Hoya Football History

[kchoya]

It's a ways down the column, but there's a blurb in this Dr. Z column on Georgetown:

sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/dr_z/12/16/z.mailbag/index.html

[showcase]

Richy of Glasgow -- "Glasgee," we call it -- keying on my stat of the Browns' 17 yards of offense last week, pored through the record book and found the record of fewest yards for both teams in a game, 30 by the Cards and Lions in 1940. That's all you have to do, mention a year like that and "Ding!" the bell goes off. Story time! "Did you ever stop to think that maybe they've had enough stories for a while?" the Flaming Redhead says. OK, just this one last one.

The year after they played in that horrendous affair the Lions drafted, from Georgetown, a guard with one of my favorite names, Augustino Lio. Augie, who was from Passaic, N.J., had been a hero of the great Georgetown team that played Mississippi State in the Orange Bowl. He became a rookie starter for the Lions in '41. Eventually he became the sports editor of the Passaic Herald, and I used to pester him all the time for stories of the old days. This was my favorite:

"After my rookie year, I'm a hero back in Passaic. Then a couple of guys came over to me and said, 'Augie, you know, every now and then we like to make a little wager. So how are the Lions gonna be next year?' I told them we had a young team on the rise and I thought we'd really do well. Bet 'em early before everyone catches on and the price goes up.

"So next season we go 0-11. I'm afraid to show my face in the neighborhood. I'd only go out late at night. One night one of those guys, someone who owned a little cigar store, caught up to me. He grabbed me by the shirt. 'Hey Augie?' he said. 'You're a football player? You're crap!' I agreed with him. What could I do?"