DON’T FORGET BILL WALSH’S OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS
In addition to once dressing up as a bell boy and greeting his team at the door of their hotel once, Bill Walsh should also be remembered for his pioneering work in another important field: video game football.
It was a far piece better than Sega’s “College Football National Championship,” mostly because it was simpler and you couldn’t win every game by running the toss sweep with Jerome Bettis. (Damn you, Cuddles Swindle. Damn you and Jerome to hell.) You got scouting reports from Bill on each team. You got 360 degrees of replay. You got, as you might have guessed, glorious amounts of passing yards. And of course, it also featured, per video game rules of engagement, an unstoppable Bo Jackson bent on destroying the world with his cleats.
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I remember drunken college all-night tourneys in my apartment. I remember the sad night that I finally had my roomate on the ropes. He was unstoppable with the Hagan - BEEINAMEE option threat of Colorado 90…and those bookends….Williams and McGee…..and Joel Steed…and Chad Brown…dang, that was a well paid college team…
I had Washington 91 and had him beat by two..then he nailed a 50 yard field goal to win it………..He did the Valvano all over the apartment……..never got over it….
Comment by Judge — July 31, 2025 @ 9:00 am
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Man how I miss hitting players after the whistle.
Comment by Spittoon — July 31, 2025 @ 8:40 am
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Ah, the first college football game I ever saw or played. It wasn’t Tecmo Bowl in terms of fun, but Georgia was on the game. I could control the Dawgs. No longer would Goff fuck up potential 11-0 matchups in championship games. Still, the first playstation version was the first one of these I really loved.
Comment by Biggus Rickus — July 31, 2025 @ 8:30 am
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Re 16:
I do the exact same thing with Auburn RB, Ben Tate. Half way through the season he has 2600 yds rushing (15 ypc) and 36 TD’s. Coincidentally, my QB is last in all categories in the SEC.
Comment by Bottagetta — July 31, 2025 @ 8:20 am
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NCAA 08 has it’s own Bo Jackson issue: Pick Arkansas, call a twins I formation and run counter to the strong side. You’ll be in the endzone in 3-5 plays. I busted the NCAA rushing yards record for one game against UF at the swamp, on All American level.
Comment by MCab — July 31, 2025 @ 8:10 am
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Re: 10-11
Provo, who I believe had Ty Detmer, was also a force to be reckoned with.
Comment by PW — July 31, 2025 @ 7:59 am
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If you played 15 minute quarters on Bill Walsh it was fairly easy for Bo to have a 1000 yard rushing GAME (I think my record was about 1250, but it just says 250 on the final stats), and the score would make Cumberland College feel sympathy for the opponent.
Comment by MiseanAUFan — July 31, 2025 @ 6:51 am
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Orson, did the Jerome BEttis toss sweep not adequately prepare you for the ‘92 Sugar Bowl? I’d have thought you guys would have seen that coming.
Comment by Wooderson — July 31, 2025 @ 6:34 am
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You can’t fool me. That’s just early Madden repackaged with college labels for every team. Video game fans are too sophisticated to fall for a trick like that nowadays.
Comment by Chg — July 30, 2025 @ 9:39 pm
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Yeah, I loved how they had to use “South Bend” for Notre Dame (and I think there were other teams like that) because they didn’t purchase the rights from the NCAA.
Comment by Matt — July 30, 2025 @ 9:31 pm