Sports

Fifty years ago, the Sabres drafted a player who didn't exist: The legend of Taro Tsujimoto

Published

6 months ago

June 26, 2024

Fifty years ago, the Sabres drafted a player who didn't exist: The legend of Taro Tsujimoto

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story stated all members of the Sabres front office at the time are deceased. Former coach Floyd Smith is still alive. We regret the error.

Josh Tsujimoto usually wears a No. 74 Sabres jersey sporting his last name if he attends a Buffalo home game at KeyBank Center.

It was a gift from his father, Paul, a few years ago and meant to serve as a tangible souvenir of a family legend that spans five decades. But there are nights when Josh isn’t the only one wearing a No. 74 sweater at a Sabres game. From time to time, you’ll see the odd Tsujimoto jersey sprinkled amongst the crowd in Buffalo.

“You go to a Sabres game and you’re bound to see a couple of Taro jerseys,” says John Boutet, chairman of the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. “Some people have the correct number, which is 13. He was given 13. Some people have 74 because that’s the year it was.”

The jersey is a cult classic because the legend of Taro Tsujimoto isn’t just a family story shared by the father and son.

Instead, it’s an inside joke that has been kept alive by Sabres fans for 50 years.

“Some people recognize it,” Josh says when asked about his jersey. “A lot of out-of-town people will come to a game and they don’t know the backstory. So I’ll tell them, ‘He’s not real. But he’s got a Wikipedia page.’”

Taro Tsujimoto was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the 11th round of the 1974 draft.

The team’s official media guide still lists Tsujimoto alongside the other draft picks from 1974. He’s noted as the 183rd overall selection in the draft, a centerman taken from the Tokyo Katanas.

But the NHL’s official guide and record book does not recognize Tsujimoto. His name has been stricken from historical draft records for a very simple reason: Taro Tsujimoto never existed.

The 1974 NHL draft was unlike any other in league history.

The NHL was in the midst of trying to fend off the rival World Hockey Association, which had already poached several of their notable stars. NHL officials were wary that WHA teams would use the results of their draft to try to lure players to their league. So the NHL hatched a unique plan: They would hold the 1974 draft completely veiled in secrecy.

Over a three-day window — starting on May 28, 1974 — teams would select players via a private telephone call, with the 18 general managers phoning in to NHL president Clarence Campbell at the league headquarters in Montreal to record their pick.

Each team had no clue what other clubs were doing, forcing Campbell to re-read the selections each time a team was drafting a player. The first day alone took eight hours, and the draft was scheduled to go as many rounds as general managers chose to draft.

The process became so meticulous and tedious that several teams started skipping picks altogether.

The Kansas City Scouts — despite being a brand new expansion team — opted to skip their eighth-round selection.

The California Golden Seals punted on their ninth-round pick.

Josh Tsujimoto wears his No. 74 Tsujimoto jersey whenever he attends Sabres home games at KeyBank Center. (Photo courtesy of Josh Tsujimoto)

Both Vancouver and Detroit passed on choosing a player in the 10th round.

But the Buffalo Sabres didn’t want to just skip their pick in the 11th round. Instead, they wanted to send a message to league officials that the draft process was needlessly drawn out and exhausting.

The Sabres had four people handling the draft: General manager Punch Imlach, coach Floyd Smith, scouting director John Andersen and public relations director Paul Wieland. Wieland explained in his 2019 book, “Taro Lives! Confessions of the Sabres Hoaxer” that he was there to gather information on the players drafted but he also had eyes on getting into hockey management. Imlach wanted to help him get there.

Imlach walked into the Sabres’ draft suite on the second day of the draft already fed up with the process. As Wieland recalled in his book, Imlach said, “What the hell can we do to piss off Campbell?”

Andersen suggested drafting a player nobody knew about so teams had to comb through their lists to find him. Then Wieland jumped in and said, “We should draft someone who doesn’t even exist … just make up a name from some place that no one would expect. Like Japan for example.”

Imlach thought about it and said, “Japanese? What the hell. Why not?”

In the spring of 1974, Paul Tsujimoto was a 21-year-old college student back in his family home in Elma, N.Y.

He distinctly recalls being called downstairs from his bedroom for dinner one night when his father relayed the story of a mysterious phone call he had received earlier in the day.

“He said someone with the Buffalo Sabres called him on the phone and asked him a couple of questions,” says Paul. “They wanted to know a common name for a boy in Japan. And they wanted to know what the Japanese word for a sabre was.”

Paul’s father — Joshua Tsujimoto — answered the questions.

He told the caller that Taro was a common name for a boy in Japan. And that the Japanese equivalent of a sabre was called a katana.

The idea to phone the Tsujimoto household was the brainchild of Wieland. When traveling back and forth as a college student, Wieland would drive by Tsujimoto Garden and Gifts, the family’s general store. That’s how he came up with the fictitious last name for the draft pick.

Wieland used the answers from Joshua to help fill out an elaborate backstory that included fake stats in a press release. According to the Sabres, Tsujimoto had a modest 15 goals and 10 assists for the Tokyo Katanas in his draft year.

The Tsujimotos and the four people in the Sabres’ draft room were the only ones aware of the gag.

“We had no idea what they were doing until we found out about the draft a couple of days later,” says Paul. “Then we said, ‘Ahhh. That’s why they called.’”

Wieland and Imlach decided to see how far they could take it. When the team went to training camp in St. Catherines, Wieland roped in team trainer Rip Simonick, who built a locker stall complete with equipment and a Tsujimoto jersey with No. 13 on the back.

Danny Gare, the Sabres’ second-round pick in the 1974 draft, remembers being at rookie camp and everyone wondering who Tsujimoto was and when he might show up. The closer the Sabres got to main camp, the more the intrigue intensified.

“They were making cuts and getting ready for main camp and we hadn’t seen him,” Gare says. “There were a lot of discussion like, ‘Where is this guy?’ There were rumors he had trouble getting his immigration papers and all of that. It was a good prank, man. It was quite a thing.”

Even the owners, Seymour and Northrup Knox, weren’t in on the joke. They were asking Imlach and Wieland every day at training camp if Tsujimoto had arrived. Wieland explained in his book that Imlach would just say he “wasn’t sure if the kid would make it this year, but remember we have his rights in case he decides to turn pro in the future.”

“You had to think this guy was real,” Boutet says. “Who would go through that length to play a practical joke? Well, I guess Paul would.”

It probably helped that the Sabres had a strong draft that year. Gare and Lee Fogolin, the team’s top two picks, played more than 800 NHL games. Gare once led the NHL in goals. Even Derek Smith, taken one round before the Sabres drafted Tsujimoto, ended up playing 335 games and collecting 194 points.

“I remember later playing on a line with Derek Smith and Tony McKegney,” Gare says. “We had a great line. I scored 56 the one year and we were going out afterward to celebrate the season. Derek Smith said to me, ‘Yeah, Tickets, you’ll be remembered for leading the league in goals. I’ll be remembered for being the draft pick before Taro Tsujimoto.’”

The whole Sabres organization ended up becoming quite fond of Wieland’s pranks. Each April 1, Wieland would come up with a fake story to send out in a press release. One year, he typed an entire release to announce that the Sabres would be switching to plastic ice in their arena. A local television news reporter fell for the story and ran it on air. He didn’t talk to Wieland for years after the fact.

Gare still laughs at that one, because he’s now a partner at Can-Ice, a synthetic ice company in Canada. Wieland was ahead of his time without even realizing it.

“He had a likable spirit about him,” Gare says. “He always had a comedic side talking to him.”

“Paul Wieland was such a character. I got to know him a bit over the years. A completely creative, zany guy who was so colorful,” adds Paul. “And he always had some out-of-the-box ideas.”

Wieland’s pranks were only part of his charm. He was innovative on the team’s broadcast, came up with the team’s mascot, Sabretooth, who is still around today and is the reason the Sabres sing the Canadian and United States National anthems before games. His impact on the franchise was enough for Boutet to push for Wieland’s induction into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame this fall.

The NHL wasn’t as enamored with Wieland’s jokes. Then-NHL president Clarence Campbell fell for the plastic ice joke when, according to Wieland’s book, he was quoted by the Canadian Press supporting the Sabres’ attempt to keep the league on the cutting edge of technology. So it’s no surprise Campbell didn’t have a lot of patience for the Taro Tsujimoto joke once the league caught wind of it. The Tsujimoto pick was eventually removed from the official record and the pick entry is now just invalid.

But that didn’t stop the legend from living on in Buffalo. There were bumper stickers and trading cards. Some fans would show up to The Buffalo Memorial Auditorium with big signs that said, “Taro says …” with different endings for each game.

“I used to read them all the time because they were clever,” Gare says.

Wieland used to say that his quirky jokes were a way to put a small market team on the map and show off the city and franchise’s sense of humor. In a bigger market like Toronto, New York or Montreal, Boutet doesn’t think something like the Tsujimoto prank would have taken off in the same way.

“Buffalo people are different,” Boutet says. “We get it. We’re OK to laugh at each other. This was the perfect town to do it in.”

Paul Tsujimoto says he first told his son Josh — who is named after his grandfather — about the legend of Taro when he was about 8 years old.

“It was an inside joke with the family for as long as I can remember,” says Josh. “I remember my dad bringing it up when I was little. I didn’t realize how many people knew about this until I got older.”

Paul owns one Taro Tsujimoto rookie card that was gifted to him by a former employer who was able to track one down.

The legend of Taro Tsujimoto isn’t just a family story shared by the Tsujimoto family. It’s an inside joke that has been kept alive by Sabres fans for 50 years. (Photo courtesy of Josh Tsujimoto)

In 2011, the Panini trading card company decided to print a small run of Taro Tsujimoto rookie cards as part of their 2010-11 rookie set. The card lists Tsujimoto’s alleged birthdate — March 15, 1953 — and posts his height (5 feet 9) and weight (165 pounds).

The back of the card featured a short biography that leaned into Tsujimoto’s curious backstory:

“In Buffalo, it’s not Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? It’s Where Have You Been, Taro Tsujimoto? The first Japanese player ever selected in the NHL Draft, the Sabres tabbed the mysterious prospect in the 11th round back in 1974. The Canadiens, who had hoped to steal him later in the draft, were rumored to have worked out a deal for the diminutive center that would have sent Jacques Lemaire to Buffalo. Instead, the Sabres held on to his rights and continue to anticipate his arrival. To this day, whispers of his exploits with the Tokyo Katanas stir up the fans at the HSBC Arena, where the faithful often are heard to chant ‘We Want Taro!’”

Panini received the approval of both the NHL and NHL Players’ Association to produce that Tsujimoto card. An NHLPA staffer even assisted Panini in tracking down an era-appropriate photo to use on the front of the card. But as for the identity of the man posing as Taro Tsujimoto on that trading card, nobody seems to know exactly who it is.

“I have no idea who that guy is on the card,” says Paul with a laugh.

One Tsujimoto card was placed in every 20 boxes of that run, making it an elusive card to obtain. The rarity of that card is the perfect reflection of the mystery around Taro Tsujimoto that has endured for 50 years. And it was all courtesy of the creative mind of Wieland.

“He created a folk hero is what he did,” says Gare. “It’s crazy that it still has legs 50 years later.”

“It’s pretty neat. As time goes on, the younger fans don’t know about it, but the story persists,” adds Josh. “And I like that the story continues on. It’s a fun way to remember my grandpa and Mr. Wieland.”

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic. Photo: Derek Cain / Getty Images)

Related Topics:Buffalo Sabres Culture Featured NHL

Click to comment

Sports

For NHL Winter Classic, it’s time to think outside the box — and the stadium: 10 proposed venues

Published

6 hours ago

December 27, 2024

Press Room

For NHL Winter Classic, it’s time to think outside the box — and the stadium: 10 proposed venues

There were games at iconic stadiums such as Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, Dodger Stadium and Soldier Field. There was Sidney Crosby scoring the shootout winner as snowflakes fell at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo. More than 105,000 people flocked to Michigan Stadium to watch the Red Wings play the Maple Leafs. More than 85,000 saw the Predators play the Stars at the Cotton Bowl. More than 75,000 watched the Blackhawks play the Bruins at Notre Dame Stadium.

But of the 41 outdoor games the NHL has put on since the 2003 Heritage Classic in Edmonton, the ones NHL president of content and events Steve Mayer — the mad scientist behind the games — gets asked about are the ones nobody could attend: Golden Knights–Avalanche and Flyers-Bruins at Lake Tahoe during the Covid-19 pandemic in February 2021.

“That reinforces how special that particular game was,” Mayer said. “We stepped outside the box, took risks and we spent money. And I think we created something unforgettable.”

Unforgettable is the right word. Wrigley and Fenway are cool, for sure, but once you’ve seen a hockey game inside a baseball stadium, you’ve seen every hockey game inside every baseball stadium. Football stadiums make for massive crowds and millions of dollars at the gate, but they’re all pretty generic by nature. What the NHL created at Lake Tahoe was something entirely different, something that no other sport could pull off. The dearth of crowd noise somehow amplified the incredible vistas. Every camera angle was jaw-dropping. It was utterly spectacular and yes, unforgettable.

Of course, it was kind of a disaster, too. The Vegas-Colorado game was suspended after one period because of sun glare and melting ice and didn’t restart until midnight Eastern Time. And the Philadelphia-Boston game got bumped from NBC to NBC Sports Network because it was delayed more than five hours for the same issue. But that Flyers-Bruins game — on a different channel than expected at a different time than expected — still drew more than a million viewers, the most-watched regular-season game on cable in nearly 20 years.

So why has the NHL retreated to the same old stadiums since? This year’s Winter Classic is between two teams we’ve seen in a Winter Classic (Blackhawks-Blues) in a stadium that’s already hosted a Winter Classic (Wrigley Field). Fact is, there just aren’t many iconic buildings left in which the league can plop down a rink. The visuals become the same over time and the games lose that special feeling. Well, at least on television.

That’s the thing about these games — they’re for the locals and sponsors as much as anything. It’s kind of like All-Star weekend; most of the hockey world couldn’t care less, but when you’re in the city and at the venues, it’s quite a bit of fun (and quite lucrative for the league). Going to an outdoor game in person is an undeniably cool (and often very cold) experience. Watching it on TV is less so.

The local juice is what drives these games. They make millions of dollars in gate revenue for the league and they’re very expensive to produce, so it’s easy to understand why the league is content with the status quo. Invest a few million in infrastructure to make a few million in gate revenue — that’s a tidy bit of business. Heck, Sports Business Journal reported that the Michigan Stadium game netted the league a cool $20 million in 2014. Who’s going to turn that down?

The Lake Tahoe game, meanwhile, didn’t make the league any money. Future non-stadium games could cost a fortune to produce — building temporary seating and NHL-caliber locker rooms, ensuring there’s parking, bathrooms, security. Hot water, even. There’s no cash to grab at a game like this.

Tahoe was born out of unique circumstances. There were no fans in the arenas anyway, so why not do something completely different?

“The league’s priority has always been to host games in packed stadiums, to bring the game to as many people as possible,” Mayer said. “Gary Bettman loves — and so do we — the energy of the live fans. And the second we were able to bring the fans back to the buildings, we just said, OK, let’s go back to doing the outdoor games. Have we talked about other games? Of course. Do we look back at Lake Tahoe fondly? Oh, you bet. It was incredible. But that’s the reason we haven’t been back.”

Well, maybe it’s time the league starts taking risks again. The sports TV landscape is getting more crowded every year. This year’s Winter Classic is at 4 p.m. Central Time on New Year’s Eve to avoid overlapping with the NFL (which plays just about every day of the week now) and the College Football Playoff. The NHL will have some fun with the timing — every hour on the hour, they’ll celebrate a different time zone’s New Year at Wrigley — but it’s getting tougher and tougher to stand out, to break through the noise, to draw eyeballs.

You know how you get eyeballs? Not by rehashing venues. Not by hosting an outdoor game in yet another stadium in London or Prague or Mexico City or Australia. No, you do it with visuals that no other sport can match. The NHL did that in Lake Tahoe. It can do it again all across North America. Rather than chase the immediate payday of a stadium game, the NHL should start thinking about the long game — about drawing in and hooking new viewers to this incredible, talent-laden golden age of the sport, about creating entry points for new fans, about investing now for future dividends. Take the modest financial hit now, and cash in later by growing the game.

Here are 10 modest proposals for future outdoor games, some a little more realistic than others. But hey, it shouldn’t take a global pandemic for us to think outside the box — or outside the stadium, for that matter.

A snow-covered mountain is reflected in Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. (Patrick T. Fallon / Getty Images)

1. Lake Louise

Oilers vs. Flames

The Battle of Alberta in the province’s most iconic setting is the most obvious choice for a Lake Tahoe-style game. Anyone who’s been to Banff and Jasper National Parks (and the breathtaking Icefields Parkway that runs between them) can attest that it’s among the most beautiful places imaginable. The NHL has at least looked into Lake Louise in the past, but Canadian regulations about signage (read: advertising) and construction on public lands are understandably quite strict.

But Canada’s national sport in Canada’s national treasure? C’mon, Canada. Let’s make it happen.

“Lake Tahoe was unique because we used private property, building on the golf course,” Mayer said. “(But) in every one of these games that we do, there’s a fair amount of red tape to work around. We always feel like there are clever and creative ways to put any event on. … Yes, there’s red tape involved, but there are also some of these locations and landmarks that would give anything to have a special event come to their world. So sometimes they’re also very cooperative in getting some of these things done.”

The National Mall in Washington D.C. (Mandel Ngan / Getty Images)

2. The National Mall

Capitals vs. Penguins

Imagine Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin going head-to-head in the shadow of the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol and the White House. Not American enough for you? OK, imagine John Carlson and Bryan Rust instead. The best fit likely would be between the Washington Monument and the Capitol, but it’d be an awe-inspiring sight to see a rink on the other side, between the Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial, with Abraham Lincoln having the best seat in the house across the reflecting pool.

And there’d be room to build temporary seating, which could go a long way toward persuading the NHL it’s worth it. Picture something like Northwestern’s temporary lakefront football stadium but on the Mall.

“If we decide at some point to do something (like this), I don’t think we’d ever do something with no fans (again),” Mayer said. “If we built some sort of mini stadium somewhere and it was extraordinary and it offered fans something they’ve never seen before, I think we could pull something off and do something extremely unique.”

An aerial view of Manhattan looking south over Central Park in New York City. (Stan Honda / Getty Images)

3. Central Park

Rangers vs. Islanders

Hey, if you can have Shakespeare in the Park and Springsteen in the Park, then you can have Rempe in the Park.

Niagara Falls is an easy trip for two hockey markets. (John Moore / Getty Images)

4. Niagara Falls

Sabres vs. Maple Leafs

Who needs the roar of the crowd when you have the roar of 700,000 gallons of water per second rushing over the border between New York and Ontario? Put the rink on the Canadian side. The views are way better.

The busts of U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln tower over the Black Hills at Mount Rushmore National Monument in Keystone, S.D. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)

5. Mount Rushmore

Wild vs. Utah Hockey Club

OK, we’re really wish-casting now. And given the topography of the area, the league might have to take over the parking lot for a few weeks, essentially shutting down the park to visitors. But the visuals would be spectacular. And Honest Abe gets to take in a second game.

Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

6. Disney World

Panthers vs. Lightning

There’s been plenty of speculation that the state of Florida finally will get an outdoor game next season. Mayer and his team do love a challenge, after all. Drop a rink down right in front of the iconic Cinderella Castle in the Magic Kingdom. It’s not that busy there during Christmas break, right? Right? Hello?

An aerial view of Grant Park and the skyline in Chicago. (Tannen Maury / Getty Images)

7. Grant Park

Blackhawks vs. Red Wings

Yes, yes, get your jokes in. We’re talking about yet another Blackhawks outdoor game. But we’ve seen a hockey rink at Wrigley Field before. Why not move the game about six miles south in the same field that hosts Lollapalooza each summer, the same field in which Barack Obama gave his first Election Night speech and where the Blackhawks celebrated the 2013 Stanley Cup championship? With Lake Michigan to the east and the brilliant Chicago skyline to the west, with Buckingham Fountain to the north and the stately museum campus to the south, Grant Park is a magical setting. The park has a natural amphitheater setting, too, so building in bleachers would be feasible. Bears kickers have to deal with the wind whipping off the lake. Why not the Blackhawks?

An aerial view of the pier on Santa Monica Beach. (Mario Tama / Getty Images)

8. Santa Monica Pier

Kings vs. Ducks

The NHL has proven it can put a rink in Los Angeles, with the Kings and Ducks playing at Dodger Stadium in the 2014 Stadium Series. Now picture a rink right on the beach, built right into the sand, with the iconic Ferris wheel and the Pacific waves lapping on the shore a slap shot away. If we can have a basketball game on an aircraft carrier, then surely we can build a level ice surface on the beach.

Fans watch the Vancouver Canucks play the Edmonton Oilers at a “Playoffs in the Park” viewing party for Game 3 of last season’s Stanley Cup second-round playoff series in Vancouver. (Ethan Cairns / Canadian Press via AP)

9. Stanley Park

Canucks vs. Kraken

Yep, same Stanley that the Cup is named after, Governor General Lord Frederick Stanley. This beautiful park is almost entirely covered in trees, but there’s a clearing called Brockton Oval that could accommodate a rink and some bleachers, assuming (again) the NHL could navigate that Canadian red tape that stymied the Lake Louise idea. Vancouver Harbor and the mountains in the distance, with shots of whales breaching in the Pacific leading into commercial breaks? Can’t do much better than that. It would make for an unforgettable setting from perhaps North America’s most picturesque big city.

An aerial view shows Alcatraz island in San Francisco. Alcatraz Island is 1.25 miles offshore from San Francisco and initially was a federal prison before being converted into a tourist attraction. (Josh Edelson / Getty Images)

10. Alcatraz

Sharks vs. Avalanche

You want ratings? Here are your ratings. And there’s a nice tie-in to NHL history here. The first NHL outdoor game ever played was an exhibition match between the Detroit Red Wings and the inmates of the Marquette Branch Prison in Michigan in 1954. Hopefully this game will be a little more competitive than that one; they stopped keeping score after the Wings took an 18-0 lead in the first period. Imagine the views. Imagine the special jerseys the team could come up with. Imagine referee Wes McCauley pausing right before the opening puck drop and saying into his microphone, “Macklin, Nathan … Welcome to The Rock.”

Honorable mentions: Yosemite Valley, the Las Vegas Strip, Yellowstone National Park, Prince Edward Island, Apostle Islands, Liberty Island.

(Top photo of the National Mall: Saul Loeb / Getty Images)

Sports

Seahawks pick up ugly win over Bears to remain in NFC West title hunt

Published

7 hours ago

December 27, 2024

Press Room

Seahawks pick up ugly win over Bears to remain in NFC West title hunt

Join Fox News for access to this content

You have reached your maximum number of articles. Log in or create an account FREE of charge to continue reading.

By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News’ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.

Please enter a valid email address.

Nothing was pretty from both offenses in this game, but the Seattle Seahawks came away with a critical win over the Chicago Bears, 6-3, on “Thursday Night Football.”

Seattle moves to 9-7 on the season, and they will be watching what the Los Angeles Rams do against the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday night as Week 18’s matchup between both teams would determine the winner of the NFC West.

Meanwhile, the Bears are looking toward next season already at 4-12.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) hands the ball to running back Zach Charbonnet (26) against the Chicago Bears during the first quarter at Soldier Field. (Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images)

As the score indicates, no touchdowns were scored in this game as both teams had trouble finding pay dirt.

It didn’t appear that was going to be the case when the Seahawks’ first drive of the game ended after an incomplete pass from Geno Smith to Tyler Lockett on third-and-three from Chicago’s nine-yard line.

They moved the ball well on the game’s opening drive, settling for a field goal, but appeared to have the game plan to beat the Bears’ defense.

2025 SUPER BOWL ODDS: CHIEFS, LIONS TAKE TOP SPOTS; BILLS FALL

That wasn’t the case with three straight punts in the ensuing drives for Seattle before they settled for another field goal near the end of the first half. However, Caleb Williams and the Bears’ offense weren’t doing much to play spoiler on their end.

Chicago ran 11 total plays combined over their first three drives, continuously stalling until some life came in the fourth. In fact, it appeared we had our first touchdown of the game in this one when Williams found fellow rookie Rome Odunze for a 17-yard score with 3:27 remaining in the second quarter.

But right guard Jake Curhan was called for offensive holding, nullifying the touchdown, and the Bears ultimately settled for three points – their only score of the game.

The second half didn’t see a point on the scoreboard, as both offenses showed ineptitude. However, there was another moment the Bears seemed to score, and it was on defense after forcing a fumble on Seahawks receiver Pharoah Brown.

Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams (18) passes the ball against the Seattle Seahawks during the second quarter at Soldier Field. (Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images)

Kyler Gordon scooped up the ball and ran 62 yards to the house. However, it was later ruled that Gordon was down by contact, nullifying yet another Bears touchdown. Six plays later, generating just one total yard, the Bears punted away.

The final drive of the game saw the Bears in control, and despite the lack of scoring, they still had a chance to at least tie the game to force overtime. Williams kept the drive alive with multiple scramble plays, including a heave on fourth-and-5 to find D.J. Moore to move the chains.

However, facing fourth-and-10 just out of Cairo Santos’ field goal range, Williams was forced to launch one in the air with an all-out blitz called by Seattle and it was intercepted to seal the Seahawks’ win.

On the stat sheet, Smith was 17-of-23 for 160 yards, while Zach Charbonnet, starting once again in place of an injured Kenneth Walker III, rushed for 57 yards on 15 carries. Kenny McIntosh added 46 yards on seven carries.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith (7) looks to pass against the Chicago Bears during the second quarter at Soldier Field. (Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images)

For the Bears, Williams was 16-of-28 for 122 yards with his interception. Moore was the top recipient with six catches for 54 yards, while D’Andre Swift had 53 rushing yards and 28 receiving yards on the night.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Sports

Accustomed to heartbreak, can UCLA's Mick Cronin get his Gonzaga breakthrough?

Published

8 hours ago

December 27, 2024

Press Room

Accustomed to heartbreak, can UCLA's Mick Cronin get his Gonzaga breakthrough?

When Mick Cronin rewatched what might have been the most excruciating loss of his career, doing so only because he needed to scout the same opponent for a rematch the following season, the final sequence was pleasing.

UCLA’s Johnny Juzang extended his right arm to snag a rebound and rose toward the basket for a putback that tied the score against Gonzaga with 3.3 seconds remaining in the overtime of their 2021 Final Four classic.

Around that moment, Cronin pressed pause.

That meant Jalen Suggs never took the inbounds pass, never frantically dribbled just a few steps past halfcourt and never launched the shot that bounced off the backboard and through the net, breaking the heart of every Bruin.

“That shot?” Cronin told The Times this month. “No, I’ve never seen it.”

Two years later, in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16, the Bulldogs gave the UCLA coach another reason to selectively watch the replay. Only a few moments after Amari Bailey’s three-pointer gave the Bruin a late lead, Gonzaga’s Julian Strawther got it back with another game-winning heave on the edge of the March Madness logo at center court.

What are the chances the same opponent crushes your soul twice in essentially the same way?

“Yeah, I know,” Cronin said when reminded. “I mean, it is what it is. Hopefully, the ball bounces your way sometimes.”

Saturday would be a good place to start against the team that has tormented Cronin the most. He’s 0-4 against Gonzaga with the Bruins — and suffered another bitter overtime defeat against coach Mark Few’s team in 2009 while coaching Cincinnati — heading into a nationally broadcast clash between No. 22 UCLA (10-2) and the No. 14 Bulldogs (9-3) at the Intuit Dome.

By nature, coaches tend to hold on to losses more than wins; it’s what drives them to keep pushing, trying to be the team on the other side of the ledger. Invariably, the toughest losses are the ones that end their season.

“At UCLA,” Cronin said, “I’m 9-3 in the NCAA tournament and all three of our losses were brutal.”

Over a career spanning three schools and 22 seasons, Cronin has won 490 games. Possibly his three most painful losses — two against Gonzaga and one against North Carolina — came within the last five seasons. All were in the NCAA tournament.

Gonzaga guard Jalen Suggs celebrates after making the winning basket to eliminate UCLA in the NCAA Final Four on April 3, 2021.

(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)

Cronin said the 2021 Gonzaga loss was harder to stomach than the 2023 Gonzaga loss because the latter setback came with top defender Jaylen Clark and starting big man Adem Bona sidelined because of injuries.

“It would have been an unbelievable win without those two guys,” Cronin said. “To me, we were a massive underdog and I don’t know how much gas we had left in the tank playing without those two guys. So I don’t know how much further we’d have gone.”

The Bruins might as well have been shorthanded in the 2021 Final Four matchup given that starting guard Jules Bernard woke up that morning with a bad case of food poisoning. Severely weakened, he took just three shots and finished with five points in 18 minutes.

“Those are the things that bother me more than crazy shots or anything like that because the injuries, it’s like, you know, you can’t prepare for it, you can’t plan for it, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Cronin said. “It just happens.”

A year later, against North Carolina in the Sweet 16, forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. missed his final nine shots while playing on a badly sprained ankle that he had injured only days earlier in the final minutes of a victory over Saint Mary’s.

“I was just about to get him out” of the game, Cronin said with a dark laugh.

UCLA remained in excellent position to beat the Tar Heels even with Jaquez basically playing on one leg. The Bruins led by three points with less than two minutes to play, then everything that could go wrong for them did.

UCLA's Tyger Campbell, left, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. react during the final seconds of the Bruins' 73-66 loss to North Carolina.

A Caleb Love three-pointer was off the mark, the ball bouncing off the rim and within an inch of going out of bounds before North Carolina teammate Armando Bacot made a wild, over-the-shoulder save directly to Love, whose next three-pointer went in. Love added another three-pointer, Jaquez’s cold streak deepened with three more misses, and the Tar Heels went on to win by five points.

It was a sequence reminiscent of last weekend’s game between the teams, when the Bruins lost a 16-point lead during a 76-74 setback against the Tar Heels in the CBS Sports Classic. Of course, a December defeat never hurts as much as one in March.

“I just think that that team,” Cronin said of the 2022 version that lost to North Carolina, “we were deep enough that we could have won the title.”

Cronin acknowledged the difficulty in processing the repeated heartbreak, saying “you’ve got to grow up and be mature.”

“Yeah, it’s not easy to deal with, but look, I’ve got pretty decent perspective in life,” Cronin said. “I’m the son of a high school coach who rose to be the coach at UCLA. So if I start complaining, I don’t think many people are going to listen, nor should they. Like, nobody’s feeling sorry for me.

“So, I mean, I just think sometimes it’s not in the cards; hopefully, one day it’s in the cards for you. All you can do is keep working at it.”

Besides, one of Cronin’s biggest failures led to perhaps his greatest success. What might have happened if his Cincinnati team didn’t blow a 22-point lead against Nevada in the second round of the 2018 NCAA tournament?

“That one, I kind of put in the can,” Cronin said. “Yeah, it was brutal, but if that didn’t happen I’d probably still be there. They’d probably have given me a lifetime contract or something crazy like that and I’m not here. I probably wouldn’t be the coach at UCLA.”