X Days until 2017 Leatherneck Football

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ST_Lawson
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100
Scott Lawson - Board Admin
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sealhall74
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This could be a very entertaining thread. Got me thinking about that day way back in 3rd grade at Alexis Elementary. We were taking a class field trip up to one of the Milan food shipping warehouses (must have been Eagle, see below). Who would believe a bunch of unruly 3rd graders would all join in on a long rendition of "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" somewhere before the Viola vicinity, but sure enough it happened. If memory serves me, I think we got down to no bottles of beer on the wall long before we hit Milan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Food_Centers
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sealhall74 wrote: Tue May 23, 2017 5:39 pm This could be a very entertaining thread. Got me thinking about that day way back in 3rd grade at Alexis Elementary. We were taking a class field trip up to one of the Milan food shipping warehouses (must have been Eagle, see below). Who would believe a bunch of unruly 3rd graders would all join in on a long rendition of "100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" somewhere before the Viola vicinity, but sure enough it happened. If memory serves me, I think we got down to no bottles of beer on the wall long before we hit Milan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Food_Centers
Yea, not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it yet, but I know that on the front page, where you have the countdown that says how many days until Leatherneck Football (http://www.leathernecknation.net/), starting tomorrow, any day that corresponds with a player's number on the current roster, you'll see them pop up.

Over on Any Given Saturday, they have a cool tradition too. 100 days out from the start of the first full Saturday of games (that countdown starts this Thursday), they have daily threads where everyone can chime in and introduce players on their roster with that number. So on Friday, I could talk about #99: http://goleathernecks.com/roster.aspx?r ... h=football

If you guys have any suggestions, I'm open to hear them. I will also be doing my usual position rundown and predictions over the course of the summer.
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sealhall74
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We have most of the numbers covered with roster guys. For those days we have none, we could throw in some trivia related to the number. For example, if you Google "wiu athletics 90", you get some stuff back, one of which is the following:

Tanney serves as just the seventh Director of Intercollegiate Athletics in the past 90 years. [Might be more than 90 today but you get the idea]

If you look around a bit, you might even stumble upon a football program from the year 1990
Image

The real challenge would be to totally automate the search, identification, and formatting of the X Day content.
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sealhall74 wrote: Tue May 23, 2017 8:08 pm We have most of the numbers covered with roster guys. For those days we have none, we could throw in some trivia related to the number. For example, if you Google "wiu athletics 90", you get some stuff back, one of which is the following:

Tanney serves as just the seventh Director of Intercollegiate Athletics in the past 90 years. [Might be more than 90 today but you get the idea]

If you look around a bit, you might even stumble upon a football program from the year 1990
Image

The real challenge would be to totally automate the search, identification, and formatting of the X Day content.
Yea, automating it could be tricky, but I'll see if I can find some images that might work for players from the past...that might get me through at least for a while. Otherwise I'd have to get something coded tomorrow (we don't have a #98 currently). I'll see what I can do.
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ST_Lawson wrote: Tue May 23, 2017 9:11 pm
sealhall74 wrote: Tue May 23, 2017 8:08 pm We have most of the numbers covered with roster guys. For those days we have none, we could throw in some trivia related to the number. For example, if you Google "wiu athletics 90", you get some stuff back, one of which is the following:

Tanney serves as just the seventh Director of Intercollegiate Athletics in the past 90 years. [Might be more than 90 today but you get the idea]

If you look around a bit, you might even stumble upon a football program from the year 1990
Image

The real challenge would be to totally automate the search, identification, and formatting of the X Day content.
Yea, automating it could be tricky, but I'll see if I can find some images that might work for players from the past...that might get me through at least for a while. Otherwise I'd have to get something coded tomorrow (we don't have a #98 currently). I'll see what I can do.
Here is a list of former players wore numbers 98

Rob Hollinger.........................1950-53
Duane Woddall......................1958-59
David Tipton.........................1972-74
Doug Onstot ........................1979-80
Jeff Patterson ......................1982-83
Scott Tourtellott....................1984-85
Joe Redding .........................1987-89
Ricky Newman......................1990
Stevie Green........................1993-94
Mike Spelich ........................1996
Levi Ulin..............................1998-99
Jeff Shields .........................2000
Drew Schmitt .....................2001-04
Davie Pierson .....................2006
Emeka Nwankwo.................2011
Gavin Ricketts ....................2012-15
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huskie wrote: Wed May 24, 2017 5:24 am Here is a list of former players wore numbers 98

Rob Hollinger.........................1950-53
Duane Woddall......................1958-59
David Tipton.........................1972-74
Doug Onstot ........................1979-80
Jeff Patterson ......................1982-83
Scott Tourtellott....................1984-85
Joe Redding .........................1987-89
Ricky Newman......................1990
Stevie Green........................1993-94
Mike Spelich ........................1996
Levi Ulin..............................1998-99
Jeff Shields .........................2000
Drew Schmitt .....................2001-04
Davie Pierson .....................2006
Emeka Nwankwo.................2011
Gavin Ricketts ....................2012-15
That's what I've started doing, when there's no current player with that number. I've been going through, trying to find either "big name" players or recent players, and then putting together an image that says who they are and stuff. Unfortunately, it's kinda tricky finding photos of players before around 2000. For example, I needed a 96, and I saw that Bryan Cox wore #96, but that was only in '86, which I believe was his freshman year. I looked...it's hard enough finding a photo of Cox in a Western jersey at all, let alone in #96 in his freshman year. Otherwise, he wore #48 at Western for most of his time here (we already have a #48 on the current roster), #51 for much of his time in the NFL (we have a #51), although he wore #52 when he was on the Bears (we have a #52).

Occasionally it does work out (I put together #69 last night and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out), but for the most part, the players that we've had that went to the NFL, their numbers here and their numbers in the NFL are already being used by someone on the current roster. I wanted to do something with Mike Wagner, although his Steelers number was 23 (we have a 23). If I could find a photo of him when he played at Western though, it looks like he wore #29 here, and we don't currently have a #29, so that'd be good.
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sealhall74
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ST_Lawson wrote: Wed May 24, 2017 8:40 am
huskie wrote: Wed May 24, 2017 5:24 am
Occasionally it does work out (I put together #69 last night and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out), but for the most part, the players that we've had that went to the NFL, their numbers here and their numbers in the NFL are already being used by someone on the current roster. I wanted to do something with Mike Wagner, although his Steelers number was 23 (we have a 23). If I could find a photo of him when he played at Western though, it looks like he wore #29 here, and we don't currently have a #29, so that'd be good.
Darn, I was hoping for a good joke on #69. Something like the following would always get a laugh:

I asked my grandma if she had ever tried 69. She said, "No, but I have done 53 -- that's all the sailors I could screw in one night."
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Nah, decided to steer clear of a joke at #69 and went instead with a pretty seriously badass O-Lineman who wore #69 in the NFL.
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99

#99 on the current Leatherneck squad is Jr. Defensive Lineman Khalen Saunders from St. Louis, Missouri.
Saunders has played in 24 games so far in his 2-year career, racking up 75 total tackles, 9.5 for loss including 4 sacks, and has 1 fumble recovery. He had a career-high 8 tackles in last year's win at South Dakota.

Other Leathernecks who wore #99:
Paul Suverkrup......................1956-57
Joe Marini..............................1957-58
Bob Sands.................................. 1970
Chris Gunderson ...................1982-84
Marlin Williams ......................1986-88
John Dixon.............................1989-90
Andy Edmondson ..................1993-96
Cyron Brown............................... 1997
Renard Lewis.........................1999-00
Heaven Desir.........................2005-06
Eddy Holtschlag.....................2012-15

Feel free to chime in with comments, stories, photos of any of these players if you like. Other than the guys who made the NFL, I don't know much about the players who came before I started following Leatherneck Football (in 1996). Here's my "story".

I remember seeing Cyron Brown walk out onto the field during Senior Day. The band was on the field and had formed lines/"tunnel" for the players to walk out through and although I'm sure it's just the perspective of time, but he looked like he was 8 feet tall (he's not, I checked). The next spring he was signed to the Denver Broncos and would be on their roster for 3 years, winning a Super Bowl ring during the 1998 season. That 1998 Denver Broncos team (led by John Elway in his final year before retirement) had a couple of local area connections.

HC Mike Shanahan - originally from Franklin Park, IL (right next to O'Hare Airport), was on the Eastern Illinois football team in '71 and '72, and was the OC at Eastern IL in '78. Western played Eastern all three of those years, winning in '71 and '72, then losing against the Panthers in '78. Coincidentally, our HC at the time was Bill Shanahan. I looked around online to see if there was any connection between the two Coach Shanahans and found this in answer to if they're related:
The answer is no, but they are good friends. In fact, Coach Bill is one of the few people who have Coach Mike`s cell phone number. Bill refused to answer when we asked if he scripts a play for Mike now and then.
Pass Rush Specialist Coach John Teerlinck - I'm sure a decent number of you recognize that name. Teerlinck played for Western from 1971-1973 and was a 1973 AP Third Team All-American in '73 after recording 122 tackles and 14 sacks. He's also tied for 2nd in the school record books for most sacks in a single game (4).
Teerlinck was the 105th overall pick in the 1974 draft by San Diego. He started two games at DE as a rookie, totaling 7.5 sacks, including three in one contest. He started five of the first six games in 1975 before sustaining a knee injury that ended his career in 1977.
He really made a name for himself, however, when he entered the coaching ranks.
Regarded by some as the greatest defensive line coach of all time, Teerlinck established an NFL presence in the early 1990s.
He has coached in 31 playoff games with five teams and with three Super Bowl champions (1997-98, Denver; 2006, Colts).
So, who else do you remember from that list? Doesn't even have to be playing-related...did you know one of these guys personally?...was he a a cool guy to hang out with?...could he down 3 large pizzas in one sitting?...did he have a really goofy hairstyle his freshman year? What stories do you have about the guys who wore #99?
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