Before You Go. Syracuse is in Central New York. For a big chunk of the year, it is so cold! (How cold is it?) It's so cold, they call it Sibercuse, after Siberia. It's a big reason why they built a stadium with a dome.
That shouldn't be a problem for this weekend. For this Saturday, the local newspaper, The Syracuse Post-Standard, is predicting temperatures in the low 70s for daylight, and the high 50s for the evening. However, they are predicting "An A.M. shower." If you're staying overnight instead of headed back down. Sunday will be warmer, but they're expecting rain again. This won't affect you inside the dome, but you won't be indoors the entire trip.
Syracuse is in the Eastern Time Zone, so it will be the same time there that it is here.
Tickets. The Carrier Dome is listed as seating 49,262 people, about the same as the new Yankee Stadium and less than the expanded Rutgers Stadium. But they haven't had a sellout in 4 years, and it's been 2 years since they even topped 36,000 for a game. So getting tickets shouldn't be hard.
Getting There. It's 249 miles from Midtown Manhattan to the Carrier Dome. Too close to fly. Google Maps recommends taking Interstate 80 West across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, then Exit 293 to Interstate 380 North to Scranton, and Exit 187 to Interstate 81 North from there to Syracuse, at Exit 17, and says this will take a little over 4 hours.
It works out to about an hour and 15 minutes in New Jersey, an hour and a half in Pennsylvania, and an hour and a half back in New York, for a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes. Throw in a rest stop around Scranton (or 2 shorter ones around Easton and Binghamton), and you're looking at 5 hours each way.
You could just take the New York State Thruway all the way up, first on Interstate 87 North, then, at Albany, switching to Interstate 90 West, and getting off at Exit 36. But, according to Google Maps, this would add 46 miles and 48 minutes to your trip. So, in this case, 3 States - 4 if you count New York twice - are better than 1.
Amtrak is a problem. The first Empire Service train of the day, the Toronto-bound Maple Leaf, doesn't get to Syracuse until 12:43 PM, after kickoff. And the last one of the day, also the Maple Leaf, leaves for Penn Station at 3:28, probably before the final gun. So unless you want to go up Friday, come back Saturday, and spend both Friday and Saturday nights in a hotel, Amtrak is out. Round-trip fare: $157.
Greyhound doesn't quite work, either: Unless you want to leave Port Authority Bus Terminal between 12:00 midnight and 1:00 AM, and arrive before 6:00, you'd leave at 7:00 and arrive at 12:10 PM, just 20 minutes before kickoff. You'd never make it. Round-trip fare is $98, but it can drop to $76 with advanced purchase.
Both Amtrak and Greyhound use the William F. Walsh Transportation Center, at 1 Walsh Circle, just off I-81 and Onondaga Lake, 3 miles northwest of downtown, and 4 1/2 miles northwest of the Dome. Bus 14 to Bus 18.
Once In the City. New York was 1 of the 13 Original Colonies, and became the 11th State to ratify the Constitution of the United States on July 26, 1788.
Founded in 1825, and known as the Salt City for its former main industry, Syracuse was named for Siracusa on the island of Sicily. It is not the only city in New York State named for a major European city. Next-door to Syracuse is a town named Liverpool. There's also a Manchester, a Madrid, a Lisbon, an Amsterdam, a Rotterdam, a Stockholm, a Copenhagen, a Berlin, a Hanover, a Dresden, a Warsaw, a Rome, a Milan, a Turin, a Venice, a Naples, a Verona and, also named for a city in Sicily, a Palermo.
Syracuse is easily the biggest of the New York versions of these cities, being home to about 145,000 people, making it the 4th-largest city in the State behind New York City, Buffalo and Rochester; and about 660,000 in its immediate area. As with the Pennsylvania State capital of Harrisburg, Syracuse is roughly where the Northeast turns into the Midwest.
Maxwell Hall (left) and Crouse College (right),
on the Syracuse University campus
The Sales tax in New York State, outside New York City, is 4 percent. ZIP Codes for Central New York start with the digits 13, including Syracuse, at 13244 -- the explanation for those last 2 digits to come. The Area Code is 315, with 680 as a newly-added overlay.
City Electric Company runs the electricity. The city is about 45 percent white, 30 percent black, 8 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian, and 1 percent Native American.
Syracuse University, standing on University Hill, was founded by the Methodist Church in 1870, but in 1920 officially became nonsectarian. Aside from its sports programs, it is renowned for its programs in information studies and library science, architecture, business administration, and journalism and communications.
In particular, thanks to the great New York sportscaster Marty Glickman having gone there, other would-be sportscasters from New York have done there. Glickman was followed by Marv Albert, Bob Costas, Len Berman, Ed Coleman, Gary Apple, Mike Tirico, Ian Eagle, Craig Carton (okay, bad example) and Adam Schein, ; and, while they're from elsewhere, Boston's Dick Stockton, Sean McDonough, Joe Castiglione and Dan Roche; Philadelphia's Jayson Stark and Michael Barkann; and San Francisco's Greg Papa.
Notable Syracuse graduates in other fields include:
* Literature: Novelist Shirley Jackson, novelist Joyce Carol Oates, critic Hilton Kramer, Marmaduke cartoonist Brad Anderson, novelist Jay McInerney, literary agent Morton Janklow (who rose to fame representing McInernery), poet Stephen Dunn. Novelist Stephen Crane dropped out, later admitting he came "more to play baseball than to study."
* Journalism (other than sports): Henry Jarvis Raymond, Dorothy Thompson, S.I. Newhouse Jr. and his brother Donald Newhouse, Harold E. Martin, Harry Rosenfeld, Fred Silverman, Robert Scheer, Ted Koppel, Mike McAlary, Steve Kroft, Jeff Glor, Contessa Brewer, Samantha Brown, Mary Calvi and Megyn Kelly.
* Fashion: Designer Betsey Johnson.
* Business: Home Shopping Network founder Lowell Paxson, Raymour & Flanigan co-founder Bernard Goldberg, and Studio 54 runner Steve Rubell.
* Politics: Vice President Joe Biden, and his son, former Attorney General Beau Biden of Delaware; Secretary of Commerce John T. Connor; Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala; Governors Craig Benson of New Hampshire, Arthur Hannett of New Mexico; Senators Biden, Angus Cameron of Wisconsin, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, Al D'Amato of New York; and current Congressman Steve Rothman of New Jersey.
Also Belva Ann Lockwood, the 1st woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court, and the Presidential nominee of the Equal Rights Party in 1884 and 1888; William Safire, speechwriter for President Richard Nixon, who became a Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative columnist for The New York Times; and pollster John Zogby.
* Science: Heart surgeon Robert Jarvik; Eileen Collins, the 1st woman to command a Space Shuttle mission; and Sultan bin Salman, a Saudi prince (a son of the current monarch, King Salman) and a pilot in their Royal Air Force, who in 1985 became the youngest person to fly into space (29, and he still holds the record), as well as the 1st royal, the 1st Muslim, and the 1st person of Arab descent to do so.
* Entertainment: Actors Peter Falk, Suzanne Pleshette, Frank Langella, Peter Weller, Vanessa Williams (also a singer and a Miss America) Taye Diggs, Tom Everett Scott, Heather Dubrow, Vera Farmiga; screenwriter Aaron Sorkin; songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen; rock legends Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals and Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground; comedians Jerry Stiller and Lisa Lampanelli, disc jockeys Dick Clark and Bob Shannon. Also, the Friends character Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Aniston, was said to be a Syracuse graduate.
Going In. The official address of the Carrier Dome is 900 Irving Avenue, at the western edge of the Syracuse University campus, a mile and a half southeast of downtown. Bus 40 or 48. If you drive in, parking is $25.
Archbold Stadium, with its famed gate
That meant that, with the coming of Division I-AA, the NCAA would "relegate" Syracuse without a 30,000-seat stadium. So 'Cuse tore down Archbold Stadium, built the Carrier Dome, and played their 1979 home games at the Buffalo Bills' stadium.
For the same reason, West Virginia built a new stadium at the same time. Rutgers did not: Instead of expanding their 23,000-seat stadium built in 1938, they moved half their home games to the Meadowlands, which satisfied the NCAA into giving them the precious Division I-A classification. This was also true for Temple University in Philadelphia, who abandoned their crumbling 20,000-seat ghetto stadium to play all their home games at Veterans Stadium, and now Lincoln Financial Field.
The Scarlet Knights and the Owls should have built a new stadium when the Orangemen and the Mountaineers did, particularly with all the goodwill from the school's 1976 successes, as both the basketball team (until the Final Four) and the football team went undefeated in that calendar year.
Because the roof prevents the Sun from interfering with play, Syracuse is one of the few major college football teams that plays its home games on a field that runs east to west instead of the standard north to south. But it also prevents grass from growing, so the field is artificial turf. Syracuse has not played a home game on real grass since Archbold Stadium was closed.
Football configuration
It's the largest on-campus indoor stadium in the country, and the largest indoor stadium in the Northeastern U.S. (Montreal and Toronto have larger domed stadiums, but, of course, those are not in the U.S.) The dome holds in the noise, so the stadium is known as The Loud House. But it's much more intimidating for a crowd of 35,446 in basketball than it is for one of 49,262 in football.
The naming rights are owned by the Carrier air-conditioning company -- and yet, the stadium is not air-conditioned! Or heated. The former is a problem in September, the latter definitely in November. In another irony, while the Dome was being built in 1979, Carrier was bought out by United Technologies.
In 2009, on the 50th Anniversary of the National Championship he helped win, the field was named Ernie Davis Legends Field. Frankly, given his record as his 42nd season as head coach dawns, I'm surprised the basketball court hasn't been named after Jim Boeheim.
The Dome hosts the New York State high school football and band championships, and the New York State Fair. It hosted the Big East Conference basketball tournament in 1981 (the only time it's been held somewhere other than Madison Square Garden), many NCAA Tournament games, 2 NCAA lacrosse championships, and 2 NCAA track & field championships.
Basketball configuration
In 2014, it hosted the Toyota Frozen Dome Classic, between nearby minor-league hockey teams, the Syracuse Crunch and the Utica Comets. It's hosted concerts by Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, The Who, David Bowie, Elton John, Billy Joel, The Police, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, U2, Taylor Swift and Drake.
Hockey configuration. The Syracuse Crunch wear blue jerseys.
Food. Unlike many college football stadiums, the Carrier Dome does sell alcohol, including beer and wine, but only sell the harder stuff in private boxes. SU is proud of their "Brew and BBQ" stand, located between aisles 117 and 118, featuring pulled pork and Chicken-Swiss sandwiches.
Their hot dogs are made by Hofmann, and include "German Frank" and "Hoffmann Coney" -- a chili dog, in the Midwestern style. They have Dunkin Donuts stands, and Sbarro pizza.
Team History Displays. Syracuse University has used orange as its main color since 1890. Until 2004, the teams' names were the Orangemen and the Orangewomen. The names were changed, in each case, to simply "Orange."
Contrary to the assumption of many, it has nothing to do with not wanting to be associated with the Orange Order, a.k.a. the "Orangemen," the Protestant fraternal organization so often (fairly or not) identified with anti-Catholic terrorism in Ireland. Rather, they just wanted to make the name gender-neutral. Funny, but I notice that other school known for wearing Orange, the University of Tennessee, still calls its teams the Volunteers and the Lady Vols.
Syracuse has won the Lambert Trophy, and its successor the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy, as the best college football team in the 1952, 1956, 1959, 1966, 1987 and 1992 seasons. It was essentially designed to serve as a conference championship, because most of the teams in the Northeast weren't in one.
Not having been part of a league until joining the Big East for all sports but football in 1979, and then for football in 1991, Syracuse didn't win its 1st league title in football until 1996, also winning the Big East in 1997, 1998, 2004 and 2012. However, a scandal was later uncovered, and the school had to vacate not only its 2004 title, but all of its wins from the 2004, '05 and '06 seasons. They joined the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 2013 season, and have struggled ever since, going just 20-34 counting the start of this season.
In 1959, led by head coach Ben Schwartzwalder and sophomore running back Ernie Davis, they won the National Championship, including their 1st bowl win, the 1960 Cotton Bowl. They had previously reached the 1957 Cotton Bowl, led by Jim Brown, but lost a classic, 28-27 to Texas Christian University and their star running back, Jim Swink. Brown went on to become, in some minds, the greatest NFL player ever; Swink, except for the inaugural AFL season of 1960 with his hometown Dallas Texans, didn't play pro ball, instead becoming a doctor, including a hero surgeon in the Vietnam War.
Syracuse could have won at least a share of the 1987 National Championship by winning the 1988 Sugar Bowl, as they came in 11-0, but Auburn kicked a field goal on the last play of the game to tie it 16-16. A Syracuse radio station mailed Auburn coach Pat Dye 2,000 ugly ties. Not to be outdone, Dye autographed them all and auctioned them off, raising $30,000 for Auburn's scholarship fund. Ironically, Auburn shares their colors, orange and blue. Also the colors of the Mets, the Knicks and the Islanders, although in the Orange's case, it has nothing to do with the Dutch founders of the city and the State of New York.
The Orange have also won the 1961 and 1996 Liberty Bowls, the 1979 Independence Bowl (despite playing all their home games in Buffalo), the 1989 and 1992 Hall of Fame Bowls (for the 1988 and 1991 seasons), the 1989 Peach Bowl, the 1990 Aloha Bowl, the 1993 Fiesta Bowl, the 1996 Gator Bowl, the 1999 Music City Bowl, the 2010 and 2012 Pinstripe Bowls at Yankee Stadium, and the 2013 Texas Bowl.
On November 12, 2005, Syracuse University retired number 44 to honor the legacy of those who wore it as well as the number itself, which has become so associated with Syracuse that the University's ZIP Code, 13244, was requested by university officials to remember those who wore 44 for the Orange.
Since 1921, 25 players wore the number, and 3 earned All-America honors. The 3 most famous Number 44s were running backs Jim Brown (senior year: 1956), Ernie Davis (1961) and Floyd Little (1966). In 1961, Davis became the 1st black player to win the Heisman Trophy. (The runner-up was also black: Ohio State running back Bob Ferguson.) Like Brown, Davis was acquired by the Cleveland Browns, whose uniforms are similar to Syracuse's, but did not get to play, as he suffered from leukemia and died in 1963.
Brown, Davis and Little have been elected to the College Football Hall of Fame. So have 6 other Syracuse players, with the following senior years: Guard Joe Alexander, 1920; end Vic Hanson, 1926; running back Larry Csonka, 1967; receiver Art Monk, 1979 defensive tackle Tim Green, 1985 (now a sportscaster and novelist); and quarterback Don McPherson, 1987. Also elected have been head coaches Frank "Buck" O'Neill (for whom the legendary Negro League ballplayer John O'Neil was nicknamed), 1906-19; Ben Schwartzwalder, 1949-73; and Dick MacPherson, 1980-90.
Brown, Little, Csonka and Monk have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So have center Jim Ringo (1952), tight end John Mackey (1962) and receiver Marvin Harrison (1995 -- who, like Mackey, wore Number 88 with the Colts, albeit in Indianapolis instead of Baltimore like Mackey). Donovan McNabb (1998), who also played basketball at Syracuse, may join them, as he is now eligible.
These honorees, the title banners, and murals showing great moments in Orange football history, are shown at the base of the Carrier Dome's roof.
(UPDATE: Through the 2019 season, Syracuse leads BC 31-21, but trails Pitt 40-32-3.)
Stuff. There are 2 Orange Shoppes inside the Carrier Dome, behind Aisles 109 and 122. The University Bookstore is at 303 University Place, across from the main library, and about a 5-minute walk northeast of the Dome.
There is no recent comprehensive book history of Syracuse football. Michael A. Mullins wrote Syracuse University Football: A Centennial Celebration, but that was published back in 1989. You might be better off with the 2009 DVD The Legends of Syracuse. Brothers Gary and Maury Youmans wrote '59: The Story of the 1959 Syracuse University National Championship Football Team.
During the Game. Syracuse does not have a dirty reputation, either for its players or its fans. Be courteous to the home fans, and you'll be fine.
In 1980, Syracuse introduced not only the Carrier Dome, but also, in the wake of the San Diego Chicken, the Phillie Phanatic, and others, their mascot, Otto the Orange. He succeeded the politically-incorrect Native American mascot, the Saltine Warrior.
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Syracuse's fight song is titled "Down the Field."
After the Game. Your comfort might be an issue, due to Syracuse's cold weather, but your safety will not be.
There aren't many postgame meal options around the Dome. You may have to head back downtown. Marshall Street, northeast of downtown, used to be the place (if you're a Rutgers fan, think Easton Avenue; Ohio State, High Street), but most of the surviving renowned places seem to be on S. Crouse Avenue: The Orange Crate (121), Harry's (700), Faegan's (734) and Varsity Pizza (802).
If you're looking for 44's Tavern, named for the famous uniform number, don't bother: It's gone. It became Konrad's in 2000, named for the last player to wear the number; then got shut down in 2004, for serving liquor to minors. It's now a Verizon Store. 113 Marshall Street.
If your visit to Syracuse is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, the leading place to watch your favorite club play is J. Ryan's Pub, at 253 E. Water Street, at Montgomery Street, downtown.
Sidelights. Syracuse is 249 miles from Midtown Manhattan, 144 miles from Albany, 93 miles from Cooperstown, 87 miles from Rochester, and 149 miles from Buffalo. It's not exactly near anything except its own places to go.
From 1962 until the Carrier Dome opened in 1980, Syracuse's athletic program was headquartered at Manley Field House. It now includes the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center, since 'Melo donated $2 million to build it. 1301 E. Colvin Street, at Comstock Avenue, a mile southeast of the Dome, and about a 25-minute walk from the center of campus.
They won the Big East in the regular season in 1980, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 2000, 2003, 2010 and 2012; and the Conference Tournament in 1981, 1988, 1992, 2005 and 2006 -- but never both in the same year. They have yet to win the ACC, either in the regular season or in the Tournament.
Other star Orange basketball players include Dave Bing (1966), Louis Orr (1980), Danny Schayes (1981), Dwayne "the Pearl" Washington (1986), and Billy Owens (1991).
In Triple-A ball, in the International League, the Syracuse Chiefs (a Yankee farm team from 1967 to 1977, with the Toronto Blue Jays from 1978 to 2008, and now with the Washington Nationals) are at the 11,000-seat NBT Bank Stadium. It also hosted professional soccer's Syracuse Salty Dogs in 2003 and 2004. 1 Tex Simone Drive, 2 blocks from the Walsh Transportation Center, and 2 1/2 miles north of downtown. Bus 16.
Previously, the Chiefs played at the 10,500-seat MacArthur Stadium from 1934 to 1996, 2 blocks from the new ballpark, at 820 Second North Street. It also hosted minor-league soccer's Syracuse Scorpions from 1969 to 1974.
The Syracuse Nationals played in the NBA from 1949 to 1963. They first played at the State Fair Coliseum, built in 1927. It still stands, now known as the Toyota Coliseum, at Mohegan Street and Delaware Avenue, across Onondaga Lake from the Transportation Center and the ballpark. Bus 82.
As the NBA grew in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Syracuse, like its neighbor Rochester, proved to be too small a market for a major league sports team. In 1963, the Nationals left, to replace the Warriors as Philadelphia's team, taking the name 76ers.
Right now, the biggest pro soccer team in Central New York is the Syracuse Silver Knights, based at the Oncenter, and playing in the Major Arena Soccer League. The next-closest clubs are the Rochester Rhinos (men's) and the Western New York Flash (women's).
The Rhinos are in the United Soccer League (USL), the 2nd division in North America. They've won their league in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2010 and 2015. In 1999, they won the U.S. Open Cup. The only non-MLS team to be in that tournament's Final since is the 2008 Charleston Battery. The Rhinos play at the 13,768-seat Capelli Sport Stadium, 460 Oak Street, 88 miles west of Syracuse.
The Flash also played there while members of Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), winning the title in 2011; and the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), winning the title in 2016. Despite that title, they moved to become the North Carolina Courage. A new Flash team now plays in United Women's Soccer, at UB Stadium on the University of Buffalo campus. (UPDATE: They folded in 2018.)
Lake Placid, site of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics, is 210 miles northeast of Syracuse, and 285 miles north of Midtown Manhattan.
Syracuse's greatest legend (if not, in deference to Jim Brown, its greatest player), Ernie Davis, known as the Elmira Express, is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in his hometown of Elmira, 88 miles southwest. 1200 Walnut Street.
The Museum Of Science & Technology, or MOST, at 500 S. Franklin Street.
Several Presidents have connections to New York State outside of New York City, but none, really to Syracuse:
* Albany: Martin Van Buren, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt served as Governor of New York; Van Buren lived most of his life nearby, and he and Chester Arthur are buried near there.
* Buffalo: Millard Fillmore lived most of his life in and around the city, Grover Cleveland grew up nearby, William McKinley was shot there, and this forced Theodore Roosevelt to come and be sworn in there.
* Poughkeepsie: Franklin Roosevelt lived his life just to the north, in Hyde Park.
* Long Island: Theodore Roosevelt lived most of his life in Oyster Bay.
* West Point: Two Presidents were graduates of the U.S. Military Academy: Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The tallest building in Syracuse is the State Tower Building, 311 feet high, at 109 Warren Street, downtown. The fact that the tallest building in town went up in 1928 says something about Syracuse, and I'll let you decide what that is.
Despite going to high school in Glen Ridge, Essex County, New Jersey, Tom Cruise lived the 1st 9 years of his life in Syracuse, and filmed a war protest scene from Born On the Fourth of July on the University campus. A scene from the hockey film Slap Shot was filmed at the Oncenter.
When The Express, the film about Ernie Davis, was made, scenes were shot at the University, but modern buildings (including the Carrier Dome) had to be CGI'ed out. A lot of the filming was done in and around Chicago, and Northwestern University's Ryan Field was the stand-in for the demolished Archbold Stadium.
Although several TV shows have mentioned Syracuse, both the City and the University -- including a few episodes of The Twilight Zone, whose creator Rod Serling was born there -- the only TV show set there was The Trouble With Larry, Bronson Pinchot's post-Perfect Strangers sitcom. The trouble with Larry was that, unlike Perfect Strangers' Balki, he wasn't a sympathetic character, and the show was canceled after 3 episodes. Pinchot's career never recovered, but the cancellation enabled his co-star, Courteney Cox, to be cast on Friends.
The ABC soap opera General Hospital and its now-defunct spinoff Port Charles are set in Port Charles, hits about whose location suggest that it's a stand-in for Rochester, 86 miles west of Syracuse.
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There's not a lot to do in Syracuse, unless you want to go to a college football or basketball game. If you do, then there are few better places.
1 comment:
Congrats on a fine article.
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