The Kind of Rutgers Loss Schiano's Hiring Was Meant to Stop

September 23, 1995, Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey: Penn State 59, Rutgers 34. This was the game at Giants Stadium where Joe Paterno ran up the score, and Rutgers coach Doug Graber got in his face at the end, and Penn State's jackass fans called Graber out for having no class.

November 23, 1996, Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, Indiana: Notre Dame 62, Rutgers 0. Live to a national audience on NBC. Losing away to the Fighting Irish was to be expected, but 62-0?

October 9, 1997, Rutgers Stadium, Piscataway, New Jersey: Syracuse 50, Rutgers 3. I was there. RU finished 0-11.

September 19, 1998, Carrier Dome, Syracuse, New York: Syracuse 70, Rutgers 14.

October 24, 1998, Rutgers Stadium: Tulane 52, Rutgers 28. Tulane hanging 52 on us? At home?

October 9, 1999, Rutgers Stadium: Virginia Tech 58, Rutgers 20. I was there, watching Michael Vick and a swarming defense led by Corey Moore destroy the Scarlet Knights. Somehow, in my mind, this got conflated with the '98 Syracuse game, which wasn't even at home, and entered my memory as, "I saw Michael Vick and Virginia Tech beat Rutgers, 70-14." The truth was bad enough. Oddly, Rutgers beat Syracuse that season, 24-21, the only win in a 1-10 season.

September 30, 2000, Rutgers Stadium: Miami 64, Rutgers 6.

September 8, 2001, Orange Bowl, Miami, Florida: Miami 61, Rutgers 0. This was the 1st game of the Greg Schiano regime, Round 1.

September 29, 2001, Rutgers Stadium: Connecticut 20, Rutgers 19. One point, but Rutgers was not supposed to be losing to UConn. In basketball, yes; in football, no.

October 13, 2001, Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple 30, Rutgers 5. Rutgers was not supposed to be losing to Temple. In basketball, yes; in football, no.

November 3, 2001, Mountaineer Field, Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia 80, Rutgers 7. These games run together so much, I thought I remembered being at this game, at Rutgers Stadium. Instead, it was on the road. I know I saw Rutgers get destroyed at home by the Mountaineers at some point. This season ended 2-9, but the losses were more painful than in the 0-11 and 1-10 seasons.

August 31, 2002, Rutgers Stadium: Villanova 37, Rutgers 19. Rutgers was not supposed to be losing to Villanova. In basketball, yes; in football, no.

September 7, 2002, Rutgers Stadium: University of Buffalo 34, Rutgers 11. I was there. Rutgers was not supposed to be losing to Buffalo. In any sport.

October 12, 2002, Rutgers Stadium: West Virginia 40, Rutgers 0. Maybe this was the West Virginia loss at home I was thinking of. RU finished 1-11.

November 11, 2005, L&N Stadium, Louisville, Kentucky: Louisville 56, Rutgers 5. RU seemed to have finally turned the corner under Schiano, going 7-4 and reaching a real bowl game for the first time ever. But this was a bad loss, shown nationally on ESPN2.

November 18, 2006, Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio: University of Cincinnati 30, Rutgers 11. Coming just 9 days after the epic ESPN-prime win over Number 3 Louisville, it was like RU had fumbled the best chance it would ever have. Losing this game, and to West Virginia in double overtime 2 weeks later, cost RU the Big East title and the bid that Louisville got to the Orange Bowl.

September 7, 2009, Rutgers Stadium: Cincinnati 47, Rutgers 15. I was there. The season was over by halftime of the opening game.

November 20, 2010, Nippert Stadium: Cincinnati 69, Rutgers 38. Okay, the Bearcats had a good run. But the days when teams could score a point a minute on RU should have been long over. After the season, instead of staying to "finish the job," Schiano left, to coach the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He flopped, miserably.

October 27, 2012, High Point Solutions Stadium (the first renaming of Rutgers Stadium): Kent State 35, Rutgers 23. Rutgers is not supposed to lose to Kent State. That's why the 1st game at the rebuilt stadium, on September 3, 1994, had Kent State as the opponent. RU won that, 28-9. Not this.

October 18, 2014, Ohio Stadium, Columbus: Ohio State 56, Rutgers 17. Welcome to the Big Ten Conference, Scarlet Knights.

October 1, 2016, Ohio Stadium: Ohio State 58, Rutgers 0.

October 8, 2016, High Point Solutions Stadium: Michigan 78, Rutgers 0. Ohio State were ranked Number 2 in the country. Michigan, Number 4. And RU had to play them in back-to-back games. Refresh my memory: Why was joining the Big Ten a good idea?

September 9, 2017, High Point Solutions Stadium: Eastern Michigan 16, Rutgers 13. We're losing at home to Mid-American Conference teams now? Get used to it.

September 15, 2018: David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, Lawrence, Kansas: Kansas 55, Rutgers 14. This is another opponent where losing to them in basketball is understandable, but not in football, and not by this much. The season ended 1-11, although 3 were by 7 points or less.

The name of the stadium was changed to SHI Stadium in 2019. Greg Schiano, Rutgers' Deadbeat Dad, returned in 2020. Things weren't going so well, but not too badly, until...

September 3, 2026, SHI Stadium: University of Massachusetts 37, Rutgers 21. UMass hadn't won a game all last season. And this was supposed to be 1 of 2 games for RU that was clearly winnable, the other being Howard at home.

At halftime, with the score 28-7, a reporter for the Big Ten Network asked Schiano what was happening, and he said, "We're just a little bit out of whack right now." Ya think, Greg?

This was the kind of Rutgers' loss Schiano's hiring was meant to stop. The 1st time, and the 2nd time.

Instead, it was just another embarrassment for the school that played and won the first college football game, and hasn't done much since.

Jim Brown, 1936-2023

 

Jim Brown defied many things: Expectations, convention, description, sometimes even the law. He was one of a kind.

James Nathaniel Brown was born on February 17, 1936 on Saint Simons Island, a community off the coast of Georgia, where he was raised by his grandmother, and where, he later said, racism did not affect him directly. At the age of 8, his mother, who was working as a domestic, sent for him to live with her in Manhasset, Long Island, New York.

At Manhasset High School -- also the alma mater of basketball star-turned-actor Ken Howard, star of The White Shadow -- he scored 38 points per game in his senior year of basketball. That stood as a Long Island record until it was broken by Carl Yastrzemski, and his record was broken by Julius Erving. Manhasset also had a strong lacrosse program, and Brown excelled in that sport as well.

Syracuse University also has a historically strong lacrosse program, and Brown starred in it. Since the NCAA began holding a National Championship tournament for the sport in 1971, Syracuse has won it 11 times, more than any other school. A national poll awarded them the title in 1957, Brown's senior year.

I know next to nothing about the sport, but Brown is often called the greatest player in its history. In 1995, boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar published The 100 Greatest Athletes of All Time, and named Brown Number 1. A year later, he appeared on ESPN Classic, and broadcaster Al Trautwig asked him why. He explained: "Best ever in two different sports."

Brown did have a sensational tenure at Syracuse. In 1956, his senior year, they went 7-1, their only loss beating 14-7 away to the University of Pittsburgh. They ended the regular season ranked Number 8, and were invited to play in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, against the Champions of the Southwest Conference, Texas Christian University (TCU).

While TCU's running back Jim Swink was an All-American, Brown put on the 1st great performance by a black player against an all-white team in a South-based bowl game. He rushed for 132 yards, scored 3 touchdowns, and kicked 3 extra points. But after Syracuse's 3rd touchdown, TCU blocked his extra point. Although he had pretty much done everything else that could be done, and was awarded the game's Most Valuable Player award, TCU beat 'Cuse, 28-27.

That season, the Heisman Trophy had a close vote, with one of the most loaded senior classes in college football history. Paul Hornung, the later Green Bay Packers running back legend, then a quarterback at Notre Dame, won it despite his team having a 2-8 record.

Tennessee running back Johnny Majors and Oklahoma running back Tommy McDonald both finished within 100 points of him. Oklahoma center and linebacker Jerry Tubbs was 4th, one of the few offensive linemen ever to get that close to the Trophy, and one of the few defensive players to do so. Brown finished 5th, higher than any black player yet had. Michigan end Ron Kramer 6th, Stanford quarterback John Brodie 7th, Ohio State guard Jim Parker 8th. Swink, who finished 2nd to Howard Cassady of Ohio State the year before, did not finish in the Top 10.

Hornung, McDonald, Brown and Parker would all end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Brodie should be. Tubbs and Kramer both made the 1962 Pro Bowl. The only ones who didn't go on to have at least a good pro football career were Swink, who went to medical school, before briefly becoming an original New York Titan (Jet) in 1960; and Majors, and he became one of the top college coaches of his generation, leading Pittsburgh to the 1976 National Championship, then returning to Tennessee and leading them to 3 Southeastern Conference titles.

Years later, in his role as a broadcaster, Hornung interviewed Majors, and asked him who he thought should have won the 1956 Heisman Trophy. Without hesitation, Majors said, "Jimmy Brown." Hornung could only say, "If I didn't want the truth, I shouldn't have asked."

Brown's greatest contribution to Syracuse football was yet to come: He convinced Elmira, New York native Ernie Davis to attend. As a sophomore in 1959, he helped them win the National Championship. As a senior in 1961, he did what Brown perhaps should have been allowed to do 5 years earlier: Become the 1st black winner of the Heisman Trophy.

While in college, Brown participated in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC). After graduating, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant. During his time in the NFL, he continued his military commitment as a member of  the United States Army Reserve. He served for 4 years, meaning his commitment ended in 1961, before the major draft call-ups for Vietnam, to which he was never legally subject; and was discharged with the rank of Captain.

*

Jim Brown was the 6th player selected in the 1957 NFL Draft, by the Cleveland Browns. Contrary to team legend, "Browns" was not short for "Brown Bombers," the nickname of Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis and thus a tribute to him. It was named for Paul Brown, the team's 1st head coach and general manager, over his own objections. He led them to the Championship of the All-America Football Conference in 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949; and to that of the NFL in 1950, 1954 and 1955.

Paul was white, Jim was black, but race was no issue for Paul: For the Browns' 1st season, 1946, he recruited the AAFC's 1st 2 black players, running back Marion Motley -- in some ways, a precursor to Jim Brown -- and guard Bill Willis. At the same time, the Los Angeles Rams broke the NFL's unofficial ban on black players that had held since 1934, with running back Kenny Washington and end Woody Strode. So pro football had "four Jackie Robinsons," who debuted 7 months before Robinson ended baseball's 63-year unofficial ban.

These were the 6 players chosen in the NFL Draft ahead of Jim Brown:

1. Hornung, by the Green Bay Packers. A Hall-of-Famer, so no problem there.

2. Jon Arnett, halfback, USC, by the Los Angeles Rams. He made 5 Pro Bowls, so he was a justifiable pick.

3. Brodie, by the San Francisco 49ers. He made 2 Pro Bowls, and was a really good quarterback, so he was a justifiable pick.

4. Kramer, by the Packers. He only made 1 Pro Bowl, but the Packers thought enough of his performance for them to elect him to their team Hall of Fame.

5. Len Dawson, quarterback, Purdue, by the Pittsburgh Steelers. A Hall-of-Famer, although he didn't become one until the Steelers got rid of him, and he went to the team that became the Kansas City Chiefs. The Steelers, the Browns' arch-rivals, would have looked considerably smarter if they had kept Dawson. The same could also be said of Johnny Unitas, whom the Steelers dumped 2 years earlier, and became a star with the Baltimore Colts.

So none of the players picked ahead of Brown was a bad choice, though the Steelers sure made a bad choice with their pick thereafter. But Brown would have a better career than any of them.

In 1957, Brown rushed for 942 yards. That would be the lowest total of his career, but it was still enough to lead the NFL in rushing. The Browns went 9-2-1, won the Western Division title, and lost the NFL Championship Game to the Detroit Lions. Brown was named NFL's MVP and its Rookie of the Year.

Brown rushed for 1,527 yards in 1958, setting a new single-season rushing record, and was named MVP again. He rushed for 1,329 yards in 1959, 1,257 in 1960, and 1,408 in 1961. The numbers do not tell the whole story. Listed at 6-foot-2 and 232 pounds, he was bigger than most running backs. He was hard to bring down. There is film footage of the Browns playing that dares to ask the question: "How many Dallas Cowboys does it take to tackle Jim Brown?" On this occasion, the answer was 8. Cowboy quarterback Don Meredith, on the sidelines at the time, later told an NFL Films interviewer that he was standing there, clapping his hands and saying, "Way to go!" At Brown, not his defense.

John Mackey, who would follow Brown to Syracuse and into the College and Pro Football Halls of Fame (but not the Browns, as he played for the Colts), said, "He told me, 'Make sure when anyone tackles you, he remembers how much it hurts.' He lived by that philosophy, and I always followed that advice."

In 1962, despite playing every game, he rushed for "only" 996 yards, exceeded by Jim Taylor of the Packers. It was the only time in his career that Brown did not lead the NFL in rushing yards. He still scored 13 touchdowns, having scored 17 in the 2 seasons before that.

New Browns owner Art Modell fired Paul Brown, and hired Blanton Collier as head coach. In 1963, under Collier's system, the Browns improved to 10-4, and Jim Brown rushed for 1,863 yards, a new NFL record that would stand for 10 years, good for a 3rd MVP award. In 1964, they went 10-3-1, as Brown ran for 1,446 yards. They reached the NFL Championship Game, and, with Brown rushing for 114 yards, and catching 3 passes for 37 yards, the Browns beat the Baltimore Colts, 27-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

That would be Brown's only title. In 1965, he rushed for 1,544 yards, leading the League again, and helping get the Browns back into the NFL Championship Game, where they lost to the Packers. Brown was named MVP again.

Going into the 1966 season, he was 31 years old, and the best player in the game. He was already the NFL's all-time leading rusher with 12,312 yards (a record that would stand until 1984), and was eventually selected in 1999 by The Sporting News as the greatest player in NFL history. His 106 rushing touchdowns was also a record that has since been surpassed, but his 5.2 yards per carry has never been. He remains the only player ever to average over 100 yards rushing per game.

He was now trying his hand as an actor, filming the World War II movie The Dirty Dozen in London. He was enjoying himself, feeling freer than he ever had. But preseason training camps were underway, and Browns owner Art Modell told him to leave and come back to join his teammates in Berea, Ohio, 13 miles southwest of downtown Cleveland.

Brown refused, telling Modell, already a noted cheapskate, that he could make more money and sustain fewer injuries as an actor than as a football player. Brown retired from football, taking away the one power that Modell had over him, which was to have an undue affect on his football career, but giving up that football career.

He never regretted his decision. As he put it, "What would you rather do: Get hit by Dick Butkus, or make love to Raquel Welch?"

*

Following the smash that was The Dirty Dozen, among the films that Brown starred in was the 1969 Western 100 Rifles, along with former Florida State football player Burt Reynolds and, yes, Raquel Welch. Brown and Welch went on to film one of the earliest interracial love scenes in American movies, in the 1969 Western 100 Rifles. (Though she was considered "white," Jo Raquel Tejada was of Bolivian descent.)

He went on to star in several "blaxploitation" films, including the Slaughter series. In 1988, he was among the stars of such films who joined Keenen Ivory Wayans in his parody of such films, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, playing Slammer to Isaac Hayes' Hammer, the two men's characters having retired from fighting crime on the streets of their city to run a barbecue restaurant.

In 1967, Brown convened the Cleveland Summit, with Muhammad Ali, who had been stripped of the Heavyweight Championship of the World for refusing to be drafted into the Army. With him, in support, he brought several other athletes, including some former Browns teammates, Boston Celtics star Bill Russell, and the top college basketball star of the time, Lew Alcindor -- who, like Ali, who had been born Cassius Clay, would convert to Islam and change his name, to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Also present was the Mayor of Cleveland, Carl Stokes, the 1st black Mayor of an American city that large.

This made Brown one of the earliest black athletes to convince others to take initiative off the field. He founded what's now known as the Black Economic Union, to help promote economic opportunities for minority owned businesses; and the Amer-I-Can Foundation, trying to divert gang members from violence by teaching them life skills.

He became a sportscaster, calling the Muhammad Ali vs. George Foreman "Rumble in the Jungle" in Zaire in 1974 along with "Colonel" Bob Sheridan, and later NFL games on CBS. His career rushing record was surpassed by Walter Payton in 1984, and is now held by Emmitt Smith.

He made peace with Art Modell, who named him a team consultant. Modell continued to own the Browns until 1995, never reaching another World Championship game, until moving them to become the Baltimore Ravens. They won Super Bowl XXXV in 2001. He sold the team in 2003, and died in 2012, beloved in Maryland, but despised in Ohio.

A new Browns team began play in 1999, and Brown was named a consultant to their front office. He still holds this post. A statue of him stands outside their home, FirstEnergy Stadium, built in 1999 on the site of their home in his era, Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

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, including Brown, Ernie Davis, and Denver Broncos Hall-of-Famer Floyd Little.

Brown married his 1st wife, Sue Jones, in 1959. She sued for divorce in 1968, charging him with "gross neglect." Together, they had 3 children. He married his 2nd wife, Monique, in 1997. They had 2 children. In between these marriages, he was engaged twice, but neither one reached the altar.

In 1965, Brown was arrested for assaulting a woman. He was acquitted of the charges. In 1968, he was charged with assaulting another woman, but she refused to cooperate with the prosecutor's office, and the charges were dismissed. In 1969, an incident of what would now be called "road rage" led to him being charged with assaulting a man, but he was again acquitted.

In 1975, he was convicted of "misdemeanor battery," for assaulting his golfing partner. He spent one day in jail, and was sentenced to 2 years' probation. In 1985, he was charged with rape, but the charges were dismissed. In 1986, he was arrested for assaulting his fiancée, but she refused to press charges.

Even Monique was not immune to his rages. In 1999, he was charged with making terroristic threats toward her. He was found guilty of vandalism, having smashed her car with a shovel. He was sentenced to 3 years' probation, 1 year of domestic violence counseling, and 400 hours of community service. He refused to take the counseling, and was sentenced to 6 months in prison. He was released after 3 months.

Each side of Jim Brown is a "Yes, but... " Just as the harm he caused cannot undo all the good he's done, no matter what his accomplishments were, there will always be that cloud over him.

He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1971, the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1983, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995. The NFL named him to its 50th, 75th and 100th Anniversary Teams in 1969, 1994 and 2019. The Browns retired his Number 32, named him to their team Ring of Honor, and, as said, dedicated a statue of him.

In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him Number 1 on their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. Number 2 was a still-active Jerry Rice. Number 3 was their highest-ranked quarterback, Joe Montana. Number 4 was their highest-ranked defensive player, Lawrence Taylor. In 2010, the NFL Network released its 100 Greatest Players. With Rice having extended most major receiving records to a point of being unlikely ever to be approached, he was ranked 1st, Brown 2nd. In 2020, ESPN named Brown the greatest college football player of all time.

On October 11, 2018, Brown and singer Kanye West met with Donald Trump to discuss the state of America, among other topics. Criticized by the black community for the meeting, Brown said that Trump was the sitting President, and, "We can't ignore that seat and just call names of the person that's sitting in it." Brown never endorsed a candidate for President.

Jim Brown died on Thursday, May 18, 2013, at his home in Los Angeles. He was 87 years old. In an interview for the series NFL Films: A Football Life, Brown said that he doesn't want a final resting place. Rather, he wanted to be cremated, and have his ashes scattered at his birthplace, St. Simons Island.

With his death, there are now:

* 22 surviving players from the 1964 NFL Champion Cleveland Browns: Paul Warfield, Leroy Kelly, Frank Ryan, Jim Ninowski, Lowell Caylor, Larry Benz, Bobby Franklin, Dave Raimey, Walter Roberts, Charley Scales, Stan Sczurek, Ernie Green, Walter Beach, Ed Bettridge, Sid Williams, Jim Kanicki, John Brown, Roger Shoals, Frank Parker, Paul Wiggin, Clifton McNeil and Gary Collins.

* 13 surviving players from the NFL's 1960s All-Decade Team: Sonny Jurgensen, Jerry Kramer, Boyd Dowler, Ed Meador, Bob Lilly, Dave Robinson, Jim Bakken, Leroy Kelly, Bob Brown, Dick Butkus and Lem Barney.

* 4 participants from the 1967 Cleveland Summit in support of Muhammad Ali: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Brown's former Browns teammates Curtis McClinton, John Wooten and Walter Beach.

* And Jerry Kramer, Green Bay Packers guard, is the last surviving player from the NFL's 50th Anniversary Team of 1969.

When came the hour, came some men whose lives transcended sport, to make them so much more than they were, as much as that was. Jim Brown was one, along with Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Muhammad Ali, Pelé, Sandy Koufax, Tommie Smith, Joe Namath and Walt Frazier. All but the last four are gone now.

No, Hank Aaron isn't in that category, as his biggest role came a little later. Same with Arthur Ashe, and the still-living Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Reggie Jackson. Jackie Robinson came earlier, and paved the way for these men. And, as great as they were, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas, Jean Béliveau and the still-living Willie Mays were not part of the social change, and thus not in the same category.

Jim Brown was one of a kind, and we shall not see his like again.

May 18, 1963: The Death of Ernie Davis

May 18, 1963, 60 years ago: Ernie Davis, the 1st black football player to win the Heisman Trophy, dies of leukemia in Cleveland. He was only 23 years old.

Ernest Davis (no middle name) was born on December 14, 1939 in New Salem, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh. His father was killed in an accident shortly thereafter. When his mother remarried, they moved to his stepfather's hometown of Elmira, New York, in the Finger Lakes region. At Elmira Free Academy, he starred in football, basketball and baseball. He was a college prospect in all 3 sports, but Syracuse University, about 90 miles to the northeast, sent their star running back, Jim Brown to recruit him. It worked, and, like Brown before him, he became a Syracuse running back wearing Number 44.

In 1959, led by head coach Ben Schwartzwalder, with Davis, "the Elmira Express," the Orangemen went 11-0 and won the National Championship, including their 1st bowl win, the 1960 Cotton Bowl. In 1960, Davis' junior year, they went 7-2, and were not invited to a bowl game. (There were considerably fewer bowls back then.) In 1961, they went 8-3, and won the Liberty Bowl over Miami at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

That season, Davis became the 1st black player to be awarded the Heisman Trophy. The 2nd-place finisher, running back Bob Ferguson of National Champions Ohio State, was also black. Prior to Davis, the closest a black player had come was in 1956, when Brown finished 5th.

In those days, the NFL Draft was held in the December of the preceding calendar year. On December 4, 1961, the Washington Redskins made Davis the 1st pick. They had to, as part of an agreement with the federal government, which owned the District of Columbia's new football stadium: They were the last NFL team that hadn't desegregated, and they had to in order to be allowed to play there. They promised to pick a black player in 1st round, and did. Two days later, the Buffalo Bills made Davis the 1st pick in the American Football League draft.

There was no question in Davis' mind that he wanted to play in the NFL, not the AFL. But he wouldn't play for the Redskins' owner, George Preston Marshall, the League's most notorious racist. A deal was quickly arranged: The rights to Davis would go to the Cleveland Browns, where his Syracuse roommate John Brown and Jim Brown -- no relation to each other, or to the team's white head coach and general manager, Paul Brown -- were already playing, in exchange for Bobby Mitchell and the Browns' 1st-round draft pick, Leroy Jackson, who became the Redskins' 1st black players in the coming season.

But Davis never played for the Browns, either, or for any other professional football team. He was diagnosed with leukemia. He was given uniform Number 45, as defensive back Jim Shofner was already wearing 44. Only once did he take the field wearing a Browns uniform, before a preseason game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on August 18, 1962. A spotlight was put on him, and he received a standing ovation.

After a brief remission, his leukemia returned, and, on May 18, 1963, Davis died at Cleveland Lakeside Hospital. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in his hometown of Elmira.

Just 17 days after his death, on June 4, the Browns lost another player, due to a work accident, at a time when most athletes were paid so little that they needed off-season jobs. Don Fleming, a safety, and a fellow construction worker, Walter Smith, were operating a crane on a construction site in Winter Park, Florida, outside Orlando, when it hit an electrical transmission line, and they were electrocuted. The Browns retired both Davis' Number 45 and Fleming's Number 46 before the next season.

Davis was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979. 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, including Brown, Davis, and Denver Broncos Hall-of-Famer Floyd Little.

In 2008, Rob Brown played Davis in the film The Express: The Ernie Davis Story. In 2009, on the 50th Anniversary of the National Championship he helped win, the field at Syracuse's new stadium, the Carrier Dome, was named Ernie Davis Legends Field. In 2014, Davis' high school, the Elmira Free Academy, was renamed the Ernie Davis Academy.

How to Go to a Syracuse Football Game

This Saturday, what was once a Big East Conference rivalry, and is now an Atlantic Coast Conference rivalry, will be played: Syracuse University will host the University of Pittsburgh.

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.
Syracuse is the seat of Onondaga County. James Street divides street addresses into North and South, Salina Street into East and West. The Central New York Regional Transportation Authority runs the buses, and a single fare is $2.00, and a day pass $5.00. Interstate 481 is an incomplete "beltway."

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.

It opened in 1980, on the site of SU's previous facility, Archbold Stadium. That stadium opened in 1907, it seated 40,000 at its peak, but by the 1970s, it was deteriorating, and the fire department ordered part of it closed off, reducing capacity to 26,000.

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.

Syracuse's main rivals have been Penn State, also on the "border" between the nation's Northeast and its Midwest; Rutgers and Boston College on the Northeast side; and Pittsburgh and West Virginia on the Midwestern side. Having moved to the ACC means that their rivalries with BC (which they lead 30-19) and Pitt (which they trail 38-31-3) are still on. But they no longer regularly play Penn State (whom they trail 43-23-5), Rutgers (whom they lead 30-12-1) or West Virginia (whom they lead 33-27). None of these rivalries comes with a well-known trophy.

(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.

We are coming up on the 20th Anniversary of my meeting Otto: On October 9, 1997, Syracuse came to Rutgers Stadium and, on an ESPN Thursday night broadcast, beat RU 50-3. I managed to get down to where Otto and the SU cheerleaders were, and I yelled, "Hey, Syracuse: Your mascot is a fruit!" Well, he is.

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.

Syracuse won basketball's National Championship in 2003, led by 'Melo and Jerry McNamara; reached the Final in 1987 with Derrick Coleman, Sherman Douglas and Rony Seikaly, and 1996, with John Wallace; and also reached the Final Four in 1975 with Rudy Hackett and Jim Lee, 2013 with Michael Carter-Williams, and 2016 with Michael Gbinije and Tyler Lydon.

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 Chiefs have won 8 IL Pennants: 1935, 1942, 1943, 1947, 1954, 1969, 1970 and 1976 -- the last 3 as a Yankee farm team. They've won Division titles in 1989 and 2014.

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.

In 1951, they moved to the Onondaga County War Memorial. There, led by coach Al Cervi and Hall-of-Famer Dolph Schayes (Danny's father), they reached the 1954 NBA Finals, losing to George Mikan's Minneapolis Lakers; and won the NBA Championship in 1955, defeating the Fort Wayne Pistons.

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.

Now named the Oncenter War Memorial Arena, the Nats' former home has hosted several minor league hockey teams: The Warriors (1951-54), the Blazers (1967-77), the Firebirds (1979-80), and the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League (since 1994). It still hangs banners honoring Dolph Schayes and the area's big boxing hero, former Welterweight and Middleweight Champion Carmen Basilio. 800 S. State Street, downtown.

Elvis Presley sang at the OnCenter on July 25, 26 and 27, 1976. The Beatles never got closer to Syracuse than Shea Stadium in Queens and Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto -- and the city is about halfway in between.

The NCAA held what we would now call the Frozen Four at the Onondaga War Memorial in 1967 and 1971; at the Utica Memorial Auditorium in 1962; at Cornell in 1967 and 1970 and at Union in 2014.

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.

Kevin Ware's Injury Was Awful, But Not Unprecedented

On Sunday, the University of Louisville beat Duke University to advance to the NCAA Final Four next weekend.

Ordinarily, Duke losing would be cause for celebration throughout the civilized world. But Louisville is coached by Rick Pitino.

Even worse, Louisville player Kevin Ware fell badly and broke his leg. I won't post the clip, or even a picture that shows the extent of the injury. (This picture does not show the extent.) It was so bad, his teammates were physically incapacitated for a few minutes, just from having seen it. CBS stopped showing replays after a minute.

Somehow, the Louisville players, having come into the tournament ranked Number 1 in the nation, got it together, and beat Duke, and are favored to win the whole thing, with Michigan, Syracuse and surprise team Wichita State rounding out the Final Four, to be played this weekend at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

(The 1st time Duke got to the Final Four in the Mike Krzyzewski era was 1986, and they lost to Louisville in the title game. I wouldn't bring that up unless this was the same matchup.)

Ware's injury is bad. But we've seen worse.

Just at the Meadowlands, here in New Jersey, we've had the broken necks of Dennis Byrd of the Jets at Giants Stadium in 1992, and Eric LeGrand of Rutgers at MetLife Stadium in 2010. Just a year before Byrd's injury, Mike Utley of the Detroit Lions was flipped and landed on his head, on the hard artificial turf of the Silverdome, breaking his neck. Byrd was able to walk again, Utley to do so with assistance, but LeGrand remains paralyzed.

Going back to my teenage years, in 1985, the Knicks' Bernard King broke his leg in a freak play against the Kansas City Kings. He missed 2 years, probably costing him election to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

(UPDATE: Later in 2013, King was elected to the Hall.)

Later that year, in a nationally-televised Monday Night Football game in Washington, the Giants' Lawrence Taylor broke the leg of Redskin quarterback (and South River, New Jersey native) Joe Theismann. Taylor, used to the violence of the game, was freaked out by the result of his tackle. Theismann never played again.

Going back to 1957, Herb Score of Queens, pitching against the Yankees for Cleveland, was hit in the eye by a line drive, curtailing a sensational career. Going back even further, center fielders Earle Combs of the Yankees (1934) and Pete Reiser of the Dodgers (1942) fractured their skulls on the unpadded outfield walls of the pre-World War II era. And Yankee pitchers beaned Detroit's Mickey Cochrane (1937, intentionally, and his career was ended) and Cleveland's Ray Chapman (1920, unintentionally, and he died).

Howard Glenn of the New York Titans (the proto-Jets) broke his neck and died in an AFL game in 1960. Both Lindros brothers, Eric and Brett, had to retire from hockey early due to concussions.

Auto and boat racers, and skiers, have been paralyzed and even killed in crashes. And don't get me started on soccer players who've gotten their legs broken by dirty opponents -- Arsenal's Abou Diaby, Eduardo da Silva and Aaron Ramsey to name 3 examples since 2006 that tick me off.

Ware's injury is awful, and we should all hope for a full recovery. But it is not unprecedented, and he will live, and he will walk again.

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UPDATE: Louisville won the National Championship. Ware decided to redshirt the 2013-14 season to improve his chances at recovery, then chose to transfer to Georgia State University, close to where his family lived. He helped GSU win the 2015 Sun Belt Conference tournament, and they upset Baylor in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament, making him one of the few players ever to play in winning games of the Tournament for 2 different schools.

He was not drafted by an NBA team, so he went to Europe to play. Having played in Finland, Czechia and Greece, he will be starting the 2018-19 season with the London Lightning -- not in England, but in Ontario, in the National Basketball League of Canada.