Yep, it's that time of year again. June, the toughest time of year to be a Lehigh football fan. The trickle of news slows to a crawl... except here at Lehigh Football Nation, where we keep our eyes and ears open for any morsel of news.For my part, I'm doing plenty to keep the Patriot League newsworthy: stirring up the pot on the FCS message board on Any Given Saturday, or posting information on the Lehigh Voy messageboard forums.
That's in between time on the day job, writing for the FCS Yearbook (coming soon), and catching up on my FCS viewing (I still need to finish up watching the DVD of the "Goodman 20 Greatest Moments") and reading (I am finishing up my signed copy of "Magic On The Mountain", by David Coulson of The Sports Network, the story of Appalachian State's FCS title run in 2005). Did I mention the closing on our new house will be later this month, too?
The latest developments involve Lehigh senior DT Brian Jackson getting onto Consensus Draft Services' Preseason All-America team (for - and I quote - "D1AA"). He's on the honorable mention list with some pretty big FCS names - ever heard of Appalachian State QB Armanti Edwards, and, oh, the quarterback for last year's BCS national championship game, Ryan Perriloux (now on Jacksonville State)? They're on the same list.
Another development is the "next Joe Flacco" getting linked to Lehigh. It's true: the Palm Beach Post has reported that one of the schools looking at QB Tyler Wilhelm out of Seminole Ridge HS (Florida) is indeed the Brown and White - along with UCF, FIU, Air Force, Miami (OH), Tulsa, Delaware, Penn, and Liberty.
Finally, I stumbled across a funny old article about Paintin' Pranks And Campus Capers - a 1950s classic from the ActivePaper archives right out of the pre-LSD fueled 1960s. In it, it mentions the dangers of campus pranks and mentions - surprise - Lehigh/Lafayette:
Shaven heads, shaved lawns, painted pavements and lacquered libraries... The "woods is full of 'em" these days, both here and at scores of other campuses across the nation.
...
Actually, there have almost been some tragic consequences as the result of rival pranks. Three weeks ago, students from Swarthmore painted several big S's on the Ursinus College grid field.
The plan backfired when the lime they used for the painting turned out to be unslaked. Half the team ended up with second-degree burns while playing on the field the next day.
Things were so bad that the annual classic between Swarthmore and Haverford College was nearly called off because there weren't sufficient players well enough to make up a team.
Two years ago Lehigh students traveled to Easton and etched a big 'LU' on the Lafayette football field with lime. Spectators at this year's game can still see the letters in the field. No matter what the Lehigh official can do, they can't erase the LU. Things will be all right if Lafayette College becomes a university, but it's a little embarrassing at present.
My love for this article knows no bounds, because not only does it conclusively display the superiority of Lehigh graduates over Swarthmore grads by immortalizing Fisher Field for two years, Lafayette's still waiting to become a University.
This article just continues to crack me up. Kids using lime on football fields, for Pete's sakes. What's next? Kids with James Dean haircuts? Smoking? Dungarees? Somewhere, Pat Boone is crying.
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