I grew up in the bedroom community of Penn Hills and graduated with 1000 other Penn Hills kids. Had a great time in high school, was too small for football and in the wrong clique for basketball, so luckily I excelled at high jumping and by my junior year gymnastics also. It was important in a class of 1000 to gain some notoriety if you wanted to date the more worthy girls. Funny story; I was voted President of the Varsity Club, but the Football coach didn’t approve and rounded up a bunch of his players then  took a second ballot. But I digress.

My first memory of Pitt is my Dad taking me to a game, which I vaguely remember that Paul Martha starred in, and who could forget their first visit to massive Pitt Stadium.  My Dad was the reason I ended up at Pitt. He was a research engineer at Westinghouse and went to night school at Carnegie Tech. One of my earliest memories is of him dropping me off at Skibo Hall and I rolled around on the gym mats while he was in class… I was destined to be a gymnast.

Anyway, I was having so much fun in High School that I never thought ahead to college. My Dad filled out the Pitt application and, had me sign it, so I went to Pitt. I did have good grades and a decent SAT, but probably wouldn’t be accepted there today.

Back then, Pitt had a several day summer orientation, I remember a particular evening on the Gateway Clipper. (Note: current Pitt LB Quentin Wirginis’ family now owns the Gateway Clipper line).

So in the fall of ’68, my folks dropped me off at Tower B where I was assigned a dorm room. Image result for tower b pittFor you young folks, those really were turbulent times with the Vietnam War raging, the assassinations of RFK and MLK, inner-city riots and student protests. The music was awesome though with Motown, the British Invasion and the start of Hard Rock. My neighbors in the dorms had a record player and played the Doors all day and all night. By the time I graduated everyone had their own stereos playing Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. One night there was a buzz through the Towers, because “Paul Was Dead! so  people began playing the Sgt Peppers album backwards, etc.

I walked on the Pitt Gymnastics team, which was being reconstituted after a hiatus. I was a parallel bar specialist and fit in with the great bunch of guys. They took me to QuinQues where I had meatballs and cheese in a bowl and a beer. I had already started drinking when I was 15 and was bar hopping throughout the region when I was 16, but it was still cool have a beer with my new friends.

Freshmen were ineligible to compete at the varsity level so we could not partake in matches, even though I was the best of my chosen event which were the Parallel Bars.  We freshmen did get to go to the away meets which was great. Image result for gymnasts using parallel barsMy first time on a plane trip was travelling to Amherst and the University of Massachusetts. It was really cool and I got to eat my first Filet Mignon on the plane also – I kid you not. Now you get less than a dozen tiny pretzels.

That year at a Penn State match Gene Whetzel, the legendary Penn State gymnastics coach, suggested the freshman be allowed to perform an exhibition. At PSU gymnastics was a huge draw, so I got to perform in front of a packed Rec Hall. I hit my routine (meaning I didn’t fall off the bars) and got a rousing applause from the crowd. It was quite an experience for a guy used to performing in front forty or fifty people.

Also that year the coach had some extra scholarship money and asked if anyone needed help. Like a dummy, I knew little about my finances and didn’t speak up. That summer my Dad took me to sign for some college loans and the light bulb went off.  So the next fall I talked to the coach and told me he couldn’t help. But if I made the team that year, he would help next wrangle a scholarship for me the next year.

I had a pretty good year with the help of the best coach I ever had, a grad assistant who believe in my talent and told me I could possibly win Eastern League Tournament and make NCAA’s National Tournament the next year.

When I came back that next year, after hitching across the country (which is a story best told over beers) the coach told me he had to renege on the scholarship he promised me because a kid who he had given one to the year before had gone out for football didn’t make it and had come back with his parents to petition him for the scholarship.

As you can imagine, my pride was hurt so I quit, thinking that I would get a part-time job. (Another story!). There were a bunch of guys with scholarships who weren’t earning points let alone winning or placing high, like I had done the year before. I should have gone to our athletic director Cas Myslinski, but I was too naïve to think like that.

I tell you this for two reasons, first because the coach was incompetent and secondly I never saw him coaching anyone as the assistants did the coaching. That speaks directly to the incompetence throughout the athletic department at the time. Examples of that are football had Carl DePasqua and Dave Hart and this was pre-Buzz Ridl for basketball. But I never held it against Pitt and later when the coach left I still used to work out with team and even helped coach a little.

The second reason I tell this sad tale is that for an athlete there is only a small window to be at your best. For years I regretted my decision to quit and wondered how much better I could have gotten. Only recently have I realized that I may have been lucky to quit considering how much more arthritis I might be experiencing, not to mention the chance of real injury. As a young guy you think you are bullet proof, but gymnastics is high risk sport. I was really glad years later when my daughter gave up the sport to play soccer.

Also I do want to mention that as an athlete I always had respect for my competition. That carries on to today which is probably why I don’t have much hatred for our rivals. Sure I want Pitt to beat them on game day, but I find the rest of the put downs and name calling rather childish. Sport should lift us up in nature; not make us act like idiots.

In any case my experience with athletics was mostly positive, I got to be with some great teammates, travel and see some great places like the Naval Academy among other places. During my sophomore year Easterns were held at Syracuse and each team was hosted by a sorority, which was obviously really fun. Manley Hall had a dirt floor and all of our white uniforms had red dust from our feet to our ankles. The things you remember.

I also remember seeing Ralph Cindrich, working hard to rehab his knee in the weight room; Moose handing out towels with his squeaky voice, the training room in the bowels of Fitzgerald Field Hall and the squash courts built even deeper in The Fitz. Image result for Fitzgerald Field Hall pitt interiorAt Trees Hall, the shared weight room, the racquetball courts, you had to climb down into, playing pickup basketball with the guys from the Hill, the scary high dive at the Pool.

I was on campus when Mooney Knight came on campus with Buzz Ridl and we had a basketball team for the first time since our All-American Don Hennon. Also during my senior year, a “Major Change” came to Pitt.

I remember quarterback Bob Haygood wearing a high school letter jacket with more award patches than anyone I seen before. I saw Coach Majors work out the previous, recruiting class which wasn’t his, at Fitzgerald so hard that most of them quit. There was also now a separate training table for football where other athletes not allowed.

In essence I was there when Pitt football went from complete incompetence and irrelevance to championship greatness!

It was really hard to believe from what I had personally witnessed earlier. We went from having three 1-9 teams in football with a basketball team that no one remembers to playing a game against a great North Carolina State team with Pitt’s team being mostly local Pittsburgh area kids.

One of the great things about a university in the middle of a City is that you benefit from the total environment. From being able to study at Carnegie Library when Hillman Library was closed, to the Carnegie museum and music hall; having the Syria Mosque on campus, Soldiers and Sailors Memorial were all major assets. Even the hospitals on campus were great especially since I flattened my nose in a touch football game on the Cathedral lawn and spent hours on the floor waiting for them to bring in a plastic surgeon.

Don’t forget the girls from Carlow and Chatham College, even next door neighbor Carnegie Mellon University and Flagstaff Hill with co-eds in the spring.

Also while at Pitt, the Pirates won the 1971 World Series and the Party in Oakland that night is still the biggest bash I have seen.

My friends and I also witnessed the rise from obscurity of the Steelers; from the drafting of Joe Green to the Immaculate Reception and first Super Bowl.

Forbes Field was torn down while I was at Pitt also. I was on the field looking around when The Great One, Roberto Clemente, took his last walk around the infield wearing a shark skin suit and just being his awesome self. No one bothered him by asking for an autograph as we could just imagine what he was thinking.

I marched from Oakland to downtown Pittsburgh in protest against the Vietnam War with a lovely co-ed. Then watched the Pittsburgh Police bash in some heads and take people to jail. We had no bus money so the young lady and I hoofed it back to Oakland on our own through some rather sketchy neighborhoods. It helped set the mood for later that night…

I spent a lot of time in the local establishments and got very proficient at Pin Ball. That cost me a lot of quarters until I got good enough to play all day using only one or two. Measured how drunk I was the night before by how messed up my shirt was from the late night Big O chili dogs. Image result for old ritters diner pittsburghLate night trips to Ritter’s Diner and Primanti’s Brothers when the Brothers were actually there. If they liked you then a sandwich and drink was two dollars; if not three dollars.  After Scotty’s was torn down there were all night joints in Oakland for a while.

The Peace and Love thing was big but I won’t go into the drug stories too much even though the statute of limitations has long expired.

I enjoyed my college experience so much, that I stayed for two more years at the Graduate School of Public Health after I actually got a little more serious about studying.

Back to football for a minute, I spent many an afternoon in an almost empty Pitt Stadium so I have paid my dues so to speak. I’ve really great memories but as you know I am a realist about the reality of an on-campus or ‘Pitt only’ stadium. You can’t live in the past or predict the future. I just wish more people would embrace the ‘now’ and show up at Heinz Field when Pitt is playing their home games. It is what we’ve got and it ain’t bad. Other than being on campus, it is million times better than Pitt Stadium.  I actually remember getting splinters from the wooden benches and knees in your back from the people sitting behind you.

Pitt Fans are their own worst enemies but I guess at times excuse making is all we have. You have to take the good with the bad and hope that better times are coming, while enjoying the times you have now and have had in the past.

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So many stories and it is fun remembering and sharing some of them. I hope you enjoyed your Pitt experience as much as I did and still do.

How many of you have run up all of the Cathedral Stairs, penny’ed your neighbors into their Tower dorm room and flooded them out or had a gun pulled on you in front of Haddon Hall? And remember the crazies on Atwood Street? Those were good times!

HTP!!

GC had another bite from the originating and sent me this additional bit the next day…

It always bugged me that I wasn’t stout enough to play football. I loved the sport and playing with my friends. I had two uncles that were football legends at Allegheny High School. Uncle Mike went on to play at Tennessee and as a tight end caught two touchdown passes to beat Alabama, a very big deal at the time. He was on Bear Bryant’s first coaching staff at Kentucky. Yes he coached there before Alabama. Mike also coached in the pros before taking over his wife’s family business after her father took ill.

uncle georgeMy uncle George was a running back who played basketball at Duke, went to WWII and then played basketball and football at Tennessee after the war. I learned most of this on the internet since my family didn’t talk about it much.

My uncles both played on SEC championship basketball teams at Tennessee.
So my love for athletics is genetic. I loved running and jumping and playing most every sport.

I should mention that college life helps you learn how to grow up in many ways and learn how to deal with people on a daily basis. My freshman year roommate was on the Golf team, yes once upon a time, Pitt had a golf team as well as a Men’s Gymnastics team. He was a great guy and we had a lot of fun adjusting to college life.

Although being on a sports team at Pitt was pretty relaxed in those days, it was challenging, fitting it all in and making grades. I marvel at how Football and Basketball players do it today and why more aren’t ineligible. My roomy was from Waynesboro and he and a group of his buddies all came to Pitt. One was named Zack, he worked at Flo’s Records and ended up owning the store. I always wondered what happened to those guys and many other of my classmates.

I am now down to golf as the only sport I can still play and wondering how many rounds I have left in me.

I am proud to say my immediate family is 100% Pitt. My high school sweetheart started at Clarion and was either so bored or missed me so much she transferred to Pitt. Good thing too, she typed all of my papers and helped a few of us make grades. One time in an anthropology final there must have been six of us looking over her shoulder.

I later regretted immensely not learning how to type, although I am better than Frankcan. After we were married my wife Pat went back to Pitt and got her Masters in Library Science.

My son Alex went to UPJ and is now a successful mechanical engineer working at Westinghouse, just like my Dad. My daughter started at W&J to play soccer, like her mother found it boring, transferred to Pitt and she is now a librarian at a top school district. They both married super people and I am very lucky to have them living in Greater Pittsburgh.

None of them are as Pitt Crazy as me, but my wife loves going to basketball games with me, until last year, she hates Stallings, did I mention she is very perceptive? Both my kids attend some games in both sports with or without me.

I mentioned my father getting me to Pitt since I didn’t have the brains or money to go to his alma mater.  He really was a Pitt Fan.

He died watching the 1983 Pitt-WVU game. I wonder if I may go out the same way since so many times Pitt gets me so agitated.

I am encouraged that Heather Lyke has the support of Gallagher and the BOT and will bring Pitt back to relevance if not prominence. Although I wouldn’t be a Pitt Fan if I didn’t harbor a little doubt.

As always, Hail to Pitt!

 

 

Michaelangelo holds a degree in Travel Writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a former staff writer for InPittsburgh Newsweekly, and currently resides near Atlanta, Georgia. He has been a Pitt fan since 1997 after he witnessed Pitt upset #22 Miami on Thursday night at Pitt Stadium.

114 thoughts on “Why Pitt Is It For GC…”

  2. gc..your were my 4:30 am read when I awoke to get on the computer to finish my EMR’s..taking a long needed week-end. Loved the pic of you (that is you??) What a flash-back (never used LSD) to those days. I felt so outta place..a kid from Apollo who grew up playing in the woods who found himself in the citae..)Like Big and Rich sing it.

    I remember a post I made on here a couple of years ago..commenting on Dokish and what “liberal” he was and you fired back “I am a liberal” or something like that…yes you are !!! Your pic reminds me of a guy named Ed Fink (about your )who I worked with at Woodings Verona Tool Works on Plum Street in Oakmont. Ole long-haired bandana wearin Ed was a Penn Hills graduate like yourself. One day at lunch break Ed sahred with me his claim to fame in being a part in our nations history. Ed was a student at KENT STATE. He took part in the KSU protests that fateful day. Ed made the cover of life magazine waving a black flag. He told me “If I knew they were shooting real bullets I wouldn’t have been there flag waving.” what a time we lived in.

    gc, liberal/conservative aside. I have enjoyed following your comments for years.You,wwb.Emel and some of those folks who were regulars on the Blather who either never came over to the POV, or just stopped posting provided a happy room that I could go to several times a day. So many insightful folks all with a common bond. I am honored to share this forum with so many great peeps.

    Thanks so much for sharing. Hope to meet you at Fran’s Tailgate.

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    1. Thanks BigB, I went to high school with Ed Fink, who could forget that name. Last I heard of Ed he went to Hawaii and spent time with another close friend out there. She came back to the Burg, never heard of him again. Had another classmate at Kent St. Scary times.

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  4. Now that is an interesting story. Brings back sooooo many memories as we are the same age!

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    1. the money will move Pitt’s way. I figure 10 points come kickoff. So basically Penn State is a 2 touchdown favorite. Plenty of unknowns with Pitt…thats why.

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  6. Scotty’s. Now that’s a place whose name I haven’t seen in print in 45 years! So many memories for sure.

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  7. Thanks gc for bringing so many memories back for me of my time spent as a college student in the big city. My Freshman year was 1971 so our times at Pitt overlapped.

    The college experience that you reminisced about pretty much parallels my own. There is no doubt that the city of Pittsburgh with all of it’s urban influences strongly impacted my formative years growing up into adulthood during college. As you mentioned the Syria Mosque was a performing arts treasure, just walking distance from the dorms. What fantastic legendary rock bands performed there during those years.

    Concerning Pitt football, I came from Hopewell HS and although our HS football coach recruited me to join the team during those days my parents forbid me to participate, so rather I was relegated to earn my varsity jacket letters on the golf team & wrestling squad rather than in the sport that I loved even more than golf, that being football.

    Hopewell wasn’t particularly strong in the WPIAL but the annual rivalry with the Quips always was one for the books, especially during those civil rights days when the mainly black Aliquippa team played the mainly white Vikings team from the more affluent Hopewell Township “Alliquippa suburbs”. We lost that rivalry game more times than we won.

    That is until we garnered our own black kid that really lived in Alliquippa school district but somehow showed up to go to Hopewell High and play TB for the Vikings. He was shy & skinny, kept mainly to himself and as a Freshman showed some promise as a running back against our varsity Viking defense in practice. Come his Sophomore season however, Tony Dorsett’s potential began to show. It was apparent that this skinny kid had the “it” factor & he was fast, really fast! But even more so, it was his ability to accelerate that was the true difference maker for him. With his vision, and his knack of being able to visualize where the opportunity to run was before it actually appeared made him special early on. No one imagined how special until he really came on during his final couple seasons in high school.

    Hopewell produced few blue chip receuits but Dorsett became an elite blue chipper and was heavily recruited by the BIG college programs.

    I still remember the day that another Hopewell HS grad friend who was also now a fellow Pitt student came into my Towers dorm room exclaiming that this new southern football coach had convinced Tony to play for Pitt! I was cetain that Mike was playing me for some kind of fool just to bust my balls, because even with all the Pitt administration’s hype of “a Major Change in Pitt Football” I saw ZERO chance that Dorsett was going to play for the Panthers, ZERO!

    We both knew that Tony was a fan of the Fighting Irish & Ara Parseghian had him on his recruiting radar, so in my mind, Tony was a lock to play for the Fighting Irish, especially considering the door mat of a football program that Pitt was back then coming off a 1-10 season. “No F-ing way Dorsett comes to Pitt”, was my response to Mike’s announcement and no matter how he tried to convince me that evening that he wasn’t BSing me, I just wasn’t that gullible!

    Well, it was true and the rest is history. Simply amazing college football history! Me & gc both lived it, the pretty much unbelievable ascension of one of the worst college football programs imaginable going from 1-10 to 12-0 and a National Championship in just four seasons. It was glorious!

    Probably a major reason why both gc & I are both so eternally optimistic about our alma mater, anything is possible, we believe because we lived through it!

    Hail to Pitt!

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    2. Why didn’t you sent that in as an article?

      I may just make it one to tick you off.

      Actually I’m compiling all these bios and I’m drafting up a POV newsletter type thing and I might go I may include all of them in first one.

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  8. gc..above Ed was about your age..check out your year book….

    Another side note which relates to this Memorial Day Week-end and gc’s bio…I was finishing my Physical Therapy training in the Oakland VA which was directly across the street from Pennsylvania Hall. (the building behind the scoreboard with script Pitt and the Panther painted on it) We were sent there training in amputees, spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries and let me say the fields were ripe. Young men, like me, everywhere, needing physical help and comfort. When the “announcement” come over the PA system, I was working with a gunnery sargant who was paralyzed from the waist down from an enemies bullet..that “announcement ” North Vietnam over-ran the South and our embassy was being abandoned.. I will never forget that solemn moment and the the price those young men paid. so thank you to all who have served. Remember them this week-end.

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    1. Those were really sad times BigB, a lot of those guys were the ones that went to DC for the Giant protests that helped end the thing. I also met a few that had serious PTSD (not called that back then) and a number who had blown their minds out with drugs which were prevalent in Nam.

      I had a cousin that paid the ultimate price early in the war.

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  9. As negative as I usually am, I will take that 14 all day. The Nitters will give till the cows come home, maybe driving up local line, but no way it stays that high.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. gc – that was an awesome trip down memory lane…

    Thank you for sharing your PITT story.

    Hail to Pitt!

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  11. gc, wow, much history here. If you add the referenced stories, you would have a novelette.

    Anyway, a lot of things to identify with even for a non-Pitt alum …. and your athletic bloodlines are amazing.

    Thanks for sharing. wwb

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    1. includes both Clapton and Beck but was released well after Clapton left. BTW, Jeff Beck will be at Heinz Hall on Aug 11

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  14. stories like these are what make this blog great, and this country great for that matter. I wear red white and blue all week in remembrance. Won’t be able to make it down to Arlington to see my dad, but I will be thinking about him and all those who served. Reed thanks for letting everyone post their stories. Hope everyone enjoys their long weekend.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Thanks again to Reed for giving us this forum to share our experiences and love for Pitt and Pitt Sports.

    Also his editing skills are excellent so don’t be afraid to write your story, Reed will make you look good.

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  18. gc – I’m not a Pitt grad, but took a summer class there to make sure I could graduate from URichmond on time.

    Thought I was signing up for Business Stats and found out on the first night of class it was instead Mathematical Statisitcs, which required Calc I, II & III. All of the other students were either Stats or Math majors. One guy was a physicist at Westinghouse R&D in Churchill, who thought it would be fun to brush up on his knowledge. An accounting major who got a C in Calc I, I was in over my head.

    The class was taught by the chair of the Dept of Biostatistics in the Graduate School of Public Health, Dr. Rao. His office was next to several vaults marked “Caution – Biohazard: Herpes Simplex cultures”. I know this because my butt was in his office 2 days a week to get help.

    The rest of those days were spent at a Burger King on Fifth across from the school. I started drinking coffee there as it’s what I could afford back then and it gave me a place to study until 4pm.

    In class, he would deliver lectures, pause while looking at me and ask, “oonderstand, Joo?”

    The guy gave us a final exam worth 50% of our grade which had 10 questions. I could only attempt 2 of them.

    The guy gave me a B which I’m convinced was a gift.

    That’s my Pitt academic experience.

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    1. I didn’t get into the academics too much, but your experience sounds very familiar. I usually dropped those courses or took an incomplete, which saved the QPA. Biostatistics and Epidemiology were two tough courses, but two that I actually used when I hit the real world. Health Economics was another confounding class. Too many variables. The language thing was also an issue, I had a Chinese geography prof, who was world renowned, but I couldn’t understand a thing he said. I thought I was a french major until I landed in a class where everyone spoke fluent french and only french, dropped that one too.

      I give you credit for sticking it out.

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  21. Back to football, Dr Tom mentioned how extraordinary it was to have Tony Dorsett come to Pitt. It was and it ended up being the most important moment in Pitt’s modern football history. Chances of one guy having that impact in this day and age are slim, but it does speak to the importance of recruiting the stars. It is why Reed, I and others believe that Narduzzi has to recruit better. Needs to get those players that change outcomes of games. Easier said than done, I know, but it is the only thing that can truly change the trajectory.

    Same thing for Capel and any Pitt Coach.

    Regarding Penn State, Penn State is still the school we measure our relative success by. This will be true until we develop a new ACC rival or two. We play them twice more, but after that we will continue to rate our recruiting and win totals vs them. This is not a bad thing. If you want to get better, you have to aspire to the success of the competition that is better than you. Until it shifts to Miami, FLST and Clemson, it will be Penn State.

    For me, it will always be Penn State and Notre Dame, I know for the younger guys it is WVU and WVU does a great job of recruiting and winning football games, but they will never be on the National level of PSU and ND.

    Games with Wisconsin are fine, but they will never have the intensity of a Penn State game.

    Pitt should start a letter writing campaign to petition the Governor and Legislature to make it happen every year.

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  23. Enjoyed the read, GC. Memories flooded back to me as I read. I lived those times too, but not at Pitt. I attended the only state university in Ohio that did not close after Kent State, Bowling Green State Univ. Didn’t get to Pitt until 1974, just in time for the resurgence of Pitt football. Thanks for sharing. – Hobie

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  24. gc you mention 5 teams above, Miami, FLST and Clemson, Penn State and Notre Dame. PITT beat three of those teams within the past two years and didn’t play the other two. I agree recruiting should get better but I’m not convinced it will. PITT is a 3* type of a football school who can play with the big boys and beat them. They just have to show they can win consistently against similar schools as they are.

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    1. Ike, it only takes a couple of superstars at the right positions to make a huge difference. What would have LeVar Arrington or Terrelle Pryor meant to Pitt? Like Johnny Football at Texas AM, take you from average to great. How many more games do we win if AD played in 2016?

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I agree gc and that’s kind of my point… A good season is within the grasp of PITT football if some pieces can come together. For PITT football to succeed, it’s paramount for stability, continuity and a firm direction stay in place.. Otherwise it will be your SOP! Forever. ike

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  25. Shed a few tears reading your bio GC. Thank you so much.

    The war…. my freshman year I wore a coat and tie to the Iron Butterfly concert. By my senior year I had a moustache, hair down to my shoulders and a peace symbol on my forehead! Those were interesting times. We indeed shared the same ride.

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  26. No doubt the freak flags were a flying back in those days… Check it out you freakin hippies..

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  27. I’m telling you guys, Pitt will absolutely cover with 14. Most of you know I’m not a rainbows and unicorns type, but in this game , they will cover.

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  28. gc…I must have had a cousin of your Chinese prof for my physics lab instructor. Couldn’t understand a damn thing he said and to ramp it up a notch, couldn’t write English properly (me too) he always had a quetsion written on the blackboard when we entered the lab which if answered correctly we are awarded a few points. I will never forget written question ” What an simple pendulum Is?” Here’s another one “Last sentence in Abby Road album what is?”

    The music defined that era, black light posters, Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison…I never morphed into that soundtrack of life that many of you relate to…couldn’t give up Motown, bubblegum music, mama’s and papa’s…4 seasons…..

    Again, thanks for opening the great memories but I must say you were out and about more than me…some of those places I did not recognize.

    Just think if we had smart phones in those years…$hit, we would all probably be in jail. thankful for Statute of Limitation.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Great article! Thx gc!
    Early in it you said your dorm neighbors played The Doors “All day and all of the night”
    Immediately I thought “that wasn’t the Doors that was the
    Kinks !” Haha :>)

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  31. the additions of Pitt and Syracuse are costing ACC schools roughly $5M per year
    So when some say that the ACC doesnt care about Pitt’s facilities and performance on the field, here are some hard numbers.
    From a pure money standpoint, the league would be better off to jettison 2-4 schools (BC, Wake, Pitt and Cuse)
    Increasing the number of mouths to feed in a conference basically just leaves everyone with smaller portions

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    1. Yeah, but there is a minimum to have a Championship game.

      When the ACC develops their TV network there will be more money to share.

      But the existing bowl relationships hurt in comparison.

      The answer is ND for Football, but they are too freakin greedy.

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      1. The TV network would help all sports and especially marketing and recruiting.

        In Pittsburgh, we get SEC and Big 10 Networks and no Pitt.

        Parents want to watch their kids games, Girl’s softball, gymnastics, volleyball, Men’s wrestling, track.

        You get that when you go to another conference, while the ACC stands holding their #$%^ in their hand.

        Root Sports even carries the Mountaineer pre-game before Pitt Games.

        Can you say marketing problem?

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        1. That’s ridiculous for sure. I know pitt is being asked to spend several millions for this network. It’s not cheap. I just wonder how much extra the 14 teams will get. $2 million more per year.

          I’m sure the Pittsburgh market did help increase the overall TV value and Pitt does get good ratings. Pitt is famous for the upset and infamous for the choke.

          I just hope Pitt can step up and contribute to the league revenues. Right now Pitt is a welfare receipiant. The money is made by getting your school to good bowl games. When was our last good bowl game?

          Tex

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          1. there should be no doubt that Pitt and Cuse contributes to the value of the ACC network. Cuse basketball draws more NYC ratings than any NYC area team with the exception possibly of UConn and the Pgh TV market is the reason that Pitt was chosen over WVU and Louisville at the time

            wwb

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  34. Speaking of that great era of the late 60’s-early 70’s, if you haven’t seen the film “Almost Famous” I recommend doing so. Great soundtrack and it will take you back.

    Liked by 1 person

  35. Breaking news. ike got his pool cover off today. I’m guessing I’ll be putting it right back on somewhere around 75 days from now. That sucks…

    Almost Famous was a good movie..

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  36. Pitt plays Louisville in baseball semi final. Pitt lost all three games to the cardinals this year though.

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    1. pitching and D wins baseball games
      i like Pitts chances even though Louisville has their number this year
      game time before the champions league final…perfect
      plenty of time to smoke a brisket and sausages
      To be washed down with a nice beer from Saint Arnolds

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    2. Erie — I know you like your baseball – those are super baseball highlights.

      Some awesome outfield play! Makin’ us old PITT outfielders proud!

      Hail to Pitt!

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  42. Another great Pitt bio , thank you GC! Seen a lot of great pictures from Peter’s Pub , which had its closing bash today . 😦

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  44. Can anyone find the highlight video with the Jazz Crusaders music? I thought it was from 1976, but it might have been one of the Sherril teams? Couldn’t find it on youtube.

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  48. Great video’s gc. The Archie’s? That was back in my grade school days. It was more of a Zep vs the Stones vibe between the guys. Tull was a close third. Floyd? Some folks from the other side of town liked them so naturally, we hated them. I sided with Led Zeppelin. Kind of a side secret was the Velvet Underground a few of us got into. We started a garage band and had a bunch of laughs but never went anywhere. Thank goodness…. ike

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  49. I think I may have been there JoeL. You must have been that tall guy guy standing in front of me blocking my view? Just kidding. Remember the festival seating back in those days? In 2006 Tull put out a live version of the complete Aqualung lp. Pretty cool but I couldn’t find it to give you. So here is this for your Saturday morning listening….

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  50. Thanks GC…I also started Pitt the fall of 68 and attended the Graduate School of Public Health but many years later. Have a fondness for Penn Hills grads…I married one. Haha. Great walk down memory lane. I still have House Party by the Showstoppers as a 45 record.

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  51. Only one top seed of the four teams of the ACC baseball pods made the semifinals today. Clemson –

    Pitt plays Louisville (2nd seed in pod) at 1pm today.

    Clemson (top seed in pod) plays FL State (2nd seed in pod)

    If Pitt beats the Ville with their #2 pitcher today (with a loaded and well rested bullpen), the Panthers will have their ace ready for the championship game (Pidich who 4 hit GT on Tuesday).

    Pitt needs 2 wins this weekend or their season is over and their SR’s will not take the field again as a Panther. The other three ACC teams in the semis will probably make the NCAA regional tournament field of 64. Pitt must win both games this weekend to make the tournament.

    Pitt’s focus and intensity should be the highest of the four teams. Games are on RSN today and ESPN2 tomorrow.

    Go Pitt!

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  52. everybody loves the underdog
    Pitt the last team in, the number 12 seed
    going up against the blue bloods and perennial ranked powers
    for a northern school, its quite impressive to make it this far
    does Pitt even have an indoor practice facility?

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    1. Yes, but it is not a full field and is shared by many other Pitt sports teams. My son would attend the Pitt Fall/Winter baseball camps when he was in high school. That is when I met Jordano about 12 or 13 years ago.

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    2. Louisville’s ace pitcher threw yesterday vs Duke. Their #2 and #3 pitchers are probably better than our #1 who is probably not going to throw on three days rest today. But, these baseball Panthers are showing heart and determination.

      By beating the #5 ranked tarholes on Wednesday, the entire team believes they can beat any team, on any given day. Believing in one’s self is part of the equation to being a winner. Physical talent, game day intelligence and flat out gutsy determination are also necessary.

      We’ll see starting at 1pm today. Lightning in a bottle? It can be done – I and many Pitt fans would love to see it. Wish I could be there –

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    1. This is almost exactly what those sportswriters SoCal told me about Browne…and also why I heard he was outplayed in fall camp by DiNucci.

      Farrell’s take: Browne was a tough one to evaluate because he would look amazing in games and in reading defenses but look a bit too slow in processing information in 7-on-7 or camp instances. He looked like two different quarterbacks, one on film and one in person. We went with five stars and believed the film, but it turns out the in person Browne was the one who struggled at USC and didn’t do anything at Pitt. This was a massive rankings whiff and he has no chance at an NFL career.

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  55. Amazing that Wanny replaced McCoy with Lewis and Graham.

    Also saw that Conner is Healthy again and looks very svelte.

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  58. Pitt Student-Athletes Make Annual Trip to Haiti

    Fifteen Panthers Attended Mission Trip

    Photo Gallery

    PITTSBURGH – Earlier this month, 15 student-athletes from the University of Pittsburgh traveled to Haiti for a mission trip organized by the school’s Coalition of Christian Outreach April 30 to May 5.

    Led by campus minister Mark Steffy and his colleague, Kelly Cook, the group traveled to the city of Cap Haitien, located on the north coast of the country with a population of around 200,000. Over the last seven years, CCO has made the trip with over 100 student-athletes from the University of Pittsburgh.

    Eight members from the group made return trips, including football’s Brian Popp (fourth), Connor Dintino (third), Kellen McAlone (second) and Quintin Wirginis (second), as well as gymnastics’ Taylor Laymon (fourth), Megan Tripp (second), Charli Spivey (second) and woman’s basketball’s Cassidy Walsh (second).

    Those members making their first trip includes Darrin Hall, Qadree Ollison and Dennis Briggs of football, Alex Murray and Eli Seipel of wrestling, Chad Stout of soccer and Dale Clish of cheer.

    “My time in Haiti was extremely humbling,” said Murray. “The Haitien people live day to day and simply worry about surviving. The trip helped me realize that the ‘problems’ that I have back in the states are great problems to have. I look at my current situation and see that I have unbelievable opportunities. I am very grateful for these opportunities and hope to continue to help others on my journey.”

    The group departed from Pittsburgh Monday, April 30. Once arriving in the country, they worked at EBAC orphanage and school, as well as Idadee orphanage.

    While at EBAC, the group assisted with putting together bible lessons for the younger children, while leading arts and crafts to help them learn more about the bible. The student-athletes also helped the older children fill out a personality test packet to discover what skills they possess and what career paths they may be interested in.

    Off site, the group climbed to the top of a nearby mountain to help with the construction of a new church. They helped level some of the land the church is to be built on so that construction could begin.

    At Idadee orphanage, student-athletes put together a field day that featured track and field events, including sprints, long jump and throwing. They also gave the winners medals and awards on the last day of competition. The group also took the children for a day at the beach.

    “Each time I travel to Haiti, I am blown away by the love and acceptance our group receives,” said Spivey. “The children we spend time with have a sense of selflessness that continues to inspire and challenge me in my own life. They also are an incredible example on what it looks like to choose joy and to choose love each and every day. I am in awe and excited to go back next year.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. A tight end. Does Pitt even use tight ends?
      Barely a four star
      Pitt offered but his 18 offers weren’t all that impressive
      Nitters and Hokies did not offer. That tells me something
      Let the kid freeze and eat cheese in Madison.
      Chryst will turn him into a lineman anyway.

      Tex

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    1. Very sad, one of Pitt’s #1 Draft Picks. Bad back hurt Pro career.

      Went off the deep end for a while. Definitely experienced the highs and lows.

      RIP

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  61. Hats off to all of the Pitt athletes who went to help out in Haiti.

    And does the turn around for Quinton Wirginis continue with him making his second trip to Haiti? That experience has to give these players a great perspective on life…

    (And Go Pitt Baseball!)

    Go Pitt.

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  62. I got a teaching Tommy how to tell time story. A short little ditty with lots of screaming.

    The chilling story of being told to go to my room right after I got home from school with the queer looks on their faces GrandPa story. This one is a little longer and very strange and chilling.

    The Christmas light escapade debacle story. Again short and more screaming.

    The what’s my last name story. I found myself in trouble again. Do I have to say… more screaming?

    The Sunday afternoon meetings story. You had to be there for this one. No screaming but lots of whispering.

    I got dozens of them but not one that has the least little to do with PITT football. On second thoughts, I’m still not quite sure how I became a PITT Panther Football fan? I guess I’m just lucky? ike

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  64. Pull it together Rick. It’s only hole one, err I mean inning one. Not saying PITT wins just saying they are 17 holes err I mean several more innings to go…. ike 🙂

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  65. Pitt down 1-0 after one full inning. Of course the leadoff walk scored.

    Eight more innings to make up for that – you can’t win if you don’t score, so I’ll call that “no big deal”.

    H2P!

    Liked by 1 person

  70. Did anyone notice in the Rivals link above of the top 2019 PA players, there were only 5 four-stars in the entire state. Moreover, only one was from Western PA ….. one! pathetic

    wwb

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    1. there are 5 four stars alone in the high school system that I’m part of in TX. Now granted 5 high schools…so 1 per school. But yes, WPIAL and PA doesnt have the stars this year. If Pitt can get a 4 star each year in PA, MD, OH, NJ and VA, they will do just fine.

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  73. True story, I cracked 3 ribs diving for a Frisbee in a completely spontaneous made up silly beach-game at Dewey Beach years ago. Yes my family, like barvo, think I can be a real idiot sometimes. but we were undefeated!!

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  75. True story… I’m rebuilding my back deck with a friend and my back hurts so much I cut off one of my toes to take my mind off the pain in my back.

    I think I can be a real idiot sometimes too Ike.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hope you picked the little one and not the big one. I’ve had my painful moments but don’t believe it ever reached that level. (and hope it never does). The very best wishes to you.

      wwb

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  77. I can attest to that my friend Reed. I just hope you don’t get a headache during the project. You got lots of toes… Seriously. I hope your not serious? You already list to the starboard side big fellow…..ike

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  79. Were you serious about losing that toe Reed? If so, I just hope it doesn’t effect your memorial weekend podcast. and to all. Happy Memorial Day.

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