THREE MIRACLES THIS SATURDAY

I saw three miracles today, all in the American game of college football.  The day began with Ohio State beating Michigan 42-41 by intercepting the ball on the final play, before 113,000 spectators, preserving an undefeated regular season, something deserving of at least a micro-miracle.  Earlier this year, 115,109 was officially announced when Notre Dame visited Michigan.  That was the largest college crowd in history.

Michigan Stadium (above), incidentally, has drawn more than 100,000 for every football game since 1975.  Strahow Stadium (left) in Prague seats 250,000, Rungnado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang can handle 150,000 and Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta (no, make that Kolkata) has a capacity of 120,000.  The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has hosted 400,000, counting people inside the track.

At 289th place is Aloha Stadium with a capacity of 50,000, joined by 30 other stadia.  Anyway, this is where Hawaii competed against Army before a rather sparse crowd. Between the two teams there are three victories, all won by Army.  I should add that Hawaii has about the worst run defense in the world and Army is the #1 running team in all of college football.  Some of you remember I went all the way to Annapolis to see Hawaii lose to Navy.  There was also the none win in Las Vegas.  Yes, I was there, too.

Today started horribly, when Willis Wilson, a reserve running back for the Hawaii team, drowned this morning.  How does a team react to something so tragic?  Well, the second miracle of the day was Hawaii beating Army, 49-42, for Wilson.  In any case, this has to be considered at least a minor miracle, for 1-11 is a whole lot better than 0-12.

The real story of the day was the Iron Bowl, with juggernaut and #1 Alabama against the official miracle team of the year, Auburn.  THE PAST FOUR WINNERS OF THIS GAME BECAME NATIONAL CHAMPS!!  Miracle #3, thus, was Auburn pulling off another (they also did something equally amazing two weeks ago) incredible play at the end of the game to win:  Alabama tried a 57 yard field goal with the game tied 28-28 and one second remaining...but the ball did not quite make it to the goal post, only 8 yards into the end zone, which Auburn freshman Chris Davis caught and ran back 108 yards for a touchdown, with no time remaining, meaning the final score was, then, 34-28:

This epic game for the ages means that if Auburn pulls off another miracle next week, against Missouri, the whole team will attain sainthood.

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