OK. I get it. In the cosmic scheme, spleen-venters about inclusion into various Halls of Fame are generally fruitless, if for no other reason than the biases, overt and otherwise, of voters and committees.

But this one merits deeper thought.

This is based on the following premise: The football program at Fitch High School lost three games between 1997 and 2001. Record: 52-3. Five league titles, four state championship game appearances, two state titles, a busload of college players and a No. 1 ranking in the entire state (2000 season).

So now that the latest (and third overall) Fitch Hall of Fame class has been released, can anybody out there explain how there is no representation of the dramatis personae who authored not merely the golden age of Fitch football, but Fitch athletics in general?

Note: Raheem Carter, the quarterback of the 1999 team, is a member. However, Carter’s inclusion is based more on his post-career courage — showing the chops to become a New London police officer before succumbing to cancer at 25, after an arduous fight.

So I stand by the original assertion: The goose that laid the golden era swims alone.

Why?

This is not to suggest other inductees, past and present, aren’t worthy. You’d be an idiot to argue with Jesse Hahn, for instance, a member of this year’s class. Hahn graduated from 101 Groton Long Point Rd. and pitches for the Oakland Athletics. No disrespect intended to anybody else either.

But a football team that won, at one point, 34 straight games? The last football team in this region to be ranked No. 1 in the final media and coaches’ polls? Pause here to digest: The rest of Connecticut regards football in the ECC much the way Mike Francesa does his callers. Have you any idea how hard it is for teams around here to finish ranked first, among all the Ansonias, New Canaans, Hands and —  at the time — Bloomfields, coached by Jack Cochran?

Then there are the names. In no particular order: George Hall (Purdue, signed a as a free agent with the Vikings), Mike Hall (Northeastern), Brandon Cook (Northeastern), John McCoy (New Hampshire), Andrew Berggren (Villanova), Matt Maddox (maybe the best of them all), Dante Ross (Bucknell). Or Will Deveau, Rashad Carter, coach Mike Emery … on the band plays. Apologies for all those unintentionally omitted.

And so none of them — none — is worthy?

Really?

I have a pretty good idea of the excuse du jour: Nobody nominated them. Ha. Good one.

“So if Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig aren’t ‘nominated’ there’s nobody around who could fix that and do what’s right?” former Fitch teacher and assistant football coach Tony Cafaro said the other day.

Cafaro should go to the window and collect.

Sorry. I have a hard time taking this seriously when the teams that made the whole state take Fitch the most seriously are ignored.

Here’s what is worse: People on the committee will get their panties in an uproar over this, blame the snotty messenger and completely miss the point. This is the point: You lose three games in five years, send a number of players to notable colleges, achieve a No. 1 ranking and are an afterthought because of a convenient technicality?

Stop. We all didn’t go to school just to eat lunch. Something is amiss here.

I suppose it’s irrelevant, too, that many of the aforementioned have gone on to be husbands and dads with big time jobs, making their alma mater look really good along the way.

Might be nice if the old alma mater acknowledged they actually exist.

Perhaps a caring soul out there can go on the web site (http://www.groton.k12.ct.us/domain/1677) and fill out the requisite information, thus ensuring (we think) that the right people are honored next year.

Or will there be more technicalities?

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro