National Champions Revisited

It's Super Bowl week and last year at this time I posted a blog about attending Super Bowl XXIX in Miami and how that all came about.  The blog had hundreds and hundreds of hits, with no promotion, which I found fascinating that people seemed to be interested in the story.  So I decided to rerun the blog, but with commentary mixed in from my teammates John and Tony, so it's a fresh look at a fun story.  Enjoy:


Since we are nearing the Super Bowl, it's around this time that I always reflect back to the time my college roommates and I were crowned TableTop Football National Champions in Miami, Florida and got to attend  Super Bowl XXIX.  How it all started and came about was an interesting experience and something I've rejoiced in ever since.  Let's take a trip down memory lane to the fall of 1994...

Who knew this little poster would lead to so much?

In my last year of college at Central Michigan University I lived in Emmons Hall with my roommates John Eloff, Tony Fischer, and the Fetus(not really relevant to the story, but it's always fun to remember that we called him Fetus and that he enjoyed it). I happened to be in the SAC(Student Activity Center) and came upon the poster above.  As an avid football fan I was intrigued by the concept and the chance to maybe win some prizes.  I remember getting the information about it, and it truly was a contest with paper footballs, albeit an updated version of what we all played in grade school, but with one difference: NFL trivia was prominently involved in the scoring.  Ocean Spray was sponsoring the whole thing at universities all across the nation.  I talked it over with John and Tony and we decided to enter. Why not?  Remember this was before the Internet, email, cell phones, camera phones, dvds, and tons of other current technology, thus we had to make our own fun. So it was something to do, it was free, and who knew maybe we'd win a t-shirt or something.

So on a Monday night we headed over to the SAC and entered the contest.   The game was divided into four 6-minute quarters and the teams were 3-players each with each player going one quarter and someone going twice. There was a football field game board and goal posts as well as a mountain of trivia cards.   As the games got underway we quickly realized how fortunate we were that our trivia knowledge was very good as our game skills lacked.  Not having been able to ever use the game pieces, it was definitely hard to get used to the playing surface, the structure of the game, and how to strategize.  But our opponents were in the same position as us and we ended up winning the CMU competition after a pair of close games: 67-62 and 71-54.  As simple as that it was over, and at that point we were not really sure what might come of it, but we were then told that by winning our campus competition we were eligible to take part in a regional competition, at our own expense, to compete against other universities' winning teams. 

There were 6 regionals and the closest one was in Chicago, but the 3 of us couldn't make it the weekend it was being held so we decided to head down to the University of Central Florida for the Southern Regional, which was the following weekend.  Sure heading all the way down to Florida for something this silly was ridiculous, but remember we were college students and the thought of skipping classes for a road trip to a warmer climate was all the incentive we needed. 



So we borrowed my parents' car and drove down to Florida because it was much cheaper to drive, and because of our long-distance travels Ocean Spray agreed to put us up in a hotel, which turned out to be a dumpy Ramada, but it was free.  (Tony: On the way though Ohio we quickly learned the depth of Ohioans' hatred for Michiganders.  The car had a CMU sticker on it and our football team had just beaten Bowling Green University in the cornfield they call a stadium.  Knowing this we set the cruise control for 62 mph so as not to risk getting pulled over.  Wouldn’t you know it - Ohio’s finest pulled us over for speeding.  Despite having set the cruise control, the cop proceeded to write us a ticket anyway.  He was then kind enough to tell us we could pay the fine right away by going to a Quickmart off the next exit to get a money order made out to the State of Ohio for the fine, otherwise he would have to take the drivers' license and hold it until we could come back for a court hearing.  $62.00 is a big bite out of a college student's budget, especially for a Florida road trip, and I have hated the entire state of Ohio ever since.)   My (CMS) brother Rob lived in Orlando at that time and worked for Disney. He not only got us into the Disney parks for free the night before the contest, he took us out to eat for a "pre-game meal" at the Wilderness Lodge, where we feasted like kings on a various assortment of all-you-can-eat meats.  In fact John ate so many lamb shanks that our waiter was stunned with disbelief.  It was a true catalyst for what was about to happen.  Thanks again Rob! 

Once we had won the campus competition, and before we left for Florida, we started practicing like fiends. (John: We meaning Chris and I.) We were constantly playing games against each other and studying NFL facts and figures.  Over the course of those few weeks our game skills improved dramatically and our trivia knowledge got even better.  We really tried to prepare as best we could; and even though we had every intention of really just having a great roadtrip experience, enjoying some warm weather, and maybe having a story or two to tell, we truly thought we had a great chance to win. 

Official board, goal post, timer and footballs.

When we got to UCF for the competition we learned that there were 5 teams total, we would all play each other in a round-robin, and then the top 2 would play each other for the title. So with great confidence we got underway and proceeded to dominate Palm Beach Atlantic College, winning 127-81.  Next up was Appalachian State and our confidence took a hit as we proceeded to lose a high-scoring, close game 117-130.  It was a frustrating loss and we now figured we had to win the rest of our games to even have a chance.  After that we played the University of Miami and easily won 171-66 and followed that up with a crushing win over Florida Tech, 137-86.  (John: At that point, Florida Tech was undefeated, and it was a win or go home game for us.  They had dominated everyone before them, including the one team that beat us.  As a matter of fact, they tried to make the argument that they were undefeated, and should have won outright without even playing us.  They were supremely confident.  We changed that by beating them badly.)  That left us at 3-1, but as it turned out Appalachian State and Florida Tech were also 3-1.  Not knowing what to do, the moderators decided all three teams would move on, two would play each other for the right to play the other team and all three would be seeded by a coin flip.  Florida Tech ended up getting the #1 seed, so that left us to play Appalachian State for the right to play Tech for the title.  They also decided we would only play 3 quarter games instead of 4 for times sake.  Since we had lost to Appalachian State, we were looking forward to paying them back. 

The Mountaineers may be able to beat UofM, but could they beat the team from CMU?

I always went first,  so I played the first quarter and proceeded to destroy my opponent and got us a nice lead.  John did the same and we were up by more than 30 points going into what would now be the final quarter and Tony's turn.  With a huge lead, surely there was no way would we would lose now, could we?  Well Tony proceed to play as though he was blind, and his utter indifference(Tony: which I call confidence)  to his horrible performance just about gave me a heart attack.  He proceeded to lose the entire lead in what seemed like seconds as my face recoiled in horror as our Super Bowl dreams were quickly fading before me. (John: This is not an understatement.  At one point, Chris walked away from the table because he was so mad, but didn’t want to scream at Tony and break his already faltering concentration.  As Tony missed points and kicks he was actually laughing, acting as if he still had it in the bag.  I honestly thought Chris was going to crack him one in the mouth.  I myself was considering kicking him in the ribs after Chris got him on the ground.)  However, thankfully no matter whose turn it is for board play, all team members could help with the trivia questions and thankfully that saved us as we somehow squeaked out a win 126-122.  Needless to say, had we lost, Tony would have been left to walk back to Michigan.

On to the final where the stakes involved the winning team getting flown to Miami to compete for the national title with the winning teams from the other 5 regionals and a chance to go to the Super Bowl.  We had easily beaten Florida Tech before, so we knew would could win.  Again we were going to play only 3 quarters.  I started us out and once again destroyed my opponent, John did the same, and again we had the same scenario with Tony going last with a big lead.  However, this time, he held his own and we won big 142-63.  (John: When I said earlier that we destroyed their confidence, this was the sign.  I think they were defeated before the game even started.  When they played us this time they were clearly rattled, and made repeated mistakes.  They could not seem to score against us at all.  At the same time, we couldn’t be stopped.  If you notice the score, we put up more points in 3 quarters than we did in 4 quarters against them the first time.) We celebrated wildly and the thoughts of going to Super Bowl XXIX were starting to become real. Rumor has it that we may have even jumped in the UCF fountain and sang the CMU fight song.

The infamous UCF fountain, did we really jump in it?

After winning the regional competition at UCF we drove home and we were so wired that the 20 hours just flew by.  (John: We also took about 20 cases of Ocean Spray drinks from the competition along with us for good measure.)  Although if you ever get the chance, be sure to ask John about our stop at the Waffle House somewhere in middle Georgia.  Back at Central, no one, not our friends, professors, or the administration, could believe what was happening.  This silly little contest was quickly becoming a big deal.



By this time it was late November and the National Finals were going to be be held in mid-January in Miami, 2 weeks before the Super Bowl.  That left us plenty of time to study and prepare, and we all vowed that over Christmas break, as we all headed back to our respective homes, that we would prepare on our own and regroup when we got back to school.  The Super Bowl was now within reach.



Ocean Spray arranged the whole trip, and along with 5 other teams they flew us all down to Miami for the weekend with the competition to be played at Dan Marino's All-American Bar & Grill in Coconut Grove.  Once again we would be playing all of the other teams in a round-robin and then all 6 teams would be seeded into a single-elimination bracket.  To say we were confident would be an understatement, after all we'd practiced to death, studied, and truly obsessed over this the past 6 weeks.  Marino's was a great place to hold the event and it was packed with people and media;  it was quite a sight.  They had us up on a stage in front of everyone and we were enjoying the spotlight as the contest was about ready to get underway.



Inside Marino's as the contest gets underway.

However, the atmosphere for us changed quickly and the confidence we had built up was instantly shattered as we were pummeled in our first game vs. UConn 78-107.  All 3 of us played horribly (John: No one more so than me) and the trivia questions, we soon learned, were much more difficult, so we were never even in the game.  But there was no time to sulk as we had our second game vs. Texas A&M right away.  We tried to shake off the loss as I went first and got us a nice lead, John then extended it, and we had a very large lead before Tony let it all fall apart in the 3rd quarter, so much so that despite a valiant 4th quarter rally we lost again 64-70.  We were starting to unravel a bit as we waited for our next match against the University of Maryland who seemed to be the pre-tournament favorite, were undefeated up to that point, and claimed to have never missed a trivia question, ever.  Well we played a spirited game and all 3 of us played well as we matched them every step of the way, but we still ended up losing 139-150.  That left us at 0-3 and at a crossroads. 

At this point we made what turned out to be the most critical decision that changed our course of action, we switched our lineup.  John needed some confidence so we decided he would go first, me second, and Tony would stay at 3, then whoever was hot would go the 4th.  (John: What I think this leaves out is Chris’ angry rant firing us up about the tournament.  We were down and defeated, and Chris got us regrouped.  Chris knew I needed to focus and play with my normal intensity.  He was challenging me, pointing at one of the tools from the other teams, and told me “You are telling me that guy is better than you?”  It was the push I needed to get my head back in the game.)  Next up was Stillman College(AL) and the new lineup paid off as John started off slow, but it was about even. I went next and destroyed my opponent. Then Tony did as well, leaving us an with insurmountable lead so I had John go the 4th to regain some confidence and he finished them off; victory 98-80.  Our last round-robin game was against Morehead State(KY).  With a solid game against Stillman, John was now back in the groove and we all had a great game as we cruised to an easy victory 117-96.  The change in lineup proved effective as our confidence was back and we were eagerly ready for whoever was next.  There was a break in the action as we awaited the final seedings.  (John: We also finally had a couple of wins in our pocket and a ton of momentum.)

We ended up seeded #4 and our first match was against Texas A&M.  We knew we should have beaten them earlier and we made them pay for that.  We destroyed them right from the start and never let up, crushing them 144-61.  Did we run up the score on them? Yes.  We were on fire!  (John: Running the score up wasn’t the only thing.  We hated these guys and they hated us.  You know those mean spirited things that pop into your head in the heat of competition?  Well, those were popping out of my mouth – not under my breath, loud and out in the open.  I taunted them throughout the game, telling them I would be happy to send them a postcard from the Superbowl, among other (less than civil) things.)  On to the semi-finals where we faced Maryland again.  They had finished the round robin 5-0, had not lost a single game at any point on their journey, and they had a great deal of confidence in themselves.  Well we had played them to the wire earlier, so we had no fear and proceeded to lay the wood.  John started us off and got a nice lead, I extended it, and then miraculously Tony did the same and we were up huge going into the 4th where John easily finished them off as we won 103-68.  It was never a game; we killed them.  They were left sitting stunned with disbelief while we reveled in our own greatness.  (John: Those guys won most of their games pretty easily up until then, and really, our round robin loss was the only time they even had a challenge.  I think that early success didn’t prepare them for dealing with the pressure when they were behind in a game.  Once we got a lead in that game, they fell apart.) There had been some trash-talking going on and we weren't above giving it back, and as the timer ran out in that game John said to them, "Nobody remembers who came in second boys, have a nice trip back to Maryland".  It was awesome and now after all that had transpired only one match remained between us and Super Bowl XXIX.


The Final Match.  Tony is playing, John to the right.

On the other side of the bracket Morehead State as the #3 seed made a run of their own making the finals.  In the round-robin we had beat them easily, so we had no doubt that we could do it again.  We were truly on fire and after a rousing pep talk we marched up to the stage to claim OUR NATIONAL TITLE.  Keep in mind that the path of destruction we made on the way to the finals, possibly including some verbal taunts as well,  made all the other teams stand together to cheer against us, (John: Particularly A&M) but if you know us then you can imagine how much we enjoyed that.  (John: We should mention there were also people from Michigan in the bar that were also cheering for us – “Do it for Engler! (our then governor) Do it for Dearborn! (my home city)”)

Morehead State won the toss to be able to go first and I instantly smirked as John leaned over and stated, "That's the last thing they are going to win today".  We couldn't have been more focused.  Once again John went first and got us a nice lead.  I did the same and extended our lead even more.  Now on to Tony, who when it mattered the most, came through once again and extended the lead even further.  So much so that the 4th quarter was merely a formality and John played us out to sweet victory 136-94!  We went nuts, jumped up and down, hugged each other, screamed, and sang the CMU fight song on stage in front of everyone.  It was a great feeling and the Ocean Spray reps loved it; they were enthralled by our enthusiasm throughout the whole contest. Also in attendance that night were members of the 1972 undefeated Miami Dolphins, as well as other current and former Dolphin players, and they were even swept up with our enthusiasm and energy,especially A.J. Duhe and Jim Kiick.

Over 50,000 students from 300 Universities had entered, but only one team would win.

Ocean Spray had been filming the whole event and right after winning they took me into a room for an interview, which they then shipped out with the contest footage to TV stations across the country.  It was crazy, we ended up being in newspapers all over the country, did radio shows, and even came close to appearing on David Letterman as he apparently saw the story somewhere and was intrigued enough to inquire.  I have 3 letters from Late Show Producers discussing the possibilities of having us on to play the game against Dave. The "fame" and notoriety was something we never saw coming.  Keep in mind that in 1995 there was no YouTube or internet, so the hundreds of places we appeared in print or on the radio or TV were not easily attainable even though we tried.  Yet plenty of people still saw us in newspapers, on TV, or heard us on the radio and they let us know each time; it was definitely unexpected.
 
Back in Mount Pleasant, CMU couldn't believe any of this either but loved the way we represented the university with passion and enthusiasm, and they held a press conference for us when we got back to campus where we did some great interviews with TV and radio stations from across Michigan, including a legendary spot with Channel 7&4 from Traverse City.  As it turns out, ESPN ended up using the contest footage of us celebrating as part of their football College Game Day opener for a year, as I heard from relatives across the country who saw it.  Up to this point this whole adventure had been unbelievable and to think we had not even gone to the Super Bowl yet!

Our CMU press conference with National Champions banner behind us.

As the Super Bowl got closer Ocean Spray sent us our plane tickets, hotel reservations, and more importantly spending money!  We were going back to Miami for 5 days, would be guests of honor at a Super Bowl party hosted by Dan Marino the night before, get to attend a closed 49ers practice, and of course get tickets to the game.  I'll give Tony credit, the money they gave us was nice, but we thought we might need more so Tony asked them and they agreed!  Nice work Fish!  So we went back to Miami and stayed at a hotel in Coral Gables across the street from the University of Miami. When we walked across campus people recognized us as they'd seen the footage on TV and articles in the paper.  I also got to serve as the sports correspondent for WLNS Channel 6 in Lansing appearing live from Miami on their nightly news a few times, once proclaiming that San Francisco would not only win the Super Bowl but they would cover the spread(-17) and that Steve Young would be named MVP, all of which ended up happening.  (Tony: The correspondents' broadcasts were being done in a suite in a Miami beach hotel.  They directed us to stand in line with all the other reporters covering the Super Bowl.  When some of the reporters found out that we were standing in line they were a little annoyed.  Here we are, 3 college students dressed like such waiting in line to go on the air as a national correspondent for the Super Bowl.  I thought about all of those reporters who had probably worked hard to get to that point and here we were.  Just anther illustration as to how surreal the entire adventure was.) (John: Chris was quoted as saying, “The only thing Bobby Ross (coach of the Chargers) has a chance of winning this weekend is the coin toss” during one of his interviews.)  .Needless to say, as we basked in the South Beach air, all of this was a bit surreal for 3 students from Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

With Ocean Spray and Marino's Reps after winning the title.

The Super Bowl party was fun and we met a ton of NFL players, past and present, and it was cool being VIP's.  But the game itself is what we were waiting for.  So that Sunday we headed to Joe Robbie Stadium to watch the San Francisco 49ers play the San Diego Chargers.  San Francisco was a huge favorite and proceeded to pummel San Diego 49-26.  The atmosphere was awesome, and just being in the stadium at kick-off was electric. Watching future Hall-of-Famers Jerry Rice and Steve Young in action was incredible.  For NFL fans this was the ultimate.  We soaked in every moment and as we sat there we were truly stunned at all that had become from seeing that little poster only a few months earlier.  To top it off, on the plane ride home we flew back through Cincinnati with all of the 49ers family members and enjoyed relaying our story to them.  We knew our "fame" was fleeting, but we milked our 15 minutes for all it was worth and enjoyed every single second.  I have a scrapbook that I kept any and all of the newspaper articles we could get and any and all pieces of information and pictures,and it's fun to pull that out once in a while and reminisce.  I also have a videotape from Ocean Spray with contest footage and interviews, and watching that is definitely a blast from the past.  It's hard to believe that it's been 16 years already.

On the way inside to Super Bowl XXIX!

As I look back on everything it really is ridiculous and it is crazy all that happened because of a silly contest, but we knew all of that while it was happening.  We never took any of this too seriously, we just tried to enjoy every part of it to the fullest extent, never knowing exactly what might happen next.  It was a great way to cap my last semester of college and I couldn't have done it with two better friends.  Yes, we can forever claim to be National Champions, but more importantly, our friendship further bonded through this adventure.  Time has obviously moved on and the three of us have all gotten older, married, had kids, moved away.....but that friendship that originally formed in the basement of Wheeler Hall at CMU, and bonded through a silly contest that started in the SAC, that took us to Florida 3 times, and eventually to the Super Bowl, well that friendship lives on strongly to this day.  That's worth far more than a National Championship to me and it was makes the memories even sweeter.

And to think all we were hoping to do was maybe win a t-shirt...



The 1995 TableTop Football National Champions
Tony Fischer, John Eloff, Chris Studenka

EPILOGUE:  (John: The following year, the university ran another tabletop tournament.  This time, since Chris had graduated, and Tony was too tied up to compete, I needed a new team.  The rules were changed to only allow 2 man teams.  My teammate ended up being my frat brother EJ.  He and I talked, and played a bit to practice, and headed to the campus tournament.  Because it was well known and advertised that last year’s campus team actually won tickets to the Superbowl, it was highly attended.  Each team was given the trivia questions ahead of time, so the trivia was free points for everyone.  EJ wasn’t all that good, so I was required to play at the top of my game the whole time.  Each guy had to play 2 quarters, so I would go first (hopefully securing a lead) and last (to make up for any deficit).  We had to play 14 teams, and fought our way through them all.  In the final campus championship game I got a nice lead, then EJ blew it in Tony-like fashion – but worse.  I stepped in with a huge deficit of more than 50 points to make up in 6 minutes.  However, our opponents were not as schooled as guys from the previous year.  With the lead, they should have taken as much time as they could and slowed the game down, taking away the opportunity to catch up.  I picked up the pace to a breakneck level and they went along with it.  I hurried through my questions, and inexplicably, they did too.  EJ and I won that game 264 to 261 (giving you an idea of the pace of those games) to win my second campus championship.  

Chris accompanied us to the regionals at Northern Illinois University.  I played pretty well, leaving a number of trivia points on the table that Chris would have picked up had he been playing.  EJ's lack of board skill was too much to overcome this time.  We lost to an obnoxious team from DePaul, not even making it to the final 4.  My dream of back-to-back championships was crushed.  

I agreed with Chris that our original team would have smoked all of these guys in the regional.  There simply were no teams there as balanced and knowledgeable as Chris, Tony and I were.  The humiliating loss was a stark reminder of how well the room Room 9ers worked as a team and just how unstoppable we were.  In retrospect, there was no way anything in the second try could have matched my original team and the original experience.  In a way, it made me appreciate the championship season even more.)