The Class of Football 2024
Being Super Bowl Day, when most of the country is watching the game itself, rather than understandably wandering over to these pages, I thought I this comedy sketch was particularly appropriate and would return to tradition by posting it again on The Day of the Game. But first a little bit of background.
In the early 1900s, the University of Chicago had one of the powerhouse college football teams in the country. They were particularly renowned for their coach, the legendary Amos Alonzo Stagg who began with the school in 1892, and stayed with them for 41 years, thought 1933. But within just six years, the school dropped their football program in 1939. And they stayed without an official football team in 1969.
Which brings us to the Second City and this famous 1961 sketch, "Football Comes to the University of Chicago." It's a look at an attempt to bring football back to the college by first offering a class that teaches the sport, in hopes of recruiting players.
Initially, I was only able to find audio of the sketch on YouTube, but then audio is how I fist heard it years ago on the Saturday night Midnight Special radio show on WFMT in Chicago. Several years later, I found a video of the sketch, though it was drastically edited down. But happily, I now have been able to track down the full sketch on video.
Here then are Andrew Duncan as the professor, and his few students -- a very young Alan Arkin, Eugene Troobnick, and coming in last, perhaps my favorite performer from Second City (who I've written about) the great Severn Darden, the fellow with the beard.
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