I am not a big sports bettor but putting a $20 spot on last week's PGA Championship for Tiger Woods to win at 13-1 made the event very entertaining for me. I lost but if I had a chance I would do it again. I don't like to lose but the entertainment value was priceless.
In football my greatest bet was my first legal bet in 1988 in Las Vegas. The University of Southern California was led by future NFL Quarterback Rodney Peete. The Trojans were undefeated opening up the season with a big east coast victory over Boston College, and followed that up with 4 more victories including wins over college football powerhouse #3 Oklahoma where they thoroughly whipped the Sooners and an impressive whipping of #18 Oregon by the scores of 23-7 and 42-14.
Meanwhile the Huskies looked lackluster in a 35-31 win at home against west coast patsy San Jose State and were beaten at home by SC's rival UCLA in Seattle. The oddsmakers were all over the Trojans making them a 13.5 point opening line favorite. By the time I got off a small 20 seat jet from Santa Barbara in the city of sin the Trojans were up to 15 points in most casinos and by the time I placed my bet at Barbary Coast the curernt site of Bill's Gambling Hall and Taven just across the street from Ceasar's Palace I had 14.5 points with the Huskies.
The game opened slowly with USC putting up the only score of the first quarter taking a 7-0 lead. The second quarter starter out bad for Husky bettors with USC cashing in with another touchdow to increase their lead to 14-0 and it appeared to be off to the races for the Trojans as they were driving for a third score when an untimely turnover gave the Huskies the ball deep in their own territory but kept the Trojans from blowing the game wide open. The Huskies were able to cut into the Trojan lead converting the turnover into a touchdown scoring drive led by Husky QB Cary Conklin making the score 14-7 heading into half time.
The second half started out much like the first half with the Trojans driving but not able to convert in Husky territory for any points. The Huskies seemed to have new life as they warded off the Trojans and opened up the scoring in the 2nd half to tie the game at 14-14. It was now an even game the 19th ranked Huskies despite being a 15 point underdog was knotted up in the second half with the #3 ranked Trojans. The Trojans would score again in the 3rd quarter to take a 7 point lead at 21-14 heading into the decisive and final quarter.
At plus 14.5 points I was feeling really good and would start to feel great as the Huskies answered the Trojans early in the final quarter to make it 21 apiece. With under 8 minutes remaining USC satisfied their hungry fans with putting another touchdown on the board and a 7 point lead. Still I was winning the bet by 7.5 points and would need a complete meltdown against SC in the latter half of the quarter. Highly unlikely and certainly not improbable. What would happen next would make this an ESPN classic.
USC would stop the Huskies on their ensuing drive and woudl take over the ball with under 6 minutes remaining. Behind Peete the Trojans would drive towards mid-field but an inspired Husky defense would put the clamps down forcing a punt by SC. Faced with a long field un-heralded but also future NFL back-up QB Conklin would miraculously pull of 3rd down and 4th down conversions before scoring what appeared to be a tying touchdown in the final seconds of the game to make the score 28-27. Back in 1988 thre were no overtimes in college football and Head Coach Don James called on his Huskies to go for the win rather than settle for the chip shot extra point for a tie. Luckily for SC future NFL All-Pro and Chicago Bear Mark Carrier would make the game saving play in the end zone tipping a Conklin pass and preserving the SC victory.
Meanwhile I was holing a ticket for $2750 to win $2500 on the Huskies. UW was too good of a team to be getting more than two touchdowns and darn near pulled out the victory. I would celebrate that night at Ceasar's Palace by putting a $550 to win $500 on the over 6.5 in game one of the World Series between the heavily favored Oakland A's and gimply Kirk Gibson. Three innings before Gibby hit his infamous walk off home run to win game 1 the A's had takena 4-3 lead on the Dodgers sealing my victory and another $500 win. After resting up that night and before getting on my plane an angel gave me an inside tip while talking on the payphone. Again technology is great as cell phones were not in style in 1988. My angel told me to take the hard luck Cleveland Browns at home -2.5 against a beat up NY Jets team. The Browns had just come off a championship game vs. Elway the year before and were loaded but had yet to hit their stride. That October 16,1988 day in Cleveland they hit their stride defeating the Jets 19-3 and covering my 2.5 points. That was a sweet $1100 ticket I was holding right there and than.
All in all that weekend in Vegas I walked out with $4000 in winnning but was netting barely over $3000 after the airfare expense, hotel expense, drinks, food, etc. I might have won but as always one way or another Vegas always gets their cut and it was a healthy cut into my winnings.
As for the NFL and the naysayers. I couldn't have had such a great memory of college football without having placed a few dollars on what I remember as the greatest game ever and one of my greatest weekends in sports some 22 years ago. Now does it seem fair that the NFL should have all the fun and prohibit us from such fond memories?
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