FB: American Rivers Conference

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Skimming through the web-sites of IIAC football teams tonight, I realized I'm a traditionalist.  My favorite conference uniforms are the Indy Colts look-a-likes worn by the Luther Norse.  The Central Dutch messed up a classic red and white uniform by adding unnecessary Cs to the jersey sleeves and stripes to the helmets.  Wartburg has also added too much pattern.  They should return to the evil black of the early 2000's.  Loras and Coe have nice classic looks.  I prefer the Loras gold helmet to the Coe variety with the COE logo.  Simpson and BV have too many stripes for my taste and Dubuque just has way too much of everything on their uniforms.  I find the numbers on the Cornell dark jerseys hard to read and I don't like their current Ram design on the helmets.

Many people on the Luther side Saturday were commenting on the Ram uniforms that they did not like the very busy jerseys that were mostly black.  I am torn on the Ram helmet, as I liked the Ram uniforms some years when they had the purple helmets and the uniforms weren't too crazy.  Cornell may not have kept up with the facilities for athletics battles over the years, but Mount Vernon is still a nice place to visit and watch a football game.

Loras has a very solid uniform during seasons in which they don't add stripes down the sides on the jerseys.  I like the helmets as well.

Schools like Luther, St. John's, Alabama, and anyone else that has numbers on the side of the helmets should always stick with traditional jerseys and pants.  It doesn't get much more traditional than the numbers on the helmets!  Luther hasn't kept their football tradition going obviously like Alabama or St. John's, but it is great that they still wear the same helmet design as they did back when Edsel Schweizer was coaching very good Norse squads.

I think the Wartburg away jerseys the past few years are an upgrade from what they had previously.  I remember being on the Waverly campus at some point in the 1980s when Wartburg had orange jerseys.  I used to joke that wearing black jerseys at home might get them an additional win or two each campaign and help recruiting.  

[dbljay21]

Schools like Luther, St. John's, Alabama, and anyone else that has numbers on the side of the helmets should always stick with traditional jerseys and pants.  It doesn't get much more traditional than the numbers on the helmets!  Luther hasn't kept their football tradition going obviously like Alabama or St. John's, but it is great that they still wear the same helmet design as they did back when Edsel Schweizer was coaching very good Norse squads.
 

Hefty wanted to add the numbers to the helmets in honor of Edsel Schweizer.  We also had an Edsel sticker on our helmets in his honor.  Hefty has great respect for the great coaches in the game and I thought it was an honorable thing to change the helmets to honor a Luther legend like Edsel Schweizer.

[dbljay21]

I used to joke that wearing black jerseys at home might get them an additional win or two each campaign and help recruiting.  

Funny thing about that Floyd is that the jerseys might have helped...

[Storm-what?]

THis weeks picks:
Battle of the 'Burgs: Wartburg over Augsburg

Central over Simpson- The Storm fight a decent fight but lose on Homecoming.

Cornell/BV- Hmmmm, this one is tough. I suppose Cornell. Whatever BV team showed up to play Bethel seems to have disappeared for good!

UD stands for UnderDog this week, and triumphs over Coe.

Luther over Loras- The DuHawks will be down after last weeks big loss and Luther comes off a nice win.

[DutchFan2004]

Baum, if I am not mistaken tried school at Ellsworth and dropped out.  As far as I know he has not gone to school any where.  You were correct he had a good set of wheels.  I think he would have made a great slot back/receiver, but college isn't for every one. 

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Schools like Luther, St. John's, Alabama, and anyone else that has numbers on the side of the helmets should always stick with traditional jerseys and pants.  It doesn't get much more traditional than the numbers on the helmets!  Luther hasn't kept their football tradition going obviously like Alabama or St. John's, but it is great that they still wear the same helmet design as they did back when Edsel Schweizer was coaching very good Norse squads.
 

Hefty wanted to add the numbers to the helmets in honor of Edsel Schweizer.  We also had an Edsel sticker on our helmets in his honor.  Hefty has great respect for the great coaches in the game and I thought it was an honorable thing to change the helmets to honor a Luther legend like Edsel Schweizer.

That was a great move!

From all of the photos that I have seen, the Norse have had white helmets with a blue stripe or stripes going back to at least the 1940s.  Like most college or university programs back in the 1950s and early 1960s, the Norse had the numbers on the side of the helmets during the Edsel Schweizer years.  Since they were winning lots of games back then and many Schweizer players stayed involved in the program after he retired in from coaching in 1977, the helmets stayed mostly the same through the end of the Bob Naslund era in 1995.

Brad Pole was coaching Luther when the numbers came off sometime during his time on the Norse sidelines (I can't remember which season).  Coach Pole added an "LC" logo in 2001, but then Coach Hefty dropped the logo in 2002.  

I have always liked the numbered helmet look even before I saw a Luther game, so given the tradition of the helmet, I hope the Norse continue that look from the Edsel Schweizer era far into the future.  I also have always hoped that NFL teams like the 49ers, Steelers, Packers, Vikings, Bears, and Cowboys among others continue to keep their helmets that remind fans of the traditional eras of those franchises.

[sportsknight]

sportsknight...tix for the Cubs playoff game are about 500 a copy and up.  I have a couple of ticket guys here in Chi-town if you want to drop that kind of money for the worst team in the playoffs...   I would be happy to hook you up with the ticket guys if you are interested, despite the fact you are a Knight and I am a Norseman 

eBay is your friend. 

[dbljay21]

eBay is your friend. 

and so is StubHub...   Good luck getting the tix!!!

[beaverbeliever]

Storm-what?
Cornell/BV- Hmmmm, this one is tough. I suppose Cornell. Whatever BV team showed up to play Bethel seems to have disappeared for good!


The beavers have not played to their true potential since opening weekend and the loss to Coe at home shows that for sure but when you look at the teams they have played you can not count the Beavers out.  Their opponents record so far this season are 17 - 1 (the only loss being Bethel's against BVU)  Any Saturday in the IIAC any team can win.

[Walston Hoover]

So I still have no voice from the weekend which has never happened to me before and is quite frustrating when you are trying to coach up a bunch of 16 year olds. Typing is my only way to communicate right now. Looking forward to reading about some great games in the IIAC this weekend.
There are some great matchups this week and the only game I think isn't a great matchup is a big rivalry (Central/SImpson). No IIAC games decided by more than 8 points this weekend is my prediction.

[dbljay21]

Congrats to Tyler Pease...IIAC Male Athlete of the Week 

[dbljay21]

So I still have no voice from the weekend which has never happened to me before and is quite frustrating when you are trying to coach up a bunch of 16 year olds. Typing is my only way to communicate right now. Looking forward to reading about some great games in the IIAC this weekend.
There are some great matchups this week and the only game I think isn't a great matchup is a big rivalry (Central/SImpson). No IIAC games decided by more than 8 points this weekend is my prediction.

I know how that goes.  I lose my voice every week Walston...I guess you can blame it on the 16 year olds   I like the prediction.  Close games in the IIAC are good for the entire conference.  But what about Wartburg?  What is the point differential going to be in that game?

[Floyd in Iowa City]

Congrats to Tyler Pease!  The Norse to this point are solid in punting and kicking and have been pretty good on kick return most of the year.

Punt returning did not hurt the Norse as much this week as the previous three games.

They are going to need solid play this week as the Luther-Loras games are usually pretty tight contests.

[dbljay21]

Storm-what?
Cornell/BV- Hmmmm, this one is tough. I suppose Cornell. Whatever BV team showed up to play Bethel seems to have disappeared for good!


The beavers have not played to their true potential since opening weekend and the loss to Coe at home shows that for sure but when you look at the teams they have played you can not count the Beavers out.  Their opponents record so far this season are 17 - 1 (the only loss being Bethel's against BVU)  Any Saturday in the IIAC any team can win.

I am guessing that a lot of people are going to have trouble picking this game.  The BV team that beat Bethel has not been around since week 1, but they could show up again at any time.  The first question for me on this game is can the BV offense score against the Cornell defense, which is ranked 8th in total defense in the IIAC and only ranked ahead of the Beavers.  And the second question is can the BV defense stop the Cornell offense, which happens to be ranked third in total offense...

Thoughts?  Comments?  Complaints?

[old school ENP Tiger]

Baum did try Ellsworth for his Freshamn year...Got into coaching some high school ball somewhere.  That was a really fun team to watch they were loaded for a 1a school.  Tim ran a good option Baum had the speed and Brian Perry was the power.  Perry was on Iowa State's roster as of last year.  I tried to make a case for my class to be the best but they far surpassed us.  We were bigger but not near as fast...

GO CUBS!!!!  One of these years has to be the time.  Red Sox and White Sox got theirs out now its our turn!