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Mount Union  52    Allegheny  7

                                                                     by Dick Ross

TO EVERYTHING (turn, turn, turn,)

THERE IS A SEASON

     Labor Day weekend has long marked the end of summer, in this country, and a time of new beginnings.  Some things have changed.  This year, for the second year in a row, Mount Union's football season starts earlier than ever before.

     Students have already completed their first week of school.  On the final day of August, Mount's freshmen team got their "work out" tarping the field, just ahead of a rain of biblical proportions.\

     Saturday morning dawned with mixed clouds and temperatures dipping into the "nippy" (upper fifties) range.  The skies cleared and temperatures climbed, as Mom and I made our way southeast from Cleveland to Alliance:  we arrived early, had breakfast and still had time to visit family gravesites, and place flowers, in the Memorial Park on Union Ave., just south of the city.  One interesting twist to the buffet line is a well worn "Robo-Doughnut" maker moved out into the serving line, so that you can watch the little rascals chase each other through the hot oil and up the endless chain as you progress through the serving line.

     I got to the Stadium early, as the white jerseyed "Gators" were completing their warm ups.  I had long wondered how a school high on top of what we flatlanders would call a mountain, a hill in Pennsylvania, acquired such a moniker.  The answer from their web site is that, "Through 1925, Allegheny's athletic teams had been referred to as Hilltoppers, Methodists or Blue and Golds."

     In April of 1925, a group of students published the first issue of a humor magazine titled "Allegheny Alligator."  The editors wrote in their first issue that the name was selected not because the alligator was particularly funny, local, or noted for a sense of humor, "purely and simply because of the alliterative value of the orthography... An Alligator has such a complacent sophistication that he will, doubtless, feel very much at home among a group of college students.  In the fall of 1926, a new organization appeared on the Allegheny Campus called the Gator Club, which asserted its presence by acting as a cheering section at football games... by the end of the decade, all of Allegheny's teams were referred to as the Gators."

     If I had a similar story to tell you about the "Purple Raiders," I would, but the exact origin has not been documented.  Both the Yost Osborn and Dr. John Saffell histories of the college contain stories of the origins of our colors, but not of the team name.  Prior to the WW 2 hiatus in athletic competition, Mount's teams, like the early 'Gheny squads, were called the Hilltoppers and their uniforms were generally described as blue.   "Purple Raiders" seems to be a post WW 2 appellation, perhaps stemming from wartime advances in artificial dyes, finally allowing for the teams to be able to afford purple uniforms, which may have been unusual enough to earn the color based name.   The college and I have talked to a great many people who were here, at the time.   Unlike most nicknames we have not been able to attribute ours to a person, story or event.  Any leads would be appreciated.

A TIME TO BUILD UP

     Mostly unrelated to football, but improvements to the campus facilities have been quite dramatic over the last few years:  new residence halls, chapel, information services building, P.E. facilities, an expanded campus center, new Shakespeare garden and the addition of two sections; renovations and major plumbing and aesthetic improvements at the stadium.  The addition of two new sections to the north end of the covered grandstands, was so well done that it is difficult to spot the addition, even when you know that it is there, the stands are now more symmetrical, against the field and the addition looks like it may have always been planned.

     The restroom facilities are new on the home side, under the addition, and completely remodeled on the East side.   One other new feature in the stadium is a pair of "Chain Saw" statues of football players, routed out of tree stumps, mounted in the southwest corner of the stadium, between the refreshment stand and Hartshorn Street.  The pieces are a gift of the Wally Armour family and were sculpted, on campus, by Michael Blaine of New Hampshire.

     Attendance was announced at 4,832, with a good portion of the crowd coming down the hill from Meadville, with their older "Gator" mascot and a busload of students in blue and yellow "Spirit" shirts.  Both the home side and visitors stands seemed to be pretty well filled along with temporary student "Bleacher Creature" seats in the south end zone.  Those in the sun were warm and most of those under the roof were thankful that they wore long sleeves or windbreakers.

     The Mount Union band is over 130 strong, looking and sounding good again this year.  They played a pre-game show and then brought out the team, a seemingly endless stream of solid Purple, from the south tunnel on the east side.  # 1, Senior Kicker Rodney Chenos from Galloway/Hilliard Davidson seemed to be still "juiced" from last year's championship field goal.   One of the last out on the field, he did a great crowd dive, in the style of a "Rock Star," into the center of 160+ bouncing cohorts dressed for today's game.   Rod had another good day:  a field goal, seven extra points, nine kickoffs and four punts, all grounded inside the opponent's twenty yard line.

     In spite of a 75-yard return of the opening kickoff by # 10 Sr. RB Chuck Moore of Mogadore, Mount's offense stalled and this season began as the last one ended, with the trey by Chenos.

A TIME TO TEAR DOWN

     As was the case in the championship run, Mount's defense made its presence known early:  # 17 Jr. Chris Kern of Fairbault (MN) intercepted a pass on Allegheny's first play from scrimmage.  The Meadville mountainmen also started off with some tough "D" and Mount was forced to punt.  'Gheny then brought the ball south, 89 yards in 13 plays, with most of the work done by their # 1, Sr. Shane Ream, a native of Meadville and took the early lead 7-3.  For a while it looked as if it might be a long afternoon for the hometown fans, until our new QB Jr., # 7 Rob "The Rifleman" Adamson of Akron/Manchester, started to zero in on his receivers and "fire for effect" with four straight completions, climaxed by a 52 yarder to Jason "Burner" Candle who got the near side fans to rise up out of their new seats, by sloughing off a one handed tackle and carrying the mail past the two new sections and 52 yards into the north end zone.

FIRST QUARTER SCORE: MOUNT UNION 10,  ALLEGHENY 7

     As the teams switched ends, I said bravely "this game shouldn't really be this close."  Little did we realize that we had just seen the first seven of 49 unanswered points.  The Purple Machine began to "click" in the second period as Mount went 70 yards, on seven plays, in two minutes, ending with a pass to Jr. Josh Liddell, of Bemus Point, NY, taking over for Adam Irgang at tight end, with Brian Tyla's old # 5.

     Allegheny's next possession also ended with a Mount Union TD.  Matt Campbell Sr. DE from Massillon/Perry knocked down the 'Gator pass attempt five yards behind the line of scrimmage and rumbled into the Hartshorn end.  Chenos upped the count to 24.  It should be noted that the first round of stadium improvements, 20 years ago, eliminated the uphill climb, traveling south.   The visitors held the ball for only a minute and a half before the Raiders shifted to offense, again, with a nine-play, 68-yard drive capped by Moore up the middle for a five-yard TD.  Mount got the ball back with just over a minute to go and gave the ball to Moore for a couple of those "Cloud O' Dust" plays.  The first one was successful in gaining three yards, but the second one, oops, 75 yards down the near side line for Chuck's second score of the day.

HALF TIME SCORE: MOUNT UNION 38, ALLEGHENY 7

A TIME TO GATHER STONES TOGETHER

     Gathering more records, the TD pass extends the streak of games with at least one "by air" to 129 games, dating back to October of 1991, with Adamson adding his name to the list with Ballard, Borchert and Smeck.  Chuck Moore started his senior season already first on two career lists with 318 points and 53 TD's.   Every time he scores, he will raise the bar a bit further.  Today he had over 150-yards rushing, two TD's and a 75-yard kick return in the first half.

     This week just past saw the first points scored by a woman in a Division I game, by a female place kicker, recruited from the soccer team, at Jacksonville State (FL).  Mount Union is real deep at QB again this year; if there were a problem I'd certainly sign up the long haired blonde cheerleader who was "winging" the souvenir footballs well into the rear rows.   The cheerleading squad has a new variation to their push-ups doing them with the ten women interlocked in a chevron formation.  Make no mistake, these young women are very much athletes, also.

     The Mount Marchers put on another excellent performance and, as it ended, I had a chance to circumnavigate the field.  I noted that a clapper had been rigged in the Victory Bell donated by my class and resolved to hear it, at least once, since I am sure that I had made a contribution 35-years ago.  By the time I got back to my seat, Mount had scored twice more:  an 82-yard pass and run from Adamson to Candle, bringing back memories of Adam Marino.

     While I paused to inspect the new plumbing under the new stands, Allegheny went "three and out" and Mount was again threatening.  I watched from the fence by the north end goal line as # 31 Dan Pugh Sr. from Norwalk banged in for Mount's seventh TD with nearly four minutes left in the third period.

THIRD QUARTER SCORE: MOUNT UNION 52, ALLEGHENY 7

A TIME OF PEACE

     There were already large holes in the visiting crowd as the balance of the afternoon turned into a "siblings" weekend with appearances by # 2 Soph. Aaron Bubonics at WR, # 32 Soph. Dan Pugh and # 42 Vincent Illaqua at RB (his brother was a JCU standout).  # 25, Jr. WR Nick Sirianni also had a catch in the first half.  Both Kehres and Montgomery played deep into their rosters.  Once the final gun had sounded and the band played through its repertoire, I wandered over and gave that Old Purple and White bell a couple of swings for everyone who "kicked in" 35 years ago...

FINAL SCORE: MOUNT UNION 52, ALLEGHENY 7

     Next week is a "bye" week.  Some tickets were incorrectly printed with "Sept 08" on them, but the next contest is Mount Union vs. Otterbein 9/15, 1:30 p.m. in Alliance.  See you there!

                                                                                                Dick Ross
                                                                                                  Class of '66

(Note: the original words, used as titles, come from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes modernized by Pete Seeger, and made into a hit record by "The Byrds.")