Just found a great read about the Furman/APP rivalry and the crazy stuff that happens when they play. I pulled a couple of juicy nuggets. Do yourself a favor and follow the link to read the whole post. Great job by John Hooper.
Usually heated rivalries on fall Saturdays have little in common with a holiday associated with hauntings and the annual trick or treaters that dress up in either scary costumes or hero’s armour on a night of friendly fright.
However, when Furman takes the gridiron against Appalachian State on Saturday, there’s no such thing as “friendly” and the frights and haunts have been very real.
At 4-1 overall and 2-1 in league play, things seemed far from following a storyline of a Stephen King novel. With Bob Rathbun on-hand providing the regional broadcast for Fox Sports South and a crowd of over 15,000 on-hand at Kidd Brewer Stadium, three quarters of a lackluster defensive slugfest gave way to a fourth quarter of fireworks and miracles for Appalachian and a haunting that Lamb and the Furman program endure to this day.
So, how quick does it take a person to go from hero to goat? No one can be exactly sure, but on that afternoon, it took no time at all for Furman, on a play that was appropriately and officially referred to as a “dead” play. Lamb went from brilliant offensive schemer to “bone-headed coach,” as some pundits found humor in calling him. Lamb, despite that play, outlasted the ESPN college football analyst that was, apparently, another legend in his own mind.
The nightmare was real and Bobby was the “sacrificial” Lamb . But the mettle of a man is often revealed in times of triumph and, more often, times of dejection. However, this was a different kind of defeat—one that would cause unfair judgements for a first-year coach and unwarranted comments from what was suddenly a passionate Furman fanbase.
To Lamb’s credit and an example of the type of integrity instilled by predecessors such as Johnson, Jimmy Satterfield, and Dick Sheridan, Lamb stood outside Furman’s locker room, alongside his senior signal-caller, Billy Napier, and fielded questions for 45 minutes.
It is not a common thing, especially for a first-year head coach, to encounter such an uncanny, detrimental event and then respectfully not only field questions about the nightmare, but take full responsibility, despite the original play call, which called for a run.
Since then, despite 60 wins as a head coach (tied with Bobby Johnson for all-time wins in as many seasons), Lamb’s career has been most-remembered for the play by Furman’s most fervent followers. Exorcising the demon has plagued him for his entire career, especially when facing Moore in the Mountaineers.
