Slippery Rock Facts (LONG POST)

[LongJim]

Interesting that the "tradition" of announcing SR scores on the PA system did not begin at UT, nor did UT "adopt" SR as their pet team. "Often the climactic college football score, the Slippery Rock grid result invokes a laugh – or at least a smile – from fans in stadiums from Ann Arbor to Austin and from Chapel Hill to Berkeley." In fact, it's done all over the country--and has been for decades.

Original Link

****************************************

EXCERPTS:

1. Where’d they get that name, anyway?

Slippery Rock is the name of a college, a town – it’s about 50 miles from Pittsburgh – and a creek. Legend has it that in colonial times, soldiers were being chased by the local Seneca Indians. The troops, wearing heavy boots, were able to cross the creek, but the Indians, wearing moccasins, slipped on the rocks in the creek bed. They named the creek Wechachochapohka – “a slippery rock.”

In one version of this tale, George Washington is the colonial who benefits from the Indians slipping on the rocks. Washington did spend time in the area, but his place in this story is generally believed to be apocryphal.

The school and its football team have gotten all sorts of national publicity because some people thought Slippery Rock was a funny name. According to school lore, the attention started in 1936, when there was a dispute as to whether Pittsburgh or Minnesota should be ranked No. 1.

A sportswriter used comparative results to show that Slippery Rock should be No. 1. The logic went like this: Slippery Rock beat Westminster, which beat West Virginia Wesleyan, which beat Duquesne, which beat Pitt, which beat Notre Dame, which beat Northwestern, which beat Minnesota.

2. How does a 7,000-student, Division II school get its football scores on TV?

In the 1950’s, the University of Michigan public-address announcer began a tradition of giving Slippery Rock scores. The crowd reaction (“The audience loved it.”) made an impression on an Associated Press writer named Dave Dials, who later adopted the practice when he hosted the Prudential College Football Scoreboard show on ABC.

“Sometimes at the end of the show I found myself with a little extra time and they would give me the ‘stretch’ sign,” Dials, now retired, said from his home in Ohio. “One day I gave a Slippery Rock score, and the switchboard lit up. So the next week I made it a point to do it again.

“Any time I had the time – and I generally found the time to do it – I would mention Slippery Rock. It got to the point where people expected it.”

5. Is the football team any good?

For its level (NCAA Division II), yes, Slippery Rock has won four straight Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division titles. The 1999 team finished the regular season ranked a school-record No. 2 nationally. The team currently is ranked 23rd in the American Football Coaches Association Division II pre-season poll.

8. What’s Slippery Rock’s mascot, a pet rock?

Funny. Close, too. The school used to have a mascot named Rocky, a student dressed up like a rock. Asked what constitutes “dressing up like a rock,” SID McComas said, “Basically, putting on an old sweat suit.”

Last year, however, the school updated the mascot. The new one is Rocky II, and instead of a rock, it’s a lion. “He’s the leader of The Pride of Slippery Rock University,” McComas said.

9. What other “rock stuff” do they do?

Former Slippery Rock President Robert Aebersold used to pass out rocks with the inscription “Slippery” to visitors. SID McComas recalls that when he was a graduate student at the school in the 1980’s, “Our basketball teams, when they would introduce the starting lineups, the starters would take a little rock over and give it to the opposing player. It was painted green (the school colors are green and white) and had ‘Slippery Rock’ on it.”

10. Can I get some Slippery Rock stuff?

It’s still up in the air whether Slippery Rock will be able to sell memorabilia at Pro Player Stadium. However, the inventory of the school’s bookstore is available online at the Slippery Rock Web site (www.sru.edu). “We ship all over the world,” said store manager Tom McPherson, a Slippery Rock employee for 33 years.

Or, if you simply see someone wearing a Slippery Rock hat or T-shirt, you could make them an offer. They’re used to it. SRU students often stock up in the bookstore before spring break, then sell the stuff on Florida beaches. Football coach Mihalik said then when he ran off the field after the South Florida game, fans in Tampa Stadium asked him “for my hat, my shirt – anything that said Slippery Rock.”

Who could blame them? Everybody wants to own a piece of the Rock.

# ROCK PRIDE #