One of my assignments for The Arkansas Traveler next week is to write a preview of the Arkansas-Vanderbilt women's soccer team. Of course, I know absolutely nothing about women's soccer, let alone Arkansas women's soccer.
As research, I went to arkansasrazorbacks.com and went to the women's soccer page. I started flipping through their stats and schedule. Then I decided to look at their media guide and see how the Hogs had performed in the past.
I learned that the team started in 1986 and has been pretty mediocre. I also found out that in the last game of the first season, 1986, Arkansas traveled to Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T) and got demolished 16-1. I know I said I don't know much about women's soccer, but I DO know that a 15 goal loss is NOT good.
I read on and discovered that they played Missouri-Rolla again in 1986 (tied 2-2) and in 1989 (won 2-0). The next two seasons, however, jumped out at me. In 1990, Arkansas won 9-0 and in 1991, Arkansas won 8-0. Something tells me that the Hogs probably didn't even think about letting up in those two games.
This kind of brings to mind another situation like this. In 1916, Cumberland College defeated Georgia Tech 22-0 in a baseball game. The coach of Georgia Tech, John Heisman (yes, THAT Heisman), believed Cumberland played professionals. So even though Cumberland's football team was discontinued in 1915, Heisman demanded them to live up to their contract and play them in football.
Cumberland roughly put together a team of 14 students, traveled to Georgia Tech, and suffered the worst loss in college football history, losing 222-0.
The lesson of both of these stories is simple: don't pile on points against a helpless team. Once you have them down, call off the dogs and run out the clock. Otherwise, some day or another, it will come back and bite you in the butt. Shiloh Christian High School suffered this last year, is suffering it this year, and will probably suffer it for several more years.
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