Gloom, doom and domination.(college football coach Gilmour Dobie)(Brief Article)

On November 20, 1903, the Nez Perce warrior Chief Joseph walked the sideline to watch a football game at the University of Washington. He smoked a cigar.

After Washington defeated Nevada, 2-0, Chief Joseph said, "I saw a lot of white men fight today. I do not think this is good. This may be all right, but I believe it is not. I feel pleased that Washington won the game. These men, I should think, would break their legs and arms, but they did not get mad. I had a grand time at the game with my white friends."

No reason, really, for bringing Chief Joseph in here, other than to show the magic that can happen when you start an archeological dig for the historical remains of a man you'd never heard of, in this case the football coach Gilmour Dobie.

Washington records are silent on any explanation of Chief Joseph's attendance at the white man's fight. But they shout Gilmour Dobie's name.

Well they should. The coach is a legend, albeit a legend now mostly lost to antiquity.

So, late in another college football season, let's call timeout. Let's give the Culligan Holiday Bowl and the Crucial.com Humanitarian Bowl the dignity they have earned, which means let's ignore them. Let's cover our ears against Bobby Bowden's mealy-mouthed mewlings in defense of his bad boys. Give the Heisman to Eric Crouch or Ken Dorsey--we can argue that.

Let's pause in our 21st century madness to consider Gilmour Dobie. Early in the 20th century, he did work never before done and never since matched--unless, that is, you know another coach who in his first 11 seasons did not lose a game and yet, perhaps by dint of genetics (a Minnesotan by way of Scotland), found so many reasons for pessimism that he was called Gloomy Gil.