his 20th year at Alabama in 1977 riding a streak of 18 consecutive winning seasons and bowl bids. In 1976, Alabama started 14 underclassmen and after a 2-2 opening, the Tide won seven of eight including the Liberty Bowl, where they destroyed favored UCLA 36-6. The momentum carried over as Alabama had finished the regular season as SEC champions with a record of 10–1; the only loss was at Nebraska (31–24) in week two. Ohio State finished the regular season as co-champions of the Big Ten with a record of 9–2. Their only defeats were to Oklahoma by a point (29–28) on a disputed late field goal in week three and at rival Michigan Wolverines (14–6) to close the regular season.
The Tide was led by a star-studded lineup - future NFLers Tony Nathan, Dwight Stephenson, Ozzie Newsome, E, J. Junior, Barry Krauss, Marty Lyons, Curtis McGriff, Don McNeal and Rich Wingo were all on this roster, and they were led by junior QB Jeff Rutledge, while Buddy Aydelette found stardom in the USFL. After their loss to the Huskers, the Tide regained their footing three weeks later with a major upset of then #1 USC at the Coliseum (21-20) and later shut down #18 LSU 24-3 in Baton Rouge.
The Buckeyes featured future NFLers (and Cowboys) Doug Donley and Ron Springs, Browns Tom DeLeone and Tom Cousineau, Ray Ellis, Mike Guess, and punter Tom Orosz. Woodie Hayes started his fastest backfield in memory; they were led by junior QB Rod Gerald, averaged 4.8 yards per carry and scored 39 TDs. After the shocker in week three at The Shoe they held six of their next eight opponents to less than 10 points (three by shutout), and powerful Michigan to only 14 points playing in Ann Arbor.
After a scoreless first quarter, Alabama scored on a one-yard Tony Nathan touchdown run to cap a 10-play, 76-yard drive. On their next offensive possession, 'Bama scored again on a 27-yard Jeff Rutledge touchdown pass to Bruce Bolton to take a 13–0 lead at the half. In the third quarter, Rutledge had his second touchdown on a 3-yard pass to Rick Neal. Following a successful two-point conversion pass to Nathan, Alabama led 21–0, the score at the quarter's end. The Buckeyes scored their only points of the game early in the fourth when Rod Gerald threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jim Harrell, but failed on the two-point try and the score was 21–6. The Tide closed the game with a pair of touchdown runs, the first from one yard by Major Ogilvie, and the second by Johnny Davis on a seven-yard run to make the final score 35–6.
Notes on The Cards:
1) Chris carded his teams based on total fumbles rather than fumbles lost or recovered. This method is recommended by no less than NFL Ed, so I can't argue with it. The cards I produced earlier were done on lost and recovered, so for those who prefer this method I would substitute the offensive and defensive splits below.
2) He also has Penalties for these teams:
3) Lastly, he has a brilliant way to bring offensive blocking into the game - his teams have ratings for offensive lines. You roll the Big Black Die already for penalties- if it come up with a D on a defensive split result, you roll the small white die again, and use the chart below. If, say a 2 -rated Center faces a 4 rated middle guard, on a D you roll a white die again, and on a 3-6 the offensive player would win the challenge and you would use the higher of the two results. If the BBD result was not a D you would resolve versus the defender's rating, i.e. a 4 would mean the lower of the two results, a 5 or 6 the higher of the two results.
Fred Bobberts, Albuquerque, NM, 7/4/2022 (Used with Permission)
Hello,
ReplyDeleteIf 1977 Norte Dame cards were created, where are they posted? Again, thanks for the other 1977 teams!!