THE IUP Football Thread

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I still remember going down there for a game on the old grass field and standing on the rickety bleachers on the away side thinking what a joke the Cal football program was. IUP destroyed them before halftime and there were more IUP fans there than Cal fans. We can go back and forth about how the turnaround ultimately came to be, but for those of us who saw what it was compared to how it is now, it’s pretty remarkable. Despite the awful outcomes recently, I actually enjoy going to games there. They do a nice job.

It's a nice stadium. Ample, close parking. I don't love the visiting side. You no longer feel like you'll fall off the cliff, but there are some sight-line issues, etc. For our older fans, it's a haul to hit the restrooms and concessions.

I'm a little surprised Cal scheduled this for 12 p.m. This has been a later timeslot game down there for the last several visits and certainly one of their biggest gates / tailgate atmospheres. Tort did say the team is going down Friday night (which, they don't normally do). Perhaps he's trying to break the curse. IUP hasn't played there since 2018. There's a handful of players on the team who played in that game but not many. I remember Q. Carter had a kickoff house call in that last visit.

Tort said last night the Vulcans are the most talented team they'll have faced this year.

Also, they are trying to get the band to the game. I can't even remember the last time the IUP band hit the road. They are having busing issues, however.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Easy…The Godfather used funny money to beef up the program…and they managed to stay above water all these years. I mean their best years were well over a decade ago but enough seems to be left in place to keep them from going back to being a bottom feeder..for now. I still think the merger will hurt them athletically. I can’t see the admin of it letting Mon Valley have more money than Clarion.

The stories of their admissions standards in that era are legendary. I'm not just talking about poor academic admissions. You want to talk about criminal backgrounds. Good Lord. They pulled it off for a long time. Amazingly.

[IUPNation]

It's a nice stadium. Ample, close parking. I don't love the visiting side. You no longer feel like you'll fall off the cliff, but there are some sight-line issues, etc. For our older fans, it's a haul to hit the restrooms and concessions.

I'm a little surprised Cal scheduled this for 12 p.m. This has been a later timeslot game down there for the last several visits and certainly one of their biggest gates / tailgate atmospheres. Tort did say the team is going down Friday night (which, they don't normally do). Perhaps he's trying to break the curse. IUP hasn't played there since 2018. There's a handful of players on the team who played in that game but not many. I remember Q. Carter had a kickoff house call in that last visit.

Tort said last night the Vulcans are the most talented team they'll have faced this year.

Also, they are trying to get the band to the game. I can't even remember the last time the IUP band hit the road. They are having busing issues, however.

Are there a shortage of buses in Indiana County?

[Ship69]

I remember we were trying to beat big bad Shippensburg back in the day!

Gotta tip my hat to how your folks turned the program around down there. When I was a freshman at Ship back in the '60s, we beat Shepherd 33-10 in our opener, and that was a bad Shippenburg team (2-6 if I remember correctly). We're the ones trying to play catchup now.

[Fightingscot82]

The stories of their admissions standards in that era are legendary. I'm not just talking about poor academic admissions. You want to talk about criminal backgrounds. Good Lord. They pulled it off for a long time. Amazingly.

Armenti promised Lucky "spots." Basically, if the player was given a spot on the team, he was admitted. That's it right there. I imagine its the allowance Luckhardt had at W&J.

[Fightingscot82]

Easy…The Godfather used funny money to beef up the program…and they managed to stay above water all these years. I mean their best years were well over a decade ago but enough seems to be left in place to keep them from going back to being a bottom feeder..for now. I still think the merger will hurt them athletically. I can’t see the admin of it letting Mon Valley have more money than Clarion.

Oh it was real money. He used funds to prop up football that should have been spent on better purposes. Technically within the rules but he did it in spite of what Harrisburg was telling him. Eventually they called him on it, canned him, and he whined and whined for a couple years until he realized nobody wanted to hear.

[Fightingscot82]

For those of us who remember when Cal was a guaranteed easy win, isn't it weird to think that IUP is 5-11 vs. the Vulcans since Frank Cignetti retired?

I remember going down there in 2005 and being STUNNED. I believe that was Antoine Bagwell - a castoff of the Nebraska fake JV team era - and Ruggerio at QB.

[IUPalum]

I remember going down there in 2005 and being STUNNED. I believe that was Antoine Bagwell - a castoff of the Nebraska fake JV team era - and Ruggerio at QB.

Bagwell and Ruggerio were both really good players and were the start of the Cal turn around.

[ironmaniup]

Armenti promised Lucky "spots." Basically, if the player was given a spot on the team, he was admitted. That's it right there. I imagine its the allowance Luckhardt had at W&J.

I think the worst one was when Cal took Joe Slappy after he was kicked out of IUP. It was crazy the year he came back to IUP, and won.

[iupgroundhog]

Oh it was real money. He used funds to prop up football that should have been spent on better purposes. Technically within the rules but he did it in spite of what Harrisburg was telling him. Eventually they called him on it, canned him, and he whined and whined for a couple years until he realized nobody wanted to hear.

Need I remind you guys that I was the only person who called him out on it prior to when the house of cards collapsed? Everybody else was hopeful that Cal U could bring home a natty to western PA, regardless of how they did it.

The big picture is that Armenti was hired to save Cal U from extinction. He did that - regardless of the ethics to do so. A lot of what he did was by imitating IUP. Should we have been flattered?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Need I remind you guys that I was the only person who called him out on it prior to when the house of cards collapsed? Everybody else was hopeful that Cal U could bring home a natty to western PA, regardless of how they did it.

The big picture is that Armenti was hired to save Cal U from extinction. He did that - regardless of the ethics to do so. A lot of what he did was by imitating IUP. Should we have been flattered?

The ultimate shrine to his era sits in the middle of the Cal campus ... a 6,000-seat basketball arena that draws 123 fans a game. Such irony.

[IUPalum]

I think the worst one was when Cal took Joe Slappy after he was kicked out of IUP. It was crazy the year he came back to IUP, and won.

Don't forget Kirby Griffin who was with Slappy after they robbed the Co-op book buy back.

[IUPNation]

On top of spaghetti…all covered with cheese!!!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Don't forget Kirby Griffin who was with Slappy after they robbed the Co-op book buy back.

Or had the biggest brawl in Wolfies history.

[Fightingscot82]

Don't forget Kirby Griffin who was with Slappy after they robbed the Co-op book buy back.

And Tommie Campbell who was thrown out of both Pitt and Edinboro for academics somehow was eligible at Cal.