Cannon's friend, but not Captain Shreve's

Bobby Olah, with his Louisiana High
School Sports Hall of Fame plaque
(Livington Parish News photo)
July 2018

     One name in the book on Billy Cannon -- subject of a blog piece a couple of months ago -- caught my attention:
     Bobby Olah.
     We remember that guy, and not fondly. Hint: He was a basketball referee.
     Olah's connection to Cannon was as a longtime friend. But they first were competitors, not in football, but in basketball.
     Olah was from Albany, La., a small place near Hammond about 40 miles directly east from Baton Rouge, and we think he still lives there. Olah was an All-State guard at Albany, a Class B (non-football) school which in 1956 played against Class AAA giant Istrouma (BR), for whom Cannon was a roughhouse forward.
      Albany was a power in its class and came to Baton Rouge to play in the prestigious Wedge Kyes tournament. Cannon was into basketball season after a sensational senior season leading Istrouma to the state football championship.
      Istrouma's basketball players had gone to a game to scout Albany and Olah, and knew Olah was the go-to player, top scorer and ballhandler.
       Cannon decided the way to guard Olah was to be physical with him, at every chance. So as the story in the book on Cannon relates, that is exactly what happened.
      And Billy apparently roughed up Olah. He admits to it, with emphasis, in the book. And Olah's memory: "I distinctly recall looking up at him from my back on the floor. He was standing over me, grinning."
     Albany did win the game, 45-43, and the tournament championship. It later advanced to the Class B state semifinals for the first time in school history.
     Olah was also a standout baseball player and signed to play two sports at McNeese State, but circumstances led to his winding up at then-Southeastern Louisiana College (near his hometown), where he was mostly a reserve in basketball. 
    Officiating basketball for fun was something he liked, and  in 1959 -- while in college -- he signed up to call area high school games. 
     His reputation grew into playoff-level assignments and he eventually moved into college games -- and stayed for 35 years, including being on the Southeastern, Southwest, Southland and Gulf States (all-Louisiana) conference crews. 
     But we remember him most for one state tournament, the "Top Twenty," and primarily for one -- infamous -- call.
     In 1970, he made the charging call that (arguably) kept Captain Shreve's team -- one of the greatest Shreveport-Bossier teams in history -- from winning the Class AAA state championship.
     It played in one of the most dramatic state finals ever. One reason: A titanic matchup -- Brother Martin (New Orleans) was 35-0, Captain Shreve was 35-1, with a 34-game winning streak.

     Second reason: There were nearly 16,000 fans packed into 12,000-seat Rapides Coliseum in Alexandria. No room to move anywhere. 

      The Louisiana High School Athletic Association did not have a workable ticket plan, no reserved, assigned seating. Had never needed it. So tickets were sold to anyone who could cram into the place. It was hard to breathe.
     (Official attendance for the night session was 15,676. Obviously, the fire marshals were no factor.)
     Shreve was so much better earlier in the game. Led by 16 at one point in the first, and still by 12 at halftime. One huge problem: foul trouble.  

     Olah and his officiating partner called it closer and closer until Shreve's team -- admittedly with little depth; only six players had most of the playing time -- had to bench its star players, All-Staters Mike Harrell and Jeff Sudds, or risk them fouling out. 
    Olah and partner then loosened up. They allowed Brother Martin's pressing defense enough contact to force turnovers, kill Shreve's momentum, and the Crusaders warmed up to make it a back-and-forth game for the last quarter.
     It was tied in the final minute. With time running down, Captain Shreve had the ball. The Gators set up a play, but the ball went out of bounds. Still Shreve's possession, 0:09 remaining.
    The ball went in to guard and floor leader Shelby Houston, whose drive on the right baseline was stopped by contact with a Brother Martin defender. 
      Olah's call: Charge!
      Damn. Might not have been the worst call in state-tournament history, but it's the one we remember most. 
      Easily could have called a foul on Brother Martin for blocking. But in front of Brother Martin's large, loud student cheering section -- the all-boys Catholic schools from New Orleans always had great followings -- Olah made what we thought was a South Louisiana decision, just as he and his partner had for most of the second half.
      So Houston, a cool team leader, never got a chance for free throws. When Brother Martin missed a last-second shot, the game went to overtime.
       And quickly in OT, Captain Shreve's two super big men, Harrell and Sudds, fouled out -- and Brother Martin won the overtime by an astounding 16-0. (Four Gators ended up fouling out; only one Crusader did so.)
      After the game, in the front lobby of Rapides Coliseum, Olah was out there talking and laughing with friends. Two sportswriters from Shreveport -- a young one (from The Times) writing this blog and the other one, the very large and imposing Jerry Byrd (the Journal) --  were there standing several feet away.
      Byrd stared down Bobby Olah for what seemed like a full five minutes. Never took his eyes off him. Never said a word.
      Not sure that Olah noticed; he was too busy cajoling with his friends. But if [Byrd's] looks could have killed, Bobby had just officiated his final game.
      One thing for sure: He never lacked confidence in his own ability. He had a swagger.
---
     Maybe Bobby was tired that day. It was his second game of the day; he had called the Class C final that opened the Saturday card -- the memorable Ebarb-Pleasant Hill matchup, two district rivals from Sabine Parish playing each other for the 11th time that year.
     Ebarb featured the all-time leading high school career scorer, Greg Procell, but it was his longtime teammate Walter "Tootsie Roll" Meshell who made a hurried 15-foot jumper at the buzzer -- or as the Pleasant Hill folks forever claimed, after the buzzer -- to give Ebarb a one-point victory.
     Rapides was already packed for that game (attendance was listed as 11,545). But that night, about 4,000 more people paid their way in.     
     Olah officiated one game too many that day, and made one too many charging calls.
     In the Livingston Parish News story I saw, Olah said that afterward then-LHSAA commissioner T.H. "Muddy" Waters "told me that I was the best official to ever work a state tournament." 
     Oh, geez, did I miss something?
     And Waters, who made his home in nearby Hammond (regional prejudice?), then recommended Olah to the SEC. 
     He did officiate in the SEC for a long time, worked games in some of the country's biggest arena and largest crowds, and I am sure that some people -- maybe even coaches -- considered him a competent official. 

     To be fair, I did not know Bobby Olah at all. And he has had a good life. Sadly, his wife June passed away in late August (cancer). Sorry to hear that.
      Saw in the Livingston Parish News story that Bobby, now about 79, (1) was a junior high coach in Albany, then worked in the Louisiana Department of Education for a couple of decades and (2) he was inducted into the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame this past April. 
     Good for him. We did not get a vote. But we are sure he got a lot of support from the Brother Martin crowd.
---
https://www.livingstonparishnews.com/sports/basketball-albany-s-bobby-olah-comes-full-circle-with-induction/article_d49485bc-8918-11e8-91ba-af58d2066723.html

Excuses, whining are for ... losers

     OK, observations on the LSU-Texas A&M football game that was quite the spectacle Saturday night. Hey, we have nothing else to do, and it seems to be quite the talk on Facebook. So ...
     First, two quick thoughts: (1) A&M deserved to win; (2) LSU did not deserve to lose. 
     (Yeah, that's confusing. But I am conflicted.)   
     Make all the excuses you want, place all the blame -- on officiating, on the highly paid defensive coordinator -- and whine forever. Not into that personally.

LSU linebacker Devin White (40), from Springhill was outstanding in
this game,  as he has been all season, but he and his teammates
 could not keep their grip on A&M QB Kellen Mond or the victory. 

     (Well, I do have one "excuse" for LSU, but it is more an analysis/explanation. Stay tuned.)
     LSU fans are upset -- mad? crazy? -- and you could say rightfully so. They feel robbed -- by the officials -- and I could make a case for that.
     But a fact: The final result ain't changing. And, frankly, the whining/excuse-making is tiring. Give A&M credit for not giving up, for making play after play after play, and for having lots of luck.
     Give the LSU kids credit -- despite some odds -- for never giving up, for proving that this is a football team that has given all it for most of this season. It is not a great team, but it is a darned competitive one.
     Aggies fans are elated and, gosh, they needed this victory ... because they are Aggies. 
     Look, I root for LSU -- and Louisiana Tech -- in every instance. I also have a bunch of friends with A&M ties, some good longtime friends, and it is a wonderful university (as almost all universities/colleges are). The tradition there is outstanding ... and some of the traditions are, well, weird.
     Sorry, Aggies, not about to apologize for feeling that way. You are proud of your place; we just shake our heads.
     Oh, heck, back to the football game. Posted this on Facebook, and will repeat it here: 
     A helluva football game. Great win for Aggies, no shame for Tigers. Both teams fought their hearts out. (more below)
---
     There were several debatable calls in the final minute of regulation and in the overtimes. Officiating is what it is -- never going to be perfect.
     But here is a fact: LSU had a dozen chances to end this game. Could not do it. One play in any of those situations -- offensively or defensively -- would have done it. 
     Starting with the 3rd-and-4 play when a first down -- with A&M out of timeouts -- would have clinched it at the 2-minute mark. The Tigers' play call was too predictable, too conservative -- a run to the right by QB Joe Burrow -- and easily stopped. Forced a punt.
     (I think Steve Ensminger has done a really nice job with play-calling all season, and in his stint two years ago, too. But not a perfect job.)

A&M's Kellen Mond (11) made so many big plays late in this game.
 (Associated Press photo by David J. Phillip)

     On the Aggies' tying drive at the end of regulation, LSU's defense gave up pass completions of 12 yards (on 3rd-and-10), 13, 20 (on 4th-and-18), 22 and then the crushing 19-yard TD (after the disputed 0:01 put back on the clock).
     Five plays made by A&M QB Kellen Mond and his corps of receivers, who got better and better as the game wore on.
(And it did wear on.)
     In the overtimes, the Aggies -- especially Mond, scrambling away from LSU's attempted defensive pressure -- had gains of 12, 9, 17, 25 (TD pass), 10, 21, 13, a tying PAT pass, and a 4th-and-6 tying TD pass (and spectacular, one-handed catch by Kendrick Rogers -- the play of the game, in my opinion).
      No way to win a game defensively.
     Yes, a couple of very tough calls went against LSU -- the targeting/ejection call, and the last pass interference against  Shreveport's Greedy Williams. (Greedy can play, and he's going to be a first-round NFL draft pick. But he did get beat on the 1-second-remaining tying TD pass.)
     But, darned it, here's a couple of defensive points for the LSU defense: 
     (1) Aggies ran 6 plays inside the LSU 4 during the overtimes, did not score; that is a heroic effort; 
     (2) LSU played this game without five defensive starters (a linebacker, a down lineman, two cornerbacks, the free safety) -- all hurt, a couple out for the season. Then the starting middle linebacker is ejected in overtime. 
     So, you have the fifth-through-seventh best defensive backs on the team on the field for most of the game. And little depth or experience to replace them. (And this is my excuse for LSU; you don't have to buy it.)
     Those kids played their butts off. You want to blame the defensive coordinator, who is one of the nation's best (and highest paid), you do so. I won't.
     As for blaming the officials or the replay official, it is too easy, too convenient. Yes, I question putting the one second back on the clock -- that's what Coach O and the LSU staff were furious about afterward -- and I thought A&M's nine-man line of scrimmage was pretty obvious before the spike play (think it is a 5-yard penalty, but no clock runoff). But that's life in athletics, folks.
     It was A&M's great fortune that a screwup, Mond fumbling the snap, picking it up and then throwing a deflected pass that was intercepted, became a giant break when his knee touched the ground as he picked up the fumble. Think the replay was clear on that.
     Another fumble, the muffed punt return by LSU, recovered by A&M in the third quarter was a real momentum-breaker at the time for LSU. After the Tigers' defense, not too stout in the first half, had settled in and forced two Aggies' punts, that fumble hurt and gave A&M a short field (29 yards) for a tying-breaking touchdown.
     Practically forgotten in all the overtime drama.
 ---    
     The rest of my original postgame Facebook post: There is a reason why for years I have said and written that overtime is BS. Coaches do not have to "go for it" at the end of games, they can settle for another OT. Jimbo took the easy way out twice, Coach O once. No guts. Some games should just be ties.
     John James Marshall will vouch for this: Since 1985, I have written and said -- repeatedly -- that overtime is unnecessary for regular-season high school and college football. Playoffs, yes, there has to be a way (if the old first downs or penetrations method was unacceptable).
     It is a long and separate argument (and blogs), and one of my friends (Jimmy Manasseh put a proposal on Facebook today that I like) ... but back to Saturday's game.
     Jimbo Fisher could have made the decision at the end of regulation, when it was 31-30, LSU, to have his team go for a two-point PAT -- win or lose, right there. But he chose the tying PAT kick, and even refused an offside penalty on LSU that would have put the ball at the 1 1/2-yard-line on a retry.
     Worked out for Jimbo and A&M, but it was a chicken-spit way out. 
     At the end of the second overtime, LSU scored and was one point behind. Coach O chose to go for the tying PAT kick (and a third overtime). He could have had the Tigers go for two -- win or lose, right there. Nope. Chicken-spit way out.(Hey, Paul Dietzel would have gone for two.)
     These head coaches are paid millions a year to make those tough calls. But the rules, at the end of regulation and the first two OTs, give them an easy out -- a "no guts" out. Make the so-tired kids play some more overtime(s). 
     Yes, it is great theater. What happened in this game, the tremendous do-it-or-lose scenarios, was riveting. (Of course, I did not watch; I refuse to watch the OTs in college or high school football, my own statement of protest. No guts.)
---
     One more angle on A&M-LSU football, the sentiment that it was not a rivalry. How stupid and short-sighted a thought.
     The Bryan Eagle web site headline: "Texas A&M needs to beat LSU to help the series become a rivalry." Heard that in the pregame comment on TV, too.
      In memory of John David Crow, Ken Beck and Richard Gay -- North Louisiana football fans will remember -- A&M-LSU long has been a rivalry, always will be. The on-field games have been going for more than a century; the recruiting battle is fierce in many areas -- especially around  Houston.
     So what if LSU had won the previous seven games? Never easy, always competitive. Think it wasn't a rivalry when A&M won six out of seven in the 1990s, five in a row from 1991-95. Think that Cotton Bowl at the end of the 2010 season (LSU, 41-24) wasn't tough?
     Think that A&M did not kind of resent playing 16 times in a row in Baton Rouge -- and rarely ever won? Think that one of those rare Aggies' victories, 20-18 in 1970, on a 78-yard pass from Lex James to Bucky McElroy with 13 seconds remaining, wasn't devastating for LSU?  
      Look, Alabama has beaten LSU eight times in a row, and Bama coach Paul "Bear" Bryant beat his former player and then-LSU coach Charlie McClendon 14 out of 16 (the only Tigers' wins were in 1969 and '70), but -- darn it -- it is still a rivalry. And it was when LSU beat Bama seven out of eight starting in 2000 (Nick Saban's first season as LSU coach).
      Too many "not a rivalry" experts out there. Too many fans second-guessing everything that didn't go their way.   
      LSU fans should be proud of this season's team. Stop complaining. Yes, a 9-3 regular season could have/should have been 10-2. Still, these Tigers were a pleasant surprise,  fought hard and achieved a great deal, and -- my opinion, again -- deserve a New Year's Day bowl game. 
        I have gone overtime in this blog, several overtimes. I should gave gone for a two-point PAT much sooner.

Thinking, writing about college football

     Let's take a timeout and cover some college football thoughts ...
     No, let's not take a timeout. We'll take the penalty.
     We will get to a number of quick thoughts in a moment, but first ...
     I don't pretend to be a football whiz, would not pass an Xs-and-Os test. But game-management strategy is something we can all second-guess. And I am real good at second-guessing two pieces of strategy.
     Those who have heard me rail for a lot of years know that two of my major pet peeves about college football (also high school football and the NFL) are:
     (1) Taking timeouts when the play clock runs down;
     (2) Settling for the tying PAT kick near the end of games instead of "going for it" -- trying for the winning (or losing) two-point PAT.
     About the "automatic" timeout calls ... you see them almost every game. Play call is slow coming to the quarterback or a team is slow getting lined up, QB looks at the defense and makes play-call adjustments, play clock is winding down toward :00, QB turns to referee and signals time out ... or frantic head coach runs toward the nearby official and -- PO'd -- calls the timeout.
     It is just a reflex action ... timeout.
     And almost always, here is my reaction: That is so stupid!
     My logic: The 5-yard delay-of-game penalty is not nearly as harmful as wasting one of the team's three timeouts per half. Take the damn penalty.
     Heck, yes, there are exceptions: A 3rd-and-short or 4th-and-short play, especially in the other team's end of the field, a crucial late-game down, maybe near the end of the first half with a timeout or two remaining.
     But most of the time ... automatic call ... stupid.
     We have seen the best of coaches do it, repeatedly. Tom Landry was the best of coaches. If I saw his QBs -- Meredith, Staubach, Morton, Danny White -- do it once, I saw it dozens of times. Wasted timeouts.

Arkansas head coach Chad Morris: Two "burned"
timeouts in the second half against LSU did not
 help his team's chances.

     It really came to mind last Saturday in Arkansas-LSU. Twice in the second half, Arkansas simply wasted timeouts with play-clock-winding-down reaction calls. First time with a 3rd-and-9 at the LSU 42 with 6:54 remaining in the third quarter; second time with a 4th-and-10 at the LSU 11 with 12:46 remaining in the fourth quarter.
     Both times, really, taking a 5-yard delay penalty would not have hurt the Razorbacks at all. 
      In fact, after the second one, they hit a touchdown pass. They could have done that about as easily from the LSU 16, and saved the timeout.
     They could have used those two burned timeouts in the game's final five minutes. Arkansas fought hard, but I never got the feeling that it was going to win that game. But it might have a better shot with two more late-game clock stoppages.
     And how times over the years have we seen LSU waste its timeouts on similar stupid calls? (Les Miles and staff were known for their clock-mismanagement gaffes.)
     Those timeouts should be treated like gold. They are so valuable. Protect them almost like you would your kids.
     OK, second point: Playing to win at the end of a game. So many coaches take the easy way out; have the extra point kicked and tie the game, so settling for overtime or -- if it is in overtime already -- another OT period.
     So, bless the coaches who "go for it." Over the years, we have not seen it often. Because the coaches -- in Jerry Byrd language -- have no guts. 
     But in recent weeks, we have seen three gutty go-for-the-win calls: It worked for Dana Holgorsen and West Virginia at Texas; it did not work for Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State at Oklahoma, nor for Tim Lester and Western Michigan (in overtime) against Ball State on Tuesday night.
     I am not enamored by Holgorsen or Gundy (or many college football head coaches these days), but props to them for those calls.        
---
     Other matters ...
     Have I seen a better college football team than Alabama this season? I have not.
     The season is not over. Can any team can beat Alabama? Good luck. But Clemson (which was fortunate to beat Bama in the CFP title game two years ago) and Georgia (which came so close last season) have a shot. Maybe Notre Dame does ... but I doubt it.
     Keep thinking this, though -- in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram sports department, Oklahoma's 2003 team was being declared "the greatest ever" for most of that season ... until that rout by Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game and the Sugar Bowl national-championship loss to ... LSU, coached by Nick Saban.
     Five more national championships later, Saban has his best team ever. As son-in-law observed during Bama's stifling victory against LSU a couple of weeks ago, Bama is taking the fun out of college football ... except for Bama fans.
     We don't have to like it, but more power to them. So Alabama fans are a bit spoiled. Can you blame them?
---
     It is a little more than a week away, but LSU's game at Texas A&M -- always a great rivalry -- is going to be large. A major bowl game will be at stake for the Tigers. Beat the Aggies, and they almost certainly will be 10-2 and in a New Year's Six game. Lose, and it will a nice bowl game, but not a "major."
     It has been a surprisingly successful season for LSU, better than most could have anticipated. Do not think the Tigers are especially a top-six team -- too many lapses, too sporadic, especially an offensive line that some quarters can't block or protect the passer, and a secondary that is talented but spends too much time woofing at opponents and showing off.
     But victories against three Top-10 ranked teams at the time is impressive. We know now that Miami and Auburn were not anywhere as good as they seemed then, but Georgia is, and that victory was LSU's finest game this season.
     If LSU somehow loses to 1-10 Rice this Saturday, forget all this.        
---
     Closing thought (for now): Like so many people, I believe the College Football Playoff field should be eight teams instead of four, three games for the title instead of two.
     Always going to be a debate over the final four (or eight) teams. But why not make it automatic for the champions of the Power-Five conferences (Big Ten, Atlantic Coast, Pac-12, Big 12, SEC) and the other three best -- chosen by committee -- among independents and other "major/mid-major" conferences (hello, Notre Dame and Central Florida).
     Too much football? Sure. One option would be to (gasp!) eliminate the conference championship games, but they are so popular (and such money makers).
     It would be easier to eliminate one week of the regular season -- we have gone from 10 to 11 to 12 games for most teams. And a thought here is that for the "majors," it would be easy to knock off one non-conference game, especially those total mismatches against non-majors.
     Consider this week: Alabama vs. The Citadel. Are you kidding? (I am not a bettor, but how many points would you give here? Start with 50? 60? 70?)
     Just look at some other SEC "matchups" this week: LSU vs. Rice, Kentucky vs. Middle Tennessee, Georgia vs. UMass, Auburn vs. Liberty, South Carolina vs. Chattanooga. Not too challenging, is it?
      There is one good one, though: Alabama-Birmingham at Texas A&M. UAB is one of college football's best stories, from oblivion to Conference-USA West champs and title game, from out-of-business to 9-1 in two seasons.
      The Aggies, who have the resources to give new coach Jimbo Fisher a billion dollars or so on a 10-year contract, can afford to present UAB a big payday. Under my proposal, one less "money" game a year for the majors would be eliminated.
      Anyway, might have to peek at the A&M-UAB game. But if those head coaches burn a timeout or two, I will flip out ... and flip channels.