this just in from an aarp member

[tipphill]

my lovely wife who is a excellent college football fan casually commented, to me that all the stuff that is going on now has ruined college football, as it was meant to be. sadly, i agree with her. i guess she and i cannot adjust with the times. we miss the old days of banners on the dorms and greek houses, traditional rivalries, tongue in cheek humor with opponents, no true hate involved. we have been left behind and i'm not sure that is bad thing. we still go to games but the current climate is no longer as pleasant as it used to be, for us. i still enjoy the band on the quad(need some new songs though).---its all to complicated now, money/espn has had its impact.

 

[IthacaBarrel]

I miss my cotton candy and pony rides too

 

[orangenirvana]

I think it's better than ever.

To each their own, I guess...

 

[OrangePA]

Look at it this way - rivalries develop.

In the 1990s we developed really good rivalries with Miami and Va. Tech.

Those will now return along with BC.

Once things settle down, it will be fun.

 

[tipphill]

I think it's better than ever.

To each their own, I guess...

yes. i was only speaking for my wife and i, on a personal note. not trying to suggest that ours is the right point of view---we are certainly in the minority on it

 

[Louie&Bouie]

I miss my cotton candy and pony rides too

What does that mean?

 

[OttoMets]

yes. i was only speaking for my wife and i, on a personal note. not trying to suggest that ours is the right point of view---we are certainly in the minority on it

I'm with you guys.

 

[All4SU]

I miss straw hats and striped jackets for the band.

I understand your point, and I agree with some of it. CFB is becoming so much of a business that it is NFL Lite. At the same time, I still love college football. THough I wish that the "Student Athlete" aspect of the sport was more than just a wink-wink proposition.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

my lovely wife who is a excellent college football fan casually commented, to me that all the stuff that is going on now has ruined college football, as it was meant to be. sadly, i agree with her. i guess she and i cannot adjust with the times. we miss the old days of banners on the dorms and greek houses, traditional rivalries, tongue in cheek humor with opponents, no true hate involved. we have been left behind and i'm not sure that is bad thing. we still go to games but the current climate is no longer as pleasant as it used to be, for us. i still enjoy the band on the quad(need some new songs though).---its all to complicated now, money/espn has had its impact.

Problem is, that era passed some time ago. By the time the BE football conference started we had already stopped playing some of our traditional foes.

Then, when the first ACC expansion occured, we stopped playing Miami, VT, and BC. Since that time, we have been playing non-traditional opponents such as USF, Cincy, UConn, and L'ville

And that's just for football.

After BE hoops began, our traditional games vs St. Bonnies, Niagar, etc stopped having meaning. In recent years, our "tradition" has been expanded to include the likes of Depaul, Marquette, USF, Cincy, Louisville, etc

I guess my point is that college sports...and SU sports as well...has been in a state of flux for some time.

Truthfully, in the ACC, we'll be rejoing a group that includes Miami, BC, VT, and Pitt. We have also played Maryland not infrequently through the years and have had home and home series' with most of the rest of the ACC. That kind of trumps our recent "tradition" of playing USF, Cincy, UConn, and Louisville. There is probably a decent chance of traditional opponent Rutgers or non-traditional but recent opponent UConn ending up there too.

If anything, we actually have a longer history where we are going than where we are coming from, at least on the football side.

 

[Townie72]

yes. i was only speaking for my wife and i, on a personal note. not trying to suggest that ours is the right point of view---we are certainly in the minority on it

Tipp --- If you didn't experience it you have no idea what you missed.

I remember an PSU at SU game from the late 1960's --- when the Lambert Trophy meant something and SU and PSU were "Major Eastern Indies". It was a beautiful Fall afternoon.

I seem to recall that SU RB's were Little and Csonka. PSU RB's were Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell and they had Ted Kwalick at TE. Five of the best players ever assembled on a football field for a game.

I'm tempted to verify that this actually happened ... my memory might be off.

If you didn't experience it, you can't miss it.

 

[tipphill]

Tipp --- If you didn't experience it you have no idea what you missed.

I remember an PSU at SU game from the late 1960's --- when the Lambert Trophy meant something and SU and PSU were "Major Eastern Indies". It was a beautiful Fall afternoon.

I seem to recall that SU RB's were Little and Csonka. PSU RB's were Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell and they had Ted Kwalick at TE. Five of the best players ever assembled on a football field for a game.

I'm tempted to verify that this actually happened ... my memory might be off.

If you didn't experience it, you can't miss it.

been going to games since i was 12 y/o in 1960, iknow of which you speak---spent many saturdays in old archbold. that was great era for su football. seemed like more spirit back then, you're right the lambert trophy meant something then.

 

[SWC75]

Strangely the size of the crowds has gone up from the old days but the entusiasm level has diminished. There used to be bonfire pep rallies and group cheers, card sections, etc. Whatever happened to all that?

 

[Dick_in_MI]

Tipp --- If you didn't experience it you have no idea what you missed.

I remember an PSU at SU game from the late 1960's --- when the Lambert Trophy meant something and SU and PSU were "Major Eastern Indies". It was a beautiful Fall afternoon.

I seem to recall that SU RB's were Little and Csonka. PSU RB's were Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell and they had Ted Kwalick at TE. Five of the best players ever assembled on a football field for a game.

I'm tempted to verify that this actually happened ... my memory might be off.

If you didn't experience it, you can't miss it.

Yeah, but the missing of PSU has been going on for 20 years. It's not like it is suddenly happening with the bolting of SU to the ACC

In the late 60's, we also played Holy Cross and William and Mary too. I sure don't miss those two games. We also played Maryland every year and we now get them back. PSU is not coming back as an in-conference foe ever. That ship sailed some time back

Nothing that has gone on in recent weeks involving SU changes much that wasn't already changed. I've been watching SU football for 53 of my 60 years and WVU excepted, there hasn't been much traditional about our schedule in a very long time.

 

[Townie72]

Strangely the size of the crowds has gone up from the old days but the entusiasm level has diminished. There used to be bonfire pep rallies and group cheers, card sections, etc. Whatever happened to all that?

Crowded out by the plethora of other things there are to do.

Watch a 1960's era movie on TCM and then compare it to what's available today. Those were far simpler times.

The SI cover of the Princeton U. band stirs my memories. Growing up in Princeton, we kids never missed a PU home game. And they were pretty good in the 1950s. Not Penn State or SU good. But they played teams like Navy pretty competitively. Crowds of 45,000 were not uncommon. The traffic on game days choked the streets of a town with 21,ooo inhabitants.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

been going to games since i was 12 y/o in 1960, iknow of which you speak---spent many saturdays in old archbold. that was great era for su football. seemed like more spirit back then, you're right the lambert trophy meant something then.

It was a great era but by the late 60's it was dead as a doornail. There weren't many students going to the games (I was one of the very few that I knew) and we were routinely drawing crowds in the 20 thousands

As for traditional foes, in '68 we played two current BE schools and one was Pitt (the other WVU). We also played current ACC member Maryland. That's it. Three other foes were cross-sectional, two were teams that are no longer D1A, and the other two were Navy and PSU

'69 was similar except that we played two current BE members (again, one being Pitt) and two current ACC members

The early to mid 60's were great but then we entered the long malaise that lasted with few bright spots until 1987

 

[SWC75]

Crowded out by the plethora of other things there are to do.

Watch a 1960's era movie on TCM and then compare it to what's available today. Those were far simpler times.

The SI cover of the Princeton U. band stirs my memories. Growing up in Princeton, we kids never missed a PU home game. And they were pretty good in the 1950s. Not Penn State or SU good. But they played teams like Navy pretty competitively. Crowds of 45,000 were not uncommon. The traffic on game days choked the streets of a town with 21,ooo inhabitants.

But the crowds at the games are actually larger now. It's just that they are less into the sport of cheering than they used to be. The 1959 Syracuse team averaged 30,000 in a stadium that seated 41,000. Now we look at a crowd of 30,000 with contempt. Yet those 30,000 in 1959 did a lot more cheering and alot more organizied cheering than we do today.

 

[SWC75]

It was a great era but by the late 60's it was dead as a doornail. There weren't many students and we were routinely drawing crowds in the 20 thousands

As for traditional foes, in '68 we played two current BE schools and one was Pitt (the other WVU). We also played current BE member Maryland. That's it. Three other foes were cross-sectional, two were teams that are no longer D1A, and

Maryland has jumped to the Big East? Things are getting really confusing.

 

[Dick_in_MI]

Maryland has jumped to the Big East? Things are getting really confusing.

Yeah, that's what happens when you try to type and eat a sandwich at the same time

 

[Cadillac]

 

[tipphill]

townie,dick swc etal, you hit the nail on the head for me. its the enthusiasm that its lacking. the game day excitement,seeing the students into it etc. i wonder if some of that stuff like a card section is so old that it becomes new again for one game? throwback, staturday. ust kidding--thanks for responding

 

[Dick_in_MI]

townie,dick swc etal, you hit the nail on the head for me. its the enthusiasm that its lacking. the game day excitement,seeing the students into it etc. i wonder if some of that stuff like a card section is so old that it becomes new again for one game? throwback, staturday. ust kidding--thanks for responding

tipp, when I was a frosh my class effectively killed the placard cheering section. By tradition, the frosh got 50 yard line seats and were tasked with doing the placards.

Prior to the first game, the frosh who had picked up their tickets had to go to placard rehearsal. Being of the generation that questioned authority, people basically held up whatever color they wanted to instead of what they were supposed to. A cheerleader tearfully yelled "you people have no school spirit!", at which point half the section burst into laughter sailed their placards down at her. By the third game there were no more placards and the tradition never returned.

Of course, like many SU traditions it wasn't really ours in the first place...we ripped it off from UCLA or USC, can't remember which.

I'm sort of torn; I think the students and crowd had more chants in those days. Today we have more pre-game hoopla on the quad.

My personal memory of spirit was trying to keep my butt dry while sitting in puddles on the cold Archbold steps

 

[Dick_in_MI]

"Boy the way Floyd little played,
Players never worried 'bout grades
Orangemen, they had it made
Those were the days

Won a lot of games back then
Guys like Zonk were coached by Ben
Mister we could use a man like Ernie Davis again

Ran the scissors every play
November sky was always grey
Our new Dome was years away
Those were the days!"

 

[SWC75]

Tipp --- If you didn't experience it you have no idea what you missed.

I remember an PSU at SU game from the late 1960's --- when the Lambert Trophy meant something and SU and PSU were "Major Eastern Indies". It was a beautiful Fall afternoon.

I seem to recall that SU RB's were Little and Csonka. PSU RB's were Franco Harris, Lydell Mitchell and they had Ted Kwalick at TE. Five of the best players ever assembled on a football field for a game.

I'm tempted to verify that this actually happened ... my memory might be off.

If you didn't experience it, you can't miss it.

Little graduated after the '66 season, Csonka '67. They would ahve played against Kwalick, who graduated after '68. Harris and Mitchell were '69-'71, (no freshman eligiblity then).

But there were great games back then:

1953 14-20
1955 20-21
1956 13-9
1957 12-20
1958 14-6
1959 20-18
1960 21-15
1962 19-20
1963 9-0
1964 21-14
1965 28-21
1966 12-10
1967 20-29
1969 14-15
1970 24-7

 

[tipphill]

tipp, when I was a frosh my class effectively killed the placard cheering section. By tradition, the frosh got 50 yard line seats and were tasked with doing the placards.

Prior to the first game, the frosh who had picked up their tickets had to go to placard rehearsal. Being of the generation that questioned authority, people basically held up whatever color they wanted to instead of what they were supposed to. A cheerleader tearfully yelled "you people have no school spirit!", at which point half the section burst into laughter sailed their placards down at her. By the third game there were no more placards and the tradition never returned.

Of course, like many SU traditions it wasn't really ours in the first place...we ripped it off from UCLA or USC, can't remember which.

I'm sort of torn; I think the students and crowd had more chants in those days. Today we have more pre-game hoopla on the quad.

My personal memory of spirit was trying to keep my butt dry while sitting in puddles on the cold Archbold steps

great story and so tru about keeping our butts dry in archbold!!i sat on an old shower curtain!!!

 

[Stern]

my lovely wife who is a excellent college football fan casually commented, to me that all the stuff that is going on now has ruined college football, as it was meant to be. sadly, i agree with her. i guess she and i cannot adjust with the times. we miss the old days of banners on the dorms and greek houses, traditional rivalries, tongue in cheek humor with opponents, no true hate involved. we have been left behind and i'm not sure that is bad thing. we still go to games but the current climate is no longer as pleasant as it used to be, for us. i still enjoy the band on the quad(need some new songs though).---its all to complicated now, money/espn has had its impact.

Gonna miss those long standing SU-South Florida, SU-Cincy, and SU-L'ville games. What great rivals and "good ole days" they used to be! Some what 8 years of tradition we are leaving behind. Gonna be tough to replace that feeling of when South Florida was coming to the Dome. College football will never be the same in Syracuse!