Forum: Lost Stories

Right up front, let me admit to being an inept searcher. I've been through every W.P. Kinsella collection I could find on amazon, goodreads, e-bay and AbeBooks, and I've been unable to confirm for sure that either of those stories you mentioned was contained in any of those collections. Most of the squibs don't list the stories contained within the book. Amazon does, but couldn't find the stories in any of the lists. I suspect you are correct that the "Ted Williams Storms the Gate of Heaven" is likely the story I seek. I did find it mentioned - but not a confirmation that the story was in one of the collections I could buy.

Slightly Off Topic: The greatest road trip ever. True story: a small college from the Tennessee hill country went on a football road trip just over a hundred years ago. Travelling by train they played something like 7 games in 10 days. From Georgia to Texas. All powerhouse schools; Auburn, LSU, Texas, etc. Only one team even scored on the. George Heisman's Auburn scored a single touchdown.

What's the name of the "small college from the Tennessee hill country"?

What's the name of the "small college from the Tennessee hill country"?

http://www.sewanee.edu/

Sewanee no longer has a program worth much, but they were instrumental in the initiation of the Southeastern Conference a bit over a century ago.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewanee_Tigers_football

More accuracy. It was 1899. They played a 12 game season when most schools only played 5 or 6. Their season record was 12-0 with 11 shut-outs and a scoring total of 322-10. Auburn was the only team to score. The road trip was actually 5 games in 6 days. They played Texas, Texas A&M, LSU, Tulane, and Mississippi. The cumulative score was 91-0. Each half was 35 consecutive minutes with no substitution. They played both ways, offense and defense and stayed in even if injured. Oh, and football didn't allow passing then, it was all running the ball. No helmets and only quilted uniforms without pads. Tough enough?

All he asked for was the name. The specifics can be found in the links provided.

I think I remember reading about that when I was a boy in a football book by writer Bill Stern. What I don't remember is the name of the school being Sewanee. I thought he called it something else - maybe College of the South or something like that.

Yes, at times it also goes by the name University of the South. This has to due with the concept of it's original founding before the Civil War.

Thank you very much. I remember a controversy over the Heisman Trophy (awarded by a New York outfit) in the mid 1950s, in which the son of the coach at Sewanee (who played, I think, for Tennessee) was a candidate along with a player from Notre Dame. At the time, the board that made the selection was dominated by people from the Northeastern U.S. Many thought the Tennessee guy (named Majors, I think) should have gotten the trophy, but it went to the Notre Dame guy. There was such a stink about it that the Heisman Trophy people re-did their selection board making it more geographically balanced.

I don't wish to make myself sound as if I know college football history. I learned some via osmosis from attending some courses at Sewanee. At the time, they had an agreement with UT/UTSI to cover some of the engineering students working internships at the Arnold AFB facilities.
I think I learned more about paranoia than anything else though. Cold war mentality was in full force during my time there.

Alas. I bought the Baseball Fantastic dead-tree book, and found "Ted Williams Storms the Gates of Heaven" by Louis Phillips. It is not the story I seek. I'll read it and some of the other stories in the collection, but not one of them on a quick glance-through, appears to be the story. I appreciate your suggestion. Thank you very much.
Any other suggestions? Anybody?