Paybacks are Bitch

UP YOURS BIDWELL!!!!!

Great article by Pat Lester in the Allentown Morning Call. Does an owner really deserve a championship after charging draftpicks for hats on draft day????

Keep the Curse Alive

By: STEVE LIENERT

It's safe to say the good folks in Pottsville, Pa. will be rooting hard for the Eagles when they face the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday.

Not because they have a particular fondness for the Eagles, but because they have particular disdain for the Cardinals.

In 1925, the Cardinals were awarded an NFL Championship they may or may not have earned.

What is clear is that title originally belonged to the Pottsville Maroons and the people of Pottsville feel the Cardinals and, more specifically, the Bidwill family stole their championship.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Pottsville Mayor John Reiley campaign for the title to be returned.

The Cardinals have been cursed ever since.

The Maroons, who already had one of the most successful semi-pro teams in the country, joined the NFL that year and took the league by storm.

The Frankford Yellow Jackets, who later became the Eagles, finished with a decent 13-7 record that season, but it included a 49-0 loss to Pottsville. The Maroons, however, went 10-2 with seven shutouts and outscored opponents by a 270-45 margin.

Late in the season, according to the Eagles Encyclopedia, the Maroons traveled to Chicago's Comiskey Park to play the Cardinals for what was considered to be the 1925 NFL Championship Game. The Maroons went on to defeat the Cardinals 21-7.

After that, though, the Maroons scheduled a game against a former Notre Dame all-star team, including the legendary Four Horsemen, to be played in Philadelphia. The only problem was that the NFL said the Maroons couldn't play in the city because it was Yellow Jackets' territory and, perhaps more importantly, the Yellow Jackets had a home game scheduled the same day.

Then NFL Commissioner Joe Carr warned the Maroons in writing not to play in Philadelphia, but the Maroons did anyway, defeating the college all stars 9-7 in front of their former coach, Knute Rockne. Considering that college football was regarded as a better brand of football at the time, it was widely regarded that the win helped legitimize the NFL.

However, Carr was not amused. He canceled the Maroons' last game of the season, suspended the club and returned the franchise to the league. Pottsville had its franchise returned in 1926, but the Cardinals, who allegedly played its last home game against a team that was so bad it used high school players during the game, were awarded the 1925 title because it had two more wins than the Maroons.

According to a story published last February in the Super Bowl XLII preview edition of ESPN the Magazine, then Cardinals owner Chris O'Brien called the championship "bogus" and never accepted it.

Seven years later, though, the Bidwill family bought the team and decided they wanted the 1925 title to call their own. Until then, the Maroons were recognized as the champs. Just like that, Pottsville's only claim to NFL fame was gone and the townspeople put a hex on the franchise.

As recently as 2003, at the NFL owners meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell tried to have the title returned to the Maroons in time for Pottsville's bicentennial celebration in 2006.

Even President George W. Bush chimed in on the subject. According to the article in ESPN the Magazine, Bush sent a handwritten note to ESPN calling the Maroons' case "illuminating."
However, the owners, on the behest of current Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill, shot down the request by a 30-2 vote. The only two votes in favor of awarding the Maroons the title were by Steelers owner Dan Rooney and Eagles Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Lurie.

Arizona fans have bought into the curse put on them by Pottsvillians. They have discussed raising money to send a replica trophy to be given to the city. But until the 1925 NFL Championship is returned to Pottsville, the Curse of the Maroons will haunt the Cardinals.
It may not mean anything, but the Eagles will be happy to take any help they can get.

Cross-posted at Save the Maroons.

Eagles advance to NFC title game

TAKE THAT!!!!!

It wasn't Chuck Bednarik laying out Frank Gifford for 18 months in 1960, but it was good enough for me as the Eagles advanced to next weeks NFC title game against the Arizona Cardinals.

These are the same Cardinals owned by the same chump Bidwell family since 1932. Remember them? They claimed the 1925 title even though the lost it on the field to the Pottsville Maroons. Time for the curse of the Maroons to rear it's head next Sunday at 3:00 pm.

Final Thoughts on the Bowl Season

Once again 66 universities, the press, some coaches and a computer decided Florida is the best team in the country. David Jones of the Patriot-News outlines it best.

As I see it, the current economy will have to affect the ever expanding bowl line up. The Big Ten with two teams in BCS games and teams in 5 other bowl games shared over 40 million dollars. With that type of change floating around and conference that went 1-6 in the postseason, don't look for a playoff anytime soon.

'Maroons Night' at Wachovia Arena getting 'lukewarm response

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers have received a “lukewarm response” to promotions encouraging people from the Pottsville area to attend Pottsville “Maroons Night” at Wachovia Stadium, Wilkes-Barre, on Saturday, Michael J. Slusser, director of media for the Pioneers, said Thursday.

read more digg story

Author Dave Fleming talks with the Coal Region Voice

Short Q and A with Dave Fleming author of "Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship".

1.) Since the book's release in October, what has been the biggest surprise since that time? The letter received from President Bush?

ANSWER

I was shocked and thrilled by the letter from the president but the biggest surprise has been the level of emotion and commitment the coal region has for the Maroons. I knew people were interested in the story and were connected to the team but I had no idea just how strong a symbol the team has become for the region. Not just the success of the team but, I think, the lack of recognition and respect for the Maroons is a metaphor for the entire region. I was shocked at how many people just broke down trying to explain what the Maroons meant to them. To be even a small part of this team, this region and this fight is a great honor.

2.) Before beginning your research on the book, what are some of the things that surprised you about Pottsville and the Anthracite Region.

ANSWER

I alluded to this a bit in No. 1 but, I confess, I didn't have the proper respect for coal mining, the important roll it played in the development of the world and the men who fueled the world one fistful of coal at a time. The best advice I got before sitting down to write the book was to go down into a mine to get perspective on these men and this region and I think the first 75 pages of the book truly shows how much I was moved by that experience. After that the town and the times really became characters in the book.

3.) Do you think the Anthracite Region had a bigger part in shaping the NFL than just the Maroon's contribution?

ANSWER

The last stat I read said that something like 23 NFL Hall of Famers were from Pennsylvania and that five players who have played in the Super Bowl have connections to Pottsville. It's not a coincidence that this proud, rugged region has always been a go-to spot for college football recruiters. Pennsylvania is the birthplace of pro football and I know western PA has gotten a lot of attention and credit but the Maroons were first--and probably best. You only need to attend a PAHS football game to understand how special football is in this region. (I've been to two and the Tide is 2-0 in those games, by the way.)

4.) You will be attending the Super Bowl between the Giants and Patriots. What was the first Super Bowl that you attended?

ANSWER

Actually, it was 12 years ago at the last Super Bowl in Phoenix. I watched a fan bury himself in horse manure to try and win Super Bowl tickets and I haven't found a better metaphor, yet, for the unbelievable hype of the game.

5.) Has there been any big changes from when you first attended?

ANSWER

It's funny, when I first started people were desperate for even a close game. I remember sitting in the Georgia Dome watching the final minutes of the Titans-Rams unfold and just watching with my mouth wide open at the great finish. There is so much hype leading up to the game (to which I certainly contribute) and there's no worse feeling after all that to sit through a boring blowout. The other really big change is that when I switched from Sports Illustrated to ESPN I started getting invited to the Playboy Super Bowl Party. Talk about a life changing event!

6.) Why have the last few Super Bowl's been the most competitive?

ANSWER

The contrasting economic forces of free agency and the salary cap have created a level of parity in the NFL that is reflected in the Super Bowl. (Wow, that answer sounded like the debate scene from Old School when Will Ferrell blacks out for a second. Sorry.)

7.) If you could be NFL Commissioner for one day, what would change?

ANSWER

After I delivered the 1925 NFL championship trophy to City Hall in Pottsville, had lunch with Jim Brown and convinced the Arizona Cardinals to hire Matt Millen as their lifetime GM, I would look into shrinking the schedule and expanding team rosters. Following the league up close I'm disturbed by the amount of injuries in the league--not just the crippling, long-term effect it has on players but the way it's watering down the product--you don't want a league where injuries (and a lack of talent depth) becomes more important than skill and preparation.

8.) Thank you very much for taking the time for the Q and A.

ANSWER

My pleasure. The fact that Breaker Boys has been out for four months and people are still talking about the book, the team and the cause is really a tribute to the grass roots efforts of so many Maroons fans and bloggers like yourself who have tirelessly spread the word. Every day I hear from someone who knows someone who knows someone from Schuylkill County--I swear. It's something I call Maroons Magic. Ya know, I really think we've turned a very, very important corner in the fight. I have had to fight for coverage of the team and the book for a long time and this past week, without any prompting, papers in Chicago, Allentown and Lebanon called wanting to do stories, the book will be in two straight issues of ESPN The Magazine, I just did a segment on Comcast Network and HBO is also putting something together. All of your efforts are paying off and I am deeply indebted to all Maroons fans.

HBO was in Pottsville to interview Kevin Keating and Jack Dolbin for an upcoming NFL special to air on January 30th.

The interview is crossposted at the Save the Maroons Blog.

Klebon's Return has Tiger's back in the hunt!

The Southern Columbia basketball engine is starting to rev it's engine with Colin Klebon back on the court. Look at the damage he and Foster Renn did last night.

Bucknell continues to struggle with their offense doing a Houdini act at critical junctures of games. Jason Vetgotsky and Darren Mastropaolo did return to the lineup.

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I have been busy like everyone around the holidays, got to watch a few bowl games (what a joke), and even did some ice skating (and lived to tell about it.)

Will someone step up and finally have a playoff in college football in the last division that doesn't? Ohio State (not making Big Ten excuses) played their last game on November 17th and are expected to be sharp on January 7th. By the way, January 7th is almost a full week later than the traditional New Year's Day end to college football.

Best games? Penn State and A & M, or Michigan and Florida.

Did anyone notice Penn State won their bowl game and weren't ranked in the Top 25? Did that ever happen?

**********

A book that should be required reading for the new year. Read Breaker Boys by Dave Fleming. You will receive a local and sports history lesson all rolled into one.

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POLITICS

2008 promises to be an interesting year both in Pennsylvania and national politics. In Pennsylvania, 2008 promises to be the year of smoke. First addressing the Clean Indoor Air Act and blowing smoke about possible reform in state government aka open records. Look for a completly gutted bill by the time it reaches Governor Rendell. We don't want to offend those casino owners. Keep that property rebate coming.

A "no brainer" would be to pass the Colon Cancer Screening Bill or SB 146.

Maybe the biggest sporting event of the year will be the 2008 presidential election. After two primaries, the nomination in both parties is still up for grabs. There are a couple of things I did like about the primaries:

- the voters got involved and big money took a backseat. Hillary(100 million in the warchest) got hammered in Iowa while McCain almost broke won NH.

- pollsters were duped (this is a good thing)

- the journalism that came out of NH was awful. The pundits got hammered.

With Rudy wanting an English test required for citzenship this has to be the funniest ad of the campaign so far (look what's airing in Florida).

ESPN Magazine and the Pottsville Maroons

It was reported in the Pottsville Republican Herald that ESPN the Magazine will be doing a story on the Maroons.

In doing some more digging in the Maroons, Cardinals and the Bidwell family. I found this bit of information. The Cardinals got their nickname from borrowed uniforms from the University of Chicago who incidentally were nicknamed the Maroons.

Crossposted at the Save the Maroons Blog.

Maroons Week Comes to an End

GREAT INTERVIEW

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of interviewing ESPN the Magazine's columnist and author Dave Fleming about his book titled Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship. The interview can be heard by clinking the link and putting the cursor to about 1 hour and 50 minutes into the broadcast. We would like to thank Fleming and Pottsville AD John Carestia for helping to organize the interview on game night.


Dave Fleming plans on returning to the area before the end of the year to have more book signings due to the overwhelming response of Breaker Boys Maroons Week.


Here is the petition to sign for the Maroons so they can take their case to the NFL again.

RUNNING IT UP?

It was interesting to watch the end of the Pottsville-Shamokin game on Friday. When Pottsville was whistled for delay of game with one second left, the Tide chose to stay in punt formation and scored on a 60-yard run by junior Josh Poda. Pottsville had the physical game in hand 39-28 at that point.

Pottsville's Kevin Keating indicated to one reporter that Poda's instructions were to take the snap, run out the clock and take a knee. The report never made it into print. There was some speculation going back to the 1992 game involving the same coaching staff from Shamokin. Due to not being there at the time and only knowing some specifics, I will not describe. However, the series came to halt for a few years and Shamokin opened up the head coaching job after the season.

Unfortunately, the long coal region rivalry ends this year with Shamokin entering the Heartland Conference next year.

DESPERATION BREEDS INNOVATION

With Shamokin down 20-0 and not going anywhere, the Indians came out with a five receiver set and no one in the backfield. Shamokin ran "diamond" quads to one side and were successful in the passing game. Pottsville took most of the second half trying to adjust to the formation.



Shamokins opponents are 29-13 on the season while the Indians are 6-20 since defeating Southern on opening night in 2005.

THE LOURDES STORY

There is speculation on whether Lourdes will enter District playoffs with a 6-1 record after week number 7. Lourdes is in a Catch-22 situation with 24 boys on the team and with soccer and golf as competing fall sports. The good news is that Red Raiders have started with 24 and still have 24 and that is in grades 9 through 12. The last I heard there are only seven boys in the junior class.


When Lourdes goes anything below 9-1 or 10-0 no one says a thing. The Red Raiders are on a 9-1 pace and could possibly take out a team that finishes 8-2 in District IV "A". As of last Friday, Lourdes were a few points behind Line Mountain, Southern, Bloomsburg and Canton. Line Mountain is still undefeated and the rest have one loss. If Lourdes declares Districts, everyone is on the bandstand that the Red Raider's schedule is bad. If the Red Raiders opt for Eastern Conference.......well they are ducking the competition.


The real story is that 24 students started the season playing for Lourdes and 24 students are still playing and hoping to win their conference and a playoff game whether it is in Districts or Eastern Conference. Since the print media did not cover the Lourdes declaration to the District committee on Monday, I will try to interview head coach Mike Klembara this week.

SOUTHERN COLUMBIA

Southern Columbia overcame a big hurdle this past weekend with a big win at home over undefeated Loyalsock. For all intent and purpose, this was a playoff game for the Tigers. The Tigers are in a dogfight with Line Mountain, Bloomsburg, and Canton for seeding. Line Mountain has a week 10 game left with Millersburg. Bloomsburg has three tough ones with Lewisburg, Loyalsock and Williams Valley. Canton plays Muncy and Troy which may be tough games for the Warriors. Southern should be favored against Clarion, Central and Danville. The Ironmen were a surprise early, but seem to be fading.

The Tigers look to be a strong candidate for the second seed and depending on what happens with Line Mountain a contender for the number one seed which should be the best field in District IV "A" ever. With tough games against Shamokin, Mount Carmel, Bloomsburg (though a loss) and Loyalsock, the 2007 version of the Tigers are battle tested going into the favorite time of the year, week 11.

SHAMOKIN 2008 SCHEDULE

Sat 08/30/2008 Away SOUTHERN COLUMBIA H. S. 7:00PM

Fri 09/05/2008 Home MOUNT CARMEL H.S. 7:00PM

Fri 09/12/2008 Away Central Columbia 7:00PM

Fri 09/19/2008 Away SHIKELLAMY HIGH SCHOOL 7:00PM

Fri 09/26/2008 Home DANVILLE AREA H.S. 7:00PM

Fri 10/03/2008 Home SELINSGROVE H. S. 7:00PM

Fri 10/10/2008 Away MONTOURSVILLE H.S. 7:00PM

Fri 10/17/2008 Home Warrior Run 7:00PM

Fri 10/24/2008 Away Mifflinburg Area 7:00PM

Fri 10/31/2008 Home Loyalsock Twp 7:00PM

Great Turnout for Maroons Week

Author Dave Fleming at his book signing on Thursday at the Pottsville Free Library. The Republican has some great coverage of Maroons Week. Fleming's book, Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship was sold out of local outlets all week long.

Fleming indicated that he will come to the area before the end of the year. If you want to order his book in time for the next signing, click on the link posted at the left.

Mr. Fleming will be a on-air guest on tonight's BILL 95 coverage of the Pottsville and Shamokin football game.

SCHOOL BOARD STRIKES AGAIN

Warrior Run suspended head coach Scott Shaffer for Friday's game with Montoursville. Read Harold Raker's account here from the Daily-Item. I love the bands, but remember the football team feeds the band.

SOUTHERN COLUMBIA

Southern's game tonight will provide a glimpse on how the Tiger will perform in the playoffs. They take on unbeaten Loyalsock tonight at home. One surprising things is to the Lancers 6-0 with heavy graduation losses. I got to see Montoursville early in the season and the Warriors returned their starting offensive line intact from last season. Look for a good battle in the trenches. With Southern being 14-0 all time against the Lancer, look for Southern to win a close one.

The Tigers are in a three-way tie for the last three positions in the District IV playoffs. Line Mountain sits at the top by themselves with Southern sharing the spots with Bloomsburg and Canton. Lourdes Regional sits in 5th position 20 points out of a playoff spot. Will a 9-1 Lourdes team opt for Eastern Conference? Will they have enough points to edge any team that finishes 8-2? Lourdes still has some tough games left with East Juniata and Columbia Mountour Vo-Tech. Either way look for Lourdes to go Eastern Conference. Coach Klembara in week 1 stated their goal this season was to win a game in the post season. The Eastern Conference gives Lourdes' their best chance.

Zielinskie Clarifies Incident

Dave Zielinskie clarified the incident that took place in the 10/11 issue of the News-Item. I had the opportunity to show Tuesday's article to a teacher in another district and is not involved in athletics. The teacher informed me that if the incident wasn't witnessed by staff or not caught on a camera all you have is a hearsay. This left Zielinskie to ask the players to step up and tell what happened. No one did.

Here is the verdict. If no one seen the incident and it wasn't recorded on film, for the most part it didn't exist. Unfortunately, you have the same situation going on in State College. A fight in the spring, one this past weekend, and Austin Scott suspended is leaving Joe Paterno's hand's tied until sorted out by law enforcement. Joe's press conference was quickly deflected to "let's talk about what's going on the field." If someone like Joe can't enforce discipline, who can?

MOTION TO OPEN THE JOB

Garnering headlines on Tuesday was the motion to open Zielinskie's job. You have to question the motivation here due the director being a lame duck and one of the principles in hiring Zielinskie in the first place. I guess an 0-6 start and another loss to Mount Carmel lowers your stock somehow. What will the fallout be for the motion? Was the board equipped to handle the coaching situation if the job was opened? What kind of message does that send to the players returning in 2008? Stay tuned.

MAROONS DAY BIG SUCCESS

Big lines and crowds awaited Dave Fleming author of the book Breaker Boys about the 1925 NFL champion Pottsville Maroons. The week will conclude after Friday's Shamokin-Pottsville football game.

Shamokin concluding Maroon Week at Pottsville

Shamokin will be at Pottsville this Friday to conclude Maroon Week at Pottsville. Author Dave Fleming will be honored before the game for his book, Breaker Boys. Here is the list of the activities for the rest of the week.

SURPRISE MOVE

Last night at the Shamokin Area School Board meeting, a motion was made to open the head coaching job. If the motion carried through, would Shamokin have been in a coaching quandary for the rest of the season. Stay tuned.