FB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

Thinking back to the old days of the conference.  What were some of the rivalries?

It was my understanding Central and William Penn was a bigger rivalry than Central/Simpson is today.  Is that accurate?  Was Central/Simpson also considered a rivalry back in the day? 

Iowa Wesleyan and Parsons left the conference in the 60's.  Were those two schools rivals?  Were they rivals with anyone else in the conference?

Upper Iowa have anyone they considered a rival?

Did BVU ever have a school that was considered their rival?

Dubuque has Loras now, but Loras left in the early 50's and didn't return until 1986.  Anyone else in the conference in those years take the place of Loras as a rival?

Has Luther/Wartburg always been a thing?

[DBQ1965]

Thinking back to the old days of the conference.  What were some of the rivalries?

It was my understanding Central and William Penn was a bigger rivalry than Central/Simpson is today.  Is that accurate?  Was Central/Simpson also considered a rivalry back in the day? 

Iowa Wesleyan and Parsons left the conference in the 60's.  Were those two schools rivals?  Were they rivals with anyone else in the conference?

Upper Iowa have anyone they considered a rival?

Did BVU ever have a school that was considered their rival?

Dubuque has Loras now, but Loras left in the early 50's and didn't return until 1986.  Anyone else in the conference in those years take the place of Loras as a rival?

Has Luther/Wartburg always been a thing?

,
What I remember of the old IIAC, which included Parsons, Iowa Wesleyan, and William Penn but not Loras, there were no big rivalries except perhaps for geographical proximity or denominational commonality as with Luther and Wartburg.  This was before the days of D3 football boards, so there wasn't any chatter among/between fans as to the status and strength of their respective teams.  I do recall that in the early 60s, Luther seemed to be UD's big rival.  Also, any time the Spartans beat Wartburg or Central that was a very big deal.  That's all I can recall for now.

[Outside the Crate]

Yes, Luther and Wartburg has always "been a thing."  In all sports.  Every year.  I don't know about Luther, but Wartburg has a "Beat Luther Week" in the winter for the week when the basketball and wrestling teams meet.  They sell hundreds of t-shirts designed for the week.  Still, the rivalry doesn't begin to compare in intensity with back in the 60s and 70s, when basketball games were sell-outs.  There are lots of stories from those years, the best being when Wartburg's radio station, KWAR-FM, secured a place in Luther's Homecoming parade under a fake name of a Norwegian organization.   Then, once in the parade they ripped off the blue and white to reveal an orange and black theme and began broadcasting live from the Luther Homecoming parade.  Methinks students now are a bit too serious for this sort of prank.

[Kohawk Nation]

Coe/Cornell also comes to mind being the longest rivalry west of the Mississippi.  However, Cornell needs to start holding up their end of the rivalry with Coe now sitting at 20 straight over them. 

[MediaGuy]

Thinking back to the old days of the conference.  What were some of the rivalries?

It was my understanding Central and William Penn was a bigger rivalry than Central/Simpson is today.  Is that accurate?  Was Central/Simpson also considered a rivalry back in the day? 

Iowa Wesleyan and Parsons left the conference in the 60's.  Were those two schools rivals?  Were they rivals with anyone else in the conference?

Upper Iowa have anyone they considered a rival?

Did BVU ever have a school that was considered their rival?

Dubuque has Loras now, but Loras left in the early 50's and didn't return until 1986.  Anyone else in the conference in those years take the place of Loras as a rival?

Has Luther/Wartburg always been a thing?

As for Wartburg/Luther, that is more of a sibling rivalry within the Lutheran Church.  While they are both affiliated with the ELCA, that organization was formed when the German American Lutheran and Norwegian American Lutheran Churches had internal conflicts and portions of both groups came together and formed the ELCA along with other Lutheran Churches in 1988, they've only been affiliated together in the ELCA for 30ish years, before that there was some real tension from a religious base.  From an ethnic base, Germans and Scandinavians haven't gotten along historically...and most towns in Iowa were founded by a majority ethnic community.  Waverly was German Lutheran, Dubuque was Catholic, Decorah Norwegian Lutheran, and Pella Dutch Reformed, so the Wartburg/Luther Rivalry is an extension of the traditional ethnic tensions.

Upper Iowa and Wartburg used to play for a "Victory Bell" in football.  It sat in a display case in the campus entrance to the old Knights Gym and was about 4 feet high sat on a base that was about 5ft square with big handles and painted powder blue and orange with years and scores painted on it.  I looked for pics online but didn't find any after about 15 minutes.  It was really heavy too and I remember the football players bitching that they had to take it out of the case and put it on the bus to take it to Fayette for the game.

I have relation that went to BVU and they said that in the years they were there all the schools were NAIA so their rivals were Morningside, and the rumor was that back when the conference was formed, BVU was thinking of joining the North Central Conference in 1921 when it was formed which included larger schools like North Dakota, Des Moines University, Creighton, South Dakota, NDSU and SDSU, but the Conference has already included Morningside and Nebraska Wesleyan so BVU was the small school left out and joined the IIAC in 1922 when it was formed.

Interesting side note...St Thomas was a founding member of the North Central Conference, so them joining the Summit League is more like going home than moving away...from Wikipedia...In 1928, Creighton University and the College of St. Thomas (now University of St. Thomas) left the NCC. St. Thomas became a full member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference while Creighton left to join the Missouri Valley Conference. The NCC was left with five members.

That's my 2-cents worth on the history of a few of those rivalries, but I also have to mention that Wartburg crashing Luthers' Homecoming parade was a great stunt, there are a few others that would probably cause lawsuits today.  In 1998, David Max and Jeffrey Huber, Wartburg Cross Country runners and amateur pilots flew a small plane over Decorah at night and dropped a few thousand leaflets which read "Prepare for the Holy War"...most landed on the Luther Campus but about 20% ended up in the Decorah City Pool and in a neighborhood.  They were arrested by Waverly Police when they landed back in Waverly as the Decorah police had made a phone call.  They were fined $90 for littering but the student body raised $140 for them as they had of course become legends on campus.  The story was also featured on Sportscenter.  Funny note, Wartburg Cross Country teams now compete on the Max Cross Country Course.
I've also heard that in the 80's Wartburg students burned a W into the 50 yard line at Luther's football field with Atrozine which Luther had to dig 3 or 4 feet down to replace, and the following year, students set up a 24 hour watch on the football field and caught 2 Luther Students planning revenge.  They were tied up, and painted dropped off 1 mile south of Decorah.  I can't verify any of that in newspapers online, but I've heard the story from multiple independent sources on campus at the time.
Here is a link to the Wartburg side of the Rivalry
https://d30ufu6vr9yoyg.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/lutherrivalrynews.pdf

[Outside the Crate]

I've never seen that Wartburg publication.  But, I recognized my backside immediately -- doffing my trousers to hand over to the Luther student body president, Paul Strand.  I phoned him a few years ago to see if I could get my trousers back, and while he said he had followed my career, he wasn't about to give me back my trousers. 

[MediaGuy]

I've never seen that Wartburg publication.  But, I recognized my backside immediately -- doffing my trousers to hand over to the Luther student body president, Paul Strand.  I phoned him a few years ago to see if I could get my trousers back, and while he said he had followed my career, he wasn't about to give me back my trousers.

It was one of the first articles to come up in a Google search for wartburg Luther air drop...if I remember correctly it was emailed to students or published online for the Wartburg Trumpet during homecoming of 2009

[doolittledog]

Love hearing these old stories.  I had no idea a member of this board had been missing his trousers for over half a century 

Hopefully we have sports this fall that can then be talked about 50 years in the future.  I'm remaining optimistic. 

I am curious if the schools could bring archived games back and put them on their channels so we could watch "classic" games?  That would be fun for us old guys.  I've found myself the past few weeks putting on games from last fall while I am writing my reports.  I would also enjoy games from the past decade as well. 

[MediaGuy]

Love hearing these old stories.  I had no idea a member of this board had been missing his trousers for over half a century 

Hopefully we have sports this fall that can then be talked about 50 years in the future.  I'm remaining optimistic. 

I am curious if the schools could bring archived games back and put them on their channels so we could watch "classic" games?  That would be fun for us old guys.  I've found myself the past few weeks putting on games from last fall while I am writing my reports.  I would also enjoy games from the past decade as well.

Here is the link to the Wartburg Archives
https://www.wartburg.edu/knightvision/#1499892765527-d9d1c7b0-097c
If you scroll down to the "On-Demand" Section and use the pull down menus they have all Wartburg Home events since 2013 archived and I've been watching a few over the last few weeks.  I know that Stretch charges for storage so the other schools that use their service are limited on how many Gigabytes they can have uploaded at once.

[MUC57]

Love hearing these old stories.  I had no idea a member of this board had been missing his trousers for over half a century 

Hopefully we have sports this fall that can then be talked about 50 years in the future.  I'm remaining optimistic. 

I am curious if the schools could bring archived games back and put them on their channels so we could watch "classic" games?  That would be fun for us old guys.  I've found myself the past few weeks putting on games from last fall while I am writing my reports.  I would also enjoy games from the past decade as well.

Dog

Mount Union has been doing that every Saturday for awhile. The oldest so far was a 1997 playoff game. And it IS fun for "us old guys". I graduated in 1957,  I think that qualifies me in that group.
Hope you are able to watch some of your old games. Sure brings back some fun memories. Good luck! 🏈 🍺 😷

[doolittledog]

Love hearing these old stories.  I had no idea a member of this board had been missing his trousers for over half a century 

Hopefully we have sports this fall that can then be talked about 50 years in the future.  I'm remaining optimistic. 

I am curious if the schools could bring archived games back and put them on their channels so we could watch "classic" games?  That would be fun for us old guys.  I've found myself the past few weeks putting on games from last fall while I am writing my reports.  I would also enjoy games from the past decade as well.

Here is the link to the Wartburg Archives
https://www.wartburg.edu/knightvision/#1499892765527-d9d1c7b0-097c
If you scroll down to the "On-Demand" Section and use the pull down menus they have all Wartburg Home events since 2013 archived and I've been watching a few over the last few weeks.  I know that Stretch charges for storage so the other schools that use their service are limited on how many Gigabytes they can have uploaded at once.

While that is great, and I wish every school had games going back so far, your school is the one football program my school can't seem to figure out how to beat 

[Fannosaurus Rex]

1984 Stagg Bowl Central vs Augustana. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfjjEhG0aAc

[Schipper Strong]

Thoughts and prayers to the Staker family and Kohawk Nation on their loss. I lost my dad on March 10. My mom is in a senior living community. Not a nursing home, but all seniors some living independently and others in assisted living. My mom can't come out and we can't go in. Makes it really hard when you want to be there.

[Schipper Strong]

Central and William Penn used to be a very heated rivalry back in the day when Ron Randleman was their coach. It was "out for blood" in those days with frats from the visiting schools passing the football or basketball from one school to the other the day of the game. There were letters burned into the fields and an attempt to burn the old wooden bridge over Central's pond. In 1974 Central and Penn were both undefeated and playing the last game of the season. Central won and went on to be one of only 4 teams in the nation to make the playoffs. Expectations were that Central could not compete and we were the last team selected days after the other teams had been announced. They didn't think our competition was worthy, but had a hard time selecting the team they wanted when Central was undefeated and the other team wasn't. We got the chance and won in two very close games.

William Penn was selected to go to some Poultry Bowl". Not sure if they won or lost, but heard a crop dusting type plane dropped a load of chicken feathers on the field later. Then Wartburg got so bad it wasn't much competition. Kind of like Coe/Cornell. I think Simpson always thought of Central as a rival because of location, but because of Penn it was rather one sided. It picked up steam when Simpson finally beat Central in football for the first time in like 40 years, give or take. Then when WRtburg finally started challenging in football it switched to Warty. That has gone wrong far too often for Dutch fans to take. 

[Schipper Strong]

What do you think? Will colleges be able to have students come back to live on campus in the fall? What kind of liability could be incurred? What is more likely? Football happening or living on campus? If you only let athletes live and take classes on campus that would thin the crowds or will there be sports with no fans? Concerns seem to be high about late fall and early winter? Any consideration to flipping the academic year and having a 3 month winter break and go back mid summer? Probably not at this date, but do you think the idea has been considered?

Can you tell it is a quiet night in the ER?