222-0, and they shortened the second half because what else do you do. Back up to the start, though. Cumberland had already shut the program down — no team, no season, nothing. A student manager scrapes together sixteen guys, some of them law students, puts them on a train to Atlanta in 1916 because somebody has to show up. Sixteen! For a road game against Heisman's Georgia Tech.
63-0 after one quarter. You're on that bench doing the math nobody wants to do, and there's no sub coming in for you because there is no sub. I'm with those sixteen the whole afternoon. They lost by the biggest number in the sport and they finished the game, which is more than the schedule asked of them.
Toby, they cut the quarters to twelve and a half minutes and Cumberland still came out of it with negative net yardage — they lost ground overall by running the ball. Sixteen men, no subs, and they finished anyway.
Toby, the story goes they had themselves a fine night in Nashville before that train — oysters and whatever came with them — and then spent the afternoon regretting it in Atlanta. Sixteen men, no subs, and a stomach full of supper. I've baked on less sleep and done worse.