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!

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?

Joe Knight Apologist?

Has Holy Cross play-by-play man Bob Fouracre emerged as an unlikely apologist for Lehigh University senior Joe Knight? Twice during last night's WTAG broadcast of HC's tough loss to Lehigh, Fouracre ranted on about how "poor Joe Knight" was a victim of a "screw up" by the Lehigh athletic administration.

Knight, of course, missed the first half of his senior season because of eligibility questions surrounding his transfer from High Point to Lehigh, with a questionable stop at a Texas CC along the way. And I'll admit that the incompetence in Lehigh's AD in this case is glaring and unacceptable.

Maybe Fouracre read Tom Housenick's story blasting the officials at Lehigh. It's a worthy read, and a contrast to the Lehigh U. defenders out there.

But Bob, "poor Joe Knight?" Call me a PL elitist. I don't care. I'm not willing to absolve Knight of guilt in this matter. He had to know what he was getting into when he began his journey after High Point. If he wasn't a hoops player, there's no chance he'd be matriculating at Lehigh. None. So can we please stop with the Joe Knight pity parties? Thank you.

And for the record, Bob, there's no "Fisher" or "Gilliam" on the Lehigh men's hoops roster. I'm guessing you meant Fischman and Gilfillan. And Joe Knight didn't play at Delaware prior to arriving at Lehigh, even thought you stated that about three times. It's okay, everyone has an off day now and again.