Nostalgia will be in the air as Holy Cross takes on Boston College in football again
By Dan Shaughnessy Globe Staff, September 5, 2023, 9:00 a.m.Nobody loves tradition and nostalgia more than yours truly.
I have scrapbooks with every story from when I covered the BNBL for the Globe in the 1970s. I see photos of myself from the ‘90s and realize those old shirts are still in my closet. I long for “The Ed Sullivan Show” Sunday nights on CBS at 8 p.m.
Trust me when I tell you that I know and love the old Boston College-Holy Cross football rivalry.
My dad went to BC with Tip O’Neill, Class of ‘36. When I applied to Holy Cross in 1970, the application asked, “How did you first hear of Holy Cross?” The answer was, “As the son of a BC grad, I have been aware of Holy Cross since my earliest days.”
But it may be time to pray for My Old School. The Crusaders, national contenders in the Football Championship Subdivision, are playing at BC Saturday and there’s concern that it won’t be competitive. The former rivals — who have taken separate paths athletically — have played only once since 1986, and that was a 62-14 BC rout five years ago.
“Rout is a nice way to put it,” Holy Cross coach Bob Chesney said Monday. “They did a lot more than that.
“We carted one or two guys off the field and into the ambulance after the opening kickoff, and at that point I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.
“But we’ve progressed and increased our talent on our team, and developed these young men into overall stronger and better football players, and now it’s a challenge that our players are excited about and I’m excited about.”
There was a time when BC-Holy Cross football was a very big deal. The schools first played one another in 1896, and they regularly filled Fenway Park and/or Braves Field (54,000) when they clashed in the 1940s. BC had a top-five team in 1940 and Eagle teams from that decade played in the Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Orange Bowl. The Crusaders played in the 1946 Orange Bowl. Holy Cross’s 55-12 rout of the undefeated, top-ranked Eagles at Fenway in ‘42 ranks as one of the greatest upsets in college football.
Things pivoted dramatically when American college sports changed in the 1960s and 1970s. Boston College stayed with its big-time program, while Holy Cross (1,400 male enrollment today) went small. New England football’s Holy War morphed into a non-rivalry, with BC winning 17 times in 20 seasons.
When the Eagles spanked HC’s 10-0 team by a score of 56-26 in 1986, the schools agreed to stop playing one another. Patriot League champs simply could not keep up with Jesuit brothers playing big-time Division 1 football.
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Gene DeFilippo knows a lot about this. His dad was a tailback on Holy Cross’s Orange Bowl team, and DeFilippo became BC athletic director in 1997, making the bold move to take it from the Big East to the ACC.
Deep into DeFilippo’s 15-year tenure at The Heights, it was decided that the BC-HC football game would be renewed on a limited, tryout basis.
“I always felt that by playing the local teams, we could help New England football,” DeFilippo said this week. “We could give some kids — who maybe wanted to come to Boston College but weren’t fast enough or tall enough or whatever it might be — a chance to play us.
“So we played Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Northeastern. So then people said to me, ‘Well, if you’re going to play them, why don’t you play Holy Cross? They’re FCS now and they’re giving scholarships.’
“I thought it was not a bad idea, but I didn’t want to do anything that would embarrass Holy Cross. So I talked to a bunch of people and everybody said, ‘Yeah, a game would be fine.’ We hadn’t played each other since ‘86, but sometimes you just should play for good old nostalgia. And so we scheduled a game.”
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Playing for the first time in 32 years, BC demolished Holy Cross in a game that could have been 100-0. In the first eight minutes, AJ Dillon ran for 149 yards and scored three touchdowns on six carries as the Eagles bolted to a 21-0 lead. BC coach Steve Addazio was merciful and pulled his starters, but it was still 34-0 at halftime.
“I was hopeful that Boston College would win,” remembered DeFillipo. “But I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be 62-14.
“BC is stronger and faster and has more scholarships and has an advantage, but I do think the players at Holy Cross look forward to having an opportunity to play in the game.”
They do. That is the nature of good athletes. Young athletes want to compete against the best.
“I believe we can be competitive this year,” Chesney said. “Our last two opportunities in the FBS, we beat UConn [2021] and Buffalo [2022], so I think we are excited about this opportunity and we definitely think we can be competitive in this game.”
Deep Purple fans have more hope than they did in ‘18. Chesney is one of the best young coaches in America, and it’s a small miracle that he’s still in Worcester. Holy Cross had a dominant FCS team last season, winning the Patriot League and putting together a 12-0 record before it was stopped by South Dakota State in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs. HC quarterback Matthew Sluka is the real deal, and the Crusaders are no longer giving up 50 pounds per man at the line of scrimmage.
Meanwhile, the Eagles are struggling under coach Jeff Hafley. BC went 3-9 in 2022 and last week lost to Northern Illinois in overtime, 27-24. Dillon has taken his talents to the Green Bay Packers.
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After his team was demolished at The Heights in 2018, Chesney — then a first-year coach at Holy Cross — said, “I wish we were better. We’re not there yet.”
Are they there now?
“We’ll be outmatched certainly at some positions, in age, and in a lot of different ways,” Chesney acknowledged. “Their depth is just different. It’s an ACC team.
“But I don’t think there’s a team that plays harder, and tougher, and more together than us. We have some strengths where we match up well. We just have to make sure we highlight those.”
