Like most college football fanatics, I like to spend my Saturdays glued to the television screen skimming through the week's best collegiate games. Last Saturday, I watched Georgia demolish Tennessee, Texas cream Oklahoma, Minnesota squeak by Michigan, Northwestern take the best of Wisconsin, Penn State topple Ohio State, LSU take down Vandy and UCLA tiptoe past Cal.
I thought I had watched all of the top NCAA football games, except one — I mean two.
I missed Northwestern College pull off a task that had never been attempted in college football — two games in one day.
"I called the NCAA to ask them if it was any sort of rules violation and they laughed at me," Northwestern athletic director Mike Hill said in an ESPN interview upon scheduling two games in one day. "And they said it might be next year."
Two games in one day? The task still seems unfeasible. We have heard about a doubleheader in baseball, or prelims and finals in track and swimming, but never football.
There has been a reason why this task had never been attempted: complete insanity. As it turned out, Northwestern College was forced to play the doubleheader if the team wanted to play 10 games this season.
Once the 2005 scheduled was released, Eagles' faithful flooded the athletic department phone lines with complaints of a misprint.
Everyone seemed surprised by the decision. But the fact was, the team only wanted to play 10 games.
The date was set and this is how the Division III school attempted two football games in one day.
Everyone who was somewhat healthy Saturday was scheduled to play. This included the Eagles' team manager of three years, one-armed running back Joe Steffenhagen, who was born without the use of his right arm, and 40-year-old Harold Hicks, a physical education major who joined the team in hopes of learning how to become a football coach.
Steffenhagen played the better of the two. He even managed to score a touching 4-yard touchdown run in the Eagles' first game against Trinity Bible.
Since the team has a low budget, only 2,600 students attend the university, coaches are forced to use battery-operated headsets. Knowing the headsets would not last through both games, Eagles coaches made a decision to skip the use of them during their first game.
Coaches were also concerned that their players would not have clean socks for their game against Macalester, so Northwestern College head coach Kirk Talley went out and purchased $100 worth of socks to outfit his team. Unfortunately, he bought the wrong ones.
As it turns out, dirty socks, a lack of headsets, a 40-year-old apprentice and a team manager as a running back were the perfect ingredients for the St. Paul football program as the Eagles managed to win both away games Saturday.
Northwestern College started the day on the right foot, annihilating Trinity 59-0. The stage was set for game two, as most of the team's starters saw little action in the Trinity defeat.
Against Macalester, less than four hours later, the Eagles managed to pull off the impossible, winning 47-14.
In 12 grueling hours, the Eagles went from 3-2 to 5-2 and one win shy of clinching the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference Championships.
Northwestern College also managed to outscore their opponents 106-14, tally over 1,000 yards of offense and gain a lot of publicity.
"It's a great day," Talley told ESPN, "but I'm glad its over. It sort of reminds me of vacation — you love being away, you love something different, but it sure is great to get back into your own bed."
Though the Eagles handled the impossible, they still face one problem — there remain only nine games scheduled for next year.
