Top 10 College Football Traditions - Part 2

Now that you’ve had a taste of the rich and significant history of College Football, these next five traditions are sure to get you going. After sifting through stacks and stacks of college information and analyzing hundreds of millions of college reviews, here is what our panel has decreed as the best traditions in College football:

5. Painting the Helmets Gold - Notre Dame is perhaps the most storied and well-known team in College Football. Because of that, you better believe that the Fighting Irish have their fair share of traditions and rituals. And although most people think that this story is merely mythical - the helmets get a real coat of 24 karat gold before every week’s big game.

4. Howard’s Rock and the Hill - It’s a sight to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. For roughly 40 years, the Clemson Tigers have made their raucous entrance into Memorial Stadium after touching Howard’s Rock and storming down the hill. Symbolizing the players’ intentions to play with everything they’ve got, this awesome arrival never fails to get 83,000 screaming fans to their feet.

3. Dotting the “I” - Ohio State is a perennial powerhouse and competes for a spot in the National Championship Game each and every season. The half-time festivities at Ohio Stadium culminate with the sousaphone player, rambunctiously and fanatically dotting the “I” after the marching band spells out “Ohio” on the field. The display sends 102,000 fans into thunderous and gaudy applause and cheering that lasts the entire second half.

2. Chief Osceola and the Flaming Spear — At Florida State University, they have one of the best pregame traditions in the entire country. Representing the Seminole Tribe, Chief Osceola mounts his faithful steed, Renegade, and plants a flaming spear into the ground at the 50-yard-line. With the players watching from the sideline, Chief Osceola spikes the fiery weapon on the logo at mid-field and then stares the opposing captains down as they make their way to the center of the field for the coin toss.

1. UGA the Bulldog - So it’s not the special affects or fierce animals that get the top spot here today. Instead, it’s the loveable little pooch from the University of Georgia named Uga. The bulldog is the seventh in a long line of real dogs to don the Georgia jersey and represent the school on the sideline of every game. Fans and players alike share a special bond with Uga as he even travels to certain away games in order to cheer on his fellow Bulldogs. After 50 years, the university still gets its dogs from the same lineage and family. Don’t let his cute exterior fool you though - he has a tendency to go after members of the opposing team.

Well, there you have it folks - the Top 10 College Football Traditions. From buffaloes to bulldogs, the search for college info and superiority continues. I hope this list helps you find colleges with deep and intense traditions…and a good party scene also!

With just 10 measly words, Craig Robinson was able to get a crowd of 45,000 people to go crazier than Michael Jackson at a Boy Scouts meeting.

“I’m Craig Robinson, and Michelle Obama is my little sister,” he echoed throughout Denver’s Pepsi Center during the Democratic National Convention in August.

You see, Robinson is the new Head Coach of the Oregon State Beavers men’s basketball team, and a guy who just so happens to be Barack Obama’s brother-in-law; talk about luck.

“Barack is committed to making this American dream a possibility for all Americans,” Robinson exclaimed to Obama supporters who were packed into the arena like sardines.

But he wasn’t there to simply talk politics; he also gave a shout out to his basketball team. “Today, I’m proud to be the coach of the Oregon State men’s basketball team. Go Beavers,” Robinson told the crowd.

As a former two-time Ivy-League player of the year at Princeton, Robinson already knows a little something about leadership and the limelight. After graduating from school, Robinson became a bond trader in Chicago - and a good one at that. And although he was making a lot of money and living comfortably, something was missing, something that he loved. And hey, why would you give up a multi-million dollar job when you can be an assistant coach for a perennial loser?
“I’d much rather be in the gym having practice and talking hoops,” he has said.

I’m not quite sure if there is “practice” at Northwestern, so much as it’s college athletes throwing brick after brick at the rim, but hey, whatever works, right? So even though the Wildcats of Northwestern are about as competitive as girls playing hopscotch, he was able to get back into the game as their assistant coach. After a couple of years and some success, he was offered a head coaching position. It wasn’t Duke or North Carolina or even the Kennesaw State Owls; Robinson got a job back in his old stomping grounds - the nerdy Ivy League. Now, most people identify Brown with geeks and bookworms and not athletic domination, but Robinson turned it around long enough to get another head coaching offer.

And even though the Beavers have been about as good as chocolate-covered-tuna-fish recently, the opportunity in Corvallis, Oregon was just too good to pass up.

“They didn’t win a game [in the Pac-10], and some people would look at that and go, ‘Wow, I’ll be inheriting a real challenge,’” Michelle Obama recently said. “Craig sees it as a real opportunity. His view was: I really can start from scratch; I can build a program because the only place to go is up.”

And so there he was, addressing the convention, addressing the nation and addressing both current and future recruits. A lot of people might get nervous and worry about what people would say or think. Robinson, however, stood up and endorsed his sister and her husband as the change that America so desperately needs. Now that Obama has been officially elected, it just may be because of what Robinson had to say that night - and he certainly has made his mark on American politics.

And while the head coaching job at Oregon State is special, First Brother-In-Law has a nice ring to it too.

While most 73-year-old men prefer hitting the links and grabbing an early bird dinner at 3:30 p.m., Ken Mink decided to go a different route. Mink, a resident of Farragut, Tennessee, left his 38-year career in newspapers behind and decided to focus on basketball. And no, he isn’t sitting in his rocker reading stats or grumbling about the “good-ol’-days”, he is suiting up as a shooting guard for Roane State Community College.

That’s right - Ken Mink has officially become the oldest college basketball player in the country at a mere 73. For someone who hasn’t played competitively in 52 years, it certainly seems like a stretch, but I love the idea. Just because a guy is really old doesn’t mean he’s lost all competitive spirit and gusto, just ask John McCain. I think the age thing means Mink should be praised and admired, not ridiculed and mocked. Again, see McCain.

Over a half-century after being dismissed from the 1955-56 Lees Junior College men’s basketball team, Mink decided to get back onto the court. Now I don’t know if you realize the kind of commitment and dedication that takes - especially for an old man. It’s not like we’re talking about Michael Jordan making a comeback a couple of years past his prime - this is like Elvis Presley moving back to Graceland and making 10 more hit albums tomorrow.

So, last summer, Mink got back into the gym and started running sprints, practicing free-throws and completing dribbling drills. When his skills seemed close to where they were in the fifties, he began sending out letters to dozens of local community colleges, hoping for a chance to try out for the squad. Even though this sounds more like the tactics of an overlooked college recruit, Mink proved it can work for someone quadruple that age.

“I just thought the guy was overly unrealistic,” Head Coach Randy Nesbit said when he read Mink’s letter. “But I’m a project kind of coach. I like taking on projects to prove something. I was willing to give him a shot and his letter resonated with me.”

Nesbit wasn’t the only one with something to prove though. At tryouts, Mink drained shot after shot, made pass after pass and at the end of the day, he was good enough to be a part of the Roane State Raiders. And because he is playing for a college team, Mink had to enroll in classes in order to obtain eligibility.

Can you imagine that scene? Picture your grandfather sitting next to you in history class, pulling up his pant leg and saying “Here’s where the damn bullet got me in ‘Nam!”

For fellow students, I’m sure that it’s a little strange but his teammates seem to really like Mink. “They’ve taken to me very nicely, like a grandfather figure.” He said. “When the team travels together, a lot of them don’t know where we’re going, so I’m like a travel guide.”

At 73, Mink has likely seen more than everyone else on the team combined. He’s watched the game that he loves transform completely throughout the decades into the high-flying, long-range sport that it is today. And even though he can’t dunk the ball, a 1950s style one-handed running three-pointer works just fine - and its worth more too.

So with John McCain in a race for the White House and Ken Mink in a race with time, there are very apparent similarities between the two. One huge difference though, is the fact that come January, at least Mink will still be a player, the oldest one in America too.