FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[79jaybird]

New-Tradition-  Our football field was on a steady decline for years, and the '01 IWU/Elmhurst game was the beginning of the final demise.    My roommate was on the team and after the game you couldn't even see the white numbers blending in with the navy.

The college deserved better, but unfortunately (for a number of reasons),  they waited for a must replace approach as opposed to the preventive maintenance/staying ahead of the game approach.  My HS field was in better condition than EC's was.

Coach Krohn did everything he could with the limited resources and tools he was given to work with.

In similar fashion,  Butterfield Park where we played baseball was in need of TLC too. I recall running after a fly ball in left field and stumbling because there tire tread marks on the field.   

[Cardinal773]

I'm kind of sad for this generation of D3 athletes in a way.  They're not going to have stories of sloshing around in the mud, stumbling over tire tracks and loosing small family members through the openings in wooden bleachers.

Telling your kids stories about how you were covered in black rubber field turf pellets after playing a game at Carthage doesn't have the same vibe as, "I was covered head to toe with goose s*** in Kenosha."

[Augie6]

I vaguely recall a NCC @ Elmhurst game about 10-15 years ago when several Elmhurst recruits walked over to talk to NCC coaches after the game.

My favorite Elmhurst HC broadcasting on the air was the '01 game Elmhurst vs. IWU in what we dubbed on the air as the "monsoon game".  We had heavy rain for a day and a half.  you could step and sink down to your ankles back when EC has regular grass.   It it is the only game I ever saw that had 4 straight fumbles based on the weather.  The refs would put the ball down to start the play, and the ball would travel (i.e.  like a river current) side to side.        Elmhurst was contemplating getting field turf and after this game,  the decision was made.       

Story related to both of these quotes--as I was being recruited by Elmhurst, as I mentioned, they really wined and dined at my high school.  I was invited to Elmhurst to watch them in the final game of the season in '01 vs. NCC.  It was a back and forth affair on a warm, sunny, gorgeous November day that NCC ended up on top of, but the thing I remember the most was the condition of the field.  I've never seen a field on any level in the condition that Langhorst was in that day--3 yards and a cloud of dust was an actuality that football game.  I have no idea how JB saw the numbers of the players in all that dust in order to have a successful broadcast.  There was grass on that field maaaaaybe on the numbers, but the sidelines and center of the field were bare dirt.  This must've been the aftermath of that IWU game that JB was talking about.  I also asked Coach Krohn where they practiced and he mentioned that it was mostly done on the game field, as well.  Partially because of this and partially because I didn't feel so wined and dined when I got to campus, at halftime, my dad and I walked over to the NCC bleachers and watched the rest of the game from there.  I had just had a nice experience watching a game at NCC vs. Augustana (which they kept close for a half) 2 weeks prior.  It was at that point that I eliminated Elmhurst from my potential college choices.

Back when I played at Augie, our field was typically in very rough condition by the end of the regular season.  Like Elmhurst, most of our practices were held on the game field.  Because it was always in such bad shape by the end of the regular season, we only played one of our playoff games over my four year period at Ericson Field and that was the first game of the 83 playoffs against Adrian.   The rest were played at Rocky Stadium, which was the home field for Rock Island high school and a much better facility than Ericson Field. 

As cardinal773 mentions, I also think it's a little sad that today's players at most high schools and D3 schools don't get to experience playing in muddy conditions that were pretty common back in the 80s.  With the exception of my freshman year in 1983, every game we played against Millikin was in monsoon type conditions and it was a blast.  It was the type of game that, when it was over, everyone walked in to the showers in full uniforms to wash off all the mud from outside to in.  Even though it wasn't a rainy game in 83, the field was still a mess because our maintenance crew left the sprinklers on all night at Ericson field.  So despite it being a partly sunny day, the field was still a muddy mess. 

[Gregory Sager]

North Park 38
Millikin 0

It's nice to be the lion rather than the antelope for a change.

[Gregory Sager]

Wash U 38
Carthage 7

The Bears are on cruise control thus far.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll 70
Illinois Wesleyan 23

Poor Norm.

[mr_b]

North Park 38
Millikin 0

It's nice to be the lion rather than the antelope for a change.

It looks like this is the Vikings' first CCIW shutout win since 1992, when the blanked Carthage, 17-0.

[Gregory Sager]

Yep, and it's the most lopsided NPU win since '68 against a CCIW opponent that doesn't wear columbia blue and call Langhorst Field home.

[Gregory Sager]

North Central 59
Elmhurst 6

Ho hum.

So ... four games in the books, the closest of which was a 31-point margin.

Does Augustana @ Wheaton give people something more competitive to watch this evening?

[lmitzel]

Does Augustana @ Wheaton give people something more competitive to watch this evening?

Turns out it did. Tied at 27 mid-4th quarter, Wheaton scored 14 points in three and a half minutes and held on to win 41-34.

We'll let someone else go through the box score other than from what I heard on the broadcast of Augustana running roughshod over Wheaton's defense for much of tonight... which probably doesn't bode well for the Thunder with North Central coming to town next week.

[markerickson]

Holding Millikin to 100 yards total offense is a testament to a really bad team as opposed to a dominating NPU defense.  Case in point, on MU's first play, the QB totally telegraphed the pass that led to an easy INT.  MU's AA WR is long gone.

[Gregory Sager]

True, but I'll take it -- because when you hold a really bad team to 100 yards total offense and beat them 38-0, it means that your team isn't itself a really bad team. You're something better than that, regardless of how anyone defines whichever tier your team is actually on. And North Park is at least a couple of tiers better than "really bad." It seems extraordinary, but a third of the way through the season the Vikings are second in the league in points allowed, yardage allowed, passing yardage allowed and pass defense efficiency, sacks (both for and against), etc. Massey's got North Park at #139 and Logan Hansen has the Vikings at #122 -- which, given that there are 230 D3 football teams this season, puts the Park just a tad under the median. Again, that's at minimum a couple of tiers better than the "really bad" space North Park has inhabited on occasion in the past.

And, for the first time since 1968, the Vikings have shut out two opponents in the same season. The reality that both of those opponents fall into the "really bad" category (Manchester's been nuked much worse in its last two games than it was by NPU in Week One) doesn't change that fact. The Spartans likely have only one winnable game on their schedule (Anderson), while Millikin, Elmhurst, Carthage, and perhaps even Illinois Wesleyan as well are all going to dance the limbo in an attempt to see who can go the lowest.

North Park has a realistic chance to go 5-5 this season. And while 5-5 is the very definition of mediocrity, and truly successful programs shun mediocrity, NPU would gladly embrace it for the landmark success that it would represent. Given that North Park hasn't had a .500 season since the year Bill Clinton took office as president of the United States, and in the intervening years since the Vikings have had to endure an 89-game CCIW losing streak, a 5-5 campaign in 2023 would certainly be something to celebrate.

[79jaybird]

Good things are happening at North Park.  Sadly, the same cannot be said at Elmhurst.
SHOCKINGLY North Central spoiled Homecoming weekend.  The Cardinals are a juggernaut right now on all sides of the ball and poised to make another deep run in the playoffs.  IMO, there is no weakness on this team.

[WUPHF]

True, but I'll take it -- because when you hold a really bad team to 100 yards total offense and beat them 38-0, it means that your team isn't itself a really bad team. You're something better than that, regardless of how anyone defines whichever tier your team is actually on.

Agreed, North Park fans have to be pleased with the team so far.

I am curious about that Wheaton-Augustana game if anyone has thoughts.

[Gregory Sager]

Carroll came within six points of tying its all-time scoring high against IWU on Saturday, and the Pioneers also came within three yards of tying the program's all-time total offensive yardage high.

The Carroll @ Augustana game next Saturday could prove interesting. That could turn out to be a really high combined final score.