Ivy League Football

With 18 players of our 2013 recruiting class already announcing they're coming to Columbia, we're more than halfway to the total number of recruits the Lions will be allowed to add this year.

Last years' incoming class was rather large, and the Ivy League has all kinds of rules about how many kids you can bring in every four year period.

If we bring in 30 freshmen, that would put our roster total—as of today—to about 120. For a team that struggled to keep 76 kids on the roster just three years ago, this is a huge step up.

As much as some of us get excited about freshmen breaking onto the field and making an immediate impact, the best results of our bigger roster should be a starting lineup made up of more juniors and seniors than freshmen and sophomores.

We're just six days away from "National Letter of Intent" signing day, which is a much bigger event for the BCS schools. However, it helps Ivy recruits come to their decisions as well. We should get more names to add to our list in about a week or so.

As it is, we're way ahead of previous years. It seems like the rise of the Internet and the growing general interest in high school recruits is making it easier to find articles and public reports on Ivy prospects.

Sobering Story

Speaking of publicly-reported recruits, it's important to remember that none are set in stone. Yale found that out the hard way recently, when prized linebacker prospect Chris Wade changed his mind about coming to New Haven. Instead, he is taking a scholarship offer from Miami of Ohio instead.

Snobby Ivy Leaguers like us may scoff at Miami as a school, but it is a very strong academic institution. In fact, Miami of Ohio is so good academically that Ben Roethlisberger's parents pushed him to go there rather than a lot of bigger football schools, because they wanted him to get a strong education.

This is an scary reminder that just because we have more public information about recruits, publicity doesn't equal certainty.

But it's cold outside and we have 233 days until our season starts.  These kinds of stories are what we have to hang our hats on!

Cypress Bay High School in Broward County, FL

I thought talking about a player from the Miami area might warm us up on this snowy day here in the Northeast.

The Miami Herald's sports blog reports that Cypress Bay linebacker Joe Nathan is coming to Columbia.

The 6'2", 215-pound Nathan was a part of what many pundits considered to be the best linebacking corps in high school football.

Bring us a Rally, Dianne!

Columbia Athletic Director Dr. Dianne Murphy will be in Times Square this afternoon to ring the closing bell at the NASDAQ exchange along with 2008 College Football Hall of Fame inductee Don McPherson.

Dr. Murphy will be there representing the National Football Foundation, as she is the chairperson of the NFF Gridiron Club.

Here's a bit of background on the NFF.

Founded in 1947 with leadership from General Douglas MacArthur, legendary Army coach Earl "Red" Blaik and immortal journalist Grantland Rice, The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame, a non-profit educational organization, runs programs designed to use the power of amateur football in developing scholarship, citizenship and athletic achievement in young people. With 121 chapters and 12,000 members nationwide, NFF programs include the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind., Play It Smart, the NFF Hampshire Honor Society, the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Alumni Association, the NFF Gridiron Clubs of New York City, Dallas, and Los Angeles, and scholarships of over $1 million for college and high school scholar-athletes. The NFF presents the MacArthur Trophy, the Draddy Trophy, presented by HealthSouth, and releases the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Standings.




Talk about Good Timing!

The "Buffer" in the News!!

How's this for an eerie coincidence? Just a few days after I posted my brief biography of former Columbia head coach Aldo "Buff" Donelli, the Buffer's name was injected back into sports headlines all over the world because of something that happened on a soccer pitch in Southern California.

Saha Kljestan's debut goals with the U.S. national team were the most since Donelli scored four in a 4-2 win over Mexico on May 24, 1934, in a World Cup qualifying match against Mexico.

A more detailed look at the new connection between Kljestan and Donelli can be read here.

Buckingham Browne & and Nichols: a new Lion pipeline?

As we get closer to "National Signing Day," (Feb. 5), our list of reported incoming freshmen continues to grow.

Remember, Ivy recruits don't actually "sign" anything, but with all the Div. I-A recruits signing the national letter of intent by the fifth, the recruits for other schools often start making their verbal commitments.

The headline name for today (in my opinion) is the very promising offensive guard Xander Frantz from Buckingham Browne & Nichols H.S. That's the same high school that sent us current rising sophomore Nico Papas and another incoming freshman, Steven Grassa. (But we did lose out on getting BB&N QB Mike DiChiara, who has chosen Cornell.)

Frantz is graded highly by scouts who expect him to excel on the offensive line, despite the fact that he played on the defensive line as well in high school.

It would appear that Nico Papas' father John has become a good ally for Columbia recruiters. John Papas is the head coach at Buckingham Browne & Nichols.


Scott Ward

Another offensive lineman bound for Morningside Heights is Newport Harbor High School's Scott Ward. Ward is 6'7" and 241 pounds, so he may need to bulk up, but that's a great frame to work with. Ward's commitment has been reported here OCVarsity.com, a very good web site.



Andrew McHugh

Finally, we have Andrew McHugh, an outside linebacker at Saint John's Prep. School in Massachusetts. McHugh is a native of Swampscott, MA, which was also the hometown of Columbia great Greg Abbruzzese '92.

And Check This Out!

A reader has passed along this link to a video featuring an amazing one-handed grab by incoming freshman wide receiver Price Pinkerton. Pretty amazing.

So now, with Barack Obama as our president, it's time for a completely unscientific, but still fun, look at how Columbia football might do under another Columbian in the White House.

I say "another Columbian" because while Obama is the first Columbia College grad to become president, three other presidents have had very strong ties to the university. Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt both attended Columbia Law School, and Dwight Eisenhower went directly from the presidency at Columbia to the presidency of the entire nation.



T.R. didn't need no stinking law degree

"T.R."

Let's start with Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy attended the law school in 1880 but left in 1881 to run for the New York State Assembly. During that 1880 season, the Lions went 1-2 with losses to Harvard and Yale but a win over Rutgers. The great and unforgettable Fredrick Potts was the team captain. (Like you all didn't know that.)

During TR's presidential years (and Teddy became president just as the 1901 season began), things started off well. In 1901, the Lions went 8-5 with wins over Rutgers, Penn, and Navy to balance out losses to Harvard and Yale.

1902 was a 6-4-1 season for Columbia with big wins over Rutgers and Navy again.

But 1903 was the best year for the Lions during the first President Roosevelt's tenure. Columbia went 9-1 with six shutouts—a loss to Yale prevented a perfect season.

The 1904 squad went 7-3 with another six shutouts but also fell to Yale in a rout. The Elis routed the Lions again—reaching a low point with a 4-3-2 1905 season.

Then tragedy struck when Columbia President Nicholas Murray banned football after the 1905 season. The reason for the ban was the violence that was running rampant in the sport at the time. The ban would stay in effect until 1915.

But Murray's ban was not ignored at the White House. Roosevelt became the point man in reforming the game to make it safer. TR's efforts helped bring football back to Columbia—albeit six years after he left office.

So, the total won-lost-tied record for the Columbia Lions, with TR as a student and President, was a very robust 35-18-1.



FDR, another Columbia "dropout"

FDR

Franklin Roosevelt entered Columbia Law School in 1905 but dropped out (never to graduate) in 1907 because he had passed the New York State Bar exam. So, FDR was only on campus for the 4-3-2 1905 season.

But the latter President Roosevelt was in office for 12 seasons of Columbia football—1933 through 1944.

Like TR, things started out with a bang as the Lions went 8-1 in 1933 and won the 1934 Rose Bowl over Stanford, 7-0, on New Year's Day 1934. That 1933 season included a 33-0 win over Penn State and 16-0 shutout of Syracuse.

1934 was another strong season with the Lions going 7-1 with another win over Penn State, 14-7 and a long-awaited 12-6 victory over Yale.

But things started heading a bit south in 1935. Columbia went 4-4-1 but rallied for two season-ending wins against Brown and Dartmouth to avoid a losing record.

There was a brief upswing in 1936 with a 5-3 record—including another 7-0 win over Stanford. But 1937-39 were three weak seasons in a row with no more than three wins in any single season despite the presence of Sid Luckman on the squad in '37 and '38.

1940 was another standout year. The Lions went 5-2-2 with huge wins over Georgia and Wisconsin, but the actual war years of 1941-44 (though technically the war did not start until after the '41 season was over) were generally rough. No year was rougher than 1943 when a very depleted Lion squad (due to the war) went 0-8, lost four games by shutout, and were outscored by 313-33.

The overall Columbia football record with FDR as a student and a president was 48-54-9.



President Eisenhower leads the cheers at Baker Field, 1952

Ike

Dwight David Eisenhower became president of Columbia University in 1948 and served full-time until 1950 when he became the supreme commander of NATO. He really was a campus figure for just the '48 and '49 seasons.

The 1948 team finished 4-5 but did post big wins over Yale, Navy, and Syracuse. The 1949 team was 2-7 but did beat Harvard for an early season highlight.

While Ike was in the White House during the 1953 through 1960 seasons, fortunes were not bright for the Lions. There were no winning seasons, but there were some high points—an 8-0 shutout of Harvard in '53, a 13-0 shutout of Yale in '58, and a 44-6 thrashing of Cornell in '60.

The overall record for the Lions, with Ike as president of the university and then President of the United States, was 22-68.



Barack Obama in his college days

BHO

And now for our current president. Mr. Obama graduated from Columbia College in 1983, and he was a student at CU for the 1981 and 1982 seasons. Both of those seasons were 1-9 years, but they were exciting as the great John Witkowski was at the helm at QB.

Both of the wins during Obama's undergraduate years were memorable—the Lions beat Penn in '81 by a 20-9 score and then crushed Princeton in the last Homecoming game at the old Baker Field—35-14.

So President Obama comes into this season with a 2-18 record to build on.

We believe in change.

Mike Tree


Columbia is among four Ivy League schools who have reportedly made an offer to Brophy College Prep linebacker Mike Tree. Tree comes from the same high school as rising Lions junior lineman Brandon "Moose" Veldman.

Scout.com is reporting that Tree visited Princeton last weekend and is going to Dartmouth this weekend. There's no information on whether he's headed to visit Columbia or Brown, in the coming weeks.

But Tree, for his part, is ready to jump into the New York City comedy scene. He's the star of a series of YouTube sketches which he and his friends at Brophy produced called "Campus Linebacker." They're a takeoff on the "Office Linebacker" Reebok commercials from a several years ago.



Rich Skrosky

Coach Skrosky Promoted

Former Lions offensive coordinator Rich Skrosky has been made a top assistant at Elon College in North Carolina. Skrosky was a popular figure in the Columbia football program, and he was the only one of Ray Tellier's assistants to make the transition to Bob Shoop's staff. We wish him well.





Page one of the 1961 Columbia-Penn program

Now back to our page-by-page look at a vintage piece of Columbia football history: the 1961 Columbia-Penn game program.

The first page of text in the program sets the scene for the game and was written by the program's editor, Philip J. Burke. Burke was a prototypical "sports information director" of his time, but I believe he only handled football for Columbia, starting in 1960. I don't know much about how Burke came to Columbia, but I know he left the Lions in 1965 to do public relations for the old Roosevelt Field Raceway on Long Island (now it's just a mall) and then got his call to "the show" as a PR director for the New York Rangers. He died in 2000 at the age of 85.

The top of the page features two small inset pictures. On the left, we have an "in action" shot of running back Tom Haggerty, one of the leading heroes of the '61 squad. Haggerty came into the game with 482 yards rushing and a gaudy 5.3 yards per carry average. He also had nine TDs through seven games and one two-point conversion.

The small picture on the right is of the Lion statue in front of Chrystie Field House.

Also on the top of the page is an interesting note that the game that day would be the 557th intercollegiate football game for the Lions. That brings us back to the question of just how many games Columbia has played since 1870, and when exactly was our 1,000th game?

If the Penn game was game No. 557, then game 1,000 was the 2008 season opener against Fordham. I had mistakenly thought it was the game against Dartmouth in late October.

Having more than 1,000 games in the history of your program is pretty impressive, but the way the BCS loads up the schedules these days most big-time programs will soon be playing 1,000 games every year.

Now I don't like to speak ill of the dead, and I'm sure Mr. Burke was a totally fine man, but I'm not the biggest fan of the copy he wrote to set up the game. It's a kind of a flowery piece hinging on the title of a hit song from the late 1950's called "Now is the Hour." It's a very general look at the successful 1961 team, giving most of the credit to Coach Donelli and his staff.

I guess it's likely the piece is just dated; something that may have been better appreciated by a 1961 audience. Today's fans are stat- and personality-obsessed, and other than a deliberately modest listing of the graduating seniors on the team, there is little a modern fan can sink his teeth into.

But the style reminds me of the little set-up voiceovers Howard Cosell used to do for Monday Night Football. If you take the copy from Burke's piece and put it in Cosell's excited voice, it kind of works.

On the bottom of the page, we have a table of contents on the right and some publication information on the left. We learn that Burke's associate editor was Bill Shannon, who is often referred to as a "Columbia historian," but I don't know what his official titles were. The pictures were taken by an "M. Warman." (A reader tells me he was named Manny Warman and he took the official pictures for Columbia for many years).

The program was peddled for national advertising by Spencer Advertising and published by Robert W. Kelly Publishing. Both companies are now defunct.

Talking about Tom



Not all the talk about race and college coaching is worth listening to, but Ed Daigneault gets it exactly right in this piece about Yale's new coach Tom Williams.

It's nice that he also points out that Columbia Coach Norries Wilson has brought the Lions back to respectability, which we may not be entirely clear in the won-lost record, but is entirely clear on the field of play, where Columbia outplayed at least half of its Ivy opponents in 2008.

Ivy fans know that while Yale may have the richest alumni and most storied football history in the conference, things can still go bad in a hurry in New Haven.

The Elis went from perennial contenders in the '60s, '70s, and '80s to chumps in the 1990s. Columbia beat Yale four years in a row from 1994-97, and not all of those teams were the Lions' best.

While Jack Siedlecki's tenure was not totally fantastic over the years, he seemed to be getting much, much better in his final three years.

Williams will be taking over a team that will be losing just about all its best players to graduation. That should actually help in his first two years, as knowledgeable fans will realize this and not set the bar too high.

From a Columbia standpoint, I would look at recruiting in the state of Connecticut as a possible measuring stick. With Coach Wilson's strong CT ties, the Lions have been grabbing more and more strong recruits from right under Yale's shadow. If that keeps happening, it may mean the Eli program is really in decline everywhere else as well.

George Seitz, RIP

I have recently been informed that three-year letter winner George Seitz '56 died last week. Sadly, I do not know much about his playing career, except to say he played on Lions teams that twice beat Harvard and took on Army at Yankee Stadium in 1953.

Anyone who has more personal or gridiron info on Mr. Seitz kindly comment below or email me.

Austin Knowlin has been named an honorable mention team member for The Sports Network's All-America team. He was specifically recognized as a punt returner.

The announcement reminds me that when I first saw Knowlin play, he most reminded me of Towson grad Dave Meggett, who was a classically undersized "scatback" for the NY Giants and a dangerous punt returner as a pro. I get the feeling that Knowlin could make for a decent NFL prospect in that same type of role.

Searching for Bud Corn

For 25 years, Belmont "Bud" Corn '34 was the P.A. announcer for football at Baker Field. He was a total professional, but also displayed a sense of humor from time to time, and that made him a beloved figure from 1936 until 1961. His final game at the mic was the contest against Penn that ended with a huge Columbia win that clinched the Ivy title.

Bud had to quit because his business was starting to demand too much time and travel. You see, Bud was the leading commercial display artist in the world, and with the 1964 World's Fair set for New York, he needed to get started on the many requests for his design services.

It's a great story, but I have one problem. I don't know what happened to Mr. Corn next. Well, I know he continued to be a success at his business and that he had at least one daughter who was married in the late 1960s...but that's it.

Could Bud Corn, who has to be at least 90 years old today, still be alive?

I have tried to track down nonagenarian Columbians before. Last summer I found Sid Luckman's favorite receiving target, John Siegal '39. (He was also a teammate of Sid's with the Bears).

Mr. Siegal was nice enough to take my call, but sadly he was too hard of hearing to be a part of any kind of interview. That was a real loss for Columbia fans old and young. I certainly wish him the best.

But if any fans reading this know anything about Bud, I'd appreciate hearing about it...even if it's just a memory you might have about his voice over old Baker Field P.A.

You can't let history get away from you.

Is this your college loan officer?

The deepening economic crisis and the effect it's having on university budgets is becoming more troubling every day.

Throw in the Bernie Madoff scandal, and you have actual panic in some circles here in New York.

It does not appear that the Madoff scam has touched Columbia in any direct way, but a member of the Columbia College Board of Visitors, J. Ezra Merkin, has been accused of actively funneling money to Madoff from the OTHER BOARDS he served on, including New York School, which sued Merkin on Friday over this. Merkin's lawyer says he'll fight the suit vigorously.

The question for us here is whether this economic downturn will hurt Ivy football and/or Columbia in particular. Could it actually help?

The obvious argument for those who say it will hurt us is that a financial squeeze on more Americans will dissuade kids from taking offers at non-scholarship schools like the Ivies. No one wants to take on more debt right now.

But it could go the other way as well. The scholarship schools will also get hit hard, especially the state schools. So there may be fewer scholarships to go around and some of the better prospects may not get free rides at non-Ivy schools anyway. If that's the case, a lot of players would presumably choose to come to an Ivy because they aren't getting a scholarship elsewhere anyway.

Also, many FCS/D-IAA schools may discontinue football, expanding the field of potential recruits for everyone else.

Obviously there are some good arguments to be made either way. But history is really of no help here. The last deep recession in this country was 1982-83, and the nature of the Ivies is just too different to use those times as a meaningful comparison.

In the short run, we all may suffer when it comes to facilities. Dartmouth's West Stands improvement project at Memorial Field has been put on hold, and I doubt we'll see any of the very, very, very needed improvements at Brown Stadium anytime soon.

I'd love to hear any informed opinions about all of this.

Lineman on the Hook?

Quality defensive linemen are becoming quite a rarity in the Ivies, and that's what made Owen Fraser's addition to the team and Lou Miller's emergence on the D-line so valuable in 2008.

A strong-looking Houston area high school star on the defensive line is Anthony Villamagna, and he has Columbia on his list of possible schools.

Nick Gerst

NorthJersey.com is reporting that Bergen Catholic running back Nick Gerst is coming to Columbia.

You can see Gerst's highlight video here.

The PA Football News Web site reports that a good-sized tight end from the Wilmington-area school, Dallas Hartman, is also in his way to Morningside Heights.

Here's a little more info about Hartman from a local publication.

Another player on our radar, but also a lot of other schools' radars, is Brent Caprio from Mainland High School in South Jersey.

In Case You Missed it...

Former Columbia halfback, and favorite target for Archie Roberts, Roger Dennis, made a comment this weekend on a post I wrote over the summer. To save you some clicking time, here's what he said about his career with Roberts:

Many thanks for the kind comments; I sure enjoyed teaming up with Archie and wish Coach (Buff) Donelli would have allowed me to play receiver in my Senior year, the year following Archie's graduation. Coach felt we were no longer a passing team. In my opinion we would have had a more successful season if I had stayed at receiver.

Archie was from Holyoke, Mass., and attended Deerfield Academy. BTW, he was also an outstanding basketball player, and if I remember correctly he played one season of B-Ball at Columbia too, probably as a frosh.

Enjoyed reading all this; thanks much.

Roger Dennis '66

Hopefully, we'll hear more from Mr. Dennis in the future.

I also just found this link to a great Sports Illustrated article about Roberts where Dennis is also mentioned.

Movie Magic

Erik Greenberg Anjou, the director of 8: Ivy League Football and America, was a guest at Chez Novak this Friday night. He was kind enough to drop off my copy of the just-released movie DVD.

In the bonus section, there's a great speech given by Brian Dennehy, who also narrates the film, that at first brings laughs and then some tears. It's a great, great speech and should be required viewing for all Columbia fans.

I also have to say that watching the film again in the comfort of my own home, as opposed to the uncomfortable grand ballroom of the Yale Club where the film premiered, was much, much better. I think documentaries shown in traditional movie theaters may also be a bad mix, and showing them in non-theater settings is tougher.

I'm grateful the folks at the Yale Club were nice enough to host the event last spring, but for those of you who were there, I suggest buying the DVD and watching it in your living room.

Click here to order your copy of 8.

Bagnoli, Murphy, and Estes: Ivy football's 10+-year men


Am I the only person who thinks we're about to see more big changes in the coaching world of Ivy football?

Yale is currently looking for only it's third head coach in 40 years.

There are reports that Harvard's Tim Murphy is actively being recruited by other schools, (more than usual I mean... this is kind of an annual occurrence).

How much longer do Dartmouth Head Coach Buddy Teevens and Cornell skipper Jim Knowles have?

And all this is happening as the schools all deal with a lot less operating money lying around.

On paper, it seems like that could be the perfect recipe for a lot of young assistants, (presumably ones without big salary demands), rising to head coaching spots in the Ivies in the coming years. By "young" I mean real young... like 35 years old or younger.

Of course, one has to pour some cold water on all of this by looking at some other pieces of evidence that point to coaching stability in the league.

I doubt that Murphy, for example, is leaving Harvard... maybe ever. Harvard, and every Ivy school as well, is a great place to be when you're a coach with young kids. When Harvard played Columbia here last season, Murphy's youngest daughter, who I guess is junior high age, quietly sat in the pressbox and did her homework, (how do you RAISE kids like that, by the way? My oldest daughter at five is already a pressbox gadfly... not that I haven't encouraged that), and my guess is that Murphy stays in Cambridge for at least another 9 or so years until that young lady has graduated.

Buddy Teevens may be a bit on the hot seat after going 0-10 this season, but I think he's got another year to turn things around. And by "turn things around," I mean get the team back to 3-7, which is certainly possible for 2009.

Jim Knowles is also under some scrutiny now after posting some good seasons in his first years as coach, but then seeing his team fall back to the cellar once again. On the other hand, Knowles is still a popular former player and he can point to the tremendous turnover among his assistant coaches as an excuse for some of the backsliding in Ithaca.

Roger Hughes is amazingly going in to his 10th year at Princeton, (seems like he was the "new kid on the block" just yesterday), and while some fans may not be happy with what seems like some serious recruiting holes, (NO backup QB's and hardly any backup RB's in 2008), he's close enough to the surprising 2005 season and the 2006 championship season to feel safe for now.

I don't think you can say any other Ivy coach is in any possible "trouble" right now.

But things change. And so far, the decade of the 2000's has been historically quiet when it comes to Ivy League head coaching turnover. If you include Yale's impending head coaching change, this decade has seen only seven head coaching changes.

Both the 90's and 60's saw eight head coaching changes, the 70's saw ten, and the wild 80's witnessed 12 turnovers. (Both Penn and Columbia switched coaches three times each from 1980-89, and Cornell and Princeton switched twice... although Princeton's second switch was due to the sudden death of Ron Rogerson after the 1986 season).

What's even more interesting is that since the 1960's, each decade had no more than two schools make no head coaching changes. But so far through nine years of the 2000's, four schools have stood pat, (Brown, Harvard, Penn, and Princeton).

So it would seem logical that someone other than Jack Siedlecki is about to go sometime soon for either good reasons or bad ones.

But one could also look back at the last few years and surmise that mediocrity is now more acceptable in the Ivy coaching ranks than ever before. Now I take Columbia out of this discussion because it's made two coaching changes since 2000 and because of our weaker record historically.

If this were 1988 or 1978 instead of 2008, would an 0-10 Buddy Teevens not be getting fired? Would Jim Knowles be safe for next year? I'm not sure, but I hope the answer isn't somehow related to the fact that some Ivy presidents and alumni are less interested in winning football than they were years ago.

If Siedlecki's ouster had something to do with alumni or administrative dissatisfaction over wins and losses... I actually would have to say that's a good thing overall. We don't want our league, or any team in our league, to start excusing mediocrity even in relative terms. Siedlecki had a great overall winning percentage, but Yale alumni have traditionally demanded better than a .333 winning percentage over Harvard and Siedlecki could not deliver that.

On the bright side, if some of our most successful coaches like Murphy or Phil Estes at Brown get plucked by BCS program schools or the NFL, that's VERY good for Ivy's reputation overall. I say someone should call Murphy and ask him to "take one for the team" and accept a job elsewhere. (Okay, that's self-serving since Murphy is on such a hot streak right now against Columbia and everyone else... but every little bit could help).

So watch the situations at places like Cornell, Dartmouth and Princeton next year at least as closely as you're watching the coaching search at Yale right now. What does or doesn't happen to the head coaches at these schools will be very telling about what is and isn't expected in our league.