The facts of 44

[OrangeXtreme]

I wonder, if the number 44 was active, would SU have given the number to Averin Collier?

Or Ray Rice?

 

[All4SU]

I came across this article (very long) on the tradition of #1 at Michigan. A few thoughts strike me:

- Michigans #1 does not have the tradition of #44 at SU

- the hardest part about a tradition like this is not finding the talent to wear it, but in finding the individual who will do it honor

- a number like this carries a lot of pressure

- SU needs to bring back #44

 

[OrangePA]

The great thing about #44 was that it was a tradition, not just history.

Syracuse has almost ZERO traditions left, and we purposefully killed a great one off. And cynically, it sure appeared to be done to goose ticket sales for a crappy USF game in a lost season.

I don't even care who wears it, I just want to see the damn thing on the field again.

Scooch gets it!

You just can't jettison college football traditions in the way we have over the years - the Saltine Warrior, the Saltine Warrior Fight Song, the TD Cannon, the TD Bell, No. 44 and on and on.

We can bring No. 44 back - and it should be done.

 

[sutomcat]

Scooch gets it!

You just can't jettison college football traditions in the way we have over the years - the Saltine Warrior, the Saltine Warrior Fight Song, the TD Cannon, the TD Bell, No. 44 and on and on.

We can bring No. 44 back - and it should be done.

Have said it many times on this and other boards. Was really dismayed and disappointed when the decision was made to retire the number.

I agree, Scooch is right, we need to keep our traditions. Our athletic department should be defending them/trying to make them stronger instead of killing them.

 

[Scooch]

Scooch gets it!

You just can't jettison college football traditions in the way we have over the years - the Saltine Warrior, the Saltine Warrior Fight Song, the TD Cannon, the TD Bell, No. 44 and on and on.

We can bring No. 44 back - and it should be done.

Tradition is what separates college ball from the NFL.

I mean, I love the NFL, I've followed it longer and more intensely than I have college. But college football is, to me, the closest thing to the fan intensity of international soccer that America has. Fight songs, chants, traditions that have endured for decades. It's just...cool.

Sadly I think the combination of CNYs population migration, the changing composition of SU's student body, and administration and fan apathy, have led us to lose most of those cool traditions. #44 isn't a chant or a song, but it's unique and our's alone.

I like most things Gross has done, but he royally F-ed this one up. Hopefully Floyd helps him see the light.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Why was the number vacant from the time Konrad graduated until it was shelved?

Why didn't Dee Brown want to switch?
Why didn't Mungro switch?
Why didn't Ferri want it?
Why didn't Reyes want it?
Why didn't Rhodes want it?
Why didn't Brinkley want it?
Why didn't Carter want it?

Hard to keep a tradition alive if nobody wants to wear the number for one reason or another.

 

[All4SU]

Why was the number vacant from the time Konrad graduated until it was shelved?

Why didn't Dee Brown want to switch?
Why didn't Mungro switch?
Why didn't Ferri want it?
Why didn't Reyes want it?
Why didn't Rhodes want it?
Why didn't Brinkley want it?
Why didn't Carter want it?

Hard to keep a tradition alive if nobody wants to wear the number for one reason or another.

No idea. Maybe one of the insiders here would have some insight. But IMHO, if you get a kid who you think is worthy, you offer it. You don't make them wear it. But let them know you think that much of them to offer it. Then when they get on campus, you have Floyd Little sit that player down and really explain what it means to be offered #44. Hell, have Jim Brown explain it to him if he's in town. But you make it clear it's the players' decision. Are they up to the challenge?

 

[Scooch]

Why was the number vacant from the time Konrad graduated until it was shelved?

Why didn't Dee Brown want to switch?
Why didn't Mungro switch?
Why didn't Ferri want it?
Why didn't Reyes want it?
Why didn't Rhodes want it?
Why didn't Brinkley want it?
Why didn't Carter want it?

Hard to keep a tradition alive if nobody wants to wear the number for one reason or another.

So what I'm hearing is that a certain set of board curmudgeons think kid's today are pampered, lazy, entitled snots who propagate a LOOK AT ME culture via social media, and think they're all going to be the next Barry Sanders, just because... and none of them want to take on the "pressure" of being #44.

It doesn't compute.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

So what I'm hearing is that a certain set of board curmudgeons think kid's today are pampered, lazy, entitled snots who propagate a LOOK AT ME culture via social media, and think they're all going to be the next Barry Sanders, just because... and none of them want to take on the "pressure" of being #44.

It doesn't compute.

Maybe kids don't want to be the next Barry Sanders. Maybe they want to be the first <insert name here>.

You've gotta make your own kind of music. Sing your own special song.

 

[OrangePA]

Maybe kids don't want to be the next Barry Sanders. Maybe they want to be the first <insert name here>.

You've gotta make your own kind of music. Sing your own special song.

Thank you Cass!

 

[wfschrec]

I respectfully disagree.

Val Pinchbeck and the SU Athletic administration in 1958 decided specifically NOT to retire the number.

They agreed that the number should be a living tribute to Jim Brown - that was the tradition established by Syracuse University.

I believe that their approach should be reinstated - give the number to a promising recruit - a clearly special player.

That will restore what is one of college football's greatest traditions.

Thats great and all ... but its not 1958 anymore and quite frankly the number needs to be built back up before you can unretire it in full ... for crying out loud you have kids we are recruiting that didn't know McNabb played here ... you can't live in the past because the number lost momentum 20 years ago. You need to start building its relevance slowly but surely and you do that with kids already invested in the program in small doses. In spite of what you may think unretiring that number now will not bring in a top RB recruit kids are too far removed from what it truly means, to think otherwise is foolish. The reason that programs have these traditions and they still live and breath is because they are followed year in and year out ... all that momentum was lost the moment Konrad took it off ... you need to build it back up ... and pulling it right off the rafters isn't going to do that.

 

[SUFaninNJ]

Scooch gets it!

You just can't jettison college football traditions in the way we have over the years - the Saltine Warrior, the Saltine Warrior Fight Song, the TD Cannon, the TD Bell, No. 44 and on and on.

We can bring No. 44 back - and it should be done.

Bring back Dome Eddie!!

 

[All4SU]

So our current traditions are:

- flip banner at the varsity

- sing alma mater with the band after football game

- stand until first basket in Bball

Others?

 

[SUFaninNJ]

So our current traditions are:

- flip banner at the varsity

- sing alma mater with the band after football game

- stand until first basket in Bball

Others?

• Rake leaves on Saturday afternoons

• Leave early if the score is more than a TD difference either way

 

[rocklloyd]

• Rake leaves on Saturday afternoons

• Leave early if the score is more than a TD difference either way

Boo team as they run off field at halftime

 

[SU2NASA]

Get as many beers as possible at halftime to last the rest of the game.

 

[All4SU]

Buy four beers at a time. spill one beer on the people in front of you when you try to stumble back to your seat.

 

[44PRIDE]

SU Traditions? How about these?

1)THIRRRRRD DOWWWWWN!!!

2)Complain about empty student sections...

EDIT: If our student section even remotely looks like this in 2013, I am personally going up to Olympus to kick some undergrad ass.

 

[SU2NASA]

Hey, I went to SU and I wanted 44.

 

[All4SU]

I wonder how different the last couple of decades of the Legend of 44 might have been if Joe Morris had worn 44.