SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO LOSE

The Boston College Eagles football team had an 8-0 record and was number one in national polls going into the final game against traditional rival Holy Cross. Led by the ramrodding fullback Mike Holovak and brilliant quarterback Charlie O’Rourke, both future NFL players, B.C. looked unstoppable.
Holy Cross had won only three games in 1942,⁴⁴ and the annual contest played at Fenway Park was predicted to be a laugher. B.C. came out overconfident, even cocky and flat. The Cross (led by future college and pro Hall-of Fame lineman George Connor and later transfer to Notre Dame), with nothing to lose and nothing expected, came out charging, pushed B.C. all over the field, and swamped them 55-12 in one of the epic upsets in college football history. The 43-point margin represents the largest by which an unranked team has ever defeated a #1-ranked team.⁴⁵
B.C.’s improbable loss wasn’t the only disaster to occur in Boston on November 28, 1942. Something gruesome beyond imagination was about to happen.


AFTER DARK ON THAT FATEFUL DAY over a thousand people jammed into a downtown Boston nightclub called the Coconut Grove. At the height of the festivities, highly flammable decorations caught fire, and the blaze raced through the overcrowded room. Panicked customers bolted for the exits only to find some locked. Revolving doors at the front-door exits jammed and people desperately trying to get out were trapped, with many smothered. Nearly five hundred people perished, and scores more were burned, mutilated, and overcome by smoke in one of the worst fire tragedies in American history.
The Boston College football team had scheduled their season-ending victory party at the Coconut Grove that evening, but it was canceled when they lost to Holy Cross a few hours earlier.

SOURCES: SOMETIMES IT PAYS TO LOSE
44 Courtesy of the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame, http://www.footballfoundation.com/news.php?id=257, available as of 5/20/05
45 Courtesy of the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame, http://www.footballfoundation.com/news.php?id=767, available as of 11/28/05

(Excerpted from Guts in the Clutch; see below.)

Richard J. Noyes, former Associate Director, Center for Advanced Engineering Study, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a consultant to public and private sector organizations.

Noyes is the co-author with Pamela J. Robertson of Larceny of Love, a provocative print and eBook novel that traces the interwoven careers of three men in jeopardy (one of whom is a professional pitcher who experiences sudden, extreme, unexplained, career-threatening wildness) and the unforgettable women in their lives. http://amzn.to/u0LtvX
http://bit.ly/upp8hX (Nook) http://bit.ly/v1qaGe (Google e-Books)

“Whenever dramatic storytelling about people you like is created around business, sports and film, I'm a happy reader. I'm sure you will be as well.” –Kevin Marcus, Vice President, Sotheby

Another recent print and eBook by Richard Noyes and Pamela Robertson: Guts in the Clutch: 77 Legendary Triumphs, Heartbreaks, and Wild Finishes in 12 Sports, with a Foreword by Drew Olson of ESPN. http://gutsintheclutch.com/
“The best compilation of fascinating sports stories I have read.” -David Houle, Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer of documentaries on Hank Aaron and the Harlem Globetrotters.