UPDATE: Here's the link to the pdf of the football supplement.
Tomorrow begins the 133rd year of Penn football. Unlike Harvard and Princeton -- which both mention how long they've been playing football in the headlines of the athletic releases linked above --- Penn rarely flaunts the fact it's played football for over 130 years. (For example, in the equivalent press release it's mentioned in the seventh item.) I'm sure some of our readers might consider it good marketing, but personally I think it's snobbish to say "Finally, 141st Football Season Arrives ..."
That said, for the annual DP football supplement (which prints today), our centerpiece story by Neil Fanaroff covers the last six score and 13 years of Penn football history. It's a long, long piece, but a must read for any Penn football fan. Actually it's a must read for any college football fan, since you'll come across well-known names such as Bednarik, Munger and of course Heisman.
(I should add that this story is best seen in the actual paper and not online, since it's been beautifully put together by our design editor Michael Gold. So if you're on campus I strongly encourage you to pick up the paper for the double truck spread. If not, check out the pdf file linked to at the top of the post.)
But while Neil's story is definitely the longest, that doesn't mean the other stories aren't important. My favorite non-centerpiece story was one Noah wrote on Bradford Blackmon's dad who hasn't missed one of his son's games -- since he was in fifth grade! David also wrote a very interesting piece on the politicking and economics behind television packages for Ivy football. Perhaps the best part of the story is that we're breaking the news that Penn's game with Dartmouth was picked up by Versus just yesterday.
There's also a position-by-position breakdown of the freshman class; a feature on former defensive back Jordan Manning who is back as a football operations assistant director; and a Penn bettor's guide (I have to admit not one of my best pieces).
If you're focused more on tomorrow's opener versus No. 2 Villanova, here's our advance of the game as well as a look at the other contests with Ivy teams this weekend.
Enjoy the 2009 football season Quakers fans.
Tags: Blackford Blackmon, Football, harvard, princeton
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September 18th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Wow that was sure a lot of hype for this allegedly definitive history of Penn football story. Turns out all I learned was: a) Penn's played a lot of games, more than anyone else, b) Penn used to be good and played a lot of real teams c) that's no longer the case and d) the coaching staff likes to talk about how they used to be good. What I really want to know is why any of this happened. Maybe you could have explained what happened in the 40s and 50s that caused such a decline into irrelevance. So Penn's most games played record is in jeopardy because they only play 10 today while others seem to play an indeterminate number more. Is there a reason for this or is Al Bagnoli just lazy. And if Penn produced as you say many pro football players, who are some current students might have seen play in the league? Perhaps Jim Finn was worth a mention?
September 18th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Ghost of Heisman:
Thank you for the contribution. At times, I am somewhat critical of the efforts of the DP Sports staff. However, this is not one of these cases.
I don't feel that this was a "hype" piece per se. Rather it was done as a historical perspective of Penn football.
Believe me, the school does a wretched job of hyping the product due to ongoing incompetence within the Athletic Department. You can blame Steve Bilsky and Mike DeFelici for this. Just look at the attendance for the game tomorrow evening. I am sure the "announced attendance" will be fudged as is always the case for Franklin Field.
But back to the matter at hand : We have some excellent fine young men who are doing a nice job of reporting. I feel that Zach has done an excellent job of summarizing these stories in the blog entry today. And for that, he does deserve our praise.
You do ask some good questions, which perhaps can serve as a springboard for future reporting by either Zach, Noah, David (Ben), as well as neophytes Neil and Design Editor Michael Gold.
Some additional comments:
The lack of a TV package speaks volumes about the demand for Ivy Football. Sadly, this product has become less and less relevant as the years go on.
I do think that betting guide is a nice touch. We do have alot of interested readers who find this information to be relevant and timely. Especially with the introduction of legalized sports betting at the nearby venues in Delaware.
Fondly
FOJL
PS - No sign of any other of the world famous Lubins this week. Perhaps still at the reunion?
September 18th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Zach -
Congratulations, this really was a tour de force!
I took the advice to see the DP pdf and was equally impressed. But in candor it was like reading a different paper. Question: Is the online DP a replica of the hard copy, and if not, why not? I get the impression there's fine coverage in the hard copy that's omitted online.
Thank again.
EN
September 18th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I just finished perusing the rest of the "required first week reading".
Bravo to to the team for a great effort and flawless execution. You should be commended for this production.
I also noticed a new name to the masthead for football coverage - Eli Cohen. So in addition to the praise for the "usuals" including Zach, Noah, David (Ben), and the prior mention of the first newcomer Neil, I would like to personally thank Eli for his insightful piece.
This is a remarkable group of evolving men. A first-team, if you will!
Kudos to these five: Zach, Noah, David(Ben), Neil and Eli.
FOJL
September 18th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Ghost of John Heisman: The reason Penn only plays 10 games now is that the Ivy League requires it. All eight teams play exactly 10 games each year, and until they allow teams to compete in the FCS playoffs (unlikely anytime soon) it'll stay this way. So it's not Al Bagnoli being lazy, it's the League trying to curtail the negative effects of a long football season on academics.
FOJL: glad you liked the pieces. Though Neil and Eli are "newcomers" to the Buzz, they've both written for us before: Neil's a senior and Eli's a sophomore.
Ernie: The way our website is set up, it's impossible to upload a lot of the design elements such as graphic headlines, extra rails (like the gameday in this issue), the Swamis predictions or some of the feature photos associated with the centerpiece story. That's because HTML doesn't have a graphic-based option to load those things. Instead, the only way to have an actual exact replica of the newspaper online is to make it a pdf version.
Or something like that. My grasp of the how our website actually works (like the code and such) is so-so at best. I'm better left to talking about football.
September 18th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Thanks, Zach -
I understand the graphics difficulty issue. Is it possible to give us the text to all stories in some collection called "other stories" in which the headlines are offered and links provided? If it's technically possible, the major beneficiaries would be the non-FB and BB teams and their fan base.
I totally don't accept, and have only contempt for the line of thinking advanced recently by self described "multi-generational Penn family member JGH" that FB and BB are the only sports that really count. To the extent other sports are reported in the DP hard copy version, finding an easy tech solution to provide the content in the online version would be a major enhancement. Please consider it.
Thank you.
EN
September 18th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Perhaps Tannenwald would be able to provide some insights to the HTML code and the lack of graphics. This is right in his wheelhouse. He might even be on hand at Franklin Field tomorrow to cover the Nova game. Just a thought.
September 18th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Ernie -
We are planning some ways to get more info from the newspaper onto the website, but we are launching a new website soon and we are holding off on all that until the new site is ready. It's pointless until then. But truly, you should check out the PDFs. Everything you want is easily viewable on those. Here is the link to the PDF of the football supplement:
http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/dailypenn_pdf_search/20090918_09-18-FootballPreview.pdf
In fact, in many ways the PDF is even better than the actual paper. Often times the photos run a little blurry in the paper because we finish it late at night and the printer has to rush to get all 12,000 issues printed in a few hours. But that isn't a problem on the PDFs. Also the PDFs are generally uploaded at the end of the night when the entire production of each issue is complete, so you can see everything before the paper is even on the racks.
September 18th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Something I should have mentioned in my previous post is a fun feature that we do every week during football season called DP Swamis which you'll only be able to see by looking at the PDFs. All the editors, football writers, and a few other select people (mostly editors in different departments) pick the winner and score of each Ivy game every week. It's entirely for fun and has no journalistic value whatsoever (score choices are sometimes as silly as 1-0 or 150-0). FOJL, you in particular would definitely enjoy this, as the most fun part about it (for us sports editors at least) is that we give everyone a clever/humorous nickname. Most of them are inside jokes among the editors, but you can probably figure some of them out.
September 18th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Noah - Thank you for the contribution. I will make a point of checking this out soon. I have always enjoyed the "picks" feature. And now with legalized sports gambling in Delaware, there is now a bigger potential payoff for you and the team. In fact, it might be a good caper for you guys to go down there and do a group parlay.
September 18th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Thanks, Noah -
No problem waiting for the new site. At your convenience please clarify the 2 Big 33 Freshman players issue. Are they in this year's class and on the team, or in next year's incoming class? Thanks much.
EN
September 18th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Ernie,
They are indeed in this year's class. The two players are O-lineman Michael Pinciotti and running back Lyle Marsh. They both played in the 2008 Big 33 game and they are definitely great catches for Penn. Marsh ran for 45 yards on 10 carries and scored 2 touchdowns on 1-yard carries (shows why Bagnoli called him a "bruiser"). I might have made a mistake in my roster breakdown by saying that Patrick Foley is the cream of the 2013 running back crop, because I overlooked some accomplishments of Marsh. They are both very good running backs. The DiMaggio/Blackmon thunder and lightning of the future?? Marsh is definitely in the mold of Mike D, and Bagnoli loves those guys.
Pinciotti comes from the same school as current O-Line standouts Joe McKendry and Joe D'Orazio, as well as soph. safety Jim McGoldrick (who saw the most action as a freshman last year besides Matt Hamscher). Like I said in my story today, O-Line probably isn't a position where freshmen will see the field, although it is a spot where injuries are most frequent. And right now both projected starting tackles are talented yet young and inexperienced, with nothing too much better behind them. So if they struggle this guy might get a chance.
Hope this helps. If I get a chance I'll ask Bagnoli or the kids themselves about their recruitment process and what big-time programs they might have been considering as players from this high-profile game.
September 18th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Can you bet 1-AA football in a Delaware sports parlor? I could never find a betting line on 1-AA. Please enlighten me. By 1-AA I mean FCS.
September 18th, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Thanks, Noah -
So it's reasonable to conclude that if 2 Big 33 blue chip players and an All State QB are way down the depth charts, Penn should have a very decent season.
EN
October 9th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Sounds to me like you really know what you are talking about here for sure.
November 16th, 2009 at 5:30 am
Terrific! Finally we found what we were looking for. Thanks!
December 4th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Very usefull infomaction. Thank you. Keep it up
December 14th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Thanks mate! I've been looking for this for a while now. Also, what theme are you using for this blog? I can't find a good one to use for my own.
Anyway, subscribed!
Cheers