Bayou Bucket

Bayou Bucket is an award given to the winner of an annual football game between Rice University and the University of Houston. When I first read that the game is between "the Houston Cougars and the Rice Owls" for a moment I misunderstood and thought there was something called a rice owl, and I was very excited to hear that.

Rice is one of my favorite foods, and the owl is a great bird, and the idea that there was something called a rice owl made me very happy. I quickly realized that it was just the Owls from Rice University, but for about a half-second of my life I thought there was such thing as a rice owl, and no one can take that away from me.


Rice owls. Rice owls.
Photo: fossilmike via Flickr (CC)

Jeff Feagles

Jeff Feagles is a storied NFL punter. He holds many NFL career punting records, including most punts, most punts inside the 20-yard line, and most punting yards. Some even consider him the best punter of all time. I beg to differ.

But more importantly, Feagles twice sold his jersey number to incoming teammates. When Eli Manning was drafted by the Giants, Feagles agreed to give up his #10 if Manning paid for Feagles's family vacation to Florida. Then, a couple years later, newcomer Plaxico Burress wanted Feagles's #17, so Feagles gave it to him under the condition that Burress pay for his outdoor kitchen construction.

Isn't that weird?

Last November, as many of you know, Plaxico Burress shot himself in the leg. I wonder if Feagles thinks about Plaxico's shot leg every time he eats in his outdoor kitchen.


Jeff Feagles's shadow was born with a deformed hand.
Photo: jacorbett70 via Flickr (CC)

65th Grey Cup

65th Grey Cup was the 1977 championship game of the Canadian Football League. It is also easily my favorite Wikibloogia to date. According to Wikipedia, everything you're about to read actually did happen and isn't the synopsis of a live-action Disney movie starring Dwayne Johnson.

Late November, 1977. The Montreal Alouettes are facing the Edmonton Eskimos, and it is frigidly cold. The turf is iced over, and no one can get their footing. People are slipping and sliding all over the place. Fumbles abound. That's when a Montreal defensive back named Tony Proudfoot gets an idea. He borrows a staple gun from a Bell Canada employee, and puts staples in the bottoms of his sneakers. Over the course of the game, the rest of his teammates put staples in the bottoms of their sneakers too, and the newly sure-footed Alouettes go on to dominate the slip-sliding Eskimos by a final of 41-6.

A kicker named Don Sweet broke the record for points in a Grey Cup final, a record that still stands. And the Alouettes' head coach was Marv Levy.


There's nothing they can't do.
Photo: OldOnliner via Flickr (CC)

1939 college football season

1939 college football season was the college football season that took place in 1939.

According to Wikipedia, the 1939 national champion was Texas A&M University, as voted by the Associated Press writers' poll. The Aggies were 10-0-0. That same year, World War II began in Europe. 1939 was a bad year for everyone except Texas A&M fans.


Men in hats stood and opened their mouths at the 1939 Rose Bowl.
Photo: Duke Yearlook via Flickr (CC)

John Faiman

John Faiman was a quarterback for the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers from 1960-1962. He was born in Omaha, and was a two-time All-American at Omaha South High School. Since 1985, John has been the head football coach at Bellevue West High School in Bellevue.

According to Wikipedia, John was the starting QB in the first game of the 1962 season, his junior year, and he led the Cornhuskers to a 53-0 victory over the University of South Dakota. In early November of that year, as an extra-point kicker, he broke his leg in practice. He never played for Nebraska again. In this way, he reminds me of Moonlight Graham.


Nebraska corn huskers.
Photo: shannonpatrick17 via Flickr (CC)