OM/LSU Rivalry Bedtime Stories- Part 10 [good one]

Part 10:
Both Ole Miss and LSU finish off the '62 season with wins in the Sugar and
Cotton Bowls and '63 looked like the same ole same ole heading in with both
teams loaded and headed for another Halloween showdown for a possible NC going
to the winner. But LSU's team was surprisingly off average and as it turned out
Ole Miss would be the only team coming into that game with real hope of another
NC.
Oh, it was just as loud and exciting, at first anyway. But not long into the
contest there was no doubt who would win. Ole Miss was favored pretty good going
in but no one would have predicted a 37-7 rout- no one. This was the game that
Ole Miss's future AA guard, 220# Stan Hindman, caught LSU's All SEC, little 175#
scatback RB Joe Labruzzo from behind after a bri lliant 81 yard punt return to
the Ole Mis s 1. LSU then ran 4 successive running plays beginning at the Ole
Miss' 1 and was thrown for a loss each time and Ole Miss took posession at the
5. Everything went our way that day. It was a very unusual lopsided game that
wouldn't happen much ever whenever these 2 teams played.
The two teams would continue playing highly emotional and intense games for
years and years. Both teams would produce top 20 and better caliber teams for
the rest of the decade which ended with the Archie years and Vaught's
retirement. I covered those years pretty well last year and in the interest of
my remaining time before "The Game" this year, I've decided to skip maybe the
2nd most exciting group of years Ole Miss and LSU would get together.
But before I move on to my next Bedtime Story, pause with me here after the '63
game and let's reflect on what has just occurred in college football history.
I 've done a good bit of research on the greates t college football rivalries in
history and come up with some very interesting conclusions.
Considering all factors I could think of including final rankings, NC
implications of the games, importance of games within conferences, etc., there
was never a rivalry up until it's time, between two schools as imporant and
exciting in the history of college football as the Ole Miss/ LSU series between
1958 and 1963. I would challenge any unbeliever to statistically prove me wrong.
Amazingly, almost every great rivalry series in the history of college football
lasted exactly 6 years. Here is a picture of what I've used to compare the
rivalries:
Year- O.M. Ranking [Bowl]- LSU Ranking [Bowl]
1958- 11 [Gator] - 1 [Sugar]
1959- 2 [Sugar] - 3 [Sugar]
1960- 2 [Sugar] - NR
1961- 5 [Cotton] - 3 [Orange]
1962- 3 [Sugar] - 7 [Cotton]
1963- 7 [Sugar] - NR [Blue bonnet]

There are only 4 college fo otball rivalries, all time, that have lasted 6
consecutive years that were statistically [but I'd argue not qualitatively]
better. Here's my list of America's all time best rivalries:
[1] Okla/Neb ['71-'76]
[2] Miami/Fla Stste ['87-'92]
[3] Mich/Ohio State ['71-'76]
[4] Texas/Okla [2000-2005]
[5] Ole Miss/LSU ['58-'63]
Just a few comments here:
There was no significant span of years that Notre Dame, USC, Penn State, Army or
any other national powerhouse program had an opponent worthy of listing in this
ranking of mine.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Okla/Neb rivalry series of that time was
#1. In fact that one, and only that one lasted a good decade longer- almost as
good.
Had Ole Miss or LSU not been handicapped by very biased AP and UPI systems of
ranking, we would have probably come in third. Had we been located in the Nor th,
Ole Miss could have had 3 #1 rankings an d LSU had 1 more. Had we been #1 in the
'60 poll, the rivalry would probably have finished in 3rd place.
There just simply has never been a rivalry series in the South like Ole
Miss/LSU. I'm not shy. Auburn simply wasn't a strong enough opponent of Bama.
From 1959 through 1963, Ole Miss came within 2 narrow losses to LSU of posting 5
consecutive undefeated seasons. Every game played between '58 and '63 decided
who would win the SEC Championship and weighed heavily or decided who would win
the NC.
I would love to speak on games played between our schools between 1964 when we
were everyone's preseason #1 pick and '70 when again we were preseason #1 [I
will mention some in my favorite games story]. All those Ole Miss/LSU games were
glorious to me. Even the '70 blowout win over us after disaster had struck our
hearts twice in that one year with the loss of the best college QB I' ve ever
seen and one of the 3 best coaches al l time in the SEC.
But I'd like to end this chapter with a fitting tribute to one of college
football's great coaches by posting Vaught's W/L record as compared to all
active coaches who had coached for at least 15 years at the time of Vaught's
retirement in 1970.
Darrell Royal, Texas [135-42-4] 76.2%
John Vaught, Ole Miss [185-58-12] 76.1%
Woody Hayes, Ohio State [167-54-12] 75.6%
Dan Devine, Missouri [119-41-8] 74.3%
Ara Parseghian, Notre Dame [133-51-6] 72.3%
Paul Bryant, Alabama [199-66-16] 71.3%
Ben Schwartzwalder, Syracuse [167-76-2] 68.7%
Ralph Jordan, Auburn [137-66-5] 67.4%
I think that pretty much sums it up about Vaught.
For the sake of our LSU friends, I combined the career W/L records of Paul
Dietzel and Cholly Mac until 1970 and found that they had combined for a 70.7%
winning %, just under the Bear on that list.
Next up, favorite games.