THE IUP Football Thread

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I was a student during the high-water mark of enrollment in, I think, 2012 or 2013. I'm sure somebody will disprove that, but I was under the impression that was the period where there were >15,000 undergraduate students on campus. It's just far different today than what it was then.

To your point, the downtown area of Indiana and Philly Street is a ghost town now compared to when I was in school. I too have questioned how many places have remained open. All things considered, if you cut enrollment in half, you also cut in half the number of individuals who are eligible to even legally drink at the bars. And to your point, the college students now were all COVID kids in high school, so they are much less likely to just go out and be social. Even before I was of drinking age, my friends and I would go out to restaurants on Philly Street and around town. You just went out and did things (25 cent wing night at Grub's was always a blast - I miss the Razz Barbecue flavored sauce). I have gone back to recruit on campus at points during the last 3 years. Like you said, you go to Philly Street on Thursday night and it's just dead. When I was in school, which wasn't that long ago, there were lines out the door at Culps, Twisted Jimmy's, and The Coney at 10:30 every Thursday night. It's just way, way different now. And for the businesses there, that really is sad. Because there are some nice establishments. You guys are saying how different it was way back when.. I graduated in 2015 and it's night and day to when I was there.

Overall, I always felt like Indiana was a really nice town, not just a nice college town. My sister went to Cal and was in the marching band from 2007-2010. That was during the height of their run. We went to almost every Cal home game during that stretch, and the striking thing to me was always how disconnected the university was from the town/community. When I got to IUP, I felt a different vibe in that regard. Felt like the size of Indiana, the niceties of Philly Street, and how close "town" was to campus created a lot more connectedness. Also felt that the community supported basketball and football far better at IUP than at Cal. That said, I do feel like that 2014 IUPatty's event was damaging to that relationship between the students and the community.

More so than the event of 2014 was the response Driscoll gave after years of the debauchery ... taking the stance of 'its off campus and not our problem.'

That was a real "F You" to the town when obviously it was all his animals running loose.

That turned a lot of people (who live here) off on the whole IUP community. It kind of built the invisible wall around campus a lot higher.

Like I said, though, all in all the campus and town are like two different communities now. There's little mingling. I personally only go over there for football or basketball games during the school year.

It does make me laugh when IUP still makes all these top party school lists. That's living off a long ago reputation. It's nothing like that anymore.

Of course, the high school kids of today are the children of the crazy era at IUP.

[IUP24]

It's a different town today than it was even in the 90s or 00s.

From Philly Street, down 7th, to about the KCAC is like its own little world from late August to early May. The only place the townies and students really collide is probably Wal-Mart.


Philly Street isn't anything near what it was 20 years ago. As a whole it's pretty quiet most weekend nights. Thursday nights used to be a circus up there. Now it's just another night. Being honest I have no idea how all the bars are staying in business.

Even the campus is very calm and quiet. I've said many times on here that if you didn't know there was a campus and drove through around 9pm ... well, you really wouldn't know there was a campus.

I think many forget IUP is substantially smaller now than when many of us were students. I mean, like night and day smaller. Add to it this generation prefers to play on their gadgets 24-7 inside their dorms or apartments.

IUPatties had its run. They are trying to keep it alive and that's a good thing. But, it's certainly morphed into a PG version.

I was a student during the high-water mark of enrollment in, I think, 2012 or 2013. I'm sure somebody will disprove that, but I was under the impression that was the period where there were >15,000 undergraduate students on campus. It's just far different today than what it was then.

To your point, the downtown area of Indiana and Philly Street is a ghost town now compared to when I was in school. I too have questioned how many places have remained open. All things considered, if you cut enrollment in half, you also cut in half the number of individuals who are eligible to even legally drink at the bars. And to your point, the college students now were all COVID kids in high school, so they are much less likely to just go out and be social. Even before I was of drinking age, my friends and I would go out to restaurants on Philly Street and around town. You just went out and did things (25 cent wing night at Grub's was always a blast - I miss the Razz Barbecue flavored sauce). I have gone back to recruit on campus at points during the last 3 years. Like you said, you go to Philly Street on Thursday night and it's just dead. When I was in school, which wasn't that long ago, there were lines out the door at Culps, Twisted Jimmy's, and The Coney at 10:30 every Thursday night. It's just way, way different now. And for the businesses there, that really is sad. Because there are some nice establishments. You guys are saying how different it was way back when.. I graduated in 2015 and it's night and day to when I was there.

Overall, I always felt like Indiana was a really nice town, not just a nice college town. My sister went to Cal and was in the marching band from 2007-2010. That was during the height of their run. We went to almost every Cal home game during that stretch, and the striking thing to me was always how disconnected the university was from the town/community. When I got to IUP, I felt a different vibe in that regard. Felt like the size of Indiana, the niceties of Philly Street, and how close "town" was to campus created a lot more connectedness. Also felt that the community supported basketball and football far better at IUP than at Cal. That said, I do feel like that 2014 IUPatty's event was damaging to that relationship between the students and the community.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

West Chester gets 30K in December for the Christmas Parade. IUPatty's can have stuff indoors as well. They have a convention complex...with a hotel. The whole floor of the KCAC can be set up for family fun too.

I just see a wasted opportunity for a community large enough to stage something fun in the late winter/spring to draw in visitors and fill the town coffers. They already have the Indiana County fair for the end of summer and then IUP Homecoming for the fall.

The townies need to have a come to Jesus moment and realize that campus is it's biggest economic engine. Yes it has two bank HQ's (I saw First Commonwealth Bank locations on the Main Line last week....and of course we have S & T all over Chester County)...but they aren't going to keep the whole town afloat. For better or for worse the fortunes of IUP are linked to the continued fortunes of Indiana Borough. Embrace IUPatty's...make it an event. That schools is part of your local identity....Embrace it.

I was very encouraged to read the frats were making the effort. I don't know if they would have ever done that in the 80's....and really frats should be about coming together to be leaders as opposed to staging debauchery in the basement and charging 18 year olds to drink unfiltered Allegheny River Water out of a keg. So if the frats are doing better..I'm happy to see it.

It's a different town today than it was even in the 90s or 00s.

From Philly Street, down 7th, to about the KCAC is like its own little world from late August to early May. The only place the townies and students really collide is probably Wal-Mart.


Philly Street isn't anything near what it was 20 years ago. As a whole it's pretty quiet most weekend nights. Thursday nights used to be a circus up there. Now it's just another night. Being honest I have no idea how all the bars are staying in business.

Even the campus is very calm and quiet. I've said many times on here that if you didn't know there was a campus and drove through around 9pm ... well, you really wouldn't know there was a campus.

I think many forget IUP is substantially smaller now than when many of us were students. I mean, like night and day smaller. Add to it this generation prefers to play on their gadgets 24-7 inside their dorms or apartments.

IUPatties had its run. They are trying to keep it alive and that's a good thing. But, it's certainly morphed into a PG version.

[iupgroundhog]

I can honestly say I have never nor ever want to step inside the Jimmy Stewart Museum. The most I ever did was get a picture taken next to the statue 40 years ago and once was enough for that.

I like small, special-interest museums like that. The Jimmy Stewart Museum is pretty good (although I haven't been in it for a long time).

[IUPNation]

Yeah, put some Irish dancers in a parade down Philadelphia Street, at least. Let's face it, Jimmy Stewart has been dead for 27 years so not much of an attraction there. Reminds me of the promotion of the "Ugliest Man" in the 80's. The community took that and ran with it, gaining national and even international attention. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons, that was a classic.

I can honestly say I have never nor ever want to step inside the Jimmy Stewart Museum. The most I ever did was get a picture taken next to the statue 40 years ago and once was enough for that.

[IUPNation]

The name Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is a misnomer. This paper is out of Greensburg but covers Pittsburgh news, so IUP is much more local to them than the standard Pittsburgh paper. Now that RM Scaife is dead and no longer funding them, they don't even publish a print copy anymore.

The friends from other schools & towns is a HUGE problem. Most likely the issue with the Homecoming shooting. Decades ago when my fraternity threw parties, it was always some idiot we didn't know who caused problems. Never members, friends, or even acquaintances. Always a strange friend tagging along with someone we know.

If the weather were better, Indiana could make it a huge family friendly event. Close down Philadelphia Street and fill it with vendors, inflatable kid stuff, etc. Make it one of those events that little Suzie's parents are like, "Hey we're coming into town for this" and suddenly little Suzie is reconsidering getting white girl wasted with her BORG on some lawn.

West Chester gets 30K in December for the Christmas Parade. IUPatty's can have stuff indoors as well. They have a convention complex...with a hotel. The whole floor of the KCAC can be set up for family fun too.

I just see a wasted opportunity for a community large enough to stage something fun in the late winter/spring to draw in visitors and fill the town coffers. They already have the Indiana County fair for the end of summer and then IUP Homecoming for the fall.

The townies need to have a come to Jesus moment and realize that campus is it's biggest economic engine. Yes it has two bank HQ's (I saw First Commonwealth Bank locations on the Main Line last week....and of course we have S & T all over Chester County)...but they aren't going to keep the whole town afloat. For better or for worse the fortunes of IUP are linked to the continued fortunes of Indiana Borough. Embrace IUPatty's...make it an event. That schools is part of your local identity....Embrace it.

I was very encouraged to read the frats were making the effort. I don't know if they would have ever done that in the 80's....and really frats should be about coming together to be leaders as opposed to staging debauchery in the basement and charging 18 year olds to drink unfiltered Allegheny River Water out of a keg. So if the frats are doing better..I'm happy to see it.

[iupgroundhog]

What I got from this article:

1. The Yinzer media still harps on crap that happened 10 years ago and is trying to bring it up every year to get clicks. As an Eagles fan who reads articles from the media still trying to peg a harmless snowball event in 1968 to today's fanbase, I find this to be lazy reporting at it's finest. IUPatty's 2014 will be reported like it happened last year, every year for the next 55 years.

2. The fact that students from other schools are there. If the Indiana social scene is so much better than the sad campus you are already on...why aren't you upgrading your life choices and transferring to IUP? You'll receive a better education and have a much better social life than sitting at the Sheetz on a Saturday night in that place we shall not mention in Butler County.

3. The students were out there cleaning up. That is a good thing. You want to have a big party, you must clean up after yourselves.

4. I agree with the University telling the frats to cut off their parties at 6pm.

5. How stupid are the townie leaders not finding a way to turn this into a full town event...where it could be planned and controlled even better and draw in more than just drunk, high and horny college students. You have hotels...fill them with people looking for something fun to do on a weekend instead of sitting home in Coal Ditch or suburban Pittsburgh. West Chester can fill it's downtown several times a year hosting 30-40K people in the streets for street festivals and parades and the people spend money and there are no rampages in the streets. Figure it out Indiana Borough.

Yeah, put some Irish dancers in a parade down Philadelphia Street, at least. Let's face it, Jimmy Stewart has been dead for 27 years so not much of an attraction there. Reminds me of the promotion of the "Ugliest Man" in the 80's. The community took that and ran with it, gaining national and even international attention. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons, that was a classic.

[Fightingscot82]

What I got from this article:

1. The Yinzer media still harps on crap that happened 10 years ago and is trying to bring it up every year to get clicks. As an Eagles fan who reads articles from the media still trying to peg a harmless snowball event in 1968 to today's fanbase, I find this to be lazy reporting at it's finest. IUPatty's 2014 will be reported like it happened last year, every year for the next 55 years.

2. The fact that students from other schools are there. If the Indiana social scene is so much better than the sad campus you are already on...why aren't you upgrading your life choices and transferring to IUP? You'll receive a better education and have a much better social life than sitting at the Sheetz on a Saturday night in that place we shall not mention in Butler County.

3. The students were out there cleaning up. That is a good thing. You want to have a big party, you must clean up after yourselves.

4. I agree with the University telling the frats to cut off their parties at 6pm.

5. How stupid are the townie leaders not finding a way to turn this into a full town event...where it could be planned and controlled even better and draw in more than just drunk, high and horny college students. You have hotels...fill them with people looking for something fun to do on a weekend instead of sitting home in Coal Ditch or suburban Pittsburgh. West Chester can fill it's downtown several times a year hosting 30-40K people in the streets for street festivals and parades and the people spend money and there are no rampages in the streets. Figure it out Indiana Borough.

The name Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is a misnomer. This paper is out of Greensburg but covers Pittsburgh news, so IUP is much more local to them than the standard Pittsburgh paper. Now that RM Scaife is dead and no longer funding them, they don't even publish a print copy anymore.

The friends from other schools & towns is a HUGE problem. Most likely the issue with the Homecoming shooting. Decades ago when my fraternity threw parties, it was always some idiot we didn't know who caused problems. Never members, friends, or even acquaintances. Always a strange friend tagging along with someone we know.

If the weather were better, Indiana could make it a huge family friendly event. Close down Philadelphia Street and fill it with vendors, inflatable kid stuff, etc. Make it one of those events that little Suzie's parents are like, "Hey we're coming into town for this" and suddenly little Suzie is reconsidering getting white girl wasted with her BORG on some lawn.

[IUPNation]

IUPatties roundup: https://triblive.com/local/regional/...-frat-parties/

What I got from this article:

1. The Yinzer media still harps on crap that happened 10 years ago and is trying to bring it up every year to get clicks. As an Eagles fan who reads articles from the media still trying to peg a harmless snowball event in 1968 to today's fanbase, I find this to be lazy reporting at it's finest. IUPatty's 2014 will be reported like it happened last year, every year for the next 55 years.

2. The fact that students from other schools are there. If the Indiana social scene is so much better than the sad campus you are already on...why aren't you upgrading your life choices and transferring to IUP? You'll receive a better education and have a much better social life than sitting at the Sheetz on a Saturday night in that place we shall not mention in Butler County.

3. The students were out there cleaning up. That is a good thing. You want to have a big party, you must clean up after yourselves.

4. I agree with the University telling the frats to cut off their parties at 6pm.

5. How stupid are the townie leaders not finding a way to turn this into a full town event...where it could be planned and controlled even better and draw in more than just drunk, high and horny college students. You have hotels...fill them with people looking for something fun to do on a weekend instead of sitting home in Coal Ditch or suburban Pittsburgh. West Chester can fill it's downtown several times a year hosting 30-40K people in the streets for street festivals and parades and the people spend money and there are no rampages in the streets. Figure it out Indiana Borough.

[Fightingscot82]

IUPatties roundup: https://triblive.com/local/regional/...-frat-parties/

[EyeoftheHawk]

The team released their spring practice schedule today and it can be found on their social media accounts. I caught part a walkthrough practice they had yesterday afternoon in an auxiliary gym. It’s a lot harder to tell who is who when they don’t have a number on!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Update in the Gazette today on the Homecoming shooting. No arrests made yet, which is very surprising.

Sounds like some Civil suits are about to start flying.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

That's probably the case.

I'd assume so to be honest. Those two aren't no-name freshmen. Had either left it would have been news and leaked.

[iupgroundhog]

The older guys often miss their last Spring due to semesters allotted but then return for Fall camp.

That's probably the case.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Not sure if this is official or not. Most of the names are on there. I don't see Ridley or Laney. Note that QB Hancox is now listed as a TE. Makes sense. As expected, a couple of other names missing, too.

https://iupathletics.com/sports/football/roster

The older guys often miss their last Spring due to semesters allotted but then return for Fall camp.