October 20, 1962: The Birth of Florida State's "Sod Cemetery"

October 20, 1962: Florida State University beats the University of Georgia, 18-0 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia, which has a hedge ring surrounding the field, and it is said that, there, football is played "Between the Hedges."

Dean Coyle Moore, a professor at Florida State and a member of the school's athletic board, had told the Seminoles, "Bring back some sod from Between the Hedges at Georgia." The victory complete, team captain Gene McDowell pulled a small piece of grass out, and showed it to Moore at the next football practice. Coach Bill Peterson took the grass to the practice facility, Harkins Field, and planted it. A plaque was made, and the Sod Cemetery was born.

Ever since, every time the Seminoles win an away game in which they are the underdog, or at the University of Florida, or at bowl games, or, since the Atlantic Coast Conference established a championship game, said game, the team captains cut out a small piece of the playing surface, and have it planted inside the gates of Harkins Field.

By 1970, it had been done 23 times in 9 seasons. But in the 5 seasons before Bobby Bowden arrived, 1971 to 1975, it hadn't been done at all. Although the 'Noles lost their 1st 3 games under Bowden, and 6 of their 1st 8, on October 9, 1976, they went up to The Hub and beat Boston College, and took a piece of Alumni Stadium turf home with them -- the 1st artificial turf to be planted there.

The most recent such win was this past September 4, beating Louisiana State (LSU), 24-23 at the Superdome. The Cemetery now includes 106 pieces of sod, from 42 different stadiums (the University of Florida's Ben Hill Griffin Stadium the most frequent victim, with 12), against 39 different opponents (UF the most often, 13), in 20 States (Florida easily the most with 44, Louisiana next with 9), in 10 different bowl games.

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October 20, 1962 was a Saturday. This was also the day that "Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett hit Number 1. I have a separate entry for that event.

The other college football games played that day included:

Baseball season had ended 4 days earlier, with the New York Yankees beating the San Francisco Giants in Game 7 of the World Series. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Boston Celtics, 149-116 at the Boston Garden. No Celtic scored more than Sam Jones' 25, but 7 Celtics scored in double figures.

* The Syracuse Nationals beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 108-102 at the Onondaga County War Memorial (now the Upstate University Medical Arena) in Syracuse, New York. Elgin Baylor led all scorerers on the night, with 42 points. This would be the Nationals' last season in Syracuse: For 1963-64, they moved to become the Philadelphia 76ers.

* The Chicago Zephyrs beat the Cincinnati Royals, 113-109 at the Chicago Coliseum. The Zephyrs became the Baltimore Bullets in 1963, the Capital Bullets in 1973, the Washington Bullets in 1974, and the Washington Wizards in 1997. The Royals became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings in 1972, the Kansas City Kings in 1975, and the Sacramento Kings in 1985. Don't worry, there's no test for all of this to be on.

* And the St. Louis Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons, 120-111 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis.

And there were 2 games in the NHL. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 7-3 at the Montreal Forum. And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The New York Rangers and the Detroit Red Wings were not scheduled.