Catholics vs. the Clampetts?

[sport historian]

I looked at the story on the Notre Dame QB in the current SI. It featured his performance in the Irish victory over Tennessee, my long-time team. It seems that some ND students were wearing shirts that read, "The Catholics vs the Clampetts."


Well, somebody wrote on this Forum that Notre Dame was doing well by becoming "more Catholic," rather than "more black," as old grad Hornung suggested. Tennessee, as you may have noticed, doesn't have many players who would be related to the Clampetts. Did the ND students notice that?


Maybe Tennessee should try to look more like they did when Philip Fulmer was a player. Would that do them any good? A little over 20 years ago, some fans did think that the Vols were "too black"over frustration with Johnny Majors' underachieving teams.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

What did that line of thinking do for them though? It got them an even blacker team!

 

[jaxvid]

Something tells me that Jed would take out the shotgun if he saw any of the current Tennessee team. And they would be in big trouble if they messed with Elly May!

 

[Don Wassall]

One of my all time favorite shows! Jethro would have made a fine linebacker and with his lack of smarts would fit in just fine with today's "new and improved" Volunteers.

 

[jaxvid]

One of my favorite shows too. Never condenscending and the Hillbillies always got the better of the big city people. The show is still funny. And granny is an unwavering Rebel!!!!

 

[White Shogun]

They'd never write a television program like this today. Is it even still in syndication anywhere?

 

[Don Wassall]

A couple of years ago, NBC was going to air a "reality" show version of The Beverly Hillbillies. Unlike the good-natured essence of the original, this one was going to find a rural family and ridicule and demean them as they tried to cope with life amongst their white urban liberal superiors.


The premise was bad enough that even some white Southern Congressmen spoke out against it and lots of people wrote letters and made phone calls of protest. I don't think it ended upairing but I'm not sureas I quit watching prime time television many years ago.

 

[Bronk]

Shogun, the Hillbillies are in syndication everywhere!

I am old enough to remember when this show was on in prime time and it had a huge following. It was canceled because the network (CBS, I think) didn't like the image it was garnering as a result of its heavy "rural" programming (Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, etc.). It canceled all of those shows en masse even though they were all ratings winners.

My fave Hillbillies episode: A hippo escapes from the zoo, Granny finds it and mistakes it for a giant hog. When she gets through with it, the hippo has all its meat parts marked off in chalk as the ole lady preps to carve it up for supper!

 

[sport historian]

As I said when starting this thread, Some Vol fans were complaining in the early 80's about the team's makeup. In 1981, the Vols lost their first two games against Georgia and USC by a combined score of 87-7.Fans would sometimes say that the team didn't play with the "pride and dedication" the Tennessee squads of the past did. There was a sportswriter on the Nashville Tennessean who wrote that the other teams were heavily black and "Tennessee's problems have nothing to do with color. Georgia's best playeris Herschel Walker."


In ensuing years, Tennessee did better. We won a National Championship in 1998 with 20 out of 22black starting players. Those complaints don't happen anymore. If they bounce back next season, most Vol fans will think everything is all right. Still, it was amusing for ND fans to call the game "Catholics versus the Clampetts." Not true in 2005. Notre Dame is doing well this year by looking more like their teams of the past. I don't see that happening at Tennessee.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Sadly, sport historian, I don't see it happening at Tennessee or Ole Miss again either.

 

[REDNOSE]

Has anyone found out how Notre Dame is recruiting? Or should I ask if they are going after the types of guys that are excelling for them this year? Anyway, I truly believe that Weis will stick with what works and continue to build the program and maintain their status as one of the most white friendly schools while also dominating.

 

[Gary]

Donna Douglas[Elly May] was a very pretty woman, Max Baer Jr.[Jethro] was the son of former Heavyweight Boxing Champ Max Baer. Notre Dame would do well to recruit Catholic High Schools. When I lived in Ohio the Catholic schools were very good [and White]in fooball and now I live in South Dakota, we had our State Football Championship games over the weekend and 3 of the top 4 teams to play Saturday Night were Catholic and White!! Tennesse won a national football championship with an All-White team in 1950.

 

[Gary]

Tennessee did very well with White players in the past-National Champs in 1938, 1940, 1950, 1951, 1967 and 1998. They have retired 7 jerseys and 6 were White players including Peyton Manning [16] and Doug Atkins[91]. There was a lot of good Vol's Mike Lucci, Steve DeLong, Johnny Majors ,Health Schuler, Etc. I lost interest in Tennesse football some years ago when the team looked more like Grambling then Tennesse. Now they have more police records then football records-Sad to see a once proud program go down the drain.
My advice recruit White players put them in the weight room for a year and turn them loose. There are still men like Big Doug Atkins up in those hills, go get them and give them an orange jersey.