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Mount Union 66 by Dick Ross |
LEGEND OF THE FRENCHMEN'S
GOLD In 1755, or 1758, depending on which version of the story you've heard, the French holding Fort Duquesne, (later Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh) threatened by a British advance, decided to evacuate the Fort's treasure. They headed for Fort Detroit, along "The Great Trail," an Indian route roughly parallel to today's US 30, through Carroll County, with 10 men and 16 packhorses carrying gold and silver. Somewhere between East Rochester and Malvern, in the vicinity of today's Minerva, they heard British troops closing in and buried the gold. As soon as they finished, the British attacked and killed all but two, one of whom wrote a letter detailing the action and how the location of the gold had been marked. In true fashion of legends, the letter was not discovered until 1829, 75-80 years after the incident.
I saw the story, first, as one of the chapters in "The Ohio Story" by Frank
Siedel, whose son Jon was a Mount Union contemporary of mine. Siedel's
book, published in 1953, was a collection of radio stories commissioned by
the old Ohio Bell Telephone Company. More recently, I saw the story
retold by Roger Bartley, MUC '72, history buff, fourth generation MUC Alum
and fifth generation owner of the Bartley Funeral Home, in Minerva. In 1829 a Frenchman who identified himself as LeSeur, nephew of the letter writer, arrived for a bit of prospecting and managed to alert the locals to the story, without finding the treasure. By 1875, all of the clues identified in the original letter were found, as well as signs of a battle near the town and ancient caches of shovels and muskets. In a recent Canton Repository feature story, the chairman of the Minerva Chamber of Commerce wished that someone would find the treasure, presumably so that people would stop digging holes all over her town. In 1953 Siedel wrote that the owner of the property, which all the signs pointed towards, would welcome you and show you where others had failed. Attitudes and ownerships may well have changed in the past fifty years.
In March of 2003 Roger Bartley published a novel, based on the premise that
a local high school teacher, armed with a science project that showed traces
of gold in the local water supply, led his students in a fictional race with
an unscrupulous highway contractor to uncover the millions. The only connection between the legend and today's game is that Otterbein comes to town with gold football helmets and trousers with white road jerseys, in the style of the San Francisco 49'ers, a completely different gold rush. The Purple Raiders wore their traditional purple jerseys with white trousers and without concern over muddy laundry, after the week long rains, because of the artificial surface. Otterbein College, our guests today, was founded in 1847 by the United Brethren Church and became Ohio's fifth Methodist school when the "United Methodists" emerged from the combination of the two churches.
In the two weeks since my last letter, we had one more lovely weekend, lots
of cold late September rain and constantly declining temperatures
culminating with succotash sized snow on car windows, Thursday. The
Cleveland Plain Dealer called the stuff "Graupel" (pronounced "Gropple")
an ice/rain covered version
Darkness is arriving noticeably earlier each night, and daylight later each morning. Saturday it was delayed even further as Mom and I got ready to head for Alliance in a heavy rainstorm. The rain ended as we crossed the watershed at Streetsboro and skies changed from mostly to partly cloudy as we neared Alliance. Today was a bonus day, for me, as I "scored" Breakfast and Lunch at the buffet, and shrimp, pastries and "pigs in a blanket" at the donors club reception. There is no secret as to how to get invited to the party, just answer your mail from the college.
The band went to work early today leading the Homecoming parade around
campus, before entering the stadium. I don't know if they've added a
few extra members or if I just noticed, while sitting on the visitors side,
they had enough members to add "Serifs" to the top of the "U"
in their block "MU." Mount Union also has a girl's dance team,
I've seen them at basketball games and in the parade, just today. Why By the time the reception ended and I headed up the hill to the stadium, to take my place among the crowd of 4,732, the skies showed more blue than not. A brief shower passed through, and I headed for my seats under the roof. The folks in the open stands may have noticed it more than I did, as the rain did have a 15 mph wind chasing it across the field. Mount Union won the toss and elected to take the ball. They got the north end, headed south, with #8 Jr. QB Zac Bruney at the helm, but had to punt after three plays. Otterbein worked the ball out to their own 39, had to punt, bungled the snap and handed the ball to #12 Sr. QB Jesse Burghardt of Uniontown/Lake with, basically, first and goal from the 13. Five plays later #22 Jr. RB Jeff Strauch of Avon Lake was in for six. All the points Mount was to need on the day, but we did not know that as #11 Jr. PK Chad Teague of Orrville, added the conversion.
After three plays and a successful punt later, Bruney lead an eight-play, 60-yard drive which culminated in a 16-yard strike to #25 Sr.
WR Nick Sirianni, (Jamestown, NY) in the right corner of the south endzone. Bruney fired the
ball on the dead run, toward the near side, pursued by two Cardinal
defenders. As often happens, the first quarter ended almost in front of me, only to have the play go all the way to the other end. On the very first play of the second quarter we watched, from behind, as Burghardt got the entire "flow" of the play going to his left, then circled right, over by the north gate, all by himself.
Just over a minute later, Otterbein punted to #4 Jr. WR Jason Cavell of
Concord Twp/Painesville Riverside who got the ball just past midfield, gave
ground towards the home side, turned the corner and hit the afterburners for
a 52-yard punt return. Teague handled the conversion and thrn kicked
away. #99 Sr. DE Johnny Josef of Mogadore forced a fumble recovered by
#90 Jr. DT Josh Ludwig of East Liverpool. Mount Union was unable to
capitalize on the turnover, but hit the "restart" when #44 Sr. MLB Shaun
Spisak of Sagamore Hills/Nordonia applied the hit that stopped Otterbein on
a fourth down play at the Mount 30. From there Burghardt led a 70-yard
drive featuring catches by tight ends #81 Sr. John Healy of Steubenville and
# 86 Jr. Drew Hanley of Tiffin/Columbian, culminated by an 11-yard run by
#34 Jr. Ricky Ciccone of Coshocton.
Mount got the ball back with just under three minutes on the clock and
Bruney at the helm. Progress was quick and steady with passes of 33
and 20 yards to #82 Sr. WR Randell Knapp of Kent/Field and an eight-yard
touchdown run by Strauch, his second of the day.
The band played another rousing half time show, their white uniforms
spotlighted in brilliant sunshine, just as they wrapped up with "Sing, Sing,
Sing!" Selection of the Homecoming "Court" was changed this year,
eliminating the automatic nominations from Greek and other campus groups,
going to a process of nomination, interview and selection of five finalists,
male and female, for a student vote. All of the finalists had very
impressive resumes but, if the idea was to increase "diversity," it did not. The winners, for King and Queen were Brian Keller of Huron, the big guy in
the white shirt and tie, and Lacey Dimon of Monroeville, PA the cute little
gal in the purple dress. I go back to the days when only a queen was
selected and the candidates were usually escorted by their dads. Otterbein got the ball to start the second half but was intercepted by #7 Sr. DB Andrew Doak of Uniontown/Green, on their second play. It took Burghardt only two plays to find Knapp up by the flag pole, scoring with just over a minute gone in the period. The Cardinals managed to hold the ball for four plays before an interception, tipped by #28 Sr. LB Anthony Frate of Mentor, and caught by #16 Sr. DB Matt Caponi of Pittsburgh/Baldwin, gave Bruney one more turn. The eight play "Zac Attack" was entirely on the ground, featuring #46 Sr. FB Brian Miller of Orrville who cut inside the left tackle, on the final play, for the touchdown, up by the scoreboard. This time the conversion was handled by #48 Jr. PK George Wilders of Loveland/Kings.
As Otterbein continued to have trouble mounting much of an offense,
less than 100 total yards, Mount Union played deeper and deeper into the roster. #19 Jr. Robert McDavid of Canal Winchester/Pickerington went in at
quarterback, and #6 Jason Pugh younger, but hardly "little" brother of the
Norwalk Pughs, saw action at running back. E.J. Lilly, of Alliance,
wearing #5, made his first carries, in purple, on the field where he had
seen so much glory in the red and powder blue of the Aviators. We also saw #2
Sr. Aaron "Little Boo" Bubonics, of Willowick/Eastlake North.
Since the '93 championship team When you get an offense like Mount's rolling, supported by a defense pitching 13 straight quarters of shutout football, it's almost impossible not to score. After #36 Sr. RB Michael Dietrick of Seven Hills/Normandy broke open a play designed to go two yards, for a 29 yard gain down to the one, the coaches sent in Wilders to kick an 18-yard field goal into the, by now, empty student bleachers. Later, and deeper into the roster #30 So. RB Brett Jordan of Saint Clairsville broke through the line for a 17-yard touchdown and Wilders ended the scoring with the conversion.
The win is Mount Union's 100th in the last 101 games, 88th straight regular season, and 46th straight on our current "streaks." The third straight shutout is a first since the 1967 team did it, though the record of six straight is still held by the 1909 team with the caveat that two of the six were back to back victories over Hiram. The game was followed by a reception for Dorothy Davis, director of Alumni Affairs and Special Events, retiring after more than 35 years service at the college, and a reunion dinner for the '85, '86 and '93 squads.
Next week's game is at Heidleberg, in Tiffin, kickoff at 4:00
p.m.
The start time is because Division II Tiffin University will be hosting
Gannon at Frost-Kalnow Stadium at Noon. Sephanie Unckrich, cheerleaders advisor, told
me that she has sold the seats on the bus that she has reserved for that
game but may take a few "stand bys." Plenty of good seats remain on the bus
to Wilmington for the regular season finale on November 15. Roger Bartley's book "Henry Muselle's Treasure" is available, in paperback, from Barnes & Noble or Amazon.com. If you're headed for Minerva with a shovel, be advised that the only way to verify the legend would be to locate the treasure, and that the 18th century Henry Muselle was never, actually, heard of again.
Look for me in Tiffin on the 11th and in University Heights on the
18th. Like the sign on the old stadium "Next Home Game" a resurgent Capital,
on Oct 25th.
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of
puffy soft hail. Whatever you call it, it counted as our earliest
recorded snowfall since October 2, 1974, tripling the .01 inch recorded on
that date.
they don't perform at football games, I don't know.
was holding a reunion today, (with the '85 and '86 OAC championship teams)
I'd hoped to see a reenactment of the inside screen
play, made famous by his brother Ed, but the pass play book had already been
returned to the vault, by this time.
FINAL SCORE: MOUNT UNION 66, OTTERBEIN 0