How to recite American Football statistics

[madyellowduck]

I am not American but a character is required in the scene to recite 50 years of football scores for the University of pennsylvania's college football team (as I understand it, they are something of a American Football powerhouse)

I need to undersatnd how the score is typically presented. For example, in 1951, the University of California defeated the University of Pennsylvania 35-0 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

So would the dialogue therefore be:

1951 - Upenn 0, University of California - 35

Or
1951 - University of California beats uPenn 35-0

Thank you

[Telly]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

I am not American but a character is required in the scene to recite 50 years of football scores for the University of pennsylvania's college football team (as I understand it, they are something of a American Football powerhouse)

I need to undersatnd how the score is typically presented. For example, in 1951, the University of California defeated the University of Pennsylvania 35-0 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

So would the dialogue therefore be:

1951 - Upenn 0, University of California - 35

Or
1951 - University of California beats uPenn 35-0

Thank you

The quickest route and most common used in dialogue is simply the score followed by the winner, i.e:

35-0, PENN
21-7, BRUINS
14-0, PENN

I would lose the "u" before penn. They are just known and reffered to as, PENN. Also, they do have a solid football team but if you are looking for the most traditional, most recognized teams, you'd be better off with teams like, Notre Dame, USC, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Michigan,Miami, Florida, Texas. These are the usual suspects when talking the best of the best of college football.

Also, your subject line refers to stats but your question is about scores. These are two different subjects. You might want to be clear about that. The score, is just the score. Stats however are the statistics within the game or of a particular player, i.e total touchdowns, receptions, fumbles, turnovers, etc. Those are stats. Make sense?

One final note, you mention "University of California". That is not a university. The UC system covers several universities, i.e. University of California Los Angeles, University of California San Diego, etc. And you use the short hand of these, UCLA, UCSD, UCSJ, UCSB, etc. And be sure to only stick with Div.1 colleges.

Good luck!

[Rathmon]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

I am not American but a character is required in the scene to recite 50 years of football scores for the University of pennsylvania's college football team (as I understand it, they are something of a American Football powerhouse)

I need to undersatnd how the score is typically presented. For example, in 1951, the University of California defeated the University of Pennsylvania 35-0 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

So would the dialogue therefore be:

1951 - Upenn 0, University of California - 35

Or
1951 - University of California beats uPenn 35-0

Thank you

First off, the nomenclature of American Universities is a bit odd... The University of Pennsylvania is different than the Pennsylvania State University. And California is just a mess....

In your example, 'uPenn' in an Ivy League school that is better known as just Pennsylvania or Penn. (Not to be confused with Penn State) In the early days of college football, Ivy League schools were big things, but in this day and age they are nowhere near being powerhouse football schools.

The University of California in your example is University of California, Berkley- better known as just California or Cal. (The University of California has 10 campuses.... such as Los Angeles 'UCLA', Santa Barbara 'UCSB', etc.)

To the question at hand- generally person could recite scores putting his favorite team first regardless of win or loss. So, it could read- "in the 1951 season Penn 0, Cal 35".

However, on most historical listings for sports scores, the visiting team is listed first.

*** as a side note.... I wouldn't have a character recite 50 years of football scores as there's 10- 12 games per year adding up to 500-600 scores to recite.... maybe have him quizzed like "1951, third week".

[killertv]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

Just to echo the others, when you refer to the college football powerhouse in Pennsylvania, it's Penn State and not U Penn.

If the person reciting the scores went to one of the schools, s/he'd use the first person plural when talking about the team (like in a lot of sports) i.e. we lost. Also, I'd skip the century and just say '51.

If you want to recap the history of the football program, I'd focus just on bowl games and rankings (I bet wikipedia has a lot of that info readily available for any football program).

[Optimus]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

Agree with everything above. There's really no set way of sportscasters reciting scores. What Telly has is fine but it also really depends on how the question is asked.

Also, I agree that no one is going to sit there and recite 50 years of scores, even if they're just talking about a rivalry and only referring to the scores of that one game each season. Also, no one is going to sit there and read all of those scores in a script or watch it on screen without getting extremely bored and moving on to something else.

Generally, to recap the record between two rivals, sportscasters will just give the overall historical win/loss number, and do it in several ways, such as:

"Penn has the historical lead over Harvard, 35 games to 21."

"In this long rivalry, Penn leads with 45 wins to Harvard's 18."

"Over the past 60 years, these two rivals have met 50 times, with Penn winning 32 of those match ups..."

Something like that. Also, no one would care about Penn playing Cal, USC, or..hell...even Cal State - Fulerton. They're not rivals (opposite sides of the country). Penn has a historical rivalry with Harvard (haha, which is funny because it's pretty much a rivalry of wimps). In fact, nobody other than Penn students/alumni care about Penn football.

Also, whoever told you that University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is a football "powerhouse" has either been hitting the crack pipe way too much their entire life, has never watched American football and is just guessing, or they're in their 90s suffering from dementia and believe that right now it's the year 1940.

Penn hasn't been good at football in about 60 to 70 years. They're an Ivy League school, so I'm sure they dominate someone at rowing or some other rich kid "sport" like that.

Penn State is known for its football program (though, not really in the past decade or so). Joe Paterno is their legendary coach.

If you use Penn State (the Nitany Lions) as your school of choice, their main rival is Ohio State University (the Buckeyes). That's usually their big game of the season.

Other big historical college football rivalries are USC vs. UCLA, University of Tennessee vs. University of Georgia, University of Florida vs Florida State University (or Georgia, or Alabama, or Tennessee)...hell...pretty much any Southeastern Conference team against another, haha.

[NikeeGoddess]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

and notice Opti's cheerleading outfit from '64.
it was a shocking outfit because football is a cool/cold weather sport and they always wore wool.
this changed cheerleading costumes for years to come.

btw - he was routing for Ohio State (notice the colors) not Penn State

[Ravenlocks]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

If you use Penn State (the Nitany Lions) as your school of choice, their main rival is Ohio State University (the Buckeyes). That's usually their big game of the season.

It's Nittany (two T's), and it's a mountain lion, so no mane (in case the OP isn't familiar with American wildlife). Penn State is in the mountains, in a cute college town, and I'm not sure how many Nittany lions still live around there, but some do. I knew someone living not too far away who got stalked by one.

Ohio State is a HUGE football school. During football games is the best time to go shopping, because nobody else will be at the stores, although the employees may have the game on.

[Donreel]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

One other point. In American parlance, a score of zero is usually referred to as "nothing". Less often as "zero" and sometimes as "zip" or "zilch". However, a professional announcer would be likely only to use "nothing". From listening to the BBC, I am aware that the European custom is to say "nil" or (I think), sometimes "naught".

So if the character is American and actually recites the score of an individual game in which one team scored no points, the character would say, if for example, the score is 14-0:

"Penn State fourteen, Michigan nothing"
OR
"Fourteen-nothing, Penn State" (if the opponent is already identified in the setup or dialogue)

I used Penn State as the example because Penn (Univ of Pennsylvania), as mentioned, is not a football "powerhouse"

[Optimus]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

btw - he was routing for Ohio State (notice the colors) not Penn State

Good God, woman. I'm a Gators fan!

I would never....NEVER root for the Ohio State Suckeyes.

And I wasn't born until '76 so I'm still young.

[madyellowduck]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

Thanks for everyone's super fast replies. Just for some clarification, I used the word scores and stats sort of flexibly here but am open to advice as to whether a person would recite scores OR stats in the situation below.

Some additional info in case anyone wants to weigh in. Okay basically my scene is this. PRISONER is being tortured. He is an American - former collegiate football player (an inherited character requirement) And to keep himself alive and sane, in between being tortured, he recites the football scores.

He doesn't recite like 50 years of it but the kind of idea is that he's doing that - and we just see him in snippets. So the scene is written like this so far (I haven't checked the info just using placeholder ones)

Thoughts?
--
INSIDE CELL


PRISONER
1950 - Penn 42, Harvard 34, 1951, NCCA finals, Penn 54, Umiami 43...
(louder)
1952...Varsity finals..Penn 60 Chargers 30

[Richmond Weems]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

That's ok, though I don't think you'd want to use "NCAA Finals" as college football doesn't have "finals". Maybe title games, or some of the bigger bowls.

I wonder if it would be better if your protagonist could recite scores from a particular college powerhouse; maybe he's a 'Bama (by that I mean, Alabama) fan and he's reciting/remembering famous games or bowl games that Alabama was in. It's more focused, and it allows you to not only recite scores, but maybe highlight moments of some key games (I think it was in the Cotton Bowl when a sideline player from Rice tackled a sprinting Alabama player headed for a sure touchdown...something like that.) It may also be more believable if he sticks with one or two teams as opposed to a vast knowledge of every college team and score. Especially if the guy's from the South. They take their college football seriously down there. Much, much too seriously.

(And sticking with Alabama for a moment, maybe your guy's getting tortured, and he can't think of anything else, but screams out, "F*** Auburn!, or something like that. Um, I'll be quiet now.)

HH

[britwrit]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

On a gut level, if your character is from Pennsylvania, why not make him a Steelers fan? He would've grown up living and dying with them. More importantly, since I suspect this isn't a real crucial plot point, a quick glance at their Wikipedia page will get you what you need about their history.

[Ravenlocks]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

On a gut level, if your character is from Pennsylvania, why not make him a Steelers fan?

Or Cleveland Browns, if he's from northwestern Pennsylvania.

[NikeeGoddess]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

Some additional info in case anyone wants to weigh in. Okay basically my scene is this. PRISONER is being tortured. He is an American - former collegiate football player (an inherited character requirement) And to keep himself alive and sane, in between being tortured, he recites the football scores.

how about this. because he plays american football which is not respected in most countries around the world -- i'm assuming he's being tortured by an "anti-american" -- maybe during the torture they fuss at him about american football not really being football at all and what we call soccer IS football. so later he doesn't recite scores he recites the rules of football. this is his way of showing them that they can't get to him or make him break... and it will really piss them off.

[grant]

Re: How to recite American Football statistics

On a gut level, if your character is from Pennsylvania, why not make him a Steelers fan? He would've grown up living and dying with them. More importantly, since I suspect this isn't a real crucial plot point, a quick glance at their Wikipedia page will get you what you need about their history.

Last chance for the Steelers. Bradshaw trying to get away. And his pass is...broken up by Tatum. Picked off! Franco Harris has it! And he's over! Franco Harris grabbed the ball on the deflection! Five seconds to go! He grabbed it with five seconds to go and scored!

...

Double f-ing yoi!

In my opinion it's usually the baseball players are the stat-crazy guys, rattling off scores and series and batting averages and RBIs. Football players would be more likely to describe the play-by-play from an awesome game:

They hold us at the one yard line. We've got to settle for three. We're still three points down, and there's a minute thirty-seven on the clock.

We've got to go for the onside kick, right? They get the ball and they just take three knees, run out the clock, right? An onside kick never ever freaking works, but you've got to try, right? We even pull that bs with two kickers out there, like that ever fools anyone. So now, not only are we going to lose, but they'll probably return the kick for a quick seven, and we're not even going to cover the three-and-a-half point spread. Every gambler in the state hates us. But you've got to play to win, right?

That kick was a thing of beauty. Right where it needed to be. And Jimmy. He was fast. He was on top of the ball before they knew what hit them.

Now we've got the ball. 1:31 on the clock. Still got sixty some yards to go, but hey, at least we're gonna beat the spread...