Park's Place

Growing up in the area, family trips to the Carrier Dome for SU football games were an annual highlight. For a kid, the enormity of the building and the colors, sounds and energy of the crowd were a boundless source of excitement. Surely they still are to our young fans.

(In fact, my memories of those trips have less to do with the games themselves than the silly outfits I wore or my uncle getting paged as I wandered aimlessly on the concourse, but we won't get into that now.)

Clearly the biggest win of those early years was the September 29, 1984 upset of top-ranked Nebraska. I'm not saying the Cornhuskers were a lock, but they had won 23 straight regular season games, had outscored their first three 1984 opponents by an average of 41-5, had beaten Syracuse 63-7 the previous year and were three-touchdown favorites on the road that day.

By now you know the story. Coach Ben Schwartzwalder predicted a win in his post-practice talk to the team. Dick MacPherson got the guys fired up with an assignment to write letters detailing how each of them would contribute to an improbable win. Current head coach Doug Marrone, then a starting offensive tackle, foretold in his that the program “would have experienced a great day for Syracuse football both for now and the future.”

Saturday, as part of Legends Day at the Dome, that 1984 Orange team will be honored. More than 20 members of that team are expected back. Of course, Marrone and director of player development Bob Brotzki, the other starting tackle in '84, will be leading the team against Colgate at 3:30.

Also due to return are quarterback Todd Norley and wideout Mike Siano, who hooked up on a 40-yard touchdown pass early in the third quarter to put Syracuse ahead for good.

I must've had the Sunday Herald-American spread on my wall at home for a year. It had a prominent color picture of Siano rising over two Cornhuskers to reel in an over-the-shoulder catch.

“We were sort of in scoring position but the offense hadn't done a lot,” Siano said. “It was an opportunity for us to do something in the game. I'm not sure the play was called to me. I might have been the second or third option on the play. Todd trusted me enough to take a shot. And it all worked out, didn't it?”

I'd say so. Coach Mac will tell you it “worked out” to the extent of keeping the heat off him long enough to build momentum for an unbeaten 1987 and the great seasons that would follow.

“For the University to have a whole group of us to come back this weekend is something that has a lot of us really excited,” Siano said. “There's folks that I've heard from that I haven't spoken to in years that are going to make the pilgrimage into Syracuse for what's going to prove to be a great win for us.”

Members of the 1984 team will be signing autographs on the quad 2:30-3:00 Saturday afternoon.

For our complete conversation with former Orange wide receiver Mike Siano, check out the podcast section of SUathletics.com.

Trivia Question: Nearly 26 years have passed since that afternoon, a year for each point scored in the biggest upset in school history. How were the final points of the game scored?

Did You Know?: While the Syracuse-Colgate series has been oft-played, and is close to even over time (Colgate actually leads 31-29-5), it's been marked more by periods of dominance than even play.

· In modern times, the Orange has had little or no trouble with the Raiders, winning all 14 games since 1950 and scoring at least 45 points in each of the seven meetings after 1957. The 1959 National Champions won 71-0 at Archbold Stadium.

· In the leather-helmet era, Colgate had winning streaks of six ('06-13) and 10 ('28-37) years. In fact, the Orange failed to score a touchdown for a six-year clip in the 1930s!

· There's only been one stretch of even six meetings ('46-51) that the teams split the wins evenly.

This Week's Broadcasts:
Tonight/8:00p   TK99            Americu Doug Marrone Show, guest: head strength coach Will Hicks
Thu./8:45a          TK99            Win tickets on Free Parking with Gomez & Dave
Sat./12:30p         TK99            Join Gomez & Dave and the crew at the University Sheraton
Sat./1:30p           TK99            Coach Mac, Brian Higgins take over pregame on the SU quad
Sat./3:30p           TK99            Football vs. Colgate with Chris Gedney and yours truly

Road Restaurant Report: With no road trip this week, you probably thought you were spared a recap of our culinary conquests. OK, deal, but two quickies: 1) bring a friend to lunch with Coach Marrone Mondays after games at P.J.'s Pub; 2) the broadcast crew will be doing its part this week to properly shut down Clark's Ale House on Jefferson St.

Trivia Answer: A safety. Three kneeldowns by Norley and a penalty backed the Orange up from their 24-yard-line. On 4^th-and-26 from the 8, punter Jim Fox took the snap and allowed the last seconds to expire while in the end zone. Final score: Syracuse 17, #1 Nebraska 9.

Syracuse University Athletics

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