Archive For The “Yank Townsend Trophy” Category
“The past is the past and we aren’t concerned with it. We have learned from our mistakes, and we are ready to move on.”
That comes from junior RB Micco Brisker, who was quoted two years ago after the Mountain Hawks came back from a trip to Princeton where Lehigh fought hard, but fell, to the Tigers 52-26.
The similarities between that week and this week are something that I cannot shake.
Like this week, Lehigh came back home that season to face off against Yale after a tough, physical loss. Like this week, the Mountain Hawks were coming off a school record being set by senior WR Troy Pelletier in a losing effort. Like this week, Yale started RB Deshawn Salter, a mild surprise after the expected starter went down to injury. And like this week, Lehigh came back home after a loss looking to right the ship.
In 2015, Lehigh lost the game.
In 2015, Brisker and LB Colton Caslow talked a good game about being prepared for that week, fixing mistakes and moving forward. But it didn’t result in a win, nor did it result in a Patriot League championship season.
For one reason or another, I hadn’t been back.
Since my undergraduate years, I hadn’t gone to see Lehigh play Yale at the Yale Bowl. It was either too long a trip as an undergraduate to catch the Engineers, a trip to Disney with the family interfered, or maybe I was just saving up my energy for a big conference game the following week.
No matter what it really was, it really was a bucket of excuses, with the ultimate result being I hadn’t gone back, even though Lehigh had played there so often.
It feels almost criminal, even though I have driven past the stadium many times.
This weekend, for the first time since a beautiful night for football in October of 1977, I will be heading back to the iconic Yale Bowl.
And in contemplating this trip, a flood of memories returned from my first trip there – my first-ever college football game, and thus the very first inspiration for what I would end up doing the rest of my life.
Read more »
