On each headband was printed EARLE, for coach Earle Bruce, who was supposed to learn after the game he was fired, not before.
But when then-OSU athletics director Rick Bay found out OSU president Ed Jennings already decided Bruce must go — despite a nine-year record of 81-26-1 (.755) — and asked Bay to keep it quiet, Bay walked out the door talking.
So how about some LUKE headgear Saturday?
Well, probably not since all these years have brought major changes in college football, not all of them good.
In 1987 the university president was in charge, not the coach, as was the case at Penn State. What power the athletics director has isn’t clear.
As for the expected new coach, Urban Meyer, it’s good he won two national championships at Florida. But in his sixth year the team was 8-5 and he was complaining of chest pains. It was either from all the losses or the large number of player arrests he oversaw.
Let’s not even consider his 41-35 bowl loss to Michigan the year after he beat OSU 41-14 for the national championship.
Whatever, Saturday will be just as unfair to Luke Fickell as it was to Earle Bruce so many years before.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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