I’ve eaten four chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting this week due to the festive gatherings. I’m pretty sure I like any holiday or party or gathering in general that serves up homemade chocolate cupcakes with full fat buttercream frosting. One a day, keeps the stress away. Keeps the Levis tight, but the stress melts like the cupcake in your mouth. Life’s about give and take. And eating cake.
—
The latest Liberty Bowl E-Newsletter, which I enjoy every week, featured “Halloween” related facts to go along with this week’s projected teams for the Jan 2nd postseason bout in Memphis. I found one nugget interesting and wanted to share it along with adding a fact or two along the way to a brief Liberty Bowl game preview at the end.
—
The Newsletter noted that “the orange and black color scheme is undefeated in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.” The most recent being orange and black Oklahoma St beating Mizzou back in 2018 in Memphis, and the other being in 1962–In Philadelphia.
That’s right. The orange and black Oregon St Beavers battered Coach Alexander Frank Bell and the Villanova Wildcats six to zero inside Philadelphia Municipal Stadium on December 15, 1962. The bowl game’s move to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis wasn’t made until 1965.
Fun fact–Running Back Billy Joe was a Senior on the team that lost to the orange and black Beavers. Deep readers of this page will remember that less than a year prior, he won the Sun Bowl MVP when Villanova beat Bill Parcells and Wichita St. Dec 31, 1961. This isn’t a Sun Bowl preview but worth connecting the dots.
So, teams that have worn Orange and Black are 2-0 All time. Oh, and the Oklahoma St team that won in Memphis had a redshirt freshman run for 145 yards and score a touchdown. Chuba Hubbard is his name and he’s playing the best ball of his life right now for Carolina on Sundays.
AutoZone Liberty Bowl 1/2/26 3:30 local on Espn
The Newsletter has narrowed the pool of teams to ten.
Five SEC
- Auburn
- Mizzou
- Miss St
- LSU
- Florida
Five BIG12
- TCU
- Kansas St
- Houston
- Cincinnati
- Iowa St
-On3 has projected LSU vs TCU
-USA Today, Mizzou vs Cincinnati
-Sports56, Auburn vs Kansas St
-SingleHighSports.com likes Houston to play either LSU/ Oklahoma.
I know Oklahoma aren’t on the projected five teams, but by the end, the loser of the LSU/ Oklahoma game on November 29th may just find themselves in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl. We’ll see.
—
This has felt like a slow week towards the football weekend, but we are getting close. Tulane is in action tonight and the Hometown Tigers are in Primetime tomorrow night. Inching towards the football weekend.
–And speaking of the Memphis Tigers along with wrapping a bow around this carton of fun facts–the same year that the first orange and black team won the Liberty Bowl over Villanova, 1962, the Memphis State Tigers finished the year 8-1 which was best among the other independents that included: Oregon, Penn St, Houston, Boston College, Buffalo and a slew of other noteworthy teams from the past.
- The eight wins included Louisville, #2 Nationally Ranked Southern Miss, and on the road at Mississippi St, and the only loss was at home to Mississippi 21-7.
- RB Dave “Bull” Casinelli rushed for 826 yards that season
The next year, 1963, Casinelli won the rushing title and led Memphis State to an undefeated season and to 14th in the National Rankings. That was a great stretch for the Hometown team and the 5’9/ 200-pound part bull part man was the reason why.
Casinelli’s great run ended at the young age of 47, when he perished from injuries he sustained in a car crash. He died October 11, 1987. We fans can remember the Memphis Football Legend. The Memphis #30 that is forever retired.
And somehow, that’s how we end.
Find the Humor and Keep on Movin’
Whit W.