Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Since it was Tuesday, there was only one thing to do, call Brian and Koreen FitzGerald and head out for yet another . . .
. . . Taco Tuesday Feast
We opted to head up to Oxnard to try out a new spot that has only been open for about a month that goes by the name Kalaveras.
I liked the look of all of those tortillas calling out my name.
Four is a nice number.
The Kalaveras Taco Bar
First, our server offered us a choice of six different meats. I opted for two al pastor, one barbacoa and a carnitas. After she overloaded our tortillas with these aromatic chunks of properly cooked animal flesh, we were handed our plate and left to our own devices to add all sorts of vegetable toppings and salsas to our hearts delight.
They were all EXCELLENT!
If only more people knew . . .
A couple of thoughts from the net today . . .
Things were so much simpler then
Hard to imagine a college football conference today with only eight teams.
For the record, in 2024 these eight former Southwest Conference schools will play in the following conferences:
American Athletic Conference - 14 Teams
Rice
Atlantic Coast Conference - 17 Teams
Southern Methodist
BIG XII Conference - 16 Teams
Baylor
Texas Christian
Texas Tech
Southeastern Conference - 16 Teams
Arkansas
Texas
Texas A&M
Of even more interest to me was this poster of the first ever AP College Football Poll published in 1936.
Minnesota Golden Gophers #1
With Duke, Army, Northwestern and Purdue rounding off the top five, this poll reflects but one thing, the college football landscape has changed GREATLY in the last 88 years!
Hard to imagine Yale, Duquesne, St, Mary's, Fordham, Holy Cross or Marquette in the Top 20 today.
It was nice to see Washington at #8 in this first poll. The Huskies opened the 1936 season at home against #1 ranked Minnesota and suffered a 14-7 loss. After that loss, Washington rampaged through the old Pacific Coast Conference with a 7-0-1 record beating California (13-0), Idaho (22-0), Oregon (7-0), Oregon State (19-7), UCLA (14-0), USC (12-0) and Washington State (40-0). The only blot on their PCC Championship run was a 14-14 tie at Stanford.
As the PCC Champions, the Huskies took on Pittsburgh in the Rose Bowl suffering a 21-0 defeat.
The Pitt Panthers finished with an 8-1-1 record and ranked #3 in the final 1936 AP poll.
The Washington Huskies finished the 1936 season at 7-2-1 and ranked #5.
Back in those days the polls did not include any bowl game results, just the regular season.
Minnesota did indeed win the AP's National Championship as BIG 10 Champions with a 7-1-0 record. In those days, the BIG 10 did not allow conference teams to play in bowl games.
The National Championship was based in large part I'm guessing on the Golden Gophers overall dominance outscoring their opponents 203-32.
Despite this huge scoring advantage, Minnesota was not the BIG 10 Champions in 1936.
In 1936, BIG 10 Conference play the Golden Gophers were 4-1-0, losing to Northwestern 6-0. Northwestern earned the BIG 10 Conference Championship with a conference mark of 6-0-0. The Wildcats were 7-0-1 overall on the season.
So, how did the overall 1936 collegiate season pan out? Well, here is the AP's Final Top 20 Rankings based on regular season records only:
School, Conference, Regular Season Record
1. Minnesota, Big 10, 7-1-0
2. LSU, Southeastern, 9-0-1
3. Pittsburgh, Independent, 7-1-1
4. Alabama, Southeastern, 8-0-1
5. Washington, Pacific Coast, 7-1-1
6. Santa Clara, Independent, 7-0-0
7. Northwestern, Big 10, 7-1-0
8. Notre Dame, Independent, 6-2-0
9. Nebraska, Big 6, 7-2-0
10. Penn, Independent, 7-1-0
11. Duke, Southern, 9-1-0
12. Yale, Independent, 7-1-0
13. Dartmouth, Independent, 7-1-1
14. Duquesne, Independent, 7-2-0
15. Fordham, Independent, 5-1-2
16. Texas Christian, Southwest, 7-2-2
17. Tennessee, Southeastern, 6-2-1
18. Arkansas, Southwest, 6-3-0
19. Navy, Independent, 6-3-0
20. Marquette, Independent, 7-1-0
The Conference rankings in this Final 1936 AP Poll were:
10 Independent colleges
3 Southeastern Conference schools
2 Big 10 Conference universities
2 Southwest Conference teams
1 Pacific Coast Conference college
1 Big 6 Conference school
1 Southern Conference university
There were only six bowl games after the 1936 season, there will be 39 bowl and playoff games after this season.
Here are the results of all six of those 1936 season bowl games all played on January 1, 1937:
Rose Bowl
#3 Pittsburgh (8-1-1) 21
#5 Washington (7-2-1) 0
Orange Bowl
#14 Duquesne (8-2-0) 13
Unranked Mississippi State (7-3-1) 12
Sugar Bowl
#6 Santa Clara (8-0-0) 21
#2 LSU (9-1-1) 14
Cotton Bowl
#16 Texas Christian (8-2-2) 16
#20 Marquette (7-2-0) 6
Sun Bowl
Unranked Hardin-Simmons (9-2-0) 34
Unranked Texas Mines (5-3-1) 6
Bacardi Bowl (Havana, Cuba)
Unranked Auburn (7-2-2) 7
Unranked Villanova (7-2-1) 7
Can you imagine the Paul Finebaum Show today if a #4 ranked, 8-0-1 Alabama team didn't get a bowl bid?
Missing from this Final 1936 AP Poll were these eight teams with their initial poll ranking and their final record:
3. Army, Independent, 6-3-0
5. Purdue, Big 10, 5-2-1
6. USC, Pacific Coast, 4-2-3
12. St. Mary's, Independent, 6-3-1
14. Texas A&M, Southwest, 8-3-1
17. Holy Cross, Independent, 7-2-1
18. Tulane, Southeastern, 6-3-1
19. Southern Methodist, Southwest, 5-4-1
I have four take-aways from today's post:
1. I like doing obscure research.
2. The craziness of now knowing that the Big 10 ever had a rule banning their teams from bowl games.
3. That winning a National Championship by a vote can lead to some head scratching, unwanted possibilities. WE NEED A PLAYOFF SYSTEM!
4. That we have way too many post-season games today.
5. That there were an insane amount of ties back in 1936!
Tacos and mundane Research
are my life!
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