UVA: How President Darden killed UVA football

By: CatticusFinch on June 9, 2016, 5:22 PM | 16 comments

Shamelessly stolen from Reddit user eatapenny.

Nice in depth look at UVA football's early years, and how a focus on academics and belief that football was "ungentlemanly" set the program back a ton. Enjoy!

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Comments

nc-hokie

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| 10 years 4 weeks #

Interesting. But that they dropped the ball doesn't surprise me in the least. I remember during the Welsh era they stated they would decline a bowl if it was too close to final exams or something to that affect

Kville Hokies

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| 10 years 4 weeks # ^

According to a grad school LOLUVA alum they were just using that as an excuse not play on the blue turf when invited because no fans would go, the coach was insulted they were passed over for better bowls by teams with real fans, and it might be cold there in December.

Lozo1016 | 10 years 3 weeks # ^

I didn't realize there was an era when the Hoos thought they were too good to go to a specific bowl. Going to the Whatever-The-Boise-Bowl-Was-Called-Back-Then Bowl was beneath their dignity?

eshiben5 | 10 years 3 weeks # ^

they think they're to good for everything

Granville

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| 10 years 3 weeks # ^

Only the Continental Tire Bowl or better for the Hoos

AZHokie22 | 10 years 4 weeks #

I like the tidbit in the comments about Darden also being instrumental is keeping VPI from being expelled from the NCAA.

Helped keep us in the NCAA - check
Destroyed UVA football forever - check

He seems like a good dude.

DBHT14 | 10 years 4 weeks # ^

Yeah I had no idea about the incident until today. Did recall our efforts to mimic them to get into the ACC cool kids club and came across the story while refreshing my memory.

DBHT14 | 10 years 4 weeks #

http://deadspin.com/the-ncaa-has-always-paid-players-now-its-just-harder...

Some more info on my comments. From 48-51 the NCAA tried to ban ALL player compensation including scholarships.

VT, VMI, UVA, UMD, and a few others got called to task for apparently ignoring the rule to various degrees. But in a glass houses situation nobody had the guts to go after the group with VT as the face if the group. Since everyone was afraid they would be the next school to be called out.

So the idea died and the modern scholarship system began to take shape.