October 16, 2010: Rutgers plays Army in football at the new Meadowlands stadium, now named MetLife Stadium. RU had played at Giants Stadium many times, but this was their 1st game at the new stadium. They would beat Army 23-20 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Joe Martinek in overtime, following an Army field goal, to advance to 4-2 on the season. But that would prove to be all but meaningless -- and not just because they ended up losing all 6 of their remaining games.
In the 4th quarter, Eric LeGrand, a junior defensive tackle from the Avenel section of Woodbridge, New Jersey and Colonia High School, tried to tackle Army kickoff returner Malcolm Brown, and the resulting collision broke his neck, leaving him paralyzed.
His fight to recover became an inspiration, as he has gone into sportscasting, a profession that does not require that he stand up, which he has been able to do with the aid of a special harness.
His former coach, Greg Schiano, had taken the head job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2012 season, and signed him to a contract, so he could legitimately say he had been a professional football player. LeGrand then "retired" to free up a roster sport. In 2013, Rutgers retired his Number 52, making it the 1st such honor in the program's 143-year history. He now runs LeGrand Coffee House in downtown Woodbridge.
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October 16, 2010 was a Saturday. Among the other college football games played that day were these:
* Number 1 Ohio State were upset by Number 18 Wisconsin, 31-18 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Ohio State ended up winning the Big Ten Conference title anyway, and won the Sugar Bowl over Arkansas, but later had to vacate all their wins that season, due to various violations of NCAA regulations.
* Number 2 Oregon were idle. They moved up to Number 1 following Ohio State's defeat, and went on to hold that ranking throughout the regular season, winning the Pacific-Ten Conference title.
* Number 3 Boise State beat San Jose State, 48-0 at Spartan Stadium (now CEFCU Stadium) in San Jose, California. Although they won the Western Athletic Conference title, Boise State's pretensions to the National Championship were shattered by an overtime loss away to Nevada on Thanksgiving Saturday. They ended up beating Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl.
* Number 4 Texas Christian (TCU) beat Brigham Young (BYU), 31-3 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. TCU went undefeated, won the Mountain West Conference title, and beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl, but their status as a team in a "mid-major" conference meant that they finished with the Number 2 ranking.
* Number 5 Nebraska were upset by Texas, 20-13 at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. They rebounded to win the Big Twelve Conference North Division.
* Number 6 Oklahoma beat Iowa State, 52-0 at Owen Field in Norman, Oklahoma. They won the Big Twelve Conference South Division, enabling them to renew their former rivalry with Nebraska in the Conference Championship Game. Oklahoma won, and beat Big East Conference Champion Connecticut in the Fiesta Bowl. Nebraska went to the Holiday Bowl, and lost it to the University of Washington.
* In the only game between ranked teams that weekend, Number 7 Auburn beat Number 12 Arkansas, 65-43 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama.
* Number 8 Alabama beat Mississippi, 23-10 at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. But they lost the Iron Bowl, and thus the Southeastern Conference West Division Championship, when they lost to Auburn on Thanksgiving Saturday.
* Number 9 Louisiana State beat intra-State team McNeese State, 32-10 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. LSU went on to beat Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.
* Number 10 South Carolina lost to Kentucky, 31-28 at Commonwealth Stadium (now Kroger Field) in Lexington, Kentucky. South Carolina -- only people within that State call them "USC," everybody outside the State uses those initials only on the University of Southern California -- still reached the Southeastern Conference Championship Game, but they lost to Auburn.
Auburn went on to beat Oregon in the BCS National Championship Game at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. (Now named State Farm Stadium, it was then, and remains, the home of both the Fiesta Bowl and the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.) Alabama beat Michigan State in the Citrus Bowl (then known as the Capital One Bowl). South Carolina ended up losing to Florida State in the Peach Bowl.
* Notre Dame, unranked, beat Western Michigan, 44-20 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.
* Navy beat Southern Methodist (SMU), 28-21 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland.
In postseason baseball, the Texas Rangers recorded the 1st Playoff win at home in the 50-year history of the franchise, when they take Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, defeating the New York Yankees, 7-2. (The Rangers had beaten the Tampa Bay Rays in the Division Series, a rare postseason series in which the road team won every game.) The win at Rangers Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) ended a 10-game postseason losing streak against New York, that includes yesterday's heartbreaking loss in which Texas had an early 5-0 lead over the Bronx Bombers. The Rangers would beat the Yankees in 6 games, to win the franchise's 1st Pennant.
Game 1 of the National League Championship Series was played at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. The San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-3. Cody Ross hit 2 home runs. The Giants won the Pennant in 6 games, and went on to sweep the Rangers in the World Series.
The NBA season wouldn't start for another 16 days. But there were 3 NHL games:
* The Boston Bruins beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-0, in an NHL Premiere Series game at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czechia (a.k.a. the Czech Republic, once part of Czechoslovakia).
* The Calgary Flames beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.
* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Florida Panthers, 3-2 at Rexall Place, as the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton was then known.
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