Central Region News & Views: July 16, 2004

The Curious Case of Buddy Omohundro

Most readers are undoubtedly familiar with the blue law fiasco that was just averted by the

state legislature this past week. The person who discovered this snafu was none other than

Carl “Buddy” Omohundro. Buddy was a year ahead of me in law school, and he was also

the Editor-in-Chief my 2L year on the University of Richmond Law Review. He’s a great guy

and was a great “boss.”

I bring him up in this column because he was quite the football player in his day. Many

football fans in Central Virginia have probably heard his name before. He was a two-time all

ACC selection as a defensive back while at Virginia. Prior to that, he was an All-Metro

defensive back at Clover Hill, where he played quarterback in addition to his defensive

duties.

Up until this past week, however, Buddy Omohundro was probably best-known for being at

the center of one of the most controversial plays in Central Region playoff history. This is a

story worth revisiting:

In 1986, Clover Hill qualified for the Central Region, Division II (Don’t ask. Trust me.)

playoffs with an 8-2 record. L.C. Bird also qualified after an 8-2 campaign. The two would

meet in the regional semi–finals. During the regular season, the Skyhawks had taken a 29-15 decision in an odd game that saw the Cavaliers turn the ball over three times on punts.

Heading into the post-season, Bird was a favorite to repeat the victory. The Skyhawks were

led by running back Eric Carroll (sixteen touchdowns in 1986) and wide receiver / kicker

Junior Hylton (The Bird career record-holder with 840 receiving yards. Yes, that’s the career

record at Bird). The Skyhawks also had home field advantage.

Clover Hill scored early on a 55-yard touchdown run by Mike Harris (23 carries, 170 yards)

to take a 6-0 lead. The Cavalier defense turned in a terrific performance from there,

holding Bird to 160 rushing yards, with 86 of those coming on a fourth-quarter scoring

drive. That drive culminated with a two-yard touchdown run by Carroll. The Hylton extra

point gave the Skyhawks a 7-6 lead.

This is where things got very interesting. Omohundro guided the Cavaliers on a lengthy

drive, beginning at his own 33 and reaching the Bird 7 with 45 seconds to go. The

Skyhawks stopped Clover Hill on first and second down. The Cavaiers had no time outs

remaining.

Then, on third down, Omohundro dropped the snap from center on the turf, picked up the

ball, and, as he was going to the turf, threw the ball out of bounds. At one point during the

play, it appeared as though Omohundro’s knee touched the ground. If the play had been

ruled dead there, Clover Hill would have had no way to stop the clock for a last-second field

goal.

Bird coaches and fans were incensed. As Matt Gilliam explains, “Two problems the Bird

people had with the play: #1 They swore his knee was down when he picked up the fumble

so the play should have been dead there with the clock running and therefore the field goal

team should never have been allowed to come on the field. #2 It was illegal in those days

to throw an incomplete pass intentionally for ANY REASON. Therefore, there should have

been an intentional grounding call even if the ball was alive. It should have been a five yard

penalty, loss of down, and the clock should have started when the ball was set for play.”

No such call was made. The Clover Hill field goal team took the field. With ten seconds left,

Joel Hughes kicked a 23-yard field goal that gave the Cavaliers a 9-7 lead. After Hughes

tackled Eric Carroll (who nearly scored on the Skyhawks’ last-ditch play) at the Cavalier 20-yard line, the game was over.

“(The officials) blew it. The clock should've run out," said the late “Dutch” Schrotenboer, the

Bird head coach.

Now, eighteen years later, the contention is mostly good-natured. But controversy still

exists on the topic of what precisely happened on this play. For my part, all I can tell you is

that Buddy Omohundro maintains that his knee never touched the ground. It looks like we

can chalk this up as one of those things we’ll never know. Still, it remains one of the more

memorable moments in the history of the Central Region playoffs.

Hey! Who wants a helping of thoughts and observations?

- As I originally reported in a 7/15/04 premium recruiting article on Rivals.com, two

Freeman football players—B.J. Revis and Fela-Tunde Ogun—have received offers from

Clemson University. No matter where (or if) these young men decide to play college

football, they should be congratulated on this achievement. Be sure to check out the article

on this for all the details.

- Can someone please explain to me why the MLB Home Run Derby has to be nearly four

hours long? Round one alone took two hours! Home run derbies are fun, but ESPN and MLB

absolutely must tighten up these broadcasts.

- As an aside, the telecast of the Derby simply reinforced my love-hate relationship with

Chris Berman. So good in the studio. So corny as a play-by-play guy. There’s nobody I’d

rather see hosing NFL Prime Time, and there’s nobody I’d rather see less doing play-by-play

of major league baseball. It’s quite a mind-boggling dichotomy.

- One final thought on the Derby—Reason #329 to dislike Barry Bonds: He reportedly

refused to participate unless he received a special appearance fee of several thousand

dollars (a fee that none of the other players received). Seriously, does Barry use his spare

time sitting around and try to come up with new ways to tick off the baseball public? If so,

he’s got to be close to running out of ideas by now . . . doesn’t he? What’s left? I can only

assume that his next move will be to modify his home run trot to include exaggerated

gestures that pantomime injecting himself with something.

- All of that being said, it’s too bad baseball isn’t professional wrestling. Bonds would be a

great heel.

- I’ve noticed something very interesting in reading review after review of “Fahrenheit

9/11.” The reviews are very mixed, but, surprisingly, they usually do not break down along

ideological lines. The difference in takes usually relates to the background of the reviewer.

By that I mean that professional movie reviewers—people who do that for a living—tend to

like the movie (although some do not). They view the movie as an artistic vision, and

analyze it more from a stylistic point of view, rather than rigorously evaluating the

substance of the movie (other than to make comments when they agree with Michael

Moore’s points).

On the other hand, people who are involved in politics or commentary tend to have a

markedly different view, regardless of their political stance. They give the artistic aspect of

the movie its due, but usually dismiss those elements as “slick propaganda-style.”

Commentators, pundits, and politicos look more toward the substance of the arguments . . .

and absolutely destroy the movie on these grounds. As I said, this is usually completely

independent of their own political beliefs. I have read many a self-proclaimed Bush-hater

who ripped the movie apart as being based on half-truths and entirely specious logic. Very,

very telling.

- For those of you reading this on Richmond.com, you miss out every week on one very

important aspect of this column. Namely, the pictures. Each week, several of the items I

talk about will feature pictures along with the story. For example, I have pictures this week

of Buddy Omohundro, Barry Bonds, and Jana Speaker. These pictures are usually

accompanied by “humorous” captions. Just food for thought, folks.

- Joe Schmo 2 continues to top itself each and every week. The “wrong grandfather”

storyline was the funniest thing I’ve seen on television in months. Let me revise that—the

reaction of the Schmoes to said storyline is the funniest thing I’ve seen on television in

months. Amanda is great. She’s so trusting. I love it.

And Cammy’s (played by Jana Speaker) . . . uh . . . performance in the heart-rate game?

What can I say? I literally can’t describe it in a family-friendly column. All I’ll say is that

the unedited version will probably be worth the price of the “Joe Schmo 2" DVD alone.

But perhaps the highlight of the entire show was Amanda coming over to comfort Cammy

when the ridiculous “Porked n’ Beans” video was shown. I was flipping out. I believe Rod

Johnson’s quote was “dumb as rocks.” What a show.