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Mount
Union 34 by Dick Ross |
SATURDAY, IN THE PARK A cold week with rain and high winds stripped much of the fall color from Northern Ohio, leaves coming down faster than the yard signs of defeated candidates, the remains becoming increasingly auburn, ochre and umber. The day arrived with brilliant sunshine and clear skies, good to be traveling west, I thought, and avoiding the glare. Along the way, most farm fields had been harvested, mowed down to stubble, many were already plowed and some had the appearance of having been replanted for spring. As I drew near Sandusky, huge gaggles of migratory birds flew over the turnpike. I remembered that NPR, right after the Mount Union "piece" on Election Day, had a segment on "birding" and how the Lake Erie Islands are an important stop on the route for smaller birds. For me, the biennial trip to Ada is a bit like trying to remember how to put up your Christmas decorations, after you've skipped a year. Although traveling alone, I felt like a bit Amelia Earhart trying to find Howland Island, after turning southwest at Sandusky, though the consequences of missing Ada would not have been anywhere near as severe.
Passing through Arcadia, where the cemetery seemed to be larger than the town, the sign on the bank gave the temperature as 60 degrees, even though it had clouded considerably. Further south I saw cows lying down which, I've been told, is a sure sign that they expect rain. As Allegheny College played a role in the founding of Mount Union, Mount Union has played a role in the founding and development of Ohio Northern. Henry Solomon Lehr, founder of ONU, was born in what is now Mahoning County, just east of Alliance, and lived briefly in New Baltimore as a child, as his family continued westward towards Wooster. At age 16, Henry returned to the Stark County. In order to study to become a teacher, he took a train from Wooster to Louisville and walked the last seven to eight miles to Marlborough. (19th Century spelling) As soon as he was qualified, Lehr became a teacher himself, though he continued to work on his parents farm and to study, enrolling at Mount Union in March of 1857. As a student, Lehr began to develop the idea that colleges should design their schedules and curriculum to the convenience of the student - an idea radical, even by today's standards. Lehr's studies
were interrupted by the American Civil War. When discharged, in 1865,
he found employment, as a teacher, in the small village of Johnstown.
Johnstown in Hardin County, became Ada, Lehr's contract to teach public school classes, up to eight hours a day, allowed him to use the facilities to teach private lessons in the evening, while he also lobbied and raised funds for his own projected "Normal School" for teaching teachers. By 1871, with all of the details involved in the planning of the new school's curriculum, construction of a building to house it, Mr. Lehr also found time to commute back to Alliance to complete the requirements for his degree at Mount Union, graduating 10 years behind the class with which he had entered. Mount Union's
influence in Ada has continued through the years. Including Lehr, Ohio
Northern has at least three buildings named after men connected with Mount
Union. The group from Mount Union and I had lunch with two of them
Saturday, Drs. Weber and DeBow Freed. I met Dr. Robt. McCurdy, ONU
'65, Asst. Dean of the Pharmacy School, who has been passing these letters
on to Dr. Weber and who has become an Internet correspondent, of mine,
through them.
After lunch Dr. McCurdy gave me a quick motor tour of their rapidly expanding campus. It looked to me like they are still laying the foundation for a much larger university than the 3,300 current enrollment. In spite of all the dandy architecture on the campus, the most imposing structure in the city of 4,000 continues to be the huge grain elevator, just to the north. Way out on the west end of their campus, Ohio Northern even has its own football field, sodded, staked out and just about ready to go except that they have yet to build the stadium part. In the meantime,
they are continuing to use the city owned field, with bleachers, on the
other side of Main Street in "War Memorial Park." I've heard stories
of "town/gown friction," in some cities, and I began to wonder if it was
mere coincidence that the mounted howitzer, at the west end of the field,
points directly at the university. Today it marked the spot where we
parted company and I started to climb the visitors stands, aluminum seating
with wooden floors that were springy enough to make it feel like climbing
the
In Ada both teams arrive by bus, Mount dressed in the cramped locker room, under the home stands. Introduced first, they wandered out of the locker room area and through the gate, wearing white jerseys over purple pants. I think that Northern put on their all black gear on campus and arrived by bus. Their band, in white over black - with a splash of orange, marched and played their way into the stadium. A very nice show from the visitors stands, as they came 'round the corner from behind the home side stands. They played their Alma Mater, "The ONU Hymn" National Anthem and their fight song, which has an opening passage deceptively like ours, while their team entered through a giant inflatable Polar Bear head which, I heard, came second hand from a bankrupt minor league baseball team. Ohio Northern
won the toss and elected to receive. They lined up in what I guess is
a "Straight T" formation - with three backs across, shoulder to shoulder and
one split off to the side, who sometimes crossed inside the "T" in motion.
The formation was designed with the option for the center to snap directly
to any of the backs - although the ball usually went to their #8, Adam Quirk
a freshman, from St. Clairsville, planning to major in Pharmacy. On
the field his play looked a lot like our #8 So. Zac Bruney, from Martins
Ferry. The black hat Bears held the ball for over four minutes, moving
29 yards from right to left on your computer screens before punting to the
purple and white with
#7 Sr. QB Rob Adamson at the helm. The first Raider series mixed up Adamson handing off to #31 Sr. RB Dan Pugh of Norwalk St. Paul, who had another busy day with some heavy duty running, 172 net yards on 37 carries. I think I may, finally, have a handle on the two tight end offense: #82 Jr. Randell Knapp of Kent/Field, who started the season as an extra tight end is now listed as a first team wide receiver, while #5 Sr. Josh Liddell from Bemus Point, NY is listed as the first team tight end. I presume that
they continue to confuse the opposition, as much as they confuse me, by
taking turns lining up inside and outside, on this drive Knapp had five
thrown in his direction, four of which he caught, including the final nine
yards into the near corner, end zone for six. #11 So. PK Chad Teague
of Orrville "popped" the conversion to cap the 79-yard drive, which consumed
another 4:20. The rest of the quarter was consumed by the Bears with a
long drive which #89 Sr, DE Matt Campbell of Massillon Perry and #16 Jr. DB
Matt Caponi of Pittsburgh/Baldwin "stuffed" at the Mount two-yard line.
Neither team must have figured the strong cross wind to be much of a factor,
as both coaches kept their time outs pocketed and let the clock run down to
the end the quarter.
Switching ends was a long walk, and Northern's first play resulted in a 20-yard field goal into the east end, down by the city swimming pool. The Bears drive had used well over six minutes, but only four seconds of the second quarter. The Northern kickoff looked like something out of one of the "Bad News Bears" movies. They gathered in a circle well behind the line. As a fellow Methodist school, I was half expecting a chorus of "Cumbaya" instead, on signal the group dissolved into a sorta "Big Bang" theory of kicking off and headed downfield. What the purpose was wasn't quite clear, it didn't fool anybody and Knapp managed to get the kick back to the Mount 40. With Dan, Randell and Josh headed west taking turns running and catching passes, till Knapp caught a 20 yarder and landed on his back, down by the visitors side refreshment shack. His helmet landed in the end zone, but the ball didn't quite make it. Pugh went into the pile for the final yard. The extra point try was blocked and this one netted only six. During the
balance of the quarter each team had three tries with the ball. ONU's
were ended by punts, Mount's were ended on downs, an interception and the
half time gun.
This week's theme was suggested by Mother Nature and the Ohio Northern band which played a selection based on music about the city and by the group named "Chicago," which actually got their first big break when then Mayor Richard Daley objected to their original name: Chicago Transit Authority. Even though temperatures held in the sixties, any thoughts of the Fourth of July were erased by the strong steady winds - which delivered a copy of the band's own private newsletter, "The Polar Express" into my hands. In spite of several paragraphs worth of disclaimers, I don't think that there was much I could use, except to report on the internet photo of a billboard offering free help to the illiterate, with an address to write to on Main Street, the town was not listed. The second half kickoff looked like another trick play, but when the ball went out of bounds at the 39, Mount Union took the treat, declined the penalty and got the ball at the spot. Following a couple of completions to Knapp, Pugh did not carry the ball when he went through the line, but Adamson found him 29 yards over the center as Dan caught the ball and tumbled to his feet for six and Teague upped our count to 20.
The kickoff return was a variation on the kickoff play. Most of the ONU team gathered in a committee session, at the 12-yard line, to decide who'd get the ball. The young man who had it handed it to a friend, who reeled off a long gainer. Unfortunately, he'd handed it forward and the referee saw it, called the play back to the 12-yard line and stepped off five more. Backed up in their own end Northern fumbled, recovered by #22 Sr. SS Dustin Blake of West Jefferson. Two plays later Pugh was back in the end zone for his third touchdown of the day, which put him within two of Chuck Moore's school/OAC single season record. "OSU game is
over" went through the crowd and, at 27-3, I thought this one was too, a bit
too early for that, today, as Northern came back with a six-play, 72-yard
drive that narrowed the gap to 17, but with Mount on the move at the end of
three periods. Adamson opened
the quarter with an incompletion to Knapp in the far corner of the west end
zone, but came back with a completion to Liddell, in the other corner, for
the score. When Ohio Northern's Adam
Someone must have had a premonition, Mount Union called timeout, the Northern buses started and pulled up to the locker room. When play resumed, our #18 Sr. CB Matt Sotcan of Alliance pulled in Northern's next pass, landing in the end zone for what the computer calculated as a minus 100-yard return. To actually accomplish that, Matt would have had to hurdle at least two fences and several pieces of playground equipment. As the "Team" took a knee to end the game, Mount earned "at least a share" of the Ohio Athletic Conference football championship, according to conference rules, though I'm pretty sure that we did "clinch" the automatic qualifier to the playoffs, since we have already defeated the only other team who could match our record, even if we were beaten, next week. In Sunday's
Plain Dealer, Bill Livingston described an Ohio State team who "won a game
with a play that little boys will replay and long time fans will relive as
long as people believe in magic." Mount Union has had days like that,
but this wasn't one of them. Next week: final
regular season game vs. Wilmington, in Alliance, at 1:30 p.m. The
Campus Center buffet opens at 10:30 a.m. We should have an invite to
the playoffs, with a first round "bye" the following week, but nothing is
for certain, until the games are played on the field and the NCAA playoff
committee announces the brackets on Sunday, November 17th.
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named for the sister of a 19th
century Postmaster General who discovered that there were at least two
towns in Ohio with the same name, in addition to several Johnstons. 
CHICAGO AND THE POLAR EXPRESS
Quirk, was "shaken up" on the
next series #13 Jr. QB Matt Kenetsky from Hubbard came in to complete the
game and managed two quick drives, the second featuring a Chuck Moore style
53-yard breakaway run by #37 RB Zac Weber of Delphos/St. John, that narrowed
the gap to 10 and it began to look as though things might get more exciting
than what we'd planned, when Northern got the ball back, again, with two
minutes to go.