Family Weekend Losing Streak

The HC football team hasn't won on Family Weekend since 2001. Consequently, the Dr. Edward N. Anderson Award has been presented to an opposing player each year since.

This year, the Holy Cross Club of Greater Worcester presented the Anderson Award, given annually to the outstanding player in the Family Weekend football game, to running back Marques Thompson of Lehigh. According to HCCGW president Dave Mahaney, Thompson "received 15 of the 16 sportswriters first place votes, was very humble and thanked the Club for the handsome trophy."

Thompson ran up 141 yards on 30 carries against the Crusaders, and was a pretty obvious choice in this fan's opinion.

The previous four winners of the award were Jermaine Pugh of Lehigh, Charlie Rittgers of Dartmouth, Daris Wilson of Bucknell, and last year, Jordan Scott of Colgate.

So we can add Thompson to the list of humble winners. Not all (*cough* Bison *cough*) of the award winners have been gracious in their acceptance of the trophy!

The People Under the Stands

Either my freshman or sophomore year, Kimball Theater at Holy Cross showed the mediocre Wes Craven horror flick, The People Under the Stairs. I guess it wasn't so bad to be deemed "forgettable," since I do remember watching it there!


Well yesterday, it was The People Under the Stands. With 36 seconds to go in the first half of Lehigh's 28-14 win over HC, lightning was visible in the immediate area, and fans scattered out of the stands like rats, very quickly, and most gathered under the home grandstand for the next 45 minutes.

So who'd we see under the stands, anyway? Pretty much the same people who were in the stands to begin with, except you could actually recognize them without the big hats, ponchos and umbrellas.

We saw parents of football players. We saw many of the regular football diehard fans. We chatted with "Crossports" himself. We also saw Steve Silva.

CBS4/WBZ-TV anchor Scott Wahle was there, too. Found out he's a Holy Cross parent, and according to the HC Online Directory, his wife is a member of the Class of 1978. I didn't know Scott was another Boston TV personality with a connection to Holy Cross, joining former WCVB Channel 5 executive Paul LaCamera '64, along with current CBS4 colleagues Joe Bergantino '73 and Joe Shortsleeve '79. I'm sure there are others. Please drop a comment if you know of more!

I guess some would consider Dan Shaughnessy '75 a Boston TV personality, and maybe also current Celtics color analyst Tommy Heinsohn '56, but I'm thinking more of TV news anchors, reporters, and execs.

Toland Football Picks

Telegram & Gazette reporter Jennifer Toland predicts the area college football results each week. She correctly predicted Holy Cross wins over Georgetown, Marist, Fordham and Dartmouth, and the losses to Northeastern and Harvard. But more recently, she incorrectly predicted losses to Brown and Lafayette, skeptical over the strength of Holy Cross.

This week, our Crusaders had apparently won her over, as she thought HC would beat Lehigh, 17-13. Oops! Well, it was a tough call. I wasn't convinced HC would win the game, especially as the rainy weather forecast became evident.

We like Jen, and she's been more right than wrong this year in general, but she's missed on the three "toss-up" games (Brown, Lafayette, Lehigh). "We Are Crusaders" predicts Jen Toland predicts a win over Bucknell this week. And hopefully she'll predict a loss in the season finale at Colgate, giving her an o-fer on the "tough call" games!

Pearl of Wisdom #21

"We couldn't get the puck up the ice, be it five-on-five or five-on-four. We just kept fumbling the puck. I don't know, a bad night I guess. We worked really hard to establish the puck on a power play - and once we get set up, we're moving pretty good - we're going to start moving it over and the puck's flipping over the guy's stick or he's fumbling the pass. Different things were occurring out there. With the quality of defensemen we have, that can't happen in a game like this and expect to win."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's game story in Saturday's T&G, after Holy Cross lost a very winnable game to Yale, 2-1.

Coach Pearl didn't hold back in discussing his team's mistakes. In talking about going one-for-ten on the power play, Pearl said, "we were acting like the thing was a hand grenade instead of a puck."

I have to say, I'm not used to reading quotes like these. Stay candid, Coach, but hopefully the team will get its consistency so you don't have to describe your team's play this way!

Mike Pedone Lookalike

Thought of this while watching the Tigers lose the World Series to the Cardinals on Friday night.

Former Cardinals and Phillies and current Tigers infielder Placido Polanco on the left, and Assistant Head Football Coach and Offensive Line Coach Mike Pedone on the right.

I don't think this comp came out as well as I envisioned it. Maybe it works better with Polanco's Phillies picture?

Will Venable Update

Since the now-archived Will Venable thread on Crossports received more interest than I expected, we're posting an update here. A former Princeton hoops player, Will is a San Diego Padres prospect and is currently playing in the revived Hawaii Winter Baseball League, for the West Oahu CaneFires. Venable is an outfielder and has played in ten games. He's compiled a 286/348/405/753 stat line (AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS), which isn't anything special by MLB comparison, but is much better than his team's total of 233/325/347/672.

He is among the league leaders in Batting and Doubles. We'll try to keep tabs on his progress.

Jessica Savitch

I'm not a YouTube addict (really, I swear!) but it's amazing what you can find there. Something got me thinking about the famous NBC News update where anchor Jessica Savitch went on the air while under the influence of drugs. I searched and found the clip, although 19 seconds have been edited out. (Interestingly, the YouTube clip linked at the end of this Savitch bio has been pulled.)

She was a talented anchor considered a "superstar," but she battled personal demons which affected her career. Her story is kind of fascinating, and sad, and this clip is eerily fascinating, and sad. Savitch died tragically in a car accident, unrelated to her drug use, a few weeks after her infamous broadcast. She was the subject of a Lifetime movie in 1995.

More Blog Stuff

As mentioned in this post, we upgraded the blog last week. Specifically, we transferred over to "Blogger in Beta." There's some new behind-the-scenes techie stuff which simplifies things when making future layout changes to the blog. It's more flexible, and many of the upgrades should be invisible to the reader.

But some of the changes are visible to the reader. I already talked about how I can "label" my posts. Another thing I like is the way they added flexibility to the blog archives. Before, you could click on a month and it would display all my posts for that month. You can still do that, but now, by clicking on the little arrow next to each month, you can "preview" the month by seeing the titles of all my posts for that month. And you can then target a specific post. I really like that!

Am I just a little too interested in this? Yeah, probably, but it's sort of given me a second wind as far as this blog is concerned. And the original version of Blogger has had a bunch of outages this week, so I'm glad I switched to the new beta version!

Hamilton adjusting

Nice job by Jen Toland, who snagged a quote, albeit short and sweet, from Kevin Hamilton. In her "Colleges" column in today's Telegram & Gazette, Toland reported that Kevin "checked in this week from Poland, where he is playing for the Polpak Swiecie team. Hamilton said things are going well and that he is playing point guard. 'It's a little different from school,' Hamilton said, 'but I am adjusting'".


So Poland's "a little different" than Mount St. James? SHOCKING! Seriously, we were big fans of KHam from day one, and wish him the best.

Also of HC note in her column, Jen writes that "former Holy Cross sports information director Gregg Burke has been appointed interim director of athletics at Rhode Island. He had served as acting AD since May, after Tom McElroy resigned."

Pearl of Wisdom #20

"(After the loss to Mercyhurst Saturday) we talked about simplifying our game and not making the types of mistakes we were making. We just want to make simple plays and do the things you do when you have a third-period lead, like getting the puck deep and making plays."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Steve Kendall's game story in the Wednesday, October 25 edition of the Telegram & Gazette, after Holy Cross held on in the third period to defeat Merrimack, 2-1, in a big early-season non-conference victory. A great outing for goalie Ian Dams!

Fittest College Campuses

I heard about this story over the weekend, when Boston TV mentioned Boston College being in the top five, but only today did I see the entire list of Men's Fitness magazine's top 25 fittest college campuses.

Two PL schools made the top 25, with Colgate coming in at #2 and Lafayette at #17. Associate member Georgetown is listed at #18.

And how 'bout those Banana Slugs slotting in at #13! Slug references on back-to-back days! I hear a "blog label" coming! (Sorry, should've issued a geek alert.)

The list:
1. Dickinson College
2. Colgate University
3. Boston College
4. Wheaton College (Illinois)
5. University of Vermont
6. Gustavus Adolphus College
7. Grove City College
8. Texas Christian University
9. Baylor University
10. University of Richmond
11. University of Virginia
12. University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse
13. University of California-Santa Cruz
14. Washington & Jefferson College
15. Albertson College of Idaho
16. Santa Clara University
17. Lafayette College
18. Georgetown University
19. Roanoke College
20. California Institute of Technology
21. Virginia Tech
22. University of Denver
23. Ithaca College
24. University of Mary Washington
25. Gonzaga University

I've never heard of the schools listed at numbers 6, 7 and 24. Gustavus Adolphus? Am I alone?

Geico

This commercial has been out for a while, but for some reason I can't get the jingle out of my head today! The brilliance of Burt Bacharach, even in a parody.

Blog Updates

I'm working on some changes to the blog. My main goal was to make it easier to track posts by topic without having to scroll through the archives.

Of course, you can search my blog by typing your search word(s) into the box at the very top of this page and clicking the "Search this blog" button.

But better than that, Blogger has introduced "labels," which means I can tag a post and file it under various topics. And you can click that label and find all my posts on that topic. So it'll be a piece of cake to find all the "Pearls of Wisdom," for instance! All the labels are listed alphabetically on the right side of the page.

I held off on these changes for a little while, but today I decided to take the plunge. I'm excited about being able to label my posts, but unfortunately, my cool "We Are Crusaders" logo has been sacrificed in the process. Actually, it's been moved from the top of the blog to the bottom, and I have to figure out how to integrate it back at the top as my main title logo. That's for another day.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the upgrades. I'm still tweaking things here and there. And don't be afraid to write comments!

Neutral Site?

We're not necessarily advocating for this, but when was the last time Holy Cross played a football game at a neutral location?

Actually, we have the answer. It was 11 seasons ago, on October 28, 1995. Holy Cross travelled to Bermuda to take on Fordham.

Prior to that, in 1991, HC played its penultimate game of that season in Limerick, Ireland, also against the Rams.

Are these "exotic" locations any different than heading to San Diego or south Florida a few years ago? Would it benefit Holy Cross to seek a game outside the States in coming years?

Banana Slug connection

Who knew? Holy Cross Football has a connection to the UC-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs! Yes, the same Slugs made famous by a T-shirt worn by John Travolta's character Vincent Vega in the 1994 Tarantino classic, Pulp Fiction.


These are the things you discover when picking up and getting sucked into the annual football media guide. According to the guide, senior DB Marc Crosby's "brother, Michael, played basketball at the University of California-Santa Cruz."

Career Day for Dom

What a day for the emerging star, sophomore QB Dominic Randolph! In the impressive 38-28 Crusader victory at Lafayette, Dom set personal highs with 4 touchdown passes, 352 passing yards, and 34 completions (34 of 46). The 34 completions broke Brian Hall's school record of 32 completions from Holy Cross's 63-53 win over Lafayette in a wild game in 2001. Some Leopard symmetry, perhaps?

Incidentally, that Brian Hall game was the last time a HC player won the Dr. Eddie Anderson Family Weekend MVP trophy, presented by the Holy Cross Club of Greater Worcester. It's been five years. The upcoming Lehigh game would be the perfect time to break the streak of visiting players taking home that trophy on Family Weekend!

All the single-game and year-to-date Dom Randolph numbers make you wonder if he's on his way to eventually entrenching himself among the QB greats who dominate the HC record book: guys like Wiley, Ciaccio, O'Neil and Hall, with the occasional Muldoon, McCarthy and Stapp thrown in for good measure.

We'd love to see it happen. The man can play.

Idiot poster

This probably falls in the category of "You shouldn't dignify this with a response," but it irks me that an idiot poster on Crossports can say "fags" and actually have other posters DEFEND his comments! What the heck is this? You can bet your behind that if the poster had said the "n" word instead of "fags," the thread would be gone and the poster permanently banned.

I don't care if he was trying to make a joke. He lost me at "fags."

And as for the thread itself, we get it, Ed Walsh '69 is a great guy and Donna Hanover is a "witch." The thread had gone on too long before our enlightened poster reacted terribly to sader1970's clever response to his misuse of "alumna." Thankfully, some posters rightfully wanted to kill the thread, and hopefully it's permanently dead. But I sort of doubt it.

Pearl of Wisdom #19

"It was an unbelievable accomplishment, but the best thing we can do is cut off last year and move on. Last year is last year. This year is this year."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's season preview in Friday's Telegram & Gazette, discussing the hockey team's incredible and dramatic 27-10-2 season last year.

Unfortunately, the Crusaders twice blew three-goal leads last night at Niagara, losing 5-4 in the 2006-07 season opener. With the loss of experienced seniors Tony Quesada and Ben Conway, goaltending figured to be a critical factor this year. But a quick glance at the box score makes it seem we can't pin this loss on young goaltender Ian Dams. There will be some bumps this year, for sure, but with Coach Pearl at the helm, leading Bubba Sixsmith (below) and a steady crop of talented players, it should be an entertaining season.

Quick thoughts on the football team

So it wasn't the prettiest of wins. But HC won the game in overtime at Dartmouth yesterday, and is now 5-2 on the season. Yes, I realize the five wins haven't come against traditional 1-AA powers. But two of them have come against Ivy League opponents, and the two losses were competitive.

I expected this season to be a step back from last year. They graduated many seniors on offense, and I thought the Crusaders would struggle this year. Looks like I was wrong! And I'm happy with that! Two years ago, HC was getting pummeled in the second half of games, even as the first halves were tightly contested. Last year, HC went 6-5 and had some tough 4th quarters. Look at the Delaware game as an example. HC was losing 21-17 after three, and got trounced in the fourth, eventually losing 35-23.

This year, Holy Cross has had some late-game fades, but they're hanging on to win! The conclusion? Depth. The gradual increase in depth from two seasons ago is paying dividends. If this trend continues next year, I expect we won't see the late fades at all. Coach Tom Gilmore has turned this team around. He's acquiring the right pieces, and I'm excited about the coming years! I don't know how he got a talent like Aaron Jones to commit to HC instead of Lehigh, but whatever he said, it worked. Holy Cross football is finally on its way back to glory. Let's win these last four games!

Coach Pearl - Back Again!

After a close call with Milton Academy a few years ago, men's hockey coach Paul Pearl re-signed with Holy Cross this offseason, and is back on the hill for the foreseeable future. We're ecstatic about that! We've previously posted our thoughts about Coach Pearl and his place here at Holy Cross. Our opinion hasn't changed since then. Good luck to Coach Pearl and the entire hockey team as they begin their AHA title defense!

The photos above and below accompanied Jennifer Toland's T&G feature article on Coach Pearl from the Wednesday of NCAA week last spring.

More Fordham pics

Special thanks to a friend of ours from the Holy Cross Class of 1970, who sent these Homecoming day photos to us the old-fashioned way - via postal mail!

First up is a picture featuring a few of our hoops players. Left to right, it's sophomore Pat Doherty and frosh Zach Paterick and Adam May going up for a bomb on the baseball field, prior to the game. IIRC, the pass was tossed by Greg McCarthy. Or maybe it was Lawrence Dixon. On crutches. Or not. Honestly, I don't remember who threw that particular pass, but several of the younger guys were having fun throwing the ball around. Pat looked fine, I think! I'd say it was a good thing Coach Willard wasn't around to see these guys horsing around, except he was standing nearby watching them!




Another one of Dave and yours truly, tailgating prior to the game:



Finally, a couple shots of the actual game, taken from the Fordham side of the bleachers. HC on offense, then on defense. Expand to your heart's delight - you might be able to pick yourself out on the other side of the stands.

New Mascot - Named?

Holy Cross unveiled its new mascot this week. Mr. Mascot is seeking a name. In this Crossports thread, our friend CHC8485 suggested "Benny" and "Iggy" among other names. pitt65 went with "Rick," which had us chuckling. We actually sort of like "Iggy" as a mascot name, but we're not sure it fits the look of this Crusader.



So here's a suggestion, one that came to us last night: "Joe Knight"

Yep, it just works.

And is this guy available to wear the suit?

Fordham pics

We're guessing sader1970 sent these photos to Crossports for posting over there, but we received them, too, and figured we'd post them here! Not sure who made the ESPNU sign (it was passed to us by some nearby football family members who had similar signs), but it looks sharp.

Holy Cross won the game, 28-21! Here are three pictures from the day:

sader1970 and his wife, along with their niece on the left, and footballwoman75 (frosh gridder Don Matheney's girlfriend) on the right:


"We Are Crusaders" blogger Jon, with footballwoman75:


Non Alum Dave (fresh off his morning visit to the Hart Center) and Jon, on the 50-yard line:

CROSS77 Stayed

Thanks to hchoops for taking the opportunity in this thread on Crossports to follow up on our inquiry below. CROSS77 answered the question - turns out he stayed on campus, and in the following weeks attended the NU and Harvard games.

Hope you're enjoying your time on campus so far! And thanks, 'hoops!