RPI 2021-22: Picking Up Where We Left Off

[fr. joe]

Think about this - the storied RPI hockey program has won a total of 6 games in the NCAA tournament over all the years. The RPI football team has now won 7 games over the years of the NCAA Division III tournament. i find that amazing since when i was at RPI RPI was busy setting an NCAA record for consecutive games without a victory!

I remember as a ten year old when RPI football beat Middlebury to break the streak (was it 65 consecutive losses?) and made the Sunday New York Daily news sports page.
I believe it was a cartoon depicting RPI among the titans of eastern college football.

[DrDemento]

I remember as a ten year old when RPI football beat Middlebury to break the streak (was it 65 consecutive losses?) and made the Sunday New York Daily news sports page.
I believe it was a cartoon depicting RPI among the titans of eastern college football.

I remember after 4 or 5 years of total loss season, we scheduled Nichols College which I believe had just started Division III football and was allegedly a super soft team to play for homecoming (to try to secure a much needed and sought after victory). We led 20-6 with only a few minutes to play and a large crowd had gathered around the old football field in the center of campus. Finally the streak would be broken! We gave up a touch and then could not run out the clock with Nichols scoring with seconds left to play to tie the score. It went into the books as a 20-20 tie. Not a win, but not a loss. The fans rushed the field and went crazy celebrating anyway. You are correct it was Middlebury we defeated 28-14 to end the losing streak in a game that we were a decided underdog. I believe the final non winning streak was ended numbering in the mid 40's. (?43)
Now fast forward. Over the past 3 decades, out Division III football team has only a handful (3) of losing seasons and even those were only a game or two from being winning seasons. Our winning percentage would be the envy of not just our hockey program, but most if not all in the nation. Obviously not totally comparable since Hockey is a D1 sport and the competition level so high. But this year we are in the final 8 of over 225 schools and the Liberty League champion with wins over Ithaca and Union and a blocked kick away from a tie with Hobart. I just hope we can begin to see this kind of return of our hockey program to this kind of consistent winning and frequent appearances in the NCAA tournament.

[RPI67]

I remember after 4 or 5 years of total loss season, we scheduled Nichols College which I believe had just started Division III football and was allegedly a super soft team to play for homecoming (to try to secure a much needed and sought after victory). We led 20-6 with only a few minutes to play and a large crowd had gathered around the old football field in the center of campus. Finally the streak would be broken! We gave up a touch and then could not run out the clock with Nichols scoring with seconds left to play to tie the score. It went into the books as a 20-20 tie. Not a win, but not a loss. The fans rushed the field and went crazy celebrating anyway. You are correct it was Middlebury we defeated 28-14 to end the losing streak in a game that we were a decided underdog. I believe the final non winning streak was ended numbering in the mid 40's. (?43)
Now fast forward. Over the past 3 decades, out Division III football team has only a handful (3) of losing seasons and even those were only a game or two from being winning seasons. Our winning percentage would be the envy of not just our hockey program, but most if not all in the nation. Obviously not totally comparable since Hockey is a D1 sport and the competition level so high. But this year we are in the final 8 of over 225 schools and the Liberty League champion with wins over Ithaca and Union and a blocked kick away from a tie with Hobart. I just hope we can begin to see this kind of return of our hockey program to this kind of consistent winning and frequent appearances in the NCAA tournament.

Thanks for the memory. I was a junior and went to campus at the end of the Nichols game. I remember the # as 43 also when they only played 8 games per year so 5+ years between wins. Students 2 years ahead of me never saw a win unless they stayed more than 5 years. Maybe some went for a PHD to stay for a W.

[Ralph Baer]

Kurt Stutt states that it was 34 straight losses before the Nichols tie.https://sports-chronicles.com/rpif/ That game and 8 more losses indeed gets it to 43. https://sports-chronicles.com/rpif/p...by_season#1964

[Wicked Slappaahs]

An email I received from Cait Bennett, the current Grand Marshal. Bolded emphasis is my own.

Dear Members of the Union,

Yesterday, Dr. Martin A. Schmidt was appointed as the 19th President of RPI.

As your Grand Marshal, I have been working to increase student representation in the presidential selection process since Dr. Jackson announced her retirement in June. In the beginning phase, a cross sectional group of students were engaged to develop the Presidential Profile, which outlined the direction of the Institute and qualities desired in potential candidates. There were six student representatives, including myself, involved in the interviewing process, asking questions and submitting feedback about each candidate.

You all know about Dr. Schmidt’s professional experience as Provost at MIT, but his interview provided insight into his leadership style. Dr. Schmidt is a humble, passionate, and sincere leader. Many of his passions, including accessible education and inclusivity, are consistently developed into organizations with tangible community impacts, like edX and MindHandHeart. His dedication to life-long learning shows in his willingness to reflect on past failures and successes, and he diligently credits his teammates when reviewing accomplishments.

Most importantly, Dr. Schmidt sincerely cares about students. He asked about our hockey team, our Student Union, and the future challenges we see. Dr. Schmidt continued mentoring and teaching even while delving into administrative work at MIT, and was therefore able to provide acute insight on student concerns. He is focused on organizational strength from a grassroots perspective — starting with students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

Expanding and organizing student representation in this presidential search was a huge step for shared governance at RPI. To say that the last few years have been tumultuous would be an understatement; in many ways, students have been disenfranchised and our input has been disregarded. Rebuilding trust between administrators and students will not happen overnight, but it will happen. I expect that the transition in leadership will come with its own challenges, and your student leaders are preparing to face them head on.

I am truly optimistic about the potential of Dr. Schmidt’s term. Student voices are best heard by sincere leaders who listen.

Have a happy thanksgiving.

Warmest regards,
Cait Bennett
156th Grand Marshal
Student Body President

Thanks for posting this. It's very good to hear that they included students in the selection criteria and the interviews....a big step in the right direction in my view. There is no doubt that Schmidt knows exactly what he is inheriting and I am sure he will spend the next six months information gathering and outlining his plans to take the reigns. I don't expect any drastic impact on athletics, but getting fans back on site would be a great first start. I'd bet Ralph a bucket of burnt popcorn that the new Prez won't be a stranger at HFH...ha ha.

[DrDemento]

Kurt Stutt states that it was 34 straight losses before the Nichols tie.https://sports-chronicles.com/rpif/ That game and 8 more losses indeed gets it to 43. https://sports-chronicles.com/rpif/p...by_season#1964

Since I was trying to do this all by memory alone I think I passed my cognitive test for this year! i was obviously not at RPI for all those non winning games but clearly can remember many of them. I vividly remember the excitement when we were up by 2 touchdowns against Nichols. The tie was for sure a big let down but we celebrated anyway in our usual fashion which was at the Armory Bar and then over to the Knotty Pine!!

[vicious]

It's great to read all the football comments (and good luck to them this weekend against North Central) but nothing about the Sunday Northeastern game?

[engineerhockeyfan]

It's great to read all the football comments (and good luck to them this weekend against North Central) but nothing about the Sunday Northeastern game?

Sunday's game was very disappointing. I watched the Engineers play the best two periods of the year. Passes were crisp tape to tape. Even cross ice passes were right on the money.
When they made a mistake, which was not very often, Marshall backed them up.
Then the third period started and they gave up an early goal to tie the score.
All the great play of the previous forty minutes went out the window.
Passes were no longer accurate, the team was chasing the puck all over the ice. They just lost their composure. At least that is what I saw.
Hopefully they can learn from that.

[DrDemento]

Sunday's game was very disappointing. I watched the Engineers play the best two periods of the year. Passes were crisp tape to tape. Even cross ice passes were right on the money.
When they made a mistake, which was not very often, Marshall backed them up.
Then the third period started and they gave up an early goal to tie the score.
All the great play of the previous forty minutes went out the window.
Passes were no longer accurate, the team was chasing the puck all over the ice. They just lost their composure. At least that is what I saw.
Hopefully they can learn from that.

i saw it the same for the parts I was able to stay for. Simply put, this team has done a lot of things right and now needs to learn how to win. I think a lot of this i snot talent but mental concentration and focus. If they can do that for the entire game, they will be just fine. This past weekend, a very good Northeastern team with an excellent goaltender did not have an easy time with us.

[DrDemento]

Not a good omen - latest indication for the football team is that they will be facing a really tough uphill climb. They are 33.5 point underdogs to the defending Division III champion and number 1 ranked team. Can they do it? They will need to get off to a good start and play a perfect error free game for all 4 quarters. Regardless, this has been up to now the most exciting season of RPI football probably ever as most games were not decided until virtually the final seconds and we had a team that seemed to never give up!! Go Red!!
At this time of the year, the weather can play a dominant part in any outcome. The Cortland game was played in bitter cold and on and off snow. We handled that quite well.

[Wicked Slappaahs]

i saw it the same for the parts I was able to stay for. Simply put, this team has done a lot of things right and now needs to learn how to win. I think a lot of this i snot talent but mental concentration and focus. If they can do that for the entire game, they will be just fine. This past weekend, a very good Northeastern team with an excellent goaltender did not have an easy time with us.

My take away from the weekend was a very good RPI effort against a very good NE team. Both nights the teams did a good job defending and limiting shots. My one observation was that too many times RPI opted to pass instead of shoot. I realize its a fine line between the two, but against a keeper like Levi I think you need to get more traffic and rubber to the net....again I realize that's easier said than done against a very good team. We knew going in to this season that scoring would be the challenge for this squad and that certainly was true last weekend. If you hold a team to 20-25 shots you should expect to win the game most nights.

Q'Pac will serve as an even stiffer test on Friday night.

[sezenack]

Talkin' neers https://open.spotify.com/episode/5KE...QsuwvW8Gg3BkhA

[DavidNardolillo]

It's great to read all the football comments (and good luck to them this weekend against North Central) but nothing about the Sunday Northeastern game?

I'm not sure that the RPI football fans realize that there is a USCHO-esque outlet for the well-deserved football chat. d3football.com fan forums are at http://www.d3boards.com/ ;-)

[DavidNardolillo]

My take away from the weekend was a very good RPI effort against a very good NE team. Both nights the teams did a good job defending and limiting shots. My one observation was that too many times RPI opted to pass instead of shoot. I realize its a fine line between the two, but against a keeper like Levi I think you need to get more traffic and rubber to the net....again I realize that's easier said than done against a very good team. We knew going in to this season that scoring would be the challenge for this squad and that certainly was true last weekend. If you hold a team to 20-25 shots you should expect to win the game most nights.

Q'Pac will serve as an even stiffer test on Friday night.

I agree. We also have to be a bit more ruthless in burying some of the better chances. Levi was a difference maker last weekend, but I think there were one or two times where we let him off the hook. Still, I think there were two encouraging performances. I am also hoping that Marshall built some confidence. Yes, I think one or two of the Northeastern goals could have been stopped, but he also made a larger number of good saves.

[DavidNardolillo]

Not a good omen - latest indication for the football team is that they will be facing a really tough uphill climb. They are 33.5 point underdogs to the defending Division III champion and number 1 ranked team. Can they do it? They will need to get off to a good start and play a perfect error free game for all 4 quarters. Regardless, this has been up to now the most exciting season of RPI football probably ever as most games were not decided until virtually the final seconds and we had a team that seemed to never give up!! Go Red!!
At this time of the year, the weather can play a dominant part in any outcome. The Cortland game was played in bitter cold and on and off snow. We handled that quite well.

The bigger they come, the harder they fall!