Division III football rivalries

[K-Mack]

Good Jesus!

I had a feeling I messed one of those up, but I never went back to check. 

['gro]

Can a brother get a dub of the Time Warner Cable broadcast?

Holler at the LL board someone from the Capital District should be able to hook you up.

[Breckenridgebear]

Welcome to Monon Week.

[spikegrouchy]

Westminster's(PA) most common opponent is Geneva as the two teams meet Saturday for the 111th time. Westminster leads the series 61-41-8. The two teams were archrivals back when they were NAIA teams but Westminster left for the NCAA in 1998 and Geneva followed last year. This rivalry game will be the final game of both teams' regular seasons for future games, as designed by the PAC's new rivarly game schedule.

The Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) has announced the debut of "PAC Football Rivalry Week," beginning in the 2008 regular season. The conference rivalry games have been moved to the final weekend of the regular season (Saturday, November 15 in 2008), where they will remain for the foreseeable future.

"One of the great features about PAC football is the number of long-standing traditions and rivalries
between our member institutions, with several dating back over 100 years," said PAC Executive Director
Joe Onderko. "Highlighting these games with a permanent spot on the final weekend will help build even
greater excitement on each PAC campus as the football season progresses."

The Westminster-Geneva rivalry began in 1891 when Geneva beat WC, 42-0.  Although Westminster leads the series, Geneva has won four out of the last five contests.  This year's game should be an exciting conclusion to the season.

[frank uible]

Bring back Bo McMillin and Cal Hubbard!

[spikegrouchy]

Westminster's(PA) most common opponent is Geneva as the two teams meet Saturday for the 111th time...

The Westminster-Geneva rivalry began in 1891 when Geneva beat WC, 42-0.  Although Westminster leads the series, Geneva has won four out of the last five contests.  This year's game should be an exciting conclusion to the season.

Final score:  Geneva 29, Westminster(PA) 26.  A good game for Golden Tornado fans.  WC gave up too many big plays, but they had their chances...just couldn't keep their drives going in the second half.  Oh well, there is always next year!

[ADL70]

Anyone else see (hear) the Dutchman's Shoes mentioned on ESPN yesterday?

[Teamski]

Anyone else see (hear) the Dutchman's Shoes mentioned on ESPN yesterday?

Yep, but I forgot if Lou Holtz got that one right.  I knew it sounded familiar.......

-Ski

[K-Mack]

Was thinking of running through the rivalries real quick in ATN, and got into this thread to make sure I wasn't leaving anyone out ... reading back through some of the early stuff is pretty funny actually. Stories of pranks and fights and what makes a rivalry great.

Got some weird NESCAC beef in the later pages, but overall this is good.

There's somewhere between 15 and 20 rivalries I would consider -- hmm, how to say this -- worth revisiting in ATN. Six are to be played this week, I think.

Not just trophy games, and not just competitive rivalries, but the true great rivalry games. Here's a test, if you (or I) know who plays in them just by the name:

Backyard Brawl
Secretaries' Cup
Courage Bowl
Battle for the Drum(?)
Tommie-Johnnie/Holy Grail
The Goat
Longest Small-College Rivalry West of the Misssissippi(?)
Dutchman's Shoes
Little Brass Bell
Bronze Turkey
This week:
Bridge Bowl
Victory Bell
Biggest Little Game in America
The Game aka Oldest Small-College Rivalry in the South
Cortaca Jug
Monon Bell

on the fence about adding
CBB
Lehigh River Rivalry (or whatever it's called)
Conestoga Wagon
Soup Bowl
Myron Claxton's Shoes
Cranberry Bowl
Stagg Hat

Anyway, not even sure I'm going to have time to do this anymore, now that I think of it ... so I guess I wanted to post so the idea doesn't die in my head.

Anything key missing?

[BoBo]

UW-Whitewater and UW-Platteville play in the annual George Chryst Memorial Bowl played in the memory of George Chryst who was UWP’s head coach from 1979 until his sudden death in 1992 at age 55. This year was the 17th game. The winning team each year receives possession of the Memorial Miner’s Pick patterned after Paul Bunyan’s Axe that has gone to the winner of the Wisconsin-Minnesota football game.

[DoubleDomer]

Two SCIAC worthies:

1. Battle for the Drum (you've got it right) is Oxy v. Pomona-Pitzer, which dates to 1894. Definitely include.
2. Battle for the Peace Pipe is Pomona-Pitzer v CMS. Nothing quite like a little internecine tangle between two squads that literally share the same campus and the same classroom. Like Carleton & St. Olaf battling for the goat--except that there's no river between campuses to keep the two sides apart. Plus the combined brainpower of the two squads is off the charts--second only to Amherst v Williams.

[Ryan Tipps]

Little Brown Bucket could be added -- though Dickinson would be double-dipping as it's already got a matchup on the list.

[K-Mack]

Hi all,
 Doing a little research on Division III rivalries. I've been asking about it in ATN but I'm not asking the question right. In the early pages of this thread are running lists, and we have written about rivalries many times.
 
 For a fresh look at ANY rivalry you want to nominate, can you please tell me a story about the rivalry's greatest (in your opinion) on-the-field moment, and off-the-field moment.

 For instance, in the case of R-MC/H-SC, someone might say back in 1978 there was a kickoff return by Macon's Jimmy Whoseewhatsit that clinched the game and ODAC title, where the guy did a backflip after scoring (that story is kind of true). And the best off-field moment could be when those chumpzillas from H-SC broke off their own goalpost after the 100th meeting and threw it in the lake next to the field.

 Or it could be off-the-field stories like stealing of the Bronze Turkey or Victory Bell, or a touching moment from the Courage Bowl or Soup Bowl or Secretaries' Cup.

 In any case, I need a fresh way to show people how important the rivalries are, and I'd love to hear some stories I haven't heard before, or hear some fresh re-tellings. This will also help me determine how intense these rivalries are by comparison (although Pat or I have been to most of the major ones, even one time is only a limited taste).

 Thanks for your input. Will also tweet this, post in ATN and on the ATN board.

[Bearcat Press]

Some quick thoughts on a pair of rivalries I know fairly well:

Willamette/Linfield dates back to 1902, though it disappeared for the better part of the early 20th century when Linfield's Baptist leaders decided that football was too violent a sport for their school.  Once it resumed, there were some serious off-field shenanigans.  I once read an article - can't remember where offhand, but I could probably track it down - that at some point in the 1930s or 40s, a highly regarded football player from southern Oregon was recruited to play football for Linfield, but mistakenly got off the train in Salem.  When he came to Willamette for help (the campus is across the street from Salem's train station) Bearcat coach Spec Keene instead gave him a uniform and got him to start practicing with Willamette's team.  IIRC, after the Wildcats found out what happened, some Linfield players snuck down from McMinnville and brought him back to Linfield in the middle of the night.  The player later became an All-American for the Wildcats.

More recently, I can give some on-field moments: then-Willamette coach Dan Hawkins rubbing some serious salt in Linfield's wounds by bringing Liz Heaston on to kick PATs in a 27-0 win in 1997.  Linfield breaking Notre Dame's winning seasons streak in a come-from-behind win in McMinnville the next year (wildcat11's got video of that one).  A 1-3 Willamette team upsetting the #12 Wildcats on a field goal with 4 seconds left in 2007 (I was there for that).

The lesser-known rivalry, probably because it's been so much less competitive, is Willamette's trophy game with Lewis & Clark: The Wagon Wheel game.  Willamette's only lost the Wheel once in the last 20 or so years, but when they did lose it in 2000, the team spent the offseason rehearsing the ceremony they'd perform when they won it back the next year.  From what Speckman tells me, it was a success.  Now, with L&C on the rise, the Pioneers see the Wheel as a symbol for all their years of futility.  I've been hearing rumors - not sure if they're offhand or not - that if/when they get it back, they plan to burn it.  Which would really pour some gas on that rivalry.

[K-Mack]

ooh, the burning ... that's a great start.

There's a list of the 42 or 52 trophy games in the D-III record book, and there's a long rivalries list too. I guess I realized what I was asking for left the door open for a lot of stuff I already knew about but not the stuff I don't already know that readers would love to share.

I've gotten maybe 20 or 30 e-mails about rivalries; now I have to reply to all of them and ask them WHY the specific rivalry is special, not just that it exists.

Hopefully this will make for fruitful reading.