PASSHE Institutions Merging

[Ship69]

Yep. The one outlier year was when Mansfield somehow landed Ernest "Poohbear" McNeal, a 5-7 RB transfer from Bowling Green who rushed for over 3,600 yards in three seasons. He transferred to IUP and was the favorite to replace Chris Morgan but ended up accumulating only 600 yards in 12 games.

Your memory is right about playing Mansfield. Since Ship was still considered a "West" team, they likely wouldn't have played them. As you said, the schedule was shorter but also I believe the league wasn't mandating or scheduling crossovers. I just did a quick glance at Edinboro's historical schedule and they played a grand total of three games in the 1960s against what were then PSAC East teams: Cheyney and East Stroudsburg in 1967 and just East Stroudsburg in 1968.

Actually, my memory did somewhat fail me as we did play Mansfield my senior year. It was the opening game and a 27-14 win for Ship at Mansfield that year, so it probably just didn't register. That season, which would have been 1968, was Ship's only winning season when I attended as the Raiders went 5-3. Other wins that year were Slippery Rock, Edinboro, Lock Haven, and Millersville. The three losses against IUP, Cal, and Clarion were one-sided. Ship and IUP usually played close games in those days, but Cal and Clarion dominated us in the late '60s. Ship actually played Mansfield again and lost the year after I graduated as the Raiders had a miserable 1-7 season in '69. There were few OOC games in those years. We played Brockport, a New York school, twice when I was there and beat them both times. The real outlier was in 1965 when Ship played Hillsdale College in the final game of the season. Hillsdale was highly rated that season, and Ship's 35-14 loss to them was actually considered a good effort as the Raiders went 2-6 that year with wins against Shepherd and Lock Haven. Shepherd was nothing like they've been in recent years. Back then, you usually scheduled them when you wanted to pick up a win.

A major difference now is the sheer size of the players. In my freshman year, Ship had two guys on the o-line who weighed under 200 pounds. That was pretty small even back then, and our backs often didn't get a lot of running room, which was too bad since the backs were pretty good. Ed Hammers, our fullback, had seasons of 745 and 695 yards running behind that undersized line (in 9-game seasons) and was twice named first-team All-Conference. He also was a good baseball player and is in Ship's Hall of Fame. If he'd played now, there's a good chance he would have been in the portal after his sophomore year!

[Fightingscot82]

Those are some great memories. Back then there was no Division 2 and most current D2 and D3 schools were NAIA. Those schools you mention were frequent non-conference opponents: Brockport, Westminster, Waynesburg, Geneva, Geneseo, etc.

[IUPNation]

Hey some coaches built their resume beating on Mansfield for a few decades.

[Ship69]

Hey some coaches built their resume beating on Mansfield for a few decades.

Well, not at Shippensburg. The Raiders only played them nine times from 1958 through 2006 and had a 6-3 record in those games.

[Tdobson]

Those are some great memories. Back then there was no Division 2 and most current D2 and D3 schools were NAIA. Those schools you mention were frequent non-conference opponents: Brockport, Westminster, Waynesburg, Geneva, Geneseo, etc.

I wish we could go back to playing say Westminster and Geneva.

[iupgroundhog]

I was watching my favorite sport last night (Jeopardy) and the $600 clue in the category "On the Rocks" was "The nickname for teams at this Pennsylvania university is The Rock and the mascot is Rocky the Lion. The first contestant to ring in said "Penn State" but the second contestant, in a not very confident way, said "Slippery Rock?"

I think I would have said "Albright?"

[IUPNation]

Well, not at Shippensburg. The Raiders only played them nine times from 1958 through 2006 and had a 6-3 record in those games.

Nope…not Ship or IUP.

IUP only played Mansfield 13 times with a 9-4 record vs the Mountaineers.

[Matt Burglund]

Nope…not Ship or IUP.

IUP only played Mansfield 13 times with a 9-4 record vs the Mountaineers.

Strange to think that Jack Benedict, who has called 601 IUP football games on the radio since 1969, has only called one against Mansfield (2006).

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Strange to think that Jack Benedict, who has called 601 IUP football games on the radio since 1969, has only called one against Mansfield (2006).

How many basketball games has he called at IUP?

[iupgroundhog]

How many basketball games has he called at IUP?

I asked AI and it said over 2,500 games, including men's and women's games. It might be right this time.

[Matt Burglund]

I asked AI and it said over 2,500 games, including men's and women's games. It might be right this time.

I don't think he has an exact number. He usually misses a couple men's games every year when football and basketball overlap, or a few women's games when they play at different sites than the men on the same day. But it's in that range.

Throw in that he called high school football and basketball games for about 50 years and your head starts to spin.