FanPost

A Special Thanks to Blue Critter

Sometimes in life you get lucky. I generally keep up with (and appreciate) comments on posts I write for Bruins Nation. And since I'm starting my series comparing the records of the 1954 and 2014 football teams with the Virginia game on Saturday, I looked in the archives to make sure I hadn't missed a comment on my first post introducing the series.

Bingo! Here's what Blue Critter (someone posting or commenting on BN for only the first or second time, I think) said:

Remembering the Great Ones

Some things to add to your story about the 1954 team. I think the greatest team until now. (High and Mighty Bruins Expectations!) You may recall that year UCLA had been put on probation and players had to decide which of the five games they would play. Stanford was the fifth game and Stanford was the one that had caused the probation. Such as what was behind the 72-0 beating of Stanford. Incidentely, SC, Cal, and others later received the same probation. This incident is what caused the realignment of the conference. Primo Villaneuva and Dewey Dunaway were close friends of mine. Both had families and I used to drive their wives and Primo’s son to the airport to meet the team when the plane returned from home games. I have always thanked God that I am a Bruin.

by Blue Critter 1 on Aug 25, 2014 | 2:08 PM

So, first of all, thanks Blue Critter. I was aware of the probation in general, but I didn't include it for two reasons: I didn't know a great deal about it (not nearly as much as you do apparently), and I didn't want to burden my post with too many details. And btw, I've been around 73 years, but judging from your comment, you're still my senior. I had not heard before that Stanford "caused" the probation. And while I remember reading and hearing about names from past but famed achievements of Bruin teams that most, or many, people would be unfamiliar with, I had never heard the name of Dewey Dunaway. (I just looked him up and found him on Google. Wasn't he on the 1952 team instead of the 1954 team?)

But most importantly, I had no idea — no f...ing idea — that players had to pick some games in which they didn't play. (It's not quite clear to me what you mean when you say "which of the five games they would play," and I can't find a quick explanation on Google.) Yet they still went undefeated??!! I'm speechless (which will be news to my wife). And I'll try to find out more about that before I write about the two Stanford games, since you suggest that represented a special degree of revenge.

And finally, you drove the wives (and son) of Primo Villanueva and Dewey Dunaway to the airport to pick them up after away games? Wow! I was going to say more about Villanueva later in the series, but for interested readers, here are a couple of other details. Following his career at UCLA, Villanueva played for the BC Lions in the Canadian Football League. He must have been pretty good because he established a restaurant there (presumably trading on his accomplishments as a player), and he was still living in a suburb of Vancouver as late as 2006, according to a quick search I did on Google. Does anyone remember the field goal kicker in the NFL named Danny Villanueva? He was Primo's younger brother. As to Dunaway, I'll just have to do more research about him (either for this series or later on.)

Meanwhile, welcome to Bruins Nation, Blue Critter. I'll look forward to hearing from you in the future.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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