Cup Crazy!

Harvard's Carl Morris won Bushnell Cup two years in a row (CREDIT: IvyLeagueSports.com)

Continuing yesterdays thoughts on my picks to win the Bushnell Cup , it's important to remember that one good way to win the award is to play on the Ivy championship team. But it's far from a lock. They've handed out 27 Bushnell Cups so far, (the first one was shared), and 12 1/2 of the winners have come from non championship squads. They are:

1970: *Ed Marinaro, RB Cornell (Big Red went 4-3 in the Ivies and came in 4th)

1972: Dick Jauron, RB Yale (Elis went 5-2 in the Ivies and came in second)

1973: JIm Stoeckel, QB Harvard (Crimson went 5-2 in the Ivies and came in second)

1974: Walt Snickenberger, RB Princeton (Tigers went 3-4 in the Ivies and tied for 5th)

1975: Doug Jackson, RB Columbia (Lions went 2-5 in the Ivies and tied for 6th)

1982: John Witkowski, QB Columbia (Lions went 1-6 in the Ivies and came in LAST)

1983: Derrick Harmon, B Cornell (Big Red went 3-3-1 in the Ivies and came in 5th)

1987: Kelly Ryan, QB Yale (Elis went 5-2 in the Ivies and tied for second)

1988: Jason Garrett, QB Princeton (Tigers wen 4-3 in the Ivies and came in third)

1993: Keith Elias, RB Princeton (Tigers went 5-2 in the Ivies and came in third)

1996: Chad Levitt, RB Cornell (Big Red went 4-3 in the Ivies and tied for third)

1997: Sean Morey, WR Brown (Bears went 4-3 in the Ivies and tied for third)

2002: Carl Morris, WR Harvard (Crimson went 6-1 in the Ivies and came in second)

*=Marinaro shared the cup with Jim Chasey, QB Dartmouth as the Big Green won the title that year

Of course, playing for a title contender always helps, as only four winners played for teams that failed to earn a winning Ivy record. Only Columbia QB John Witkowski has been able to win the award while playing for a last place team.

Bushnell Cup Winners by School

1T. Penn 7
1T. Yale 7
3. Princeton 5
4. Dartmouth 4 1/2
5. Harvard 4
6. Cornell 3 1/2
7. Brown 3
8. Columbia 2

The Ivy League Sports website does not list the winners for the last two seasons, but I have calculated them above. The 2005 winner was Brown RB Nick Hartigan and the 2006 winner was Princeton QB Jeff Terrell.

Only 6 winners have been defensive players. All of them played for championship teams, proving that you might overcome not playing on a Ivy champion, and you might overcome not being an offensive player, but you can't overcome both at once. I thought not giving the 1996 cup to Columbia's Marcellus Wiley and handing to Cornell's Chad Levitt was an extreme example of this bias.




Steve Cargile on the field for the Lions in 2003 (CREDIT: IvyLeagueSports.com)


Steve Cargile was an important cog on the Lions, especially in the encouraging 2003 season when he was a senior safety. And now it looks like Cargile is finally breaking through in the NFL, (also check here ), after some brief stints on practice squads since 2004. (Thanks to an anonymous commentor for sending me these links).

The jist of these articles is that Cargile is trying to make it as a safety who can shift to the second line on defense as a linebacker from time to time. Sound familiar? It should, because that is a key component of the 3-5-3 defense Columbia started using with so much success last year. Too bad Steve wasn't around three more years to learn that system from the master, Lou Ferrari. Perhaps Cargile can get a few tips from Ferrari before Broncos training camp begins at the end of July.


Tick, tick, tick

You gotta love the countdown to kickoff clock on the football page of the CU athletics website. Now that's optimism and I love it! Todd Kennedy from the athletics department tells me it was the brainchild of director of promotions Dan Spiegel. I think Princeton was the first school to do this last year and they ended up winning the Ivy title, so that's a good sign too. I actually don't think is just a gimmick. Everyone who's been watching CU football for the last few decades knows this team is really something special. I know of more than a few 50+ year old men who are giddy with anticipation.



Brian Dennehy interviews are always good stuff

Make sure you check out this great interview with former Columbia football star and actor Brian Dennehy. Here's my favorite quote:

"A lot of people in the business say to me, 'My god, you played Macbeth when you were 13 years old in front of a Catholic boys high school audience? That really took a lotta guts.' And I always say, 'Not nearly as much guts as the freshman who played Lady Macbeth.' He really had a lot of guts!'"



LaDainian Tomlinson's charity is bringing some ambitious kids to CU this summer

And check out this piece on Chargers star running back LaDainian Tomlinson. His foundation is sponsoring seven San Diego area high school students in a two-week summer business program at Columbia University, at which the students will receive entrepreneurial training.