Nice New Blog Feature

When you're writing or blogging about I-AA football in this dead time of year, the temptation is great to start new threads that normally wouldn't see the light of day the rest of the year. For example, starting a lively discussion about the speculation that Fordham is going to jump to the Colonial Athletic Association football conference to help form a 16-team super league. Or perhaps, speculating on Richmond's chances of jumping to I-A competition.

Instead, I actually was working on doing something for my site that is fun and useful.

Playing with the Google Map API, I designed an interactive map of all the Patriot League schools. There's a marker for all 7 of the football-playing schools in the league. Click on the marker, and you'll get some information on each school and their stadium.

You can zoom in and out using the + and - buttons on the map. By clicking and moving your mouse, you can scroll around on the map as well. Here's another cool trick: center the map on Lehigh, zoom in as far as you can, and then click "Satellite". You'll see a satellite picture of Murray Goodman stadium! Most of the other Patriot stadiums can also be seen this close!

Please give me some feedback on this neat feature. Any suggestions for extra information, etc. to be included on this map will be considered.

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Remembering Lehigh's Battles With The Late Tubby Raymond

(Photo Credits: Delaware Online)

When I heard the news Tubby Raymond, legendary Delaware head football coach, died last week at the age of 92, two immediate memories came rushing back to me.

One occurred on October 16th, 1999, when Tubby had made a complaint to the local paper or radio in the run-up to Kevin Higgins' Mountain Hawks beating his Blue Hens on Delaware's homecoming, 42-35.

I have no idea if the quote even actually happened, but my recollection is that Tubby said that Lehigh had "St. Bartholomew's" on their schedule, and hadn't played anybody. It was a verbal jab that many Delaware fans took with them to the stands to heckle the Mountain Hawk fans that made the short trip to Newark.

Up until that point, I had watched a bunch of Lehigh football games over the years. I experienced their rise in the 1990s. I enjoyed wins, and championships, and playoff victories.

But never had I felt a win so viscerally vindicating than the one over Tubby Raymond&…

Lehigh Wrestling Gets Superstar Treatment at PPL Center. Lehigh Football Needs The Same At Murray Goodman.

"We knew it would be nice," Lehigh wrestling head coach Pat Santoro said. "But it was even better than we expected."

Pat was talking about the reception his Lehigh wrestling squad experienced at Allentown's PPL Center this weekend, when a sellout crowd over nearly 10,000 people came to watch No. 1 Penn State grapple with No. 5 Lehigh in a collegiate wrestling event.

It was, by all accounts, something special to behold.

"I thought it was really cool and an exciting place to wrestle," said Penn State wrestler Nick Nevills. "These fans were really into it, a rowdy bunch. It's a lot more fun as an athlete to wrestle in an environment like this. I'd say it was one of the most exciting times I have had in my career."

The sense of spectacle at the PPL center, though, puts a spotlight on what more can be done at Lehigh itself to make their athletic contests into spectacles. It requires money to be spent and energy to be expended. But the…

Troy Pelletier Hasn't Stopped Outworking His Rivals On His Journey To Professional Football

Many Patriot League football fans remember the 153rd meeting between Lehigh and Lafayette, one that ended happily for the Mountain Hawks.

They might remember the MVP performance of QB Brad Mayes, or perhaps the halftime speech by OL Zach Duffy that seemed to spur the Mountain Hawks to victory.

Or perhaps they might remember the spectacular single play of Mayes rolling right and finding WR Gatlin Casey in the end zone to give the Mountain Hawks a lead they didn't relinquish. It was an incredible play by Mayes, who returns this upcoming year for his senior season, and Casey, who, having exhausted his eligibility at Lehigh, will be playing one more year at Middle Tennessee State.

As great as those individual moments are, though, they are not my biggest takeaway of that game.

Too many Lehigh people forget that Lehigh was down 31-21 at half, and that victory was no sure thing. And they sometimes forget that so much of that victory came from the grinding of WR Troy Pelletier, deliver…

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