Football – News

Video: Teamwork, technique, and chicken wings from the mic’d up �ֲ��ý football captain

Aaron Morse — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 03:55:36 +0000

What does the Bobcat say?

For senior offensive lineman Quinn Woods of nearby Minot, Maine, who was mic’d up at the team’s first practice of the year, on Aug. 26, the talk was all about about teamwork, technique, and oh yeah, chicken wings.

Woods, a team captain, went through drills, stretches, and ran a few plays.

“We want to be known as the guys who try way too hard,” he said to his fellow linemen. “We are those guys. Get it going. Today.”

Video by Aaron Morse

Idle in 2020 because of the pandemic, the football team finished 2019 with a flourish, winning back-to-back games against Bowdoin and Hamilton, respectively. The Hamilton win on Nov. 9, 2019, saw the in 50 years.

�ֲ��ý opens its at 1 p.m. Sept. 18 at Garcelon Field vs. the Amherst Mammoths.

The 1898 �ֲ��ý-Bowdoin football game that cemented a historic rivalry

Jay Burns — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 15:05:37 +0000

One hundred and one years ago, the build-up to the annual �ֲ��ý-Bowdoin football game had disputes and divided loyalties — classic trappings of a historic rivalry.

And, for �ֲ��ý fans, the 1898 game delivered what a rivalry game should, a victory and a hero, William Allen Saunders, the unlikely scorer of the game’s only touchdown.

Yet in 1898, the grid rivalry, now one of the nation’s longest-running, was just seven years old. And, at least from �ֲ��ý’ perspective, the rivalry had gotten off to a slow start, with Bowdoin easily winning the first five editions by a combined score of 186 to 6.

�ֲ��ý-Bowdoin Football, No. 122
The 2019 �ֲ��ý-Bowdoin football game, No. 122 in the historic rivalry, is now history: See at Garcelon Field on Nov. 2.

At the time, interest in college football was surging both nationally and in Maine. With questions of masculinity at the fore in late 19th-century society, the country’s college football fields — offering a far more violent version of the game than today’s — became popular .

Newspapers played up the game’s war-like violence. One pre-game headline in the Lewiston Evening Journal of the era proclaimed, “Bowdoin and �ֲ��ý arrayed in the panoply of war at Brunswick.”

For the 1897 game, a year before Saunders’ star turn, �ֲ��ý supporters filled the trolley for the 90-minute trip to Brunswick. At the station, the �ֲ��ý contingent let loose their traditional cheer: “Boomalaka, boomalaka, �ֲ��ý —��boom, boom!”

The Mirror yearbook photo of William Allen Saunders, Class of 1899, the hero of the �ֲ��ý-Bowdoin game of 1898. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

And boom, like that, �ֲ��ý won the game, securing its first title in the nascent Maine State Series competition, later to become the Colby-�ֲ��ý-Bowdoin series when the University of Maine left the group in 1964.

Perhaps smarting from its first setback in the budding rivalry, Bowdoin in 1898 played hardball. Pointing to its “ability to draw a big crowd,” according to a��Journal story two days before the Oct. 29 game, Bowdoin demanded a bigger share of the gate receipts before agreeing to travel to Lewiston.

“The people are coming, coming from everywhere.”

When the two schools reached a revenue agreement a day later, the Journal headline declared, “Foot Ball Peace Assured.” With the game on, the hype machine was on, 19th-century style.

“Everyone who knows the difference between a football and an egg will be on the grounds,” said the Journal, noting that anticipation for the game in Maine has “resembled the feeling throughout New England over the Yale-Harvard games.”

Yes, the paper said, “the people are coming, coming from everywhere.”

And they did, a throng of 2,500 attending the game on a foggy, drizzly day at Lee Park (Garcelon Field wouldn’t be completed for another year). A bygone city commons once located at the intersection of Sabattus Street and East Avenue, Lee Park was known mostly for hosting traveling circuses. It became a housing development in the early 1900s.

The undefeated 6-0 �ֲ��ý football team of 1898 poses for a team photo. William Saunders, scorer of the winning touchdown vs. Bowdoin that year, is standing third from right. Team captain Nate Pulsifer, who made a key block on the winning play, is seated at center. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

Bowdoin, considered the bigger and more physical of the two teams, entered the game with a 5-2 record, its only losses being to Ivy League powers Dartmouth and Harvard. Hardscrabble �ֲ��ý, often called “the farmers” in media accounts, was 4-0, having beaten New Hampshire State College, the University of Maine (twice), and Phillips Exeter Academy.

(Winless Colby, meanwhile, wasn’t part of that year’s Colby-�ֲ��ý-Bowdoin talk; its football team needed more “firmness in muscle before they can hope to cope successfully with �ֲ��ý or Bowdoin,” noted the Journal.)

“A few of the young women…bolted outright from the �ֲ��ý standard and bravely shook the black and white of the other side.”

You know a sports rivalry has arrived when it moves outside the sports media, and that’s what happened in 1898. On game day, the late edition of the Journal devoted its “Social World” column to the �ֲ��ý-Bowdoin game, noting that “the young people were at Lee Park this afternoon.”

More than football — something tribal — was at stake, the column suggested.

“The raw October air brought the �ֲ��ý color into the cheeks of the lassies,” the paper said, “but ’twas hard for some of them to be loyal to the garnet and white. A few of the young women…bolted outright from the �ֲ��ý standard and bravely shook the black and white of the other side.” Ouch!

The 1898 game, a 6-0 victory for �ֲ��ý, was “a nerve destroyer,” the Journal reported. The teams moved the ball, but had trouble scoring; the action drove the throng into a tizzy, and “police were unable to keep the crowd from swarming over the field at times,” reported the Bowdoin Orient student newspaper.

Midway through the first half, �ֲ��ý’ William Allen Saunders, a senior from the South, ran for the game’s only touchdown.

Born in Louisa Court House, Va., Saunders came to �ֲ��ý after attending Storer School, later Storer College, in Harpers Ferry, W.Va., a historically black institution founded just after the Civil War with the help of �ֲ��ý founder Oren Cheney. (Stella James also studied at Storer before she became the first African American woman to graduate from �ֲ��ý, in 1897.)

Before matriculating at �ֲ��ý, William Saunders (standing, second from left) attended Storer School, graduating with his fellow students in 1895. (Storer College Digital Photographs Collection / West Virginia and Regional History Center)

Besides football, Saunders competed in track and field at �ֲ��ý, in the hammer and shot put. He also served as librarian of one of the literary societies, Eurosophia.

Following graduation, Saunders taught public school in Coaldale, W.Va., and served as a grade-school principal in Hagerstown, Md., before joining the faculty at Bluefield Colored Institute, now Bluefield State College.

He joined the faculty of Storer College in 1907, teaching math, natural sciences, religion, and Latin. He married Inez Johnson and they built a home near the Storer campus, .

Saunders retired from Storer in 1951, and his date of death is unknown. A �ֲ��ý oral history tells the story of a classmate, George Parsons, who visited Saunders in the 1950s, when both were in their 80s. Parsons wanted to take Saunders to dinner but Saunders demurred — no white restaurant in town would serve a black man.

Shortly after joining the faculty of Storer College, William Saunders (second from right, with clarinet) poses with the Storer College Cornet Band in 1908. (Storer College Digital Photographs Collection / West Virginia and Regional History Center)

While Saunders was the hero of the 1898 game, by today’s rules he would never have been a ball carrier. He was an offensive guard — a blocking position today.

Back then, the rules required only five players to be on the line of scrimmage at the start of a play, compared to seven today. That allowed more players to line up in the backfield. And that led to battering-ram formations, including the flying wedge, in which a big lineman, in this case Saunders, and several blockers would line up in the backfield and get a running start into the defense.

Known as a “guard-back” or “tackle-back” formation, it’s what made Saunders the hero of the �ֲ��ý-Bowdoin game of 1898.

Indeed, football in the 1890s hardly resembled today’s game. With the forward pass still a few years away, the game was all about the ball carrier and his blockers bashing into the defense, time and again. In �ֲ��ý-Bowdoin terms, the Journal described the “slap of canvas against canvas” as two sides crashed together.

“Time and again the giant guard, Saunders, went into the line and always for a gain,” said the Student. “Saunders played like a fiend,” reported the Journal. “It always took two men to bring him down.” (Though not big by today’s standards, Saunders, at 5-foot-10 and 173 pounds, was among the tallest and heaviest �ֲ��ý players.)

This commemorative paperweight depicts William Saunders’ gate-winning touchdown vs. Bowdoin on Oct. 29, 1898. It was given to �ֲ��ý by Bowdoin graduate Bruce MacDonald, grandson of Nate Pulsifer, captain of the 1898 football team and Saunders’ classmate who made a key block on the winning play. (Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)

�ֲ��ý’ game-winning, 14-minute touchdown drive started at midfield. With a “steady humming between tackles and guards,” �ֲ��ý advanced to the Bowdoin 20. The �ֲ��ý captain, senior running back Nate Pulsifer, carried to the 10 for a first down.

Then came Saunders’ turn. He carried to the Bowdoin 4, and then, with Pulsifer and sophomore running back Frank Halliday leading the way, Saunders “went over the line for the first and only touchdown of the game.” (A commemorative paperweight, given to �ֲ��ý by Pulsifer’s grandson, depicts the winning play and the huge crowd at Lee Park.)

The rest of the game, reported the Student, “abounded in runs, fumbles, plunges that seemed to be back-breakers, punts, and hard tackles” — but no more scoring. �ֲ��ý’ defense held; it would allow just 11 points in its six wins in 1898.

Two days after the �ֲ��ý victory, headlines in the Lewiston Evening Journal on Oct. 31, 1898, gave kudos to the “happy farmer boys of �ֲ��ý.”

The �ֲ��ý victory was “universally admitted to be the greatest contest ever held between Maine colleges,” stated the Student.

The Journal agreed, saying the game was “the fiercest foot ball ever seen in this state” with a deserving winner: a “light, stocky, well-trained team that was playing a game of foot ball only excelled by the crack teams of the country.”

The victory kicked off a night of celebration at �ֲ��ý, including boisterous rides around town on the local trolley. Known as the Figure Eight for the shape of its route around Lewiston and Auburn, it “was traveled with a liberal amount of fireworks and red fire on each car,” reported the Journal.

And there were victory songs aplenty, at Bowdoin’s expense, including a new one sung to the tune of “Marching Through Georgia,” with this verse:

The farmer boys at �ֲ��ý have learned
The way to plough the ground,
As the headless birds at Bowdoin,
To their sorrow now have found.
Then with cheers and shouts of triumph
Let the atmosphere resound,
While the Bowdoin dudes are marching back to Brunswick.

For �ֲ��ý football, 6-year-old Brayden Austin is their captain courageous

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 19:53:56 +0000

Back in August during a preseason football practice at Garcelon Field, the coaches announced that it was time for “up downs.” On the whistle, everyone gets down on the ground and then jumps back up, over and over until the drill is complete.

For head coach Malik Hall, the exercise is a metaphor, a life lesson that extends beyond physical fitness. All you have to do is keep getting back up —�� whether it’s after a tackle on the football field or when facing adversity in life.

Fast-forward to a recent practice before the team’s first game. Running onto the field comes 6-year-old Brayden Austin. Hall introduces him to the team as someone who has had a lot of ups and downs in life — someone who gets up every single day and keeps on fighting.

The little boy will join the team as an honorary captain this year, Hall announces.

With seniors Jon Lindgren of Plainville, Conn., Zach Doyon of Eliot, Maine, and Matt Golden of New Bedford, Mass., Brayden Austin walks onto Garcelon Field for the pre-game coin toss vs. Middlebury on Sept. 21. (Theophil Syslo/�ֲ��ý College)

Austin hops into the stretch line. He’s high-fiving everyone and copying every move in the warm-up. Instantly, Austin becomes a Bobcat.

Back in March 2015 when Austin was 20 months old, his life changed forever. One Saturday, he woke up at 5 a.m., ate breakfast, and played with his older brother and his toys. “It was like any other Saturday morning,” recalls his mother, Jennie Cloutier-Austin.

Then came great pain and distress. Transported by Lifeflight helicopter to The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital in Portland, he endured two life-saving surgeries within 48 hours, losing all of his small intestine and half of his large intestine.

He had suffered a midgut volvulus, in which the small intestine wraps tightly around the large intestine, cutting off blood circulation.

Four years after his health crisis, Brayden Austin is full of energy and joy at the �ֲ��ý football practice on Sept. 19. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

While in the hospital, Austin suffered two major strokes and had more emergency surgeries. At one point, he was given less than a 50 percent chance of survival. Hospitalized for three months, he received his daily nutrition from a central line IV that ran for up to 24 hours a day.

“He is such a miracle,” says his mother.

Now, four years later on a warm September afternoon, a visitor to Garcelon Field during football practice simply sees an energetic little boy. Though there have been setbacks along the way, and certain treatment regimens continue, his IV line is now gone and most of his nutrition comes from eating, the rest from a stomach feeding tube.

“He is such a miracle,” says his mother, watching her son bounce around practice blocking pads on the sidelines. “He may not understand the ins and outs of the game, but he knows how amazing it is to be a part of the team,” especially when his fellow Bobcats give him a fist bump and a ‘Hey Brayden!’”

“The biggest thing that stands out to me about having Brayden around the team is his positivity,” says Angus Lamond ’21, an offensive lineman from Portsmouth, N.H. “He’s had to deal with adversity his whole life, yet when he’s around the team he’s always so happy. It reminds us all to stay positive throughout adversity.”

With enthusiasm, honorary team captain Brayden Austin joins the �ֲ��ý football team for practice on Sept 19. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

From a grave diagnosis, Austin is now thriving because he had access to expert medical professionals and a world-class pediatric intensive care unit at The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. And that’s how the connection between Austin and �ֲ��ý football began.

“Brayden gets up each day and says, ‘Bring it on.’”

Last year, the college hosted a Children’s Miracle Network dance marathon fundraiser on campus, raising over $19,000 to benefit the Bush facility. The event organizer, Natalie Brewer ’21 of New Britain, Conn., connected Hall and Austin’s family, who live nearby in Sabattus.

“When you see Brayden, a child who has had to fight for his life, that gives you a new perspective on your purpose,” says Hall. “And I want our student-athletes to know to do things for a bigger purpose. You don’t play just for yourself.”

On Sept. 21, Austin enjoyed another thrill, taking part in the official coin toss prior to the home opener vs. Middlebury. Holding hands with his fellow �ֲ��ý captains and his 10-year old brother, Carter, they walked together to midfield.

“Brayden gets up each day and says, ‘Bring it on’ to whatever the world has to give him,” says Matt Golden ’20, a running back from New Bedford, Mass.

“We look to follow Brayden’s example: If we get knocked down, we strive to get up, look our challenges in the face, and say, ‘Bring it on,’ in football and in life.”

Brayden Austin gives a leg hug to Phil Simplicio ’20 of West Hartford, Conn., during practice at Garcelon Field on Sept. 19. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

Video: �ֲ��ý football learns the high-flying air raid offense

Aaron Morse — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 13:48:11 +0000

Fans who’ve seen �ֲ��ý football run-run-run the ball on offense in recent years are in for something completely different when the at 1 p.m. Saturday for the 2018 season opener.

The Bobcats are about to flip the script.

New head coach Malik Hall and his coaching staff have brought the air raid offense to �ֲ��ý, which has run the triple option for the last eight years.

The offense is well-known at the Division I level, where , and it puts a premium on passing, with up to five receivers running routes. Where �ֲ��ý ran the ball 70 percent of the time in 2017, the Bobcats could flip that ratio in 2018.

Asked to sum up the new offense, quarterback Brendan Costa ’21 of��Westport, Mass., says, “throw, throw, throw!” But it’s a little more complicated than that.

That’s where new offensive coordinator Custavious Patterson comes in. Described by wide receiver Marcus Ross ’19 of��Mansfield, Texas, as a “coaching genius,” Patterson comes to �ֲ��ý after stints at Wagner and Fordham universities.

“We led the nation in total offense at Fordham when I was there,” he says. “I remember that it took them a little longer to catch on” than his �ֲ��ý players.

“These kids here are like geniuses. They’ve caught on and acclimated really, really fast. We have a few things to clean up with them, but they’re on it.”

Malik Hall named head football coach at �ֲ��ý

�ֲ��ý News — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 15:48:16 +0000

A defensive line coach at the University of Pennsylvania, Hall is a highly regarded coach, recruiter, and community-focused leader who has succeeded at every stop in his career.

Web Harrison ’63, longtime coach who inspired students with a fusion of �ֲ��ý ideals and practical Marine Corps values, dies at age 78

Jay Burns — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 15:33:52 +0000

Webster Harrison ’63, a revered football and lacrosse coach from the 1970s into the 1990s who inspired his students with a fusion of �ֲ��ý ideals and practical values gained as a Marine Corps combat veteran, died June 17 at age 78 after suffering cardiac arrest at his home in Auburn, Maine.

Appointed in 1974 as an assistant coach of football and track, Harrison would serve as a head coach in three �ֲ��ý sports for a total of 35 seasons.

He led the football program from 1978 to 1991, winning four CBB titles. As the founding head coach of the men’s varsity lacrosse program, he led the team from 1977 to 1995, earning ECAC tournament berths in 1984 — and receiving New England Lacrosse Coach of the Year honors that year — and again in 1987.

Memorial Gift and Service Information

Memorial gifts may be made in Web Harrison’s memory to Friends of �ֲ��ý College Athletics, Office of College Advancement, �ֲ��ý College, 2 Andrews Road, Lewiston ME 04240. A at the Gomes Chapel at a later date.

A longtime associate professor of physical education, Harrison also served as head coach of women’s track and field for two years, 1977–78 and 1978–79.

After coaching, Web joined the Office of College Advancement, where he established the �ֲ��ý Parents & Family Association and gave programmatic focus to the emerging culture of parent philanthropy. He retired in 1999.

For his players, Harrison provided a way to live life with value and purpose. “He had uncompromising integrity,” said Peter Wyman ’86, who played football for Harrison and is now senior vice president for cooperative development at Ocean Spray Cranberries.

“For many of us, his example has been a beacon and guidepost all our adult lives. He transcended the role of coach. He challenged us to make the right and best decision, to do it right the first time, and to develop standards and values and hold tight to them, especially in difficult times.”

Web Harrison ’63 talks with one of his �ֲ��ý football players on Garcelon Field, circa 1982. (Courtesy Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library0

Harrison was a native of Torrington, Conn., whose maternal grandfather, William E. Webster, was mayor of Lewiston in the early 1900s. A biology major at �ֲ��ý, he was a four-year member of the football team, a sportswriter for The �ֲ��ý Student, and part of the Mirror business staff.

As a �ֲ��ý Student sportswriter noted, Harrison was “small for a fullback — 5-10, 170 pounds — but a vicious blocker.”

He decided to join the Marine Corps during his junior year and completed the required Platoon Leaders Class the summer before senior year. His �ֲ��ý roommate Thom Freeman ’63 recalls the shock of returning to their dorm that fall. “Our room was never the same. The doorknob was Brasso’d and shoes had to be spit-shined.”

“Most everything he did revealed his deep love of �ֲ��ý.”

Harrison lived �ֲ��ý and Marine Corps ideals and values, said one former player, Steve Brackett ’85.

“He had an innate sense of responsibility for the people around him. And he was exacting. When you crossed that line onto the field, your socks were pulled up and your helmet strapped because if you’re going to do something, you do it right.”

Brackett, now partner and head of strategic partnerships and business development for Shepherd Kaplan Krochuk in Boston, says that Harrison “also had tremendous respect for the history and egalitarian legacy of �ֲ��ý. He knew more about �ֲ��ý than anyone I knew. He lived �ֲ��ý. He embodied it.”

“We all knew he was a Marine and had served in Vietnam, but it was also always clear that he was a Bobcat,” recalls David Hild ’84,��who played lacrosse and football for Harrison for eight sports seasons and is now a dean at Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford, Conn.�� “And most everything he did revealed his deep love of �ֲ��ý.”

“He loved competition and loved to win, but not at any cost — a great lesson that he passed along to his players to keep us grounded in our own careers.”

Above all, he “was always concerned that his players represent �ֲ��ý. He wasn’t interested in just ‘football’ or ‘lacrosse’ guys. They had to be more than that in the �ֲ��ý community.”

“He loved competition and loved to win, but not at any cost. He had his core values that kept him grounded — a great lesson that he passed along to his players to keep us grounded in our own careers,” said Andy McGillicudd ’85, a football and lacrosse player who is now CEO of Endocellutions.

Web Harrison ’63 (second from left) prepares to tee off with lifelong friends, from left, Chick Leahey ’52, Howard Vandersea ’63, and Bob Flynn at a Reunion golf outing in 2005. (Jay Burns/�ֲ��ý College)

The character of Harrison’s players was the focus of a 1982 profile by a Maine Sunday Telegram columnist. Harrison produces “gentlemen-athletes,” wrote Hank Burns. That might sound corny, he told readers, until you hear from Roger Park, then the college’s athletic trainer.

Harrison “always was able to cut through the crap to say, ‘Here’s why you should appreciate someone.’”

“Web attracts good citizens,” Park said. “I’ll be honest. When I first came here, before Web, the kids we had on the team treated me as some sort of machine designed just to service their needs. The kids we get now…are genuinely interested in me as a person and in the work I do.”

Steve Brackett explains how Harrison taught his players to appreciate the humanity of the people around them. One fall day, Harrison called Brackett and two football teammates, Rico Corsetti ’85, and Rich Sterling ’85, over to his office. “He said, ‘Roger just got a couple cords of wood delivered. Could you help him stack the wood? You’ll get a spaghetti dinner from his wife.’”

Thus began a four-year tradition. “After the first year, we asked if we could stack it again for him. That’s how we got to know Roger and his wife.”

Harrison “always was able to cut through the crap to say, ‘Here’s why you should appreciate someone,’” said Bracket. “He would always say, ‘Help other people up the ladder.’”

“Web would always say, ‘Help other people up the ladder,'” said Steve Brackett ’85.

When people talk about Web, phrases like “it’s a cliché but…” come up a lot. Clichés exist because they’re true. “Web created a family among his players,” Brackett says. “It’s a cliché, it’s overused, but we felt that way. Every day I get to look at a photo in my home of my wedding, and there’s Web, beaming with a cigar and a drink, surrounded by his players.”

Brackett recalls having film sessions with a 16mm projector in Web’s family room. In those sessions, Harrison’s focus was never on mistakes but on making decisions. “He allowed you to make mistakes. He didn’t hammer you.”

Brackett recalls Harrison pressing the clicker to make the film go backward and forward. “Back and forth, back and forth, always with one question, ‘What could you have done differently?’”

Those sessions helped Brackett think like a leader.

“By the time you were a senior, Web wasn’t yelling instructions from the sideline. He expected you to adapt, or call an audible and make it work. He allowed you to make your own game plan. That’s what life is about: figuring out how to look at something three ways rather than one, to find options, to bring people into the success.”

Other times, cliches can obscure finer details. Harrison was a Marine, but “he could laugh at himself,” recalls Hild. “He famously joked about his lack of lacrosse knowledge prior to being named head coach. But like everything he did, he put his heart and soul into it and became a fine and respected leader of that program.”

“He wanted you to come off the field physically spent but full of pride.”

He could be introspective, too. With the football team struggling to a 1-6-1 record in 1983, “Web was candid, openly assessing and asking for input about how he might improve himself. He was an honest and friendly man.”

With Harrison, Brackett continues, “you didn’t always have to succeed. He never faulted you for losing. But he would fault you for not giving 100 percent because you were not doing yourself any favors.

“You just had to look in his eyes when you came off the field to know if you weren’t giving it all. He wanted you to come off the field physically spent but full of pride.”

Fatherless from a young age, Brackett always saw Harrison as a father figure; he was a rock that he and other former players could lean on. “Any time I called Web, just to check in, he would always respond, “Stevie, how can I help you?”

As a player, “there was a clear line between us and him as a coach,” said Bracket. “But it was always about respect first. When we graduated, he continued to take a great interest in our lives and pride in our successes,” said Brackett.

“Web would get a gleam in his eye when he was talking about one of his guys doing something that made him proud,” recalls Hild. “And ultimately, most of us truly cared about making him proud.”

Web Harrison poses with his former players, including Steve Brackett ’85 (center, bow tie), at Brackett’s wedding reception. “As a player, there was a clear line between player and coach,” said Bracket. “But it was always about respect first. When we graduated, he continued to take a great interest in our lives and pride in our successes.” (Photo courtesy Steve Brackett)

Harrison cultivated diverse interests. Before joining the athletics staff in 1974, he and his first wife, Virginia Erskine Harrison ’63, took a stab as organic farmers in Fayette, Maine. “But I could never coach the rocks from the lands,” Harrison would say.

In 1988, the Lewiston Journal featured him in a story about local coaches who prepare distinctive dishes for Super Bowl parties. Cooking, he said, “is almost like coaching. “You put a plan together and see results — faster than you do in coaching.”

Harrison’s recipe for “Buffalo Wings Plus” was featured, and he touted one of his drink recipes. “Beat Bowdoin Greasewood Golden Margaritas,” named in honor of a big �ֲ��ý football victory.

Then there is Harrison’s huge spread of daffodils — some 12,000-plus in 14 gardens — that would bloom each spring in front of his home in Auburn and that he would deliver to area schools and medical nonprofits, including the Dempsey Center and Androscoggin Home Healthcare and Hospice.

“Marines, athletes, daffodils,” he said��— “you start them all young and nurture them.”

In May 2017, Web Harrison ’63 sits amid some of his daffodils at his Auburn home. Each year, he donated the blossoms to area nonprofits. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ��ý College)

An unusual legacy at �ֲ��ý is that Harrison coined the famous �ֲ��ý cheer, “It’s a great day to be a Bobcat,” an amalgam of �ֲ��ý and Marine Corps cultures.

As officer candidates, he and his fellow Marines were expected to greet officers this way: “Good afternoon, sir, and welcome to another grand and glorious day to be alive and a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, where every day is a holiday and every meal is a banquet.”

Web brought the sentiment to �ֲ��ý, where the saying got shortened to, finally, “What a great day to be a Bobcat.” “I’m actually very happy that it’s being carried on,” Harrison said in 2013.

During Reunion 2013, Web Harrison explains how he coined the �ֲ��ý rallying cry “It’s a Great Day to Be a Bobcat.”

The story about Harrison joining speaks volumes about the U.S., pre-Vietnam. His classmate Alan Marden, fearing that he was going to flunk Shakespeare and thus flunk out of �ֲ��ý, wanted to check out military service. For support, Harrison accompanied Marden to the Marine Corps recruiting station.

“As it turned out, Al did all right in Shakespeare and didn’t join the Marine Corps,” recalled Harrison in a 1998 �ֲ��ý Oral History Project interview. “But I did.”

In his �ֲ��ý oral history interviews, Harrison often had to detangle his decision to join the Marines from a common perception of the era. While it was the 1960s, it was not yet The Sixties. Vietnam wasn’t on everyone’s radar, and World War II was less than 20 years in society’s rearview mirror.

“Young men who grew up at the time I did,” Harrison said, “heard an awful lot about World War II from older relatives, and all you heard were the good things. I had something that I owed to my country. And it was also a challenge. I felt that being an officer in the Marine Corps would help me figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.”

“I get what America means,” he added. “I get the benefits of what America means. So, how do I help preserve what that means? Service is one way.”

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marines on the day he graduated in 1963. Two years later, in 1965, he was among the first U.S. combat soldiers deployed to Vietnam.

Web Harrison ’63 with the Marine Corps in Vietnam, circa 1965. (Courtesy of Web Harrison)

His experiences as a Marine Corps infantry platoon commander, company executive officer, and battalion and regimental operations officer in and around Da Nang Air Base are referenced in the acclaimed Vietnam memoir A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo.

The book is a graphic and unvarnished account of the long war’s earliest months. In one scene, Harrison looks out over the Marines’ encampment, which Caputo describes as “everything aboveground, uncamouflaged, laid out in tidy rows, and nothing between it and the VC but a roll of rusting concertina wire.” Looking at the vulnerable scene, Harrison speaks of the past and future when he says, “Jesus, Phil, even the French dug in.”

The book has “got its mark on me, and probably a lot deeper than I would like to admit,” Harrison said in 1998. “I don’t know whether it’s bad or good or what, but it certainly has had a very big effect on me.”

Harrison classmate Howard Vandersea ’63, part of a tight-knit group of �ֲ��ý friends from the early 1960s, was head football coach at Springfield and later at Bowdoin, from 1984 to 1999. He faced Harrison-led teams eight times.

The 1962 football game program featured this photo of Web Harrison ’63.

Military service in Vietnam, says Vandersea, “formed the person Web became: disciplined, goal-oriented, a leader, a patriot.” In 2013, Harrison and several classmates gave a Reunion talk about their Vietnam experiences. “He was consumed with the study of Vietnam,” Vandersea says, “its history, its people, and the ‘why’ of the war.”

Web was discharged from the Marines as a captain in 1967. He did graduate work at Boston University and served as an assistant football coach before moving to Maine in 1974.

“None of that had to do with their athletic ability. It had to do with helping them be the best person they could be.”

He turned to coaching, he said, because he regarded his own coaches, people like the late Bob Hatch and Chick Leahey ’52 (both Marines) “as people that I thought led exemplary lives. They were true role models for me, and I think in many ways that’s why I wanted to get into coaching��— I thought, what a great way to spend your life.”

In his oral history, Harrison said that coaching was most rewarding when he helped students “who had the toughest time here. Those were the ones that I felt were my successes — students who changed the most in the course of their time here and who came in and needed help and needed direction.

“None of that had to do with their athletic ability. It had to do with helping them be the best person they could be. Those were the ones who I remember most fondly.”

As he told an interviewer in 1982, “I’m probably a pretty poor X’s and O’s coach. I probably spend too much time in the locker room with the players just talking and finding out what’s going on in their lives.”

His experience in the Marines, he said, “gave me a chance to see if I could fill a leadership role. And I liked it. I found out that I could do it reasonably well. As I view coaching now, I’m kind of doing that same thing: I’m having an influence on young men in not too different a way from what I did when I was in the service.”

Alumni like Brackett have felt it all their lives.

“I’ve coached youth leagues, and I can’t step on a field without thinking about him,” Brackett says. “I relate so much about my life to Web. I credit him with success in business, family, and friendships. Web taught me about living with integrity and a moral compass.”

Harrison’s survivors include his wife, Kathleen McEntee Harrison, a daughter, Kathryn Harrison, and her husband, Tim Smith; and a granddaughter, Delia Smith.

‘Establish the run’ for Super Bowl success? Not so fast, say �ֲ��ý researchers

Jay Burns — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:53:08 +0000

It’s one of the oldest football truisms, and it’s being heard this week as the Patriots and Eagles prepare for the Super Bowl: You’ve got to “establish the run” to win.

Associate Professor of Economics Paul Shea. (Mike Bradley/�ֲ��ý College)

But it might be a false-ism, according to �ֲ��ý economist Paul Shea and his former student Jared Quenzel ’13.

“I had often heard football commentators talk about how important it is to run the ball, even when it does not appear to have any success,” says Shea, an associate professor of economics. “So we decided to take the question to the data.”

The result is their paper, “” published in the Journal of Sports Economics in 2014.

Jared Quenzel ’13.

Constructing a dataset of 429 NFL games between 1994 and 2012 that were tied at halftime, Shea and Quenzel looked at the myriad variables that led to the tie — such as rushing yards and attempts, passing attempts and yards, turnovers, sacks, red-zone efficiency, and third-down efficiency.

Of all those variables in play during the first half, did any predict the eventual winner? Yes, but not the ones you might think. Trying to “establish the run for its own sake,” the researchers found, “does not maximize a team’s chances of winning the game.”

Here’s what Shea and Quenzel found:

��There is “no evidence that running the football provides a team with a latent advantage that pays off late in a close game.”
��If teams choose to run the football, “they should thus do so on the basis of the expected yards gained and the risk involved. ‘Establishing the run’ for its own sake does not maximize a team’s chances of winning the game.”
��There is some, albeit weak, evidence that allowing sacks reduces a team’s chances of winning.
��An optimal strategy is to try to attain as large a halftime lead as possible. At first glance, “this may seem obvious,” yet teams sometimes insist on pounding the running game; they are guilty of “overthinking the game.”
��As expected, there’s a high level of confidence that the favored team, in terms of point spread, is more likely to win a tied game.
��Surprisingly, “the team receiving the first possession of the second half” — a favorite Patriots strategy, when they have the choice — does not have a statistically significant effect on a team’s chances of winning.”

As for Sunday’s game, Shea is rooting for the Eagles. He says he’s no fan of the Patriots’ history of bending the rules.

Video: Highlights of football’s CBB-clinching win over Bowdoin

Aaron Morse — Thu, 09 Nov 2017 18:56:27 +0000

Saturday was certainly a day to celebrate for the �ֲ��ý football team, which defeated Bowdoin 24-17 to earn the Bobcats their fourth straight CBB series title.

But it did not come easy.

“We came into this game knowing there would be some ups and downs,” said senior captain Frank Williams of Brookline, Mass. “You know that always happens with a rivalry game.”

The victory puts this year’s seniors in a class of their own: They’re the first to defeat both Bowdoin and Colby in each of their four years.

After the win, the seniors praised first-year quarterback Brendan Costa of Westport, Mass., who ran for 171 yards and a touchdown, while fellow first-year Jaason Lopez of Marblehead, Mass., added 79 rushing yards and a score.

“They were like, ‘Thank you, thank you,’ Costa said. “I was like, ‘Guys, no. You guys helped me get to where I am today.’ They were unbelievable; they all had great games.”

The CBB trophy remains in Lewiston thanks to young and old alike.

“This is its home,” said Jack Maritz ’18 of St. Louis, Mo. “We’re going to keep it here for years to come.”

Video: Football seeks historic fourth straight CBB title Saturday

Aaron Morse — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 02:30:20 +0000

The �ֲ��ý football team takes on Bowdoin on . At stake? A fourth consecutive CBB title, which has never been achieved in program history.

“Players are very aware of that,” says offensive lineman Sean Lovett ’18 of��Groveland, Mass. “It’s something we not only want to do for ourselves but for alumni and the coaches as well.”

As the senior class seeks to make history, it’s a fleet-footed first-year, Brendan Costa of Westport, Mass., who will lead the Bobcats at quarterback.

Slot receiver Mickoy Nichol ’18 of Dennis Port, Mass., recalls last week’s game vs. Colby when the Mule tied �ֲ��ý in the fourth quarter. Costa “just brought us together and said, ‘I know I’m a freshman, but I’m here with you guys and we’re going to win this game.”

“I’m on the job search right now,” says Max Breschi ’18 of Carlisle, Pa., “and every time I get in contact with alums about jobs, they’re bringing up the CBB.”

This marks the 120th football game between Bowdoin and �ֲ��ý in a series that dates back to the 19th century. And with a victory, the Bobcats’ 15 seniors can etch their name in the record books.

Relive the top seven �ֲ��ý sports moments of 2016–17

Aaron Morse — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 17:13:50 +0000

The 2016–17 school year was perhaps the greatest in recent history for �ֲ��ý athletics. One can measure the success via numbers, such as a��.

Or one can measure the success in the moments we will remember for years to come. With that in mind, we’ve compiled the top seven sports moments of the 2016–17 �ֲ��ý school year. Feel free to add to the list in the comments section.

7.��

For the fifth time in the last six years, the Bobcats defeated the Ephs on the gridiron. But this year was extra special thanks to ‘18.

The slotback from Brookline, Mass. caught nine passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns, all career-highs, to lead �ֲ��ý to a 29–17 victory on Back to �ֲ��ý weekend. His explosive performance included touchdown catches of 63 and 73 yards.

“I’ve never had a game like that receiving-wise in my life,” Williams said after it was all over. “They didn’t cover me for some reason and I just caught the ball and ran.”

A crowd of 3,211 fans cheered the Bobcats to victory.

“We’re used to good crowds, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like that before,” Williams said. “There was a lot of people there, it was great.”

Williams earned NESCAC Offensive Player of the Week honors and flirted with �ֲ��ý’ single-game receiving yards record of 257 set by Chris Plante ’94 against Trinity in 1991.

Williams finished the 2016 season with 834 all-purpose yards, the most since Shawn Doherty ’14 put up 1,254 in 2013.

had the game covered from all angles following the win, at the 16:10 mark.

6.

Skiing competitively on her home course of Black Mountain for the final time,��’17 of Avon, Maine, made the most of her opportunity.

On a balmy February day, Sadie James ’17 of Avon, Maine, skis her way to the 5K classical win at the �ֲ��ý Carnival, becoming the first �ֲ��ý woman in 14 years to win an EISA carnival Nordic race. (Steve Fuller ’82/Flying Point Road)

She became the first �ֲ��ý women’s Nordic skier since 2003 to win an Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association carnival race, and the Bobcat Nordic ski teams combined to take home the coveted Chummy Broomhall Cup at the �ֲ��ý Carnival. The award goes to Maine’s top collegiate Nordic team, based on the combined men’s and women’s scores in the classical technique races.

The 5-kilometer classical technique race was an individual start, so James didn’t know she’d won until after everyone finished.

“I had coaches, teammates, and spectators telling me I was having a great race, but I didn’t know what that meant,” James said. “I was hoping that meant a top five! I got my first split at about 4.5 kilometers, climbing High School Hill. At the finish, I heard them say I broke into the lead and I’m pretty sure I said something along the lines of, ‘Wait, what?'”

The victory qualified James for the NCAA Championships for the second consecutive year.

She talked more about her carnival win at the 11:16 mark on the .

5.

��’17 of Marblehead, Mass., has been a near-revolutionary force for the women’s swimming program from the moment she arrived on campus. She entered the 2016–17 school year as the most decorated athlete in �ֲ��ý athletics history, thanks to a remarkable 17 All-America awards.

“The biggest impact she has made is the effect she’s had on all her teammates,” head coach Peter Casares said. “She is fantastic at leading lanes, at doing things right, and inspiring others.”

At the 2017 NCAA Championships, Daher earned six more All-America awards to finish her career with 23.

“One of the things I’ve learned since my first year here is that you swim best when you’re having fun,” Daher said. “Having my teammates enjoy the atmosphere and the moment is very important.”

Her leadership style is clearly working. In 2017, the �ֲ��ý women’s team finished the four-day NCAA Championships in 13th place out of 51 scoring teams, their fourth straight top-17 national finish.

4. and basketball players rewrite record books

The basketball seasons proved to be very entertaining this school year thanks to some spectacular seniors.

��’17 of Wilmington, Del., became �ֲ��ý’ on Dec. 10, 2016, in a non-conference game against Colby College. He earned NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year honors and finished his career with 178 blocked shots.

“I definitely wanted to get that record at home,” Malcolm Delpeche said. “It is very exciting to be part of �ֲ��ý history.”

Not to be outdone, twin brother��was a first team All-NESCAC selection and led the Bobcats to a huge 84-72 victory over then-No. 4 nationally ranked Tufts on Jan. 28, 2017.

Marcus Delpeche finished his career with��1,025 points, scoring point No. 1,000 .

“These milestones are something I’ve anticipated over the course of their four years here, and it’s really cool to see it happen,” head coach Jon Furbush ’05 said. “It was great to see Marcus get his 1,000th point in our gym in front of our crowd and obviously what Malcolm’s done in his career on defense has been incredible.”

Malcolm and Marcus Delpeche’s accomplishments were not limited to the court. Off the court, they proved to be��leaders in efforts to keep the �ֲ��ý community a safe place for all.

In women’s hoops,��’17 of��Tarrytown, N.Y., became on Jan. 31, 2017, in a 71-42 victory over Maine-Farmington. Coppola completed her career with 977 points and 942 rebounds.

But perhaps her best performance of the season came earlier in January, in a 64-57 win over Colby to begin NESCAC play. Coppola tallied at that point a career-high 24 points while adding 16 rebounds. She took the game over down the stretch.

“I wasn’t really thinking at all in the fourth quarter,” Coppola said. “We were just so focused on winning that game since we’d lost to Colby earlier in the season.

“I think some of those shots that went in were helped by ‘Alumni Magic,'” she added, referring to the Bobcats’ home court of Alumni Gym.

Coppola finished her senior season as a second team All-NESCAC selection and was one of 38 �ֲ��ý graduates to receive the Senior Scholar Award from the Department of Athletics.

3.

When ��’17��of Brunswick, Maine, hit a hurdle and failed to qualify for the 60-meter hurdle finals at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in March, it could have spelled disaster.

Instead, it turned into the comeback story of the year.��

In her 60-meter hurdle preliminary race at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on March 10, Allison Hill ’17 clears the second hurdle before finding trouble at the third. (Photograph by d3photography.com)

The Bobcats finished the two-day event with 15 points and a tie for 11th place out of 70 scoring teams and 112 participating schools. Their four All-American finishes surpass the three they earned at the 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships, when the team finished third overall. The team’s 11th-place finish is their best since 2006.

Hill became the first �ֲ��ý women’s track & field athlete to win All-American honors in the 200-meter dash. She broke her own flat-track �ֲ��ý record with a time of 25.22 seconds, good for a fifth-place finish and her first indoor All-American award.

“I realized it was my last indoor race ever so I tried to put everything I had into it,” Hill said. “I am really proud of everyone’s performances this weekend, it was amazing.”

The �ֲ��ý Bobcast captured the upbeat vibe of the track teams’ trek to the American heartland:

2.

After barely missing out on the NCAA tournament in 2016, the �ֲ��ý men’s lacrosse team left no doubt in 2017. The Bobcats won their first 14 games and surged as high as No. 1 in the national rankings.

First team All-American and NESCAC Player of the Year��’17 of Falmouth, Maine, exploded for a team-record 79 goals, finishing his career with 167, second most in Bobcat history.

Fay is laid back off the field, but as intense as they come on the field.

“I hate to lose, so I am going to do everything I can not to lose,” Fay said, reflecting on his hyper-competitive nature. “I don’t like that feeling of losing and I don’t want it ever again.”

All-America Honorable Mentions ��’17 of Medfield, Mass., and ��’20 of Westfield, Mass., joined Fay on attack to form the “two-and-a-half men,” a sly reference to Chlastawa’s listed height of 5-foot-6. The two-and-a-half men propelled��the Bobcats to perhaps their signature win of the year, a 19–18 victory at then–No. 3 nationally ranked Tufts on April 18.

�ֲ��ý advanced to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals before falling to Wesleyan by just one goal. The Bobcats finished��the year with a program-best record of 16-2. Following the season, Fay was selected in the Major League Lacrosse draft by the Boston Cannons.

1.

Once upon a time, the �ֲ��ý women’s rowing team routinely finished second to Williams at the NCAA regatta — five straight times, in fact.

Those days seem to be well in the past.

In 2017, �ֲ��ý won its second NCAA��championship in three years thanks in part to a fourth consecutive gold medal for the second varsity eight, a scrappy bunch led the past three years by coxswain��’17 of��Bethlehem, N.Y.

Like the rest of her teammates, Bierman could only watch as the first varsity eight raced down Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J. The first varsity eight finished second to Williams, but because Williams finished third in the second varsity eight race, the points title and the national championship trophy went to �ֲ��ý, with the Ephs finishing national runner-up.

“We’re watching, we’re watching, Wellesley puts up this fight in the last 500 that almost gets them, they [�ֲ��ý] put up an even bigger fight,” Bierman��said. “My bow seat��turns around and is like, ‘I can’t watch any more!’ They finish and we whip our heads around to the coaching staff, and ask, ‘Did we?’ and they nod��— we did!”

“This is so much more than a victory for those of us who got to be on the water today,” ’17 of Ithaca, N.Y., said. “This is for everyone. I was happiest to see my first coxswain at �ֲ��ý [Molly Huffaker��’14] who was here. This is the second [team] national championship for the school and we own both of them. So that’s awesome.”

Football – News

Video: Teamwork, technique, and chicken wings from the mic’d up �ֲ���ý football captain

The 1898 �ֲ���ý-Bowdoin football game that cemented a historic rivalry

For �ֲ���ý football, 6-year-old Brayden Austin is their captain courageous

Video: �ֲ���ý football learns the high-flying air raid offense

Malik Hall named head football coach at �ֲ���ý

Web Harrison ’63, longtime coach who inspired students with a fusion of �ֲ���ý ideals and practical Marine Corps values, dies at age 78