FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[purpled]

Let's hope Marvin Harrison's free agency is the break Garcon needs. 

[Kira & Jaxon's Dad]

Interesting Post on the WIAC Board:

http://www.d3boards.com/index.php?topic=3741.msg1038678#msg1038678

[formerd3db]

formerd3db,  
You're not strange for the stadium topic.  As an architect, stadiums always catch my interest.  Holland is a beautiful town and those who haven't been there should visit.
When I think of football stadiums in Michigan or in general, U of Michigan's has got to be at the top of the heap.  It's been the biggest stadium since the 1920's and it may be the best for the traditional college experience.  Knute Rockne liked it so much, he copied it at about 3/4 size.
If you Google "top 15 college football stadiums," they ranked Ohio State No. 1.  Looking through the list, you notice how much college stadiums have grown in the past few years.
Alabama, Florida and other SEC schools had stadiums 1/3 the size of Michigan until much later.
Now it seems every big football program is racing to build the biggest skyboxes and jumbotrons.
One of the best small stadiums I've experienced was Bedford High School stadium when Mount played John Carroll there while Carroll's Don Schula Stadium was being built.
Bedford High stadium seats about 8,000 with good seating on both sides of the field and no end zone seating.  Everybody has a good view of the field.  The whole thing is done in masonry, a nice red brick.  Alumna and former cheerleader Halle Berry should be proud.

runyr:

Thanks for the follow-up.  Most interesting.  I was pleased to hear that you are an architect.  My late father was one also, a U of M grad, had his own large firm; he also worked for Eero Serinan (sp?) right out of U of M after getting his masters degree in architecture and was thus was one of the architects who designed the St. Louis Arch.  I still have some drawings of that from my dad that he did on that project working directly under Eero.  Dad also did some of the preliminary planning for Thomas More's football stadium back in the early 1990's (and also did a building for the U of Cincinnati as one of his final projects), although Thomas More eventually had another firm do the final design after they had put the project on hold for a few years.

Anyway, sorry to bore you with the above, but thought you might enjoy hearing about that.  Of course, being a U of Mich fan, I like their stadium as you point out.  I do like old stadiums like Selby, Harvard, Nippert, etc.  Take care.

[HScoach]

I hope Rafferty stays and plays another year. When he looks back on his college days he will remember best the times he had with his buddies on the football team and the great guys who coached them. Fun like that is hard to come by in this increasingly cold world. Besides, he should want another crack at the Purples in Mount Union stadium.

I hope Rafferty comes back too but for different reasons.  Being a perfectly selfish Raider fan, I want the OAC to be as tough as possible to test the Raiders before the playoffs.  Besides, with 9 of 11 starters returning on defense, it will be full watching Rafferty run for his life in the backfield. 

Too bad the older Petruziello didn't have another year at JCU.  Watching him have another meltdown would have been fun.

[raiderpa]

local paper reports that receiver Mathie from Louisville is going to "Union" college, not Mount Union... do not know the accuracy of the reports...

[JK]

Union COllege is an NAIA school in Barbourville, KY.  Kind of nice setting, but a small town not close to a city of much substance (Lexington is 1.5+ hours, Richmond about an hour).  Reminds me a little bit of Musky with the setting and location.

[HScoach]

I'd heard Mathie was coming to Mount, but didn't say anything because it wasn't in the paper yet to provide a link.   Now the Canton Rep link says "Union College"?  I have to assume it's a typo in the paper. 

Mathie is another local guy that should fit right in at Mount.  Smart, tough player that is very versatile.  Could easily play WR or DB.  Probably at 6'-2", and 185 lbs he's better suited at WR but put another 20 lbs on him in the weight room and he has free safety written all over him too.  Either way, you can never have too many good athletes that have consistently displayed toughness and a "team first" attitude in high school.

There's is rumored to be one more Louisville player looking at Mount too.  More on that later.

[Blutarsky]

It's been posted on JJ Huddle (North Football Forum) that he will be attending MUC.....no indication of Union College.  He appears to want to keep the connection with his h.s. quarterback.  Also some discussion of another Louisville player that may have his sights on Mount.  Bring 'em in!!

[runyr]

Union COllege is an NAIA school in Barbourville, KY.  Kind of nice setting, but a small town not close to a city of much substance (Lexington is 1.5+ hours, Richmond about an hour).  Reminds me a little bit of Musky with the setting and location.

JK, there's also the other, more famous Union College in New York that plays D3 in Liberty League.
http://www.union.edu/

[runyr]

formerd3db,  
You're not strange for the stadium topic.  As an architect, stadiums always catch my interest.  Holland is a beautiful town and those who haven't been there should visit.
When I think of football stadiums in Michigan or in general, U of Michigan's has got to be at the top of the heap.  It's been the biggest stadium since the 1920's and it may be the best for the traditional college experience.  Knute Rockne liked it so much, he copied it at about 3/4 size.
If you Google "top 15 college football stadiums," they ranked Ohio State No. 1.  Looking through the list, you notice how much college stadiums have grown in the past few years.
Alabama, Florida and other SEC schools had stadiums 1/3 the size of Michigan until much later.
Now it seems every big football program is racing to build the biggest skyboxes and jumbotrons.
One of the best small stadiums I've experienced was Bedford High School stadium when Mount played John Carroll there while Carroll's Don Schula Stadium was being built.
Bedford High stadium seats about 8,000 with good seating on both sides of the field and no end zone seating.  Everybody has a good view of the field.  The whole thing is done in masonry, a nice red brick.  Alumna and former cheerleader Halle Berry should be proud.

runyr:

Thanks for the follow-up.  Most interesting.  I was pleased to hear that you are an architect.  My late father was one also, a U of M grad, had his own large firm; he also worked for Eero Serinan (sp?) right out of U of M after getting his masters degree in architecture and was thus was one of the architects who designed the St. Louis Arch.  I still have some drawings of that from my dad that he did on that project working directly under Eero.  Dad also did some of the preliminary planning for Thomas More's football stadium back in the early 1990's (and also did a building for the U of Cincinnati as one of his final projects), although Thomas More eventually had another firm do the final design after they had put the project on hold for a few years.

Anyway, sorry to bore you with the above, but thought you might enjoy hearing about that.  Of course, being a U of Mich fan, I like their stadium as you point out.  I do like old stadiums like Selby, Harvard, Nippert, etc.  Take care.

formerd3db:
Eero Saarinen was one of the greats (his father Eliel wasn't too shabby either).  I've been up in the Arch, but it was many years ago.  Great work for sure.

Michigan & Notre Dame Stadiums:  I should have also mentioned that they were both designed by the great Cleveland engineering firm, Osborn.  They had an amazing run of stadiums.  You can checkout the list at link below:
http://www.emporis.com/en/cd/cm/?id=113586

[JK]

Union COllege is an NAIA school in Barbourville, KY.  Kind of nice setting, but a small town not close to a city of much substance (Lexington is 1.5+ hours, Richmond about an hour).  Reminds me a little bit of Musky with the setting and location.

JK, there's also the other, more famous Union College in New York that plays D3 in Liberty League.
http://www.union.edu/

Oh, yeah.  Forgot about them.  I just assumed Union, KY because 1) I lived in KY for 3 years and 2) I thought NAIA and maybe they offered him scholarship $$.  Made sense to me as a possible reason he passed on MUC (whether he did or didn't remains to be seen, I guess)

A google search reveals there is also a Union College in Nebraska (Lincoln to be exact).  THough it appears they only hvae M/W Basketball, Volleyball, and Men's Golf.  They play in the National Christian Colleges Athletic Association (NCCAA).

BTW, Union (NY) is non-denominational, Union (KY) is Methodist, and Union (NE) is Seventh Day Adventist.

[seventiesraider]

There are Topps Garcon rookie cards all over eBay along with several autograghed photo's.

If you need a rookie card, I have about 4 extras from when I bought my son's (and mine ). Send me a message

PS  I don't need anything for them, just an address Buy me a sodie pop at the Stagg next year.

[formerd3db]

runyr:
Thanks for the follow-up.

To all:

Since some of us have been on the attendance topic also, I thought I would share this summary info from our MIAA:

2008 Attendance Summary for the MIAA
College   Avg Att/game   #of home games  Stadium Capacity
Trine          3737                   5                     Shive 2500
Hope          2926                   5                     Holland Munincipal 5,325
Albion         2351                  6                     Sprankle-Sprandel 4244
Adrian        2224                  5                     Performance  3000
Alma          1157                  6                     Balhke 4700
Kazoo         905                   5                     Angell 3000
Olivet          880                   5                     Cutler Athletic 2200

1) *This does not include the NCAA DIII home playoff game for Trine
2) Highest single game attendance for these schools (with the exception of one) was each school's homecoming games.
3) Hope and Albion are always supported extremely well by their respective surrounding communities even during "down" years.
4) Obviously, winning helps increase attendance.  In 2007, Olivet averaged over 2000 per game as I recall, Hope was in the mid-high 3,000's; of course, Trine was the best this year due to their undefeated regular season and a great team.
5) Kazoo outdrew Olivet this year which was surprising; Kazoo had over 4000+ about 3-4 years ago for their Homecoming game vs. Hope.  Some of the MIAA schools played non-conference "away" games which had some very high attendance for the home teams in the high 3,000+.
6) As I mentioned on our MIAA board, IMO, it is obviously always better to see small colleges in this present era build stadiums with capacities consistent with their annual expected and reasonable attendance figure history - because it always looks nicer to have a near full or full stadium in a small capacity (i.e. 2000 people in a 2500-3000 seat stadium) as opposed to a high capacity stadium with only 1000 or less in attendance.  Again, however, winning helps that as does Homecoming games (usually)

[ADL70]

Homecoming, rivalry games, and weather all signifigantly effect individual game attendance.

As you are probably are Wabash and Depauw bring in temporary seating for their rivalry game.  I suspect a few others may as well.

I'm with you on capacity being closer to the average crowd with oveflow (or added seating) for the big games.

[formerd3db]

Homecoming, rivalry games, and weather all signifigantly effect individual game attendance.

As you are probably are Wabash and Depauw bring in temporary seating for their rivalry game.  I suspect a few others may as well.

I'm with you on capacity being closer to the average crowd with oveflow (or added seating) for the big games.

I agree with you also.  In that regard, I just posted over on our MIAA board that Hope would have averaged over 3,000 fans per game were it not for the Alma game, which drew only 900 people.  The game was the last game of the season being rescheduled due to the campus shudown at Hope from the norovirus outbreak.  It was a meaningless game per se (with the exception for the seniors) as both teams were going "nowhere" and it was very cold and snowy.  In such circumstances, only parents, college administrators, some die-hard students and fans are willing to endure the inclement/cold weather usually.  I think that had the game been able to be played at its previously scheduled weekend, again, I believe the attendance would have been such that Hope would have averaged over 3,000 per game (they finished with an average of 2926 as I previously noted).  Not bad for small college, although I have always been amazed that Ohio high school football often far outdraws the small colleges and sometimes some of the mid-sized universities (including some occasional Mid-America Conference games )