this we are going old School Sonny Randle post game show
- Thread starter sluggo72
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Sonny left Parrish a much better program than he inherited from Elwood!
Did Sonny deal with a bunch of scholarship reductions? Was his team really young, every single season? Building the program the right way and therefore was going to take time?
Asking for a friend.
IMO Sonny 2 biggest problems was patience, and a QB. He may have had a QB but didn't seem to have any patience with them. The other problem was the Lynn Snyder fought Sonny at every turn he could. Was always reducing the budget etc etc
Losing Jim Cavanaugh as OC after 1 season really hurt. He left because Sonny wanted to call the plays, which would have really set things back.
I had forgotten about Terry. Yes he was good and Sonny was a treasure!
Sonny didn’t play very well in other people’s sandboxes. He clashed with Joe McMullen before Lynn Snyder as well as other campus officials. Patience was not Sonny’s best friend and your comment on the QB’s is spot on. Truth be known, Cavanaugh was happy to move on. Sonny put a lot of stress and demands on everyone around him but he was definitely a character.
Believe Sonny also was shown the door at ECU, as well as at UVA, his Alma Mater! Didn't just rub some people the wrong way at MU, it seems!! Colorful, but could be abrasive at times!!
Sonny and Keith calling games were the days
This is exactly what I was thinking. I remember him more for his colorful time in the booth rather than being on the sidelines.
IIRC, believe Terry Baumgardner was the Sports Director at WOWK-TV 13 for a couple years or so. Also, I also believe he was related, maybe a cousin or distant cousin, to famous TV and movie actor, James Garner. Perhaps Garner changed/shortened his last name on the advice of an agent early on in his career, as many of the stars in those entertainment fields have done throughout the years!
Sonny was not shown the door at ECU they loved him there, I think somewhere around 20 of his former players went to his funeral.
He parlayed ECU into UVA.
If Sonny had left Cav do his job, he wanted to stay. Sonny wanted to call the plays most of which he probably would have drawn up in the dirt game day. Cav left with no place to guy, which w a young family was nervy
Interesting. I don't believe I ever heard that before or if I did it was long forgotten...😳
Marshall University (1979–1983) as the football head coach.[9]
In 2009, he was inducted into the East Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame.
Cav ended up being a really good career assistant. He coached for Bobby Ross at Maryland, Mack Brown at North Carolina, and Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech. He might of been Tech’s greatest recruiter when they had it rolling in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Cav was most responsible for locking down Hampton Roads and Richmond which greatly contributed to the Hokies success.
This was, IIRC 1984. Thirty seven season ago.
Think of where we were. A rotten condemned stadium with no real hope of getting a new one. One set of home and away uniforms, worn year over year. No real facilities building. The entire ticket office was an old caboose the railroad donated. Ancient worn out AstroTurf which was dangerous beyond belief. Head coach made $35K ($84K in today's money). Entire program, heck the entire AD, was run out of a cigar box. Most travel by bus, it was a big expense to be able to buy pizza for the ride home. Playing in the obscure Southern Conference, a random collection of mostly backwater schools. Unmentioned in the sports media world that was then born. Not even the score. TV college football was still one game per Saturday on ABC (NCAA v. BOR was just then decided), but MU did not have even a radio presence beyond Charleston or Logan. Ernie covered the program for the HD, the Gag-zette did only so it could ridicule us, the then independent DM tried. Local TV sports was five minutes during the news, with one of the three stations ignoring us.
And really no one had any thoughts that it would ever be much different.
And today? Apparently being among the 130 schools at the top level is not good enough. Bowls are not good enough. Winning seasons are not good enough. One of the best stadiums in the G5 is not good enough. Seeing a game on TV might require changing the channel, or perhaps even looking at a computer and that isn't good enough.
Words like spoiled, ungrateful, delusional, and fundamentally ignorant of our history come to mind.
Think of where we were. A rotten condemned stadium with no real hope of getting a new one. One set of home and away uniforms, worn year over year. No real facilities building. The entire ticket office was an old caboose the railroad donated. Ancient worn out AstroTurf which was dangerous beyond belief. Head coach made $35K ($84K in today's money). Entire program, heck the entire AD, was run out of a cigar box. Most travel by bus, it was a big expense to be able to buy pizza for the ride home. Playing in the obscure Southern Conference, a random collection of mostly backwater schools. Unmentioned in the sports media world that was then born. Not even the score. TV college football was still one game per Saturday on ABC (NCAA v. BOR was just then decided), but MU did not have even a radio presence beyond Charleston or Logan. Ernie covered the program for the HD, the Gag-zette did only so it could ridicule us, the then independent DM tried. Local TV sports was five minutes during the news, with one of the three stations ignoring us.
And really no one had any thoughts that it would ever be much different.
And today? Apparently being among the 130 schools at the top level is not good enough. Bowls are not good enough. Winning seasons are not good enough. One of the best stadiums in the G5 is not good enough. Seeing a game on TV might require changing the channel, or perhaps even looking at a computer and that isn't good enough.
Words like spoiled, ungrateful, delusional, and fundamentally ignorant of our history come to mind.
I get exactly where you are coming from and this puts a lot of things in perspective. The successes of the late 80's through early 2000's have spoiled us. Like Americans as a whole we got way too comfortable, felt entitled and forgot where we came from. You are only as entitled as the effort you put into things.
We have had some recent successes. At our old seats I would get aggravated at games when we would get a 20 yard gain a whole contingent behind us that would bemoan the fact that we didn't gain 25...
Of course, we became stagnant over the last decade in a bad league. We have done far greater in the same situation. That is the point. We were sitting still and it was time for a change.
Yes, Garner shortened his name for his acting career, I believe they were cousins.
Bumgarner was Garner's nephew. Garner's oldest brother Charles was Terry's father.
After leaving WOWK he worked at the country music channel CMT. No idea what he is doing now.
If you watch the hockey on Fox Sports Ohio, the Blue Jackets' intermission reporter is the other sports guy on channel 13 of that era, Dave Matezold.
After leaving WOWK he worked at the country music channel CMT. No idea what he is doing now.
If you watch the hockey on Fox Sports Ohio, the Blue Jackets' intermission reporter is the other sports guy on channel 13 of that era, Dave Matezold.
Agree with that too. But we also let a lot of momentum slip away that adversely affected the brand before and during the last decade.
this was 1983, not to argue but to correct a few points
Sonny made in the $50ks range, his assistants were relatively well paid for a while. IIRC Cav made mid 30's as did Bruce Johnson. They both left NCST as full time assistants to come to MU for a raise.
Sonny's teams ate well on the road, but it was all bus trips except a rare 1 or 2 flights (Mississippi state his first year?)
the Washington Post loved to hate Sonny, so if he did something wrong, it made the post.
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Interesting stuff. It definitely was a different world back then. And college coaching salaries have really taken off the last few years.
At the time I had no idea just how bad Fairfield was, and I had gone to several other college stadiums, including Commonwealth Field at UK. Ah the innocence (and ignorance) of youth...
I remember the first game we wore the gold pants. They team had warmed up in their regular white pants then went to the locker room and came back out right before kick off wearing the gold pants.
Believe that was at ye Olde Fairfielde! Home opener against Toledo, I happened to be there. Crowd went "Nuts'" when team came back out for the kickoff with those pants, which IIRC were more of a bright yellow. Really wild. Herd won, I believe, 17 to 7 over the Rockets. Wasn't an offensive showpiece, but Sonny had the HERD so jacked up that evening that we played solid D for 4 full quarters!!
Well, one thing is still the same, 72. Washington Post today is still full of "HATE". Probably more so than back in Sonny's time!
And just think: if everyone had the same acceptance of mediocrity as you, we’d never have risen to the place we are now.
Hating deplorables is reasonable. Hating an out of state college coach is not.
First part good post.
Second part warrants an official moderator warning but, I am going to let it slide with with just a hint to watch it.
The Olde guy violated the rule first. As such, I’m allowed to respond accordingly.
I took Coach Stowers down, the previous board owner down, HerdFans down overnight, and I’m not afraid to do it to you.
Pick your battles wisely. Based on your current struggle with E.T. on Pullman, I don’t think you’re in a position to instigate a war with the board power.
Touchy over a hint. They mentioned a newspaper , you mentioned a group of people.
Just like a virtual verbal warning. Get over it
He mentioned a well-known liberal newspaper and claimed they had "hate." The political comment was disguised about as well as the pointed white mask peaking through your polo.
You're about to get a virtual ass-kicking.
Mountains are mostly in red states. Again, another unauthorized political comment.
