FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[Dr. Acula]

Random thought...Berg's senior class comes into this season at 22-5 in OAC play (.815 winning percentage).  I'm not familiar with Berg's history other than their one championship.  Is this going to be the winningest senior class ever to graduate?  I'd have to think there's a good chance of that being the case. 

[pradierguy]

Random thought...Berg's senior class comes into this season at 22-5 in OAC play (.815 winning percentage).  I'm not familiar with Berg's history other than their one championship.  Is this going to be the winningest senior class ever to graduate?  I'd have to think there's a good chance of that being the case.

I would think it would be one of the winningest non-Mount Union classes in the OAC since the 80's.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Vince Kehres is young enough that if he had some success of his own at Mount Union it would be silly to assume he'd spend the rest of his career there. When higher levels came calling for LK, he was fairly close to retirement and might have decided it was too late to move. But VK interviewed for other head coaching jobs before landing his current one, so I think it's safe to think he might do so eventually someday.

Many coaches prefer the lifestyle and comparative lack of pressure of D3 over the wealth of 'moving up'.  IWU went more that 50 years with only two basketball coaches.  I don't know if Jack Horenberger had opportunities to move on, but Dennie Bridges had many such offers.  He was uninterested; IWU paid him enough to be quite comfortable, and he much preferred the intimacy of small college ball (for example, personally knowing all the regular fans).  And he knew that, barring scandal or 10-15 consecutive losing seasons (he had zero losing seasons), he had perfect job security.

Bridges had four losing seasons, Chuck. In fact, I think that you were an IWU student during two of them, 1967-68 and 1968-69.

I stand sorta corrected.

"Sorta"? You said that he had zero losing seasons. You didn't qualify it. We aren't mindreaders, Chuck. If you're wrong, you're wrong ... even if you claim that you intended to say it a different way but didn't.

He had ONE losing season (of 36 seasons as HBC) against D3 competition - 1984-85 when he finished 10-11.  The other years you mentioned he did not have losing records against D3 competition.  In 1967-68, 3 losses to D1, 4 to D2 teams, so 11-7 against D3.  In 1968-69, 4 losses were to D1, 3 to D2, so 11-8 vs. D3.  In 1988-89, 1 loss was to D1, 1 to D2, so 12-12 vs. D3.  (He loved to schedule 'up' both for the competition and chance for comparisons, but also for the financial guarantee which financed the once every three years special trips.)

Now you're just making it worse. You've got him playing games against D3 competition when D3 didn't even exist. NCAA College Division was split into D2 and D3 for the 1974-75 school year.

Yes I was a student in two of the 'losing' seasons, 1967-68 and 1968-69.  But I probably blocked out the records because I didn't yet have a car and rarely attended away games (I couldn't find the info, but I suspect they won over 75% of their home games), and because they did SO well in 1969-70 (the next-to-last undefeated champion CCIW basketball has yet seen) that 'all was forgiven'!

This is the most novel explanation I have ever read, Chuck. "I blocked it out because I didn't have a car and rarely attended away games."



Mind if I borrow this excuse? I promise I'll attribute you when asked.

NOTE:  all these seasons are so long ago that I was not always certain of the opponents' classification.  I went for current classification except for about half that I knew they had gone up or down.

... which makes no sense, because it assumes that colleges and universities remain static in terms of their size, missions, priorities, budgets, etc. Are you still counting the University of Chicago as a Big Ten school, too?

(Apologies for a CCIW basketball diversion on the OAC football board. )

Please don't apologize, Chuck. "I blocked it out because I didn't have a car and rarely attended away games," is going to be the new "My dog ate my homework" if I have anything to say about it.

Whether one or four out of thirty-six seasons, it ain't chopped liver.  Back to my original point (which you have tried to obscure), some (many) D3 coaches, however pursued, simply don't want to move up(?) because they are receiving a perfectly comfortable income and the trade-offs just aren't worth it.  It is true that nearly half his seasons were not (technically, though nearly de facto) D3 - his AD was one of the founders of the NAIA, and there was no way that he was going to move until his coach, mentor, and AD, Jack Horenberger, had died.  So sue him for loyalty.

However you want to count his wins, what other school in the country (including NPU with its 5 national titles), would turn down a coach like Dennie Bridges?  At least at the D3 (or, OK, joint D3 and NAIA ) I'd submit the the list is zero.  (If you insist on arguing 1 or 4, I'm outa here!)

[bceagle80]

Out of curiosity: anyone think that VK would step and try a DII team in the area? I know LK didn't see the sense in it - but as we know VK is different. I was thinking of maybe Notre Dame College or someone like that. NDC's offensive coordinator is Bill Rychel (Mount) and they have Regis Scafe as the LB coach. So there is a connection.

I think the AD does the scheduling.  A game with Walsh would, I think, be a great natural rivalry, but I'm guessing Walsh might think they have too much to lose in such a match-up.

My son was recruited by Walsh as well as Mount Union. He would enjoy working hard to beat them. I agree also that D2 schools have to much to lose playing D3. That being said the Junior Varsity played Ashland University (D2 school) this past Sunday and lost.

I think you meant to say that our JV team beat Ashland.  (43-20).  The Ashland team was bigger but the first team JV held them scoreless and scored on them without much difficulty.

You are absolutely correct! Sorry for the mistake. I will blame it on an extremely long workday!! 

[Gregory Sager]

Whether one or four out of thirty-six seasons, it ain't chopped liver.  Back to my original point (which you have tried to obscure)

I did no such thing. I was simply correcting your mistake. Hey, I agreed with your original point that a lot of D3 head coaches won't move to the scholie levels even if they get the opportunity to do so.

However you want to count his wins, what other school in the country (including NPU with its 5 national titles), would turn down a coach like Dennie Bridges?  At least at the D3 (or, OK, joint D3 and NAIA ) I'd submit the the list is zero.  (If you insist on arguing 1 or 4, I'm outa here!)

I can think of a number of D3 schools who would not dump their men's basketball head coach in order to hire Dennis Bridges. I won't put a fixed number on it, though, since I don't want to scare you off.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Greg, I didn't mean 'dump their current coach to hire Dennie' (just off the top of my head, the list would include Amherst, Williams, UWSP, UWW, and VaWes; I'm sure there are dozens of others); I meant turn him down for an open position.  And there, I submit, the answer would be zero.

[Gregory Sager]

I don't think you're being realistic here, Chuck. I can certainly see a lot of value in hiring Dennis Bridges as a head coach, but he's, what, 71 years old now? Pragmatically speaking, I don't see a lot of ADs clamoring to hire 71-year-olds to coach their teams. Perhaps that's ageism, and it shouldn't be the way that things are done. But, unfortunately, we live in a culture that seems to view senior citizens only in terms of their limitations rather than their abilities.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I don't think you're being realistic here, Chuck. I can certainly see a lot of value in hiring Dennis Bridges as a head coach, but he's, what, 71 years old now? Pragmatically speaking, I don't see a lot of ADs clamoring to hire 71-year-olds to coach their teams. Perhaps that's ageism, and it shouldn't be the way that things are done. But, unfortunately, we live in a culture that seems to view senior citizens only in terms of their limitations rather than their abilities.

Agreed.  I faced ageism even at about 40, when far less qualified 20-somethings kept getting hired over me.  I meant Dennie when he was still coaching.  (BTW, I think Dennie must be pushing 80 by now; he had already been coach for several years when I hit campus, and I'm 66.)

[HScoach]

^ my head hurts.

[Mr. Ypsi]

^ my head hurts.

Me too.  But I think I'm finally up one on Professor Sager.

[Desertraider]

Random thought...Berg's senior class comes into this season at 22-5 in OAC play (.815 winning percentage).  I'm not familiar with Berg's history other than their one championship.  Is this going to be the winningest senior class ever to graduate?  I'd have to think there's a good chance of that being the case.

I am not that old - granted I am older than I like to admit - however I can not remember Berg ever winning. Perhaps "ever" is a bit strong. But I grew up 25 minutes from Tiffin (15 if I was the one driving) and I just can't recall them being relevant in terms of wins and losses. So - I am sure that this Senior class is deserving of recognition in the Jedi Archives.

On the Berg note - I was bored and decided to look at some stats. Cartel Brooks entered this season as Bergs number 2 all-time rusher (3,762 yards) and number 1 in rushing TDs (46). No doubt he is a stud and I would have loved him to go to Mount (no offense to any Mount RBs) - but if he doubled his output in a single season he would still trail Nate Kmic by 500 yards and 33 touchdowns. Makes me appreciate Nate's numbers all the more.

Last thing - and I REALLY HATE to do this but.........who is Dennis Bridges exactly?

[Gregory Sager]

Actually, I don't think you are, Chuck. I just looked up Bridges' bio on the Illinois Wesleyan website. He graduated from IWU in 1961. Given that the typical graduating senior is 21 years old, that would mean that he's now 74, i.e., a long way away from "pushing 80."

And that's enough talk about Bridges for me (as the OAC football fans burst out into cheers), given that I can think of about a hundred things off of the top of my head that I'd rather devote my time to discussing than Illinois Wesleyan.

Last thing - and I REALLY HATE to do this but.........who is Dennis Bridges exactly?

Probably best not to ask that question.

[Desertraider]

Actually, I don't think you are, Chuck. I just looked up Bridges' bio on the Illinois Wesleyan website. He graduated from IWU in 1961. Given that the typical graduating senior is 21 years old, that would mean that he's now 74, i.e., a long way away from "pushing 80."

And that's enough talk about Bridges for me (as the OAC football fans burst out into cheers), given that I can think of about a hundred things off of the top of my head that I'd rather devote my time to discussing than Illinois Wesleyan.

Last thing - and I REALLY HATE to do this but.........who is Dennis Bridges exactly?

Probably best not to ask that question.

Nice! +k indeed.

[amonachino]

Paul Hoernemann (May 18, 1916 – February 28, 1965) was a head football coach at Heidelberg College, now Heidelberg University. Hoernemann arrived at Heidelberg from New Philadelphia High School where he had a 24–3 record. From 1946 to 1959, he had a 102–18–4 record. He won five Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) titles during this time. After the 1959 season, Hoernemann became a vice president at Heidelberg. He held this position until his death in 1965. In 1966, the new dining hall at Heidelberg was named the Hoernemann Refectory. He was inducted into the Ohio High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1994 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 1997.  The new stadium is named after him.  His nickname was "the Fox".

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Is this the OAC Football Board???

What is all this Basketball talk and pissing match between Sager and Ypsi?

Take it somewhere else please.