‘We had a football team?’
I found this statement on more than a few Twitter accounts after I received word that Northeastern football was ending late Sunday night. When you think about it, those five little words sum it all up. This type of apathy from the student population was apparent when I was the beat writer for NU football with this paper from 2006 to 2008, and it’s clear that even with the attention that now surrounds the program ‘- which may be bigger than what the program got when it was alive ‘- apathy still reigns in at least a few quarters.
Name the factor and it leads to the same result. The lack of decent facilities for the program. The on-campus stadium that never was (by the way, can I get my Student Activities Fee money back?). The 20-47 record over the last six seasons. Between all of that and the rise of multiple other programs in recent years ‘- not to mention that you don’t get hauled out to a field on a school bus with those sports ‘- I don’t blame students for showing apathy. I wrote my stories for three seasons knowing many students would only give a cursory glance at the headline and not much else. After all, I wrote about losing a lot.
Still, the chance to cover NU football was a great opportunity for me. I got to meet and work with some good people, in particular the WRBB trio of Alex Faust, Keith Lavon and Adam Jones, and the NU football staff trio of Sarah Gigantino, Thomas Chen and the legendary Jack Grinold. I also was able to keep tabs with a sport I had played through the end of high school. Put me on a field with hashmarks and goal posts and I’m at home. Maybe that’s why I’m not saying ‘good riddance’ to Rocky Hager, his players and the rest of the football staff. I could only imagine playing football at the college level, but I knew what winning and losing games felt like ‘- even if it was just high school ball. I wish all of them the very best.
Even though the last few years of NU football were mired in mediocrity on the whole, there were several good moments as well. From my tenure as beat writer, I have a few off the top of my head. My first game covering the Huskies in 2006 stands out, when Mat Johnson hit a last-second field goal to take down then-No. 18 Delaware. There’s also the two-point conversion pass from John Sperrazza to Alex Broomfield that beat UNH on Homecoming that year. How about that big upset over the then-No. 8 Wildcats in 2007? I’ll never forget the image of Maurice Murray shivering next to Hager after running 206 yards through the cold and rain. Then of course, there was the final game of that season against Rhode Island, when Murray re-wrote the Husky record books and became the program’s all-time rushing and touchdown king.
I may sound like a miner panning a bit deep for gold, but hey, I’ve got a few shiny ‘nuggets’ to look back on.
In the end, though, I think what I’ll remember the most is that Saturdays at Parsons Field were fun to me, whether as a writer or as a fan. As Lavon said on a WRBBsports.com podcast Sunday night/Monday morning, there’s nothing like having a cold drink in your hand and watching a football game with your friends. For those that managed to get out to Brookline, it was a fun day out that helped people get to know each other. I started some good friendships there. I even wound up having a relationship with someone that I first got to know as a friend at Parsons. And of course, there were the contests themselves and the teams that went at it because they loved the sport. NU football wasn’t Florida or Texas or Boston College. There was no hype. There was no glamour. It was just football ‘- hard-nosed, hard-working football. That’s something I’ll always respect, even if there were more Ls than Ws in the end.
To close, I wish to thank the entire football staff for the class and respect it showed me when I covered it as a member of the Huntington News staff.
And to those who ask, ‘We had a football team?’
Yes. We did. And win or lose, it always battled for Northeastern.
‘- Chris Estrada is a 2009 Northeastern graduate and former member of The News staff.
