Following is my brief history of SU football from growing up in upstate NY and attending BC in the 60’s: In 1959 the Orange won the national championship going undefeated and beating Texas in the Cotton Bowl, Jim Brown was not on this team but Ernie Davis was and SU met the definition of a football factory and were as good as anybody.
In the 60’s SU was generally ranked in the preseason top ten and they were still a national power with famed #44 running backs Jim Nance, Larry Csonka and Floyd Little and laid some lopsided losses on BC although we did upset them my sophomore year (Marzetti to Cronin).
In the 70’s Syracuse basketball got much better with the hiring of Jim Boeheim in ‘76 and the opening of the Carrier Dome in ‘79 and the Orange were a national power, fan interest in football faded somewhat and so did the team.
Dick MacPherson took over the program in the 80’s and after a rocky start got the Orange back to national prominence nearly winning another championship in 1987 with an 11-0 season. Mac retired and Paul Pasquolini took over and the Orange were still good appearing in eleven straight bowl games lead by top qb’s like Marvin Graves and Donovan McNab but the bottom fell out after PP left with the 2005 team going 1-10 under Greg Robinson and SU has never returned to its former position as a football power.
In the 60’s SU was generally ranked in the preseason top ten and they were still a national power with famed #44 running backs Jim Nance, Larry Csonka and Floyd Little and laid some lopsided losses on BC although we did upset them my sophomore year (Marzetti to Cronin).
In the 70’s Syracuse basketball got much better with the hiring of Jim Boeheim in ‘76 and the opening of the Carrier Dome in ‘79 and the Orange were a national power, fan interest in football faded somewhat and so did the team.
Dick MacPherson took over the program in the 80’s and after a rocky start got the Orange back to national prominence nearly winning another championship in 1987 with an 11-0 season. Mac retired and Paul Pasquolini took over and the Orange were still good appearing in eleven straight bowl games lead by top qb’s like Marvin Graves and Donovan McNab but the bottom fell out after PP left with the 2005 team going 1-10 under Greg Robinson and SU has never returned to its former position as a football power.
