Strawmenn Reign!

 

Congratulations, Mike!

Strawmenn 131.58    Holes 116.78

That was the final score in this season's Hughes Bowl, the 43rd title game in our history. Those 'double-decimal' scores look so clunky to me. Mike's trophy will have the scores rounded off! 🙋

I'm working on several things at the moment. These are the usual post-HB tasks. For one thing, I'm bringing our historical spreadsheets up to date. I'm also working on the commemorative Hughes News edition that we will present to Mike at the Houston get-together in February (details coming soon).

I haven't had time to dig up the usual trivia re: the big game but I do know that the Smenn's 131+ points ranks fourth in terms of game totals. The Top 5 ranking is as follows:

Holes 138 in 2018

Giants 134 in 2020

Settlers 133 in 2015

Smenn 131+ in 2023

Giants 128 in 2021

The Holes total is the second highest for the losing side. They rank behind only the 2018 Flyers who ran up 128 points.

The Holes are not the first team to appear in the Hughes Bowl with a regular season percentage of .500 or lower. It's happened four times previously. 

Blizzard 7-7 in 1998

Blizzard 6-7 in 2011

R'backs 5-7-1 in 2012

Bombers 7-7 in 2014

None of those teams won the Hughes Bowl so our 'streak' of having a  plus .500 champion continues. I've never looked at that bit of minute before. 

This is the third championship for the Strawmenn franchise as noted in the preview I did last week. It's Mike's second as the StrawBoss.  Overall the club is 3-5 in title games. Mark Kuhlmann won the first Hughes Bowl in 1981, our second year of existence. BTW...2024 will mean it's been 20 years since we lost Mark. All of you who knew Mark miss him as much as I do I'm sure.

Here is the engraving that will appear on the 2023 Hughes Championship trophy in proof form...

I'll probably update this post with additional game numbers and thoughts as the week goes on. 

A tentative date for the Houston meetup is February 10, Super Bowl Eve. I'm looking at a few possible venues. I will notify you when things are set but in the meantime, you can circle that date on your calendar. 

Happy New Year from Ellis and Leo!