Free Bling--Maybe

[silverscreenselect]

A Mississippi jewelry store is offering to refund the purchase price of all jewelry bought during the month of August if Southern Miss beats Mississippi State in their season opening game September 5. Southern Miss is the home team, but Mississippi State is listed as a 23 point favorite. Last year, State won the game at home, 49-0.

I know that businesses that run hole in one or half court shot contests often buy insurance, and I'm guessing this store has done so as well, but I'm not sure how much such a policy would cost.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... miss-state

[SpacemanSpiff]

Not likely to happen, given that the Golden Eagles are 4-32 the past three seasons, and Mississippi State is a pre-season top-25 team. But, as you said, they probably have insurance for that.

Southern Miss is one of those programs that historically been a gadfly to bigger programs (and putting out one Brett Farve), once having the slogan of "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and were one of three schools to beat "Bear" Bryant in Tuscaloosa. (The other two were Florida and -- in what makes this a trick question for trivia buffs -- Alabama, when he was the coach at Kentucky.) But it's had a bunch of hard luck lately in football, and even worse in basketball.

[silverscreenselect]

Southern Miss is one of those programs that historically been a gadfly to bigger programs (and putting out one Brett Farve), once having the slogan of "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and were one of three schools to beat "Bear" Bryant in Tuscaloosa. (The other two were Florida and -- in what makes this a trick question for trivia buffs -- Alabama, when he was the coach at Kentucky.) But it's had a bunch of hard luck lately in football, and even worse in basketball.

That's also a bit of a catch question, since, when Bryant was coach, Alabama played most of its home games against big name opponents at Legion Field in Birmingham. So, any team that had a reasonable shot at beating Bama would play in Birmingham, while the Tulanes and Southern Misses of the world came to Tuscaloosa.

[ulysses5019]

Southern Miss is one of those programs that historically been a gadfly to bigger programs (and putting out one Brett Farve), once having the slogan of "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and were one of three schools to beat "Bear" Bryant in Tuscaloosa. (The other two were Florida and -- in what makes this a trick question for trivia buffs -- Alabama, when he was the coach at Kentucky.) But it's had a bunch of hard luck lately in football, and even worse in basketball.

That's also a bit of a catch question, since, when Bryant was coach, Alabama played most of its home games against big name opponents at Legion Field in Birmingham. So, any team that had a reasonable shot at beating Bama would play in Birmingham, while the Tulanes and Southern Misses of the world came to Tuscaloosa.

Yup, USC beat Alabama in 1970 in Birmingham behind the running of Sam Cunningham. Does Legion Field have a larger capacity?

[SportsFan68]

Southern Miss is one of those programs that historically been a gadfly to bigger programs (and putting out one Brett Farve), once having the slogan of "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and were one of three schools to beat "Bear" Bryant in Tuscaloosa. (The other two were Florida and -- in what makes this a trick question for trivia buffs -- Alabama, when he was the coach at Kentucky.) But it's had a bunch of hard luck lately in football, and even worse in basketball.

That's also a bit of a catch question, since, when Bryant was coach, Alabama played most of its home games against big name opponents at Legion Field in Birmingham. So, any team that had a reasonable shot at beating Bama would play in Birmingham, while the Tulanes and Southern Misses of the world came to Tuscaloosa.

Yup, USC beat Alabama in 1970 in Birmingham behind the running of Sam Cunningham. Does Legion Field have a larger capacity?

Found it!

[Estonut]

Yup, USC beat Alabama in 1970 in Birmingham behind the running of Sam Cunningham. Does Legion Field have a larger capacity?

Found it!

You're only a few months late on that!

http://wwtbambored.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 23#p500023

[SpacemanSpiff]

Southern Miss is one of those programs that historically been a gadfly to bigger programs (and putting out one Brett Farve), once having the slogan of "anyone, anytime, anywhere" and were one of three schools to beat "Bear" Bryant in Tuscaloosa. (The other two were Florida and -- in what makes this a trick question for trivia buffs -- Alabama, when he was the coach at Kentucky.) But it's had a bunch of hard luck lately in football, and even worse in basketball.

That's also a bit of a catch question, since, when Bryant was coach, Alabama played most of its home games against big name opponents at Legion Field in Birmingham. So, any team that had a reasonable shot at beating Bama would play in Birmingham, while the Tulanes and Southern Misses of the world came to Tuscaloosa.

Yup, USC beat Alabama in 1970 in Birmingham behind the running of Sam Cunningham. Does Legion Field have a larger capacity?

It did until the 1990s. At that time, Legion Field had a capacity of roughly 69,000 (later expanded to 77,000, then 83,000 in 1991, since reduced to 72,000 with the removal of the upper-level seats), while Denny Stadium (now Bryant-Denny Stadium) had about 60,000 at the time (expanded from 42,000 in 1965 when they closed in the end zones*). I believe another issue at the time of the USC game was that Legion Field had sufficient lighting for TV night games, and Denny didn't.

Once Auburn decided that their "home" version of the Iron Bowl should be played at Auburn instead of B'ham, Bama started to slowly expand the stadium in Tuscaloosa (now over 100,000) and slowly stopped playing at Legion Field as the various contracts ran out. If you look at a Bama game, the lower deck is the old stadium bowl.

And those of us from Alabama remember Sam "Bam" Cunningham as "The Man Who Integrated Alabama Football."
----
* When my dad graduated from Bama in 1956, the stadium only held 31,000. Of course, when he was there, "Ears" Whitworth was the coach, and given his 4-24-2 record (despite having Bart Starr his first year as coach), I can imagine that many of those seats were empty.