10/07/1916 - Georgia Tech 222, Cumberland 0
Today in Sports History: October 7th
In a baseball game in 1915, Cumberland University had beaten Georgia Tech 22-0. Allegations arose that the Bulldogs had cheated by hiring professionals to stand in as amateurs, and Tech coach John Heisman vowed revenge. He made a deal with Cumberland that if they forfeited their upcoming football game with Georgia Tech, Cumberland would have to pay them $3000. He had to make such a deal because Cumberland had canceled their football program prior to the start of the season, meaning that as of then, they didn’t have a team.
When the two teams met on October 7th, 1916, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets obliterated the Cumberland Bulldogs 222-0 in the most one-sided football game of all time. Some of the statistics are both astounding and comical. Neither team had a first down - Cumberland because they were so terrible and Georgia Tech because they scored on every single possession. Tech comprised 18 offensive touchdowns and 14 defensive and special teams touchdowns. GT ran for 978 yards but never attempted a pass (it wasn’t utilized back then). They forced 15 turnovers as well. By halftime they were leading 126-0 and still managed to put 222 on the board, even though the game was called 15 minutes early.
Cumberland amassed a net loss of 28 yards; their longest gain was a 10-yard pass on fourth-and-22. At one point, one of their players fumbled the ball and it landed in front of one of his teammates. The fumbler yelled at him to pick it up, to which the teammate responded, “Pick it up yourself, you dropped it.”
As you can imagine, this gargantuan blowout produced a titanic amount of records, many of which still stand. The 222 points in a game and the margin of victory might be the most unbreakable single-game record in college football. A book titled You Dropped It, You Pick It Up was made about the game, which, fittingly, was 222 pages long.
10/07/2001 - Henderson collects 3,000th hit
Rickey Henderson, the holder of almost every major stolen base record, adds another accomplishment to his gaudy resume. With a base hit off Colorado's John Thomson, Rickey becomes the 25th player to tally 3,000 career hits. Of the first 25 to join the 3,000-hit club, Henderson would easily play on the largest number of teams. In 2003, Henderson played his 25th and final season in the big leagues, having played for the Yankees, Blue Jays, Padres, Angels, Mets, Mariners, Red Sox, Dodgers, and the Oakland Athletics, who he had four tours of duty with.
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