WHEN THE FOOTBALL teams from the University of Utah and Utah State meet to open the season on Sept. 1 in Logan it will be the 88th game in a series that dates back to 1892.
Few college football series are older. Only four predate Utah-USU - the Army-Navy and Minnesota-Wisconsin series that began in 1890 and the Purdue-Indiana and Missouri-Kansas series that began in 1891.
That first Utes-Aggies game was played on the Utah State campus in Logan on Nov. 25 and the Aggies won in a shutout, 12-0.
The game didn't immediately inspire an arch-rivalry. The schools didn't play the next season, since neither bothered to field a team. Utah re-started its program in 1894 and has played continuously ever since; the Aggies re-started in 1896. The first game did seem to make the Utes mad, however. When the series resumed in 1900, Utah won 21-0. The next year the Utes won 16-0 and the next year 18-0. The Aggies finally scored another touchdown in 1903, 11 years after their first one.
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CARDIAC UTES: The information concerning the Utah-Utah State series is in the latest edition of the NCAA Football record book, which has included in this year's you-wouldn't-know-this-unless-they-told-you section a detailed listing of every "cliffhanger" game held on a college gridiron since the 1971 season.
A "cliffhanger" is defined as a regular-season contest won on the final play of the game.
There have been 81 cliffhangers in the past 19 years - or about four a season.
Only four schools made the list four times or more. Stanford is the cardiac leader with seven cliffhangers, while California and Michigan are tied for second with five each and then comes the University of Utah with four.
The Utes lost 43-41 to UNLV in 1979 to a last-second field goal, and won over Hawaii 29-27 in 1985, over San Diego State 39-37 in 1985, and over Wisconsin 31-28 in 1987, all by field goals.
Neither BYU or Utah State made the list even once.
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MOST AMAZING STAT DEPT.: The NCAA record book is nothing if not diligent about every detail known to football. It keeps track, for instance, of how many field goals are attempted and made every year, and from what distances.
Flying in the face of reason comes data from 1989 that a higher percentage of field goals were successful last season than anytime in history.
This wasn't supposed to happen since 1989 was when the kicking tee was disallowed.
Nonetheless, '89's rate of success was 69.2 pecent, 1,389 good out of 2,006 attempts - up considerably from the 67.3 percent of 1988, when 1,421 field goals were made out of 2,110 tries.
"It surprised quite a few people," says Chris Pella, the kicking coach at BYU. "I mean, it doesn't seem to figure. But I do think teams got more conservative last year, and kicked from shorter distances. And I don't know, maybe when the ball goes a little flatter (not off a tee) it might hold a truer pattern."
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ADD USU-UTAH SERIES: The press guides of the respective schools aren't overly concerned about that 1892 game. Utah's press guide actually lists the Utes the winners, by a 1-0 score, although Ute sports information director Bruce Woodbury does say, "my guess is they're (USU) right and it's a typo; I don't know how you can score one point in football, even in 1892."The Aggie's book lists the 12-0 win over "Salt Lake High," although USU assistant athletic director Craig Hislop says, "we have verified that it was Utah that we beat, not a high school team."RECORD GATE: Rainy weather that kept attendance at Derks Field down last week is going to keep the Salt Lake Trappers from reaching the 200,000 plateau in attendance this season, but they're still on course to draw more fans than any short-season baseball team in history.
Going into the final four regular season games - this Saturday and Sunday and Wednesday and Thursday next week - the Trappers are at 164,191 fans for the season, or about 5,300 a game. The alltime short-season record is 176,233, set in 1988 by, you guessed it, the Salt Lake Trappers.
The Trappers are also second on the alltime list, with the 173,414 they drew last season.
With promotions at each remaining game (Arby's this weekend, McDonald's next Wednesday and Fan Apreciation/Fireworks Night next Thursday), another 25,000 will probably go through the Derks Field turnstyles - giving the '90 Trappers about 190,000 for the season.
"It's not 200,000 but we'll take it," says Trappers assistat general manager Holly Andretta. "That puts us in the top 10 in minor league attendance in the country, on all levels, rookie league, whatever."QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "Just so you know. I'm not remorseful and I'm not in shock. Actually, I feel pretty good about things." - George Steinbrenner at the press conference in New York where he stepped down as president of the Yankees under suspension orders from the commissioner of baseball.