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REWIND: Nobody Rivals Pitt · Pittsburgh Sports Memories

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Uh hello and welcome to another uh exciting episode of Pittsburgh Sports Memories.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: On this uh episode, we will be covering rivals, and mainly from the viewpoint of Pitt fans, since I'm a Pitt fan and are my co-host Tim Hannon's a Pitt fan, so we're just gonna view it from the Pitt perspective.
0:19
SPEAKER_01: So sorry, all you other people that are fans of other college teams.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: And also we'll be obviously focusing on the college game because I think the rivalries are much bigger in uh college than they probably are in the pros.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: And if we have fans of, you know, Alabama listening to this podcast, then good on you.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure what you're doing here, but we welcome you and would love to educate you about Pitts rivals.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: Auburn's really great too.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that is that their big rivalry?
1:07
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, there you go.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or Georgia.
1:09
SPEAKER_01: We'll get into that at the end of the episode.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm probably gonna get on my soapbox a little bit.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: So if everybody likes to hear me like go off about a topic, that'll probably be the la end of the podcast.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: Something to look forward to there for everybody.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: So um, you know, even a bad season, like you know, and there's been plenty in pit history, can be salvaged with a big rin over your arrival.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: So and um, and you know, if you don't have these games, it's just kind of at the end of the season, it's just kind of like uh okay, yeah, cool.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: We get to play like, I don't know, North Carolina or somebody dumb from the ACC.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Let's play Wake Forest.
1:43
SPEAKER_01: Woohoo.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: So it really makes the games much more exciting and uh much more fun, especially when they're it when there's something on the line too at the end that even adds because you always want to beat your rival or uh keep your rival from uh getting into a big game.
1:57
SPEAKER_01: So um on that note, um I have uh come up with a handy dandy scale here.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna rank our rival, the strength of the rivalry.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: So I went from one to ten, and so one would be no annoyance to ten.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: Any day that team loses is a good day.
2:14
SPEAKER_01: Or as you know, I mean, I know like a lot of fans, it's like shorten fraudul, I guess is the term.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, you enjoy the other team suffering.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: So when that team, so like if you know, the the saying is my favorite team is you know Pitt, and my second favorite team is whoever's playing Penn State.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: So there you go.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: You know, something to that effect.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: But so number one, the the not really annoying would be uh this is people that uh probably pit fans would know or you know have known in the past.
2:42
SPEAKER_01: Frank Beamer.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: He was a nice guy, he ran a decent program with Virginia Tech.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: I really wouldn't they really Virginia Tech rivalry really isn't that heated, I don't think.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
2:52
SPEAKER_01: Number two uh is Randy Etzel.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: He was a small, he would like annoy us because he like beat us probably more than Yukon ever should, and that was in football.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: So also uh number three would be Khaled Alamine.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: He's the infamous scoreboard table jumper from pit from pit basketball history way back when.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: Number four, we're starting to get into the higher annoyance here.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh Paul Pasqualone, I don't know if anybody remembers him, but he always seemed to beat Pitt when he was the head coach in Syracuse football in the 90s.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: Hard to believe.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: Syracuse football was actually very good in the 1990s.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: They were a very good program with the likes of Donovan McNabb, Marnavan Harrison, and Dwight Freeney.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: They were a very good team.
3:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh number five is Jim Bayheim, who's just generally annoying and grumpy.
3:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh six is uh Jim Calhoun, who's uh Yukon's version of uh Jim Bayheim, just another grumpy old man coach.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: Number seven, and maybe this is a little low, I don't know.
3:51
SPEAKER_01: He never annoyed me that much, was Joe Peterto, but he's definitely the most self-important.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: He thinks he's better than everybody else on this list.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: He probably thinks he should be rated 10.
4:01
SPEAKER_01: And eight is uh Brian Kelly, who's just a general loudmouth, and apparently has a blatant disregard for his employees' safety.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: So I wouldn't want to work for Brian Kelly.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: Number nine coming in pretty hard is uh Charlie, Charlie Weiss, who I just oh, yeah.
4:18
SPEAKER_01: He he definitely wrote checks his teams couldn't cash.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: He definitely would talk a lot of trash and couldn't back it up.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: And number 10 would be reserved for the likes of Rich Rodriguez and Todd Graham.
4:29
SPEAKER_01: And um, that's basically like you know, if you went down to Century 3 Chevrolet or, you know, a used car place and you had one of the uh salesmen from that team, uh from that dealership coach or football team, you're gonna get sold a uh lemon or a bill of goods, you know.
4:45
SPEAKER_01: I mean I don't know how those players in the University of Hawaii are doing, but uh they got Todd Graham to deal with.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: So at least you got like the beach and the waves and stuff, so it's not a total loss.
4:55
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know where where Rich Rod is.
4:57
SPEAKER_01: I think he's offensive coordinator somewhere, and there's a top secret number 11 who we'll reveal as the list goes on, but he definitely he earns his own spot there.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: So uh leading off, starting off our uh list of rivals, um, that would be the Syracuse orange.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: The Syracuse has decided to uh change their mascot to a non-gender specific orange.
5:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure if that's an actual orange or just the color orange.
5:28
SPEAKER_01: So it's orange.
5:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt somehow miraculously leads the all-time series in football 41 to 31 to 3.
5:39
SPEAKER_01: Three ties, because they've been playing.
5:41
SPEAKER_01: I forget how long they've been playing, I didn't write that down, but it's it's been forever.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: It's been since like probably the early 1900s.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: Syracuse, of course, leads in basketball 64-42.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is definitely a solid seven, a Joe Piterto on the line.
5:56
SPEAKER_01: No, there's no nickname to this game.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so crush the orange.
6:00
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, sure, why not?
6:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, just more annoying than anything because it always seems like the ball bounces Syracuse's way.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, like I remember that game at Pitt Stadium where Pitt literally blocked a field goal attempt by Syracuse, and then the quarterback just like picks it up and runs around, like he was also the holder and just like throws a touchdown.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, look at this, look at the balls on here.
6:22
SPEAKER_01: Oh, let me just run around for five minutes.
6:24
SPEAKER_01: Oh, look, there's a touchdown.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: Yay! We planned it like that.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: It was just uh horrible.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, like I said, uh Syracuse had a great football program.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: Um, just I mean, even in the 90s, Donovan McNabb and Marvin Harrison were really good.
6:39
SPEAKER_01: And historically, uh Ernie Davis and Jim Brown, Jim Brown was amazing in college.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: And uh Ernie Davis won the Heisman, I do yes, he won the Heisman at uh at uh Syracuse before his tragic death from leukemia.
6:54
SPEAKER_01: He actually died from leukemia.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: Um that darn stupid dome.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: I know Tim loves the dome.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: So you know, one day one day we'll have to take a road trip up and see a game in the dome, huh?
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: Would you ever do that?
7:08
SPEAKER_01: Would you be gotten for that kind of punishment, Tim?
7:10
SPEAKER_00: I I it it well, and it's like you I mean you summed it up perfectly.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: It's like Syracuse, basketball and football.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: It just whatever bad could happen happens.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: And I know I've never understood that.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is about playing, especially when you're playing in that stupid dome.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Just like you said, balls bounce a certain way or whatever.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: It's just bad luck.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I've never liked that place.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: I've never really liked Syracuse.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: It was definitely that's another rivalry that's kind of lost a little bit of the steam over the years.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, because Syracuse used to be a lot better than they are now in both sports.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but still, yeah, I I don't like that dumb.
7:51
SPEAKER_01: And J Jim Baham just like he's gone to like chronic complaining, like he's just kind of like another like Pitt fouls too much.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: Like I know we covered that in like my podcast about Pitt basketball that one season, like you know, they're all just like trying to work the refs every game, like, I know, yeah, it's really good defense, but Pitt really is fouling, you know.
8:13
SPEAKER_01: So it was always fun to uh watch Jim Beheim whine and cry.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, how many years more years can Jim Bayheim even coach before he's gonna retire?
8:22
SPEAKER_01: I mean, my goodness.
8:24
SPEAKER_01: How long has he been there?
8:25
SPEAKER_01: Since the eighties, right?
8:27
SPEAKER_00: No, he's been there since before I was born.
8:29
SPEAKER_01: Since the seventies.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, really?
8:33
SPEAKER_00: He's literally because he was there.
8:34
SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking I'm thinking the Keith Smart game, and that was like what, 1983?
8:39
SPEAKER_01: I mean oh my gosh.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh my my my wife, my wife grew up in kind of near Syracuse, New York.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: And my father-in-law still talks about Beheim, you know, just oh Beheim would they'd always lose because Beheim would make these decisions, like he just he was never a Beheim fan.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: And this is back when, you know, he was a kid.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: He was, you know, five years old or whatever.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: This is and he's still there.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: It's just amazing the years and years and decades that he's been there.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean he he to give you some perspective, I think he was there about four or five years before Sheshewski was at Duke.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: So just to give you an idea how long's been around.
9:24
SPEAKER_01: Carmelo Anthony is probably going to retire before he stops coaching, and Carmelo Anthony's been in the NBA for as long as I got for a long time.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: So that was his only championship, I believe, right?
9:38
SPEAKER_00: Was that Carmelo?
9:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm thinking uh like he lost to Indiana.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: That was that key smart play.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they lost they lost in the nineties against um, I think Kentucky, whenever Patino coached Kentucky.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, they've been in the championship game a few times, but only that one championship.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: And then in football, I think the closest they came in football was when they had Donovan McNabb in the nineties.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Again, those were I thought they won with him.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: I thought he won in that he did not win.
10:12
SPEAKER_01: Ah, I thought he didn't.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: And they even had a quarterback before before McNabb, they had a really good guy.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: Was it Marvin Graves?
10:20
SPEAKER_01: Was it Marvin Graves?
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can't remember his name.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: He was really good, too, yeah.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, take it with a grain of salt, because remember, college football doesn't actually have a championship.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just a bunch of people vote.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, maybe they were number one in one of those polls or whatever, you know, because that's the way college football is set up.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: They don't actually crown a champion.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, in terms of you know what's recognized as a consensus champion, no.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Syracuse has never had that.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: At least not, you know, in in our lifetime, maybe way back in the day, like the Jim Brown era.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: Well, that was another, yeah.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Travis, the is Jim Brown not winning the Heisman, they voted um the Golden Boy.
11:00
SPEAKER_01: Paul, nothing that's Paul Horning, but he you know, he's the only guy to win a uh Nash to win the Heisman from uh from a non-winning team.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: So the heck with the that's why I just don't pay any attention to the Heisman, but I guess that's another soapbox moment.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, 1959.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: They have one claimed national title from 1959.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: That that probably was the Jim Brown Ernie Davis era.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: Schwartzen, what is that Schwartzen Truber or Schwarzenhalter or whatever that coach's name, the guy, yeah.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: Actually, the West Virginia Syracuse game is they play for, I think, the Schwarzenhalter trophy.
11:38
SPEAKER_01: Because I think he pluck coached at West Virginia at one point, also.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: Fun fact there.
11:44
SPEAKER_01: Um, some memorable games, and uh, of course, Tim loves this one.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: Troy Noon's running around and throwing a touchdown.
11:50
SPEAKER_01: Troy Noones, a butler legend.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: Once again, Paul Pascalone, like he's in like a Randy Etzel, but better.
11:57
SPEAKER_01: He would come into like Western Pennsylvania and get like these just these steals, you know.
12:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh Jerry McManare McNamara, who could forget him?
12:05
SPEAKER_01: He had so many big shots against Pitt.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, I remember in 2018, Pitt won in overtime after a long rain delay.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: Um, there was an interception in the end zone to clinch that.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: And then uh there was a long run.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: Like Pitt was got down 14 to nothing, and I remember that the season was on the verge of like I thought they were gonna have like a three-win season, like an old Johnny Major season.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: And Allison rips on this big run, and it totally turned that game and their season around.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: And that was actually Pitt ended up playing Clemson in the uh ACC championship game that year.
12:38
SPEAKER_01: But I that's one of my more favorite pit seasons and pit teams, that 2018 pit team.
12:44
SPEAKER_01: They weren't the greatest pit team uh as far as talent-wise, but boy, they really overachieved in my mind.
12:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, another great thing was Jimmy Day, Jamie Dixon, oh, he owned Syracuse.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: Like you talk about like the bad luck, but Dixon, like he could for some reason he beat Syracuse a lot.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: A lot.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: And um remember when Pitt couldn't win in the carrier dome for like 20 years?
13:05
SPEAKER_01: They went like from like Dan Marino in 80 in the 80s all the way to like I think it was Rod Rutherford and Larry Fitzgerald in the early 2000s.
13:13
SPEAKER_01: They did not win a game in the carrier dome.
13:16
SPEAKER_01: And it isn't like they didn't play Syracuse every other year.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: They played Syracuse every other year at the Carrier Dome.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: So they literally lost a lot of games at the Carrier Dome.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: Tim will be happy to see that place go, I'm sure.
13:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, and moving, uh, I don't know, like I it's kind of on the list.
13:39
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I guess it's I guess it's a rivalry.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: It's a named game.
13:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the University of Cincinnati.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, in football, Pitt actually leads this series, eight wins to four.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't even bother looking up what the basketball records are because I don't think it really I mean they played them in basketball, but I don't think it ever really was that big of a game.
13:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh the nickname was the River City Rivalry, which is remember the trophy?
14:04
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the trophy from the River City Rivalry?
14:06
SPEAKER_00: It was a huge that was I mean that was a you know the that materialized when the Big East lost Miami and Boston College and Virginia Tech, and they had to like create rivalries because because all those schools had left, and those were schools that Pitt had played traditionally for a lot of years in the Big East.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: And so it's like, oh, it's the it's the River City rivalry with Cincinnati because we both have rivers and and the Steelers play the Bengals.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: Well it is the Ohio River, is the same.
14:38
SPEAKER_01: It's the same river, Tim.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
14:40
SPEAKER_01: It was forced.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: I guess, yeah, you're not you're not wrong in that, but like my idea with the River City rivalry was when Pitt won it at Hines Field one time was to literally take it down, and you know how the river is right there, like literally throw it in the river and send it back to Cincinnati.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: It's heading back to Cincinnati.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: Um Pitt had three chances against them to win Big East Championships.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh they never really could do it.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: There were I like they literally had three different opportunities to do that.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the most infamous of those, of course, being the 2009 game.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt lost that game on a botched extra point, and because they didn't have any defense.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: So um uh Pitt and Cincinnati, like you said, they they tried to coordinate this with the Bengals, Steelers.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a bad idea.
15:37
SPEAKER_01: Like, I think their goal was they were gonna try and like schedule it the same weekend that like the Steelers and Bengals played.
15:44
SPEAKER_01: And since you know, it's every other year, so I guess when Pitt would play in Cincinnati, they would have make sure the Steelers were playing in Cincinnati too.
15:51
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a horrible idea, it just never really seemed to work out.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: So and that's not a bad idea, but again, that's that's like a made-up like rivalries are you know that you can't just create one, you can't just make one up out of thin air, you can't market one.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: So you're created in a marketing department meeting.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Like it just that's not how rivalries work.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: So you're right, they definitely had some memorable games, and that 09 game, of course, you know, is a stain on our fandom as pit fans, but you know, after that it was it was like over before it even started.
16:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and what about Cincinnati though, like absolutely crushing it with their coaching hires?
16:30
SPEAKER_01: Mark, they went from Mark D'Antonio, Brian Kelly, Tommy Tulliverville, and now Luke Fickle.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: That like Pitt can't even hire one of those guys.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: Cincinnati's hired like four very successful coaches, so kudos to them and whatever they're doing over there and their athletic department seems to be working for them.
16:50
SPEAKER_01: So good for them.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna be in a major conference again if you still consider the Big 12 a major conference.
16:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm not sure what I'm not sure what to make of the Big 12, but like we'll get into that later.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I'm I'm definitely gonna have a soapbox moment here later in this.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: But um moving on to our friends across the strait, and this is definitely a rivalry.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: I know we don't play them a lot anymore, but and this is one that should definitely come back.
17:18
SPEAKER_01: Villanova.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: Freaking Villanova.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is definitely a five, but if we played them every year, I think it would be a little higher.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: It's just because we don't play them every year.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: It is definitely a basketball rivalry.
17:32
SPEAKER_01: I think we played them once in football.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't know who's even played for Villanova football-wise.
17:39
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't even name a person, but uh Pitt actually leads 30 33-32.
17:45
SPEAKER_01: I cannot believe that Villanova does not have a bigger edge.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, there's no nickname for this game, so we'll call it the game of brotherly shove for our for our friends in Philadelphia there.
17:56
SPEAKER_01: Um memorable moments.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: Uh okay, well, I guess uh Scotty Reynolds game that son of a gun got us on a hook and lateral that Pitt fell for.
18:08
SPEAKER_01: Um the James Conner comeback game.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: I guess that was the one in time.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: Like I that was a memorable moment.
18:13
SPEAKER_01: Um the infamous game we covered this where Villanova had no one eligible to play because of a phone scandal, and Pitt barely won.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: And that was in like Villanova's old uh building.
18:26
SPEAKER_01: Um Villanova definitely Villanova definitely has the edge in basketball, and it's just too bad.
18:31
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, they don't play anymore.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: Jay Wright's a good coach, even though he you know he's annoying, but he he's he's annoying because he beats us so much.
18:38
SPEAKER_01: And he they were just they're just a very good basketball program and have been since forever.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: I mean Raleigh Massamino, the perfect upset of Georgetown.
18:48
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it's just you know that what that's the five schools in Philadelphia that are basketball schools.
18:53
SPEAKER_01: That's the big, you know, college college basketball is pretty big in Philadelphia, so any any Villanova law hate hate there, Tim, or no here.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: No, they were they were always one of those.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Um like you said, going back to the beginning of the Big East in basketball, they were always kind of an underdog school.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: And I remember really rooting for them when they beat Georgetown in that uh in that tournament because they were such huge underdogs and no one liked Georgetown at the time, or at least I didn't.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot of other Pit fans didn't either.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, and the Scottie Reynolds game is probably the most memorable.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: Um I did look it up when you were talking about it.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: They've played twice in football, 98 and 16, and neither game was all that memorable.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: So that's the one you're thinking of.
19:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well James Conner Yeah, James Connor comeback game is the only I I I thought that was against Villanova, yeah.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: And he scored a touchdown early, and that was like a big moment because that was his big comeback from uh cancer treatment.
19:55
SPEAKER_01: So I guess Villanova has that going for it.
19:58
SPEAKER_01: Or Pitt does.
19:59
SPEAKER_01: But Pitt's never really like, I don't know, Pitt would always seem to go into Philadelphia and not do well, like wherever they played Villanova.
20:06
SPEAKER_01: Like they would either barely beat them or lose.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: And like 'cause just I I I think just like for whatever reason Villanova's just always very good in basketball.
20:15
SPEAKER_01: And they're not that like you said, they're not that big of a school.
20:17
SPEAKER_01: They really are.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: But they seem to do like 'cause it's like them, Temple, what Saint Saint Joe's, right?
20:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: But they're in the A ten.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: That's that's the Yeah.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: So uh sticking with uh teams from Philadelphia that are kind of rival.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: This is probably not as big a rivalry as Villanova, but Temple.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: Um Temple, uh Pitt leads 27-7 in football.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: Um there's probably like a three.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Um you know, there's no nickname to this game, so hey, at least they're not the Flyers, I guess.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: Um they they always seem to like give Pitt a hard game.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: Like it's not like Temple's ever really been like that successful.
21:00
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who like Bill Cosby played for them?
21:03
SPEAKER_01: I remember my dad would always make that joke every time we played Temple.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Bill Cosby played for them.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, I don't know.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: Hide hide your wives and daughters, I don't know.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: Um the but the another part that like probably made this more of a rivalry than it should have been was Joe Paterno saying, it's important to schedule an in-state rival and then playing temple.
21:23
SPEAKER_01: It's like so, haha, I play the I guess that was his little stick at the pit moment.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt actually losing the temple seven times is a joke.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, another there was a guy named Adam D.
21:33
SPEAKER_01: Michelle at D.
21:34
SPEAKER_01: Michael or Demont, I think it's DeMichael, yeah.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, he played for Snow Rocks, I remember that.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: And he went to Penn State and he was okay, but he decided to transfer.
21:42
SPEAKER_01: And I remember he wanted to transfer to Pitt, but uh I oh it was Tom Bradley or one of the Penn State coaches wouldn't I might have been Paterno, wouldn't let him transfer to Pitt.
21:53
SPEAKER_01: So they made him transfer to Temple.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: So and then like Penn State played it played Temple like Later on when he played there and like totally crushed them.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
22:03
SPEAKER_01: The joke was on to Michael, I guess.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: But uh Temple was just like uh th those Temple games, there was just always something whenever you played Temple.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: And they have no fans.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: You talk about a team that they literally have no fan base and Temple got kicked out of the Big East.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: What do you have to do to get kicked out of the Big East?
22:23
SPEAKER_01: That's like I I don't even know.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: That's like getting like I don't know, kicked out of hockey for bad sportsmanship.
22:30
SPEAKER_01: It's like impossible.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know how you'd pull that off.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that was that was around the time that we just we kind of mentioned around that time that the Big East was losing all those schools, and they they were content to bring in Yukon and Cincinnati and um South Southern Florida and all those schools rather than accept Temple or keep Temple in the fold.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: They just and you're right, Temple, the Temple game every year for Pitt was just like, oh God, please don't lose.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean that was all it was.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, so I it's just odd.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: And I I do not have Georgetown on this list, if I remember correctly, but I got Georgetown, I don't know, it was always kind of a rivalry, but that was definitely a basketball one.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: Um sticking with uh rivalries that are still happening, uh, at least we play them every year.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh Virginia Tech.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: I put this at a seven just uh Joe Paterno level.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: Um Virginia Tech actually leads the all-time series 11 to 9, which I guess because we've only been playing them since the 90s and we lost all those games in the 90s to Virginia Tech.
23:38
SPEAKER_01: So um, but ever since then, Pitt Pitt always seems to have their number, especially at Heinz Field.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: Virginia Tech just cannot win in Heinz Field.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: The most infamous probably being is when Virginia Tech was ranked.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if they're like they weren't top 10, but they are definitely top 25.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: And Pitt had lost, it was Paul Christ's first year.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: Pitt had lost like convincingly to Youngstown State, and then like they beat Virginia Tech convincingly.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: It was like, what in the heck is going on here?
24:08
SPEAKER_01: Um Allison ran over a like that Caleb Farley who just got drafted like in the NFL draft this, and it's like that's my like somebody's like, oh, let's show a Caleb Farley highlight.
24:20
SPEAKER_01: It's like, okay, let's show the one where Cadre Allison just like balls him on his way on to like a 90-yard touchdown run.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: And then uh Connor kind of did the same thing to a safety from Virginia Tech.
24:30
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know, pit running backs and them.
24:32
SPEAKER_01: And then like Virginia Tech's defense could never figure out that like Pitt has like has had like the Tyler boards, Larry Fritzgeralds, even like like Latif Grimm.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: Like, I I don't know why, like that was Bud Foster's like, oh, we're gonna single cover your wide receivers.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you really think you need to, that's really gonna favor Pitt there.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: So that was always fun.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh Larry Fritzgerald, you know, had just great games because like once again they would just single cover him.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: And Lusaka Polite scoring a late TD to win.
25:04
SPEAKER_01: I think that's Virginia Tech was ranked.
25:06
SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty sure Marcus Vick was the quarterback in that game.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: Um, and like I said, Virginia Tech's only won once in Heinz Field in all the years that Pitt's been playing them at Heinz Field, so go figure.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the the that rivalry was absolutely at its peak in the early 2000s when Michael Vick and his brother were there, and uh Pitt Pitt never really got the best of Michael Vick.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: They almost did his his um his final season of Virginia Tech.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: It was a 2000 game in Blacksburg.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: That was a game where He got hurt.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: He got hurt, and then was it RJ English?
25:46
SPEAKER_00: Who was the receiver that was like wide open?
25:49
SPEAKER_00: And and they overthrew him.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: They overthrew him, yeah.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:53
SPEAKER_01: So that was RJ English.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I mean, but then Pitt beat them the next three years, 01, 02, and 03.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: The 02 game, I think, is the one you're thinking of where they were ranked, I I want to say number two or number three in the country, and Pitt beat them at Blacksburg, and then the O three game was um that was that was when they had announced that Virginia Tech was gonna be the last game because Virginia Tech was going to the ACC, and that that's the one where Pitt scored in the final minute to take the lead, and then they intercepted Marcus Vick.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: And I was at that game and everybody just started chanting ACC, ACC, because you know.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was I was uh I was at that game too.
26:32
SPEAKER_01: I was I just remember that.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Like I remember having no fear, like when Lusaka Plight scored that late touchdown.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: I remember I had no like sometimes you're like, oh no, like when Tony Pike played for Cincinnati, I kind of had a feeling Cincinnati was going to score a touchdown, but like I had no fear that Marcus Vick was ever going to drive Virginia Tech down the field to score any type of points.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: I was like, there is no way that he was not going to do that, it just wasn't going to happen.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: No offense to Marcus Vick.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: You just weren't it.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: I don't he just wasn't that good, I guess.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: So no, he was not his brother for sure.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: And I was I was not a big fan of his brother either.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: I I really hated his brother for a lot of years, and then of course his brother ended up playing for the Steelers, and I remember I I just I thought hell must have frozen over because I remember going to a Monday night football game and you know, your starting quarterback, Michael Vick, and I'm standing there cheering him like I I can't believe that this is where my life is right now.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting here caring for Michael Vick.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you know, you know, did your dog look at you funny after that?
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, and and I always, you know, and and that was the other thing, like like people were really, you know, Michael Vick did some very horrible, horrible things.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: But by all accounts, he, you know, we talked about this in our most reviled Pittsburghers episode.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, by all accounts he he was, you know, repentant and you know turned his life around.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: And I always thought he should have you know been owed some some level of forgiveness there.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but it was just it was odd to root for Michael Vick because back in those Virginia Tech days, boy, did I I just hated that team and and all their players and and beamer ball and everything.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Um and and I know they still play each other now, but it's definitely not the intensity that it was back then.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Good times.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it like the we're gonna play special teams, we're gonna win on special teams.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: We know definitely some beamer ball there.
28:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh the next up is a rivalry that will definitely pit me and Tim against each other.
28:39
SPEAKER_01: Ooh, what could it be?
28:41
SPEAKER_01: That will be your University of Duquesne Dukes, who um this at least this year, Dukes in football have something over Pitt.
28:50
SPEAKER_01: They beat a Mac team in Pitt Dan, so they got that going for them.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt leads all-time 55-32 in basketball.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt leads four-and-two in football, believe it or not.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: And the last meeting was 1939.
29:04
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember that game, Tim?
29:05
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, it's true.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: It was just like yesterday night.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: 1939.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, wow.
29:10
SPEAKER_01: I was like, that Hoover, he really sucked.
29:12
SPEAKER_01: This uh FDR guy has been around for six years, gonna turn things around.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: Let's go see the Duquesne pit game.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: We know.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, the level of rivalry is definitely on the Brian Kelly level, although it's kind of cooled off, but like this is like for a pit fan, this is like the reverse of another rivalry, I will say this.
29:34
SPEAKER_01: So it was a big game in the 70s, which was definitely before me and Tim.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: And of course, I'm a Pitt fan, and Tim Tim's a Pitt fan too, but he's definitely he went to Duquesne, so he's got to root for Duquesne here, right?
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, yeah, for sure.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Every every time the City game rolled around, I was always I was no longer a pit fan at that point.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: Wow, you renounced your pit fandom for 24 hours.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, I respect that.
30:00
SPEAKER_01: Um it's the city game, like you said, the nickname.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: And I think hey, we're getting in games with nicknames, fun times.
30:06
SPEAKER_01: Um like I said, it's on hiatus now because you know Pitt thinks they're um I don't know what Pitt thinks they are.
30:14
SPEAKER_01: I guess they think they're someone else and they don't want to pay Jeff Capel, that's the coach of Pitt Basketball I couldn't think of.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: They they won't play Duquesne.
30:22
SPEAKER_01: I I don't know why it's dumb.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: But maybe it's because they're afraid because they lost Pitt actually lost to Duquesne in 2016.
30:30
SPEAKER_01: And Pitt had won like 15 years in a row before that.
30:34
SPEAKER_01: So I can't I still can't believe Pitt lost to Duquesne in football ever.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: But I guess maybe Duquesne was good in football back in the 1930s, but Pitt was too, so I I I don't know.
30:44
SPEAKER_01: I can't explain it, Tim.
30:46
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what was going on.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: But in basketball, even though like Duquesne was always better in basketball than Pitt.
30:53
SPEAKER_01: I I think historically they've had as much success, you know.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: Although Duquesne's a much smaller score than Pitt.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't Yeah, Duquesne, Duquesne, Duquesne basketball has definitely gone through its ups and downs over the years, and um has definitely kind of they've they've made a little bit more of an investment in the basketball program the last few years.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: But I mean for a long time.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean Pitt Pitt it's it's a rivalry, but it's one that it's like it's a friendly rivalry, and it's like kind of playing like kind of like playing your little brother.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Duquesne's won I think three times in the last 30 years or something.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Um one of those was when I was there.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: It was in the 90s when I was was I was going to school there, and I remember that being a big deal.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: And I and I rem I mean that was the one game I I I've not gotten to a lot of college basketball games, but um, you know, that was one game I would go to every year was the City game.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: They always would play it at the Civic Arena, and that was actually the last the last time I was ever at the Civic Arena was the um the 2009 City game that went into overtime and Pitt won, but I mean it was it was a double overtime game, and that was when Pitt was really, really good.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: So um it was always a not always a competitive game, but it was always you know it always mattered, I think, to both schools, and it is a shame they don't play anymore.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: I mean Pitt dealt with all this garbage that I'm sure you're gonna get into later from another school in inside the state in football, and it's like they've kind of taken that same approach to to Duquesne and basketball.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: It's disappointing.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they need to they need to play this game.
32:30
SPEAKER_01: This game needs to be played every year.
32:32
SPEAKER_01: It's just dumb not to play it.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: But what are you gonna do?
32:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh moving back to uh uh uh the rivalries are definitely heating up here.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh Notre Dame.
32:43
SPEAKER_01: So uh obviously um Notre Dame leads the series in football 49, 21, and one.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: I didn't look up the basketball record.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I guess it's kind of a rivalry in basketball.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: It's Notre Dame, whatever.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh there's no nickname to this game, so maybe we'll call it the Fail Mary.
33:00
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
33:01
SPEAKER_01: So uh level level rivalry is definitely a Joe Paterno solid seven.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, and here's some of like my like really annoying observations.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: Um uh half the Pit fans are Notre Dame fans, which is really annoying to me.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: So I I don't know what to say about that, except for like I wish it would stop.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: Because like I I've talked to so many pit fans, it's like I hope Pitt goes 11 and 1 every year.
33:30
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like oh you'd be like, uh just I I just think Notre Dame's just totally insufferable.
33:36
SPEAKER_01: I can never stand them, I don't like them.
33:39
SPEAKER_01: Any day you beat Notre Dame.
33:41
SPEAKER_01: That's maybe that's why I like USC so much, is because they seem to beat Notre Dame on a regular basis.
33:46
SPEAKER_01: It especially got bad when Charlie Weiss was was on Notre Dame's coaching staff.
33:53
SPEAKER_01: Because like he just had that quote was like, oh, the days of losing to Pitt in Purdue are over.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what, Charlie?
33:59
SPEAKER_01: You didn't beat Pitt not one time the next three times you played him, so I guess they weren't over.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: They are right back, and you got fired because of it.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: But uh some memorable games, uh Tony Dorset in 1975 uh with 303 yards rushing.
34:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh that was a 34-20 win.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, there's a 2012 Notre Dame comeback game.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: Um that was I think we talked about almost wins.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh there was a four overtime fumble that Pitt didn't recover.
34:29
SPEAKER_01: Um in 2008, Pitt won a four overtime 36-33.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: It was after a sprinkler delay.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember that?
34:36
SPEAKER_01: They had a sprinkler delay.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: No.
34:38
SPEAKER_01: Because the sprint the game took so long, the sprinklers went off.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: I remember that.
34:41
SPEAKER_01: Was that here or was that play on the other end?
34:44
SPEAKER_01: That was in uh no yeah, Heinz Field doesn't have sprinklers.
34:47
SPEAKER_01: What are you talking about?
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, I guess they wouldn't.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: Definitely sprinklers in Heinz Field.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:55
SPEAKER_01: Good one.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:57
SPEAKER_01: We just let the grass go to hell.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:01
SPEAKER_01: But no, uh, no, that was in uh Notre Dame.
35:04
SPEAKER_01: But um also the of course the infamous Tyler Palco uh I love this team game.
35:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, uh and so many other great moments.
35:14
SPEAKER_01: I just um it's always a good day when uh Pitt beats Notre Dame.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: So uh I remember there was a game where like they like it wasn't even Pitt wasn't even that good, but like Notre Dame had a good team.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: And like somebody tried to like, they're like, okay, uh like I forget who the running back was.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: It was like Ray Graham, Tino Censeri, uh, and there was like four other players.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: We're all seen in a bar carrying on last night.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: It was like just some you could tell like some like really superstitious Notre Dame fan that was like calling the police like, I saw all these pit players down there, and they were being really bad.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: You need to investigate so they can't play on Saturday or something.
35:56
SPEAKER_01: It was the most ridiculous thing ever.
35:59
SPEAKER_01: So I I I know I I don't know why Notre Dame is probably one of the more popular teams in college football.
36:08
SPEAKER_01: I would still say they're probably the largest draw in college football.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: It's just how it is, and you just gotta learn to love live with it.
36:15
SPEAKER_01: But Pitts definitely a traditional rival of them, and it it always makes for fun, fun games.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: So I'm glad they play each other.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: I think there's been, like you said, some really, really good games over the years.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: And and uh Notre Dame's another school, kind of like we talked about with Duke, where people just hate them or love them.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I've I've always I've never really hated Notre Dame.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: I I you know, but I I get again, I get why people do.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: And to your point, it it is a big deal when you beat them, whether they're good or bad.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, because it's just it's beating Notre Dame.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: So and and I did you did you talk about the last game at Pitt Stadium?
36:54
SPEAKER_00: Because that was another kind of memorable Oh yeah, here we go.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh last game at Pitt Stadium.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt hasn't beaten Notre Dame in the last three games.
37:02
SPEAKER_01: Um but I was at the 2013 game the last time Pitt beat Notre Dame.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: And uh, of course that was a big game.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: We were both at the last game at Pitt Stadium, so that was that was a fun one.
37:12
SPEAKER_01: And it's Notre Dame.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: So anytime like I said, it's it's a rivalry.
37:16
SPEAKER_01: It's maybe it's definitely not Pitt's biggest rivalry, but it's I would say it's top three for sure.
37:23
SPEAKER_01: But moving on to uh teams that are probably a little bigger rivals than Notre Dame, which is hard to believe.
37:31
SPEAKER_01: But this team is definitely a rival, and there's no arguing about this, and that would be the fine West Virginia University from Morgantown.
37:42
SPEAKER_01: They're a fine academic institution down there.
37:45
SPEAKER_01: Um Pitt Pitt leads this series all time, 61 to 40, and there's three ties.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I remember one of the ties.
37:53
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember that?
37:54
SPEAKER_01: But it was in the late 80s.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: I remember that game.
37:56
SPEAKER_01: Like they came back and they kicked the just the tie, because that was when you could tie.
38:00
SPEAKER_01: And I remember at the end, like looking at my parents, like, so they tied, and you're like, Yep, that's the end, they tied.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: But like Pitt had like this big furious comeback to tie.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: It's like, we I think that was kind of when West Virginia had Major Harris, and what and they were a pretty good program.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: And Pitt was kind of mediocre, so I remember that being an upset, if you can call a tie an upset.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: And I think the final score was something like 10 to 10.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a very high-scoring game, but it was a big deal that they had come all the way back to ties.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: It was a long field goal.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: It was like a 45-yard field goal, too.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like a gimme.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: And uh uh this is the level of this rivalry.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the nickname, of course, is the backyard brawl.
38:41
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who doesn't know that?
38:42
SPEAKER_01: Other level rivalry is definitely a 10, Rich Rodd or Todd Graham.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, I would say just from my perspective, WVU fans hate Pitt the most.
38:55
SPEAKER_01: Out of every I mean, WVU fans can be rowdy, but there's just something with the sight of Pitt that brings out their inner, I don't know what, but very bad feelings, and this is a heated rivalry.
39:10
SPEAKER_01: And it it's probably similar to the way Pitt fans feel about another in-state rival that we'll mention a little later.
39:17
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is definitely deep-seated, especially like I feel like there's a lot of like, like I would say, country, country person, city person stuff kind of going on.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: Like, I always kind of felt like Pitt like looks down their nose like, ooh, we're from Oakland, defined academic institution.
39:35
SPEAKER_01: And then, like, oh, look at these rubes from West Virginia who think they can have a university, you know.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: It's my best, like, I don't know, who's who's the Chancellor of Pitt now?
39:44
SPEAKER_01: Gallagher, my best Patrick Gallagher impersonation.
39:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if he had a monocle, like, do we have to play these mountaineers?
39:53
SPEAKER_01: You know, I don't know.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, it it's always fun.
39:57
SPEAKER_01: The West Virginia fans are are definitely passionate for their football team, and that that's what makes this fun, and they just hate Pit so much, it just makes it even more enjoyable.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: Um, there's always lots of fights in this game.
40:09
SPEAKER_01: I've witnessed some I've seen Pit fans try to fight 30 West Virginia fans, and it's I've seen West Virginia fans that are like 60 years old go after like young punk pit fans that are like 20.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: Like, in what like other context would a 60-year-old person go after like a 19-year-old kid?
40:28
SPEAKER_01: Like, I can't imagine any other societal thing where that would happen.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: Um, couches are always burned if there's a West Virginia win.
40:37
SPEAKER_01: So that's always the joke.
40:39
SPEAKER_01: Whatever Pitt beats West Virginia, the couches were saved that day.
40:42
SPEAKER_01: Um uh Ruben Brown, I remember, uh, and Tony Dorsett during their games both punched West Virginia players.
40:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh so it gets even heated on the field a lot of time, and there's lots of familiarity because West Virginia definitely comes into Western Pennsylvania recruits, especially the city.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: I live in the city, and it always seems like West Virginia gets really good players.
41:05
SPEAKER_01: Like I like you said, Major Harris, uh Rasheed Marshall.
41:09
SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, there's been so many good City League players that have gone to West Virginia and had great success.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: So they always seem to do well.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: And I that probably adds to it too, you're home again, and you know, want to kind of show Pitt what they're missing.
41:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, great name for the game, um, memorable moments.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh unfortunately unfortunately for that 94 game where Pitt lost on the last second win.
41:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, I remember the 2000 game in Through River Stadium.
41:33
SPEAKER_01: Barlow ran, Kevin Barlow ran for like 200 yards.
41:37
SPEAKER_01: Or uh Pitt missing out on a bowl after beating Notre Dame in the last game of Pitt Stadium was like, hey, if we win, we get to go to a bowl game.
41:44
SPEAKER_01: Hey, let's lose by 30.
41:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:49
SPEAKER_01: Uh we went over this too.
41:50
SPEAKER_01: I think the the what ifs, the David Priestley brain fart game.
41:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt did win that despite David Priestley.
41:56
SPEAKER_01: Antonio Bryant had a really good game.
42:00
SPEAKER_01: Um I remember the 2002 game because it was snowing, and Larry Fitzgerald on third down dropped a pass in the end zone that would have won the game.
42:08
SPEAKER_01: The next play there was a fourth down play, and it just West Virginia knocked it down.
42:13
SPEAKER_01: Actually, Rasheed Marshall, I think, was the quarterback of that team.
42:16
SPEAKER_01: That was Rich Rodriguez's one of his first years at West Virginia.
42:20
SPEAKER_01: But um, that's probably like the last thing I can remember Larry last pass Larry French Gerard ever dropping was that.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: And I think I was his freshman year.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: I'm pretty sure that was his freshman year.
42:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, and of course, the PSD resistance, the ultimate game in this rivalry is definitely 13-9.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, it keeps West Virginia out of the national championship game and makes Rich Rod leave.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Uh West Virginia's been in the wilderness ever since.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: They've never even got a sniff.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: They don't they might not even have a conference anywhere to reside.
42:54
SPEAKER_01: I I I it's just it's a bit a shame.
42:57
SPEAKER_01: Like I think Pitt and West Virginia are going to renew this on a limited time basis, but this is another one of those rivalries.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: Like I'll say this to the college football is just destroying itself.
43:08
SPEAKER_01: It's pathetic that these teams don't play each other.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: And just whatever.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's it makes no sense.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: It was a great rivalry played for a hundred plus years, and um I I don't know what you can even say about that.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's a joke.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it did a lot of memorable moments, and there's there's two fan bases, Steve, that I loathe the most.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: And it's it's the WVU fan base and the Philadelphia Flyer fan base.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: And and the WVU that 2002 game you're talking about where it was snowing, that was at Heinz Field.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: I remember walking into that game and being verbally assaulted by West Virginia fans that were standing on a balcony while we were all standing in line to do the tickets, screaming like obscenities at us.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, This is our stadium, like that's a lot of golf.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: To drive up here, get drunk, and then come scream and throw things at Pit fans, but that's that's kind of what their MO is.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, remember that game where they played Auburn and it was going to be on national TV and they had to, you know, um kick everybody at the gate so that they wouldn't be wearing t-shirts with swears on them because it would have looked bad on national TV.
44:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean you know, I in the 13-9 thing, I I don't know that there's ever been anything more satisfying in my life as a sports fan, and that includes like my teams winning championships because it just destroyed their entire program.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: And it would just to this day it's still one of the most satisfying things ever.
44:43
SPEAKER_01: That's yeah, that is beautiful.
44:46
SPEAKER_01: I just I don't know what the I mean they are they're passionate about their team.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: I'll say that.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: I'll give them that.
44:51
SPEAKER_01: And God bless them for it, but boy, they they they take it to a whole nother level.
44:56
SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, I've been physically assaulted at the games, but that's just you know, it is what it is with West Virginia.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: God bless them.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: I don't look down my nose at them.
45:06
SPEAKER_01: I think they're they're good people, they're just they're just really don't like pit.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: No, I can understand it because it's like, you know, you're kind of sick of like getting looked down like like people from Pittsburgh have any, you know, any kind of like goal to look down, you know.
45:21
SPEAKER_01: So I guess I'm trying to stick up for the West Virginia fans a little bit here, but I love the passion and I I I like playing them, and it's just boring not play it's just boring not playing this team.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: It is it's just stupid that we don't play this team every year, and this is just they're destroying the sport.
45:39
SPEAKER_01: The people that are the the administrators are destroying college football and everything I I love about it.
45:44
SPEAKER_01: It's just it really uh college football is my favorite sport.
45:48
SPEAKER_01: It's one that I used to fall religiously, and like I hardly follow it anymore because of how much it's been destroyed, so but that leads us to the ultimate rivalry.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, like I would say this is the opposite, like the way Pitt fan, West Virginia fans feel about Pitt is the way Pitt fans feel about Penn State.
46:08
SPEAKER_01: And you know, Penn State, they do lead the series 53, 43 to 4 and 4.
46:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's a nickname, the Keystone Classic.
46:16
SPEAKER_01: Who gives a crap?
46:17
SPEAKER_01: Nobody calls it that.
46:18
SPEAKER_01: They just call it the Penn State game.
46:19
SPEAKER_01: And the level of rivalry is an 11.
46:22
SPEAKER_01: We got he, and that would be James Franklin, the current coach.
46:26
SPEAKER_01: Because I I really like he's the perfect epitome of a Penn State coach.
46:31
SPEAKER_01: Look down your nose at Pitt, act like you're anything special, which you're not, which you should be, because you know, you're some podunk, you know, college in the middle of the state.
46:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we got a hundred thousand people.
46:44
SPEAKER_01: What else do anybody have to do in state college?
46:47
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, there's nothing else to do in that town on a on a weekend.
46:52
SPEAKER_01: You know, give me a break.
46:54
SPEAKER_01: And they think they're Ohio State, but they're not.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: They're just not Ohio State, and they're not even Michigan half the time.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, they always brag, oh, our attendance.
47:04
SPEAKER_01: It's like, whatever.
47:06
SPEAKER_01: And then like the whole, oh, Pitt's not a rival, pit's not a rival.
47:10
SPEAKER_01: It's like, it's just the ultimate level of like disrespect is just ridiculous.
47:17
SPEAKER_01: Um fun, fun, fun things about this rivalry.
47:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh bit coaching legend Jock Sutherland never lost a game to Penn State.
47:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh, nothing quite, like I said, works Pitt fans up into a lather like a game against them, as you can tell from me.
47:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, another fun part was Tony Dorset, like after the 2016 game when Pitt won, was drunkenly yelling at James Franklin during his press conference.
47:40
SPEAKER_01: Like, like, hell to Pitt and stuff.
47:42
SPEAKER_01: Like, you knew that just irked.
47:44
SPEAKER_01: Irked, like, because Franklin, like, oh, they acted like they won the Super Bowl.
47:47
SPEAKER_01: It's like, give me a break.
47:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, memorable games.
47:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt winning in 1979 and 1980.
47:54
SPEAKER_01: Pitt winning uh 24-7 in three River Stadium on their way to the national championships that happen in 1976.
48:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh Pitt lost uh 48-14.
48:05
SPEAKER_01: That's always a big Penn State brag, I guess, because that was kind of like Pitt's 13-9.
48:11
SPEAKER_01: They've never really been the same after that.
48:13
SPEAKER_01: Uh I remember 2018.
48:16
SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh, I went to this game.
48:17
SPEAKER_01: Pitt losing 51-6 in the rain.
48:20
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that was horrible.
48:21
SPEAKER_01: That was ugly.
48:22
SPEAKER_01: And it rained, it rained like buckets.
48:25
SPEAKER_01: Uh, the 2019 game, Narduzzi kept like uh kicking field goals instead of going for it.
48:32
SPEAKER_01: Um and uh uh but more on the positive side, 2000.
48:36
SPEAKER_01: I remember that 12-0 game.
48:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh the light that was the last time Joe Paterno coached against Pitt, and he lost.
48:42
SPEAKER_01: Ha ha, Joe, take it to your grave.
48:44
SPEAKER_01: 12 to nothing.
48:45
SPEAKER_01: Ha ha.
48:46
SPEAKER_01: But uh Rod Rothford scored a touchdown in that game, which was a fun time for everyone.
48:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, and of course, 2016, it was a 39-42.
48:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh, James Connor and Peterman uh led the way.
49:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, that's the loudest I've ever heard Heinz Field.
49:03
SPEAKER_01: And Pitt fans were absolutely foaming at the mouth to play them.
49:07
SPEAKER_01: It was it was pretty awesome.
49:09
SPEAKER_01: That's the largest attended sporting event in Pittsburgh sports history, which I always thought that West Virginia game in 2002, I know that had gotten 68, but I guess they had added more seats by the 2016.
49:22
SPEAKER_01: So that's according to the internet, and you know the internet's never wrong, um that's the uh that's the biggest sporting event in uh you know Switzerburg sports history.
49:35
SPEAKER_01: Um I'm gonna get up on my uh this is like wrong that this game isn't played every year.
49:40
SPEAKER_01: It's wrong that like honestly, and nothing against the ACC, or maybe it is something against the ACC, and I just like my dad started to say this towards like you know the last couple years when we were going to ACC games.
49:53
SPEAKER_01: If I never played Duke or Virginia ever again in football, would I give a crap?
49:59
SPEAKER_01: Really?
50:00
SPEAKER_01: But no, we have to play Duke, Virginia, Wake Forest in like some other crap team, and we don't play Notre Dame, West Virginia, Syracuse, you know, and Penn State.
50:12
SPEAKER_01: That the you should just be playing those four teams every year in football.
50:16
SPEAKER_01: And I don't care what you have to do to get it done, that's what should be happening.
50:19
SPEAKER_01: And that's why, you know, who wants to go and see, like, you know, who wants to go see Pitt play?
50:24
SPEAKER_01: Who are they gonna play?
50:25
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna play like I think that they're playing New Hampshire or somebody.
50:29
SPEAKER_01: Or are they they lost to Western Michigan?
50:31
SPEAKER_01: I'd rather them lose to Notre Dame or Penn's Penn State than lose to Western Michigan.
50:36
SPEAKER_01: This is a joke.
50:37
SPEAKER_01: It's a joke, and Pitt isn't the only school this is happening to.
50:41
SPEAKER_01: That like I just I Nebraska, Oklahoma played just recently.
50:45
SPEAKER_01: In that that rivalry's dead.
50:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh what, Missouri, Kansas is gone.
50:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, Oregon, Oregon State still plays there in the same conference.
50:55
SPEAKER_01: Colorado used to play Nebraska and all those other schools in the Big 12, like Arkansas used to play Texas, and Texas and Texas AM.
51:07
SPEAKER_01: I guess that'll be coming back once Texas moves to the SEC, but it's just it's pathetic.
51:13
SPEAKER_01: It's destroyed, they've destroyed their own sport.
51:16
SPEAKER_01: And like you said, they still don't really determine a national championship.
51:21
SPEAKER_01: They vote on the four top team at the end of the year.
51:24
SPEAKER_01: Like, what is the point of even being or winning a conference championship if it's not going to get you into some sort of playoff?
51:31
SPEAKER_01: And it's really not that hard to fix.
51:34
SPEAKER_01: You just have all the conference champions play them.
51:37
SPEAKER_01: And I don't want to hear any, oh, well, the Sun Belt, well then why does the Sunbelt play in division FCS or the top division football?
51:45
SPEAKER_01: Either they are a Division I team or they aren't.
51:49
SPEAKER_01: If they aren't, I don't have a problem with that.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna say they are, then that's too bad.
51:54
SPEAKER_01: And if you're like Kentucky and Wake Forest, well, we're in the SEC.
51:57
SPEAKER_01: Well then move to the Sun Belt and you can be in the national the national championship playoff every year then.
52:02
SPEAKER_01: You know, uh but it's like they've literally killed this sport because they gotten rid of all this.
52:09
SPEAKER_01: And it's like it and because it's just because it's Pitt and these other teams that don't, I guess, have enough like pull or juice, it that's why it's getting like swept away.
52:21
SPEAKER_01: And it's just it's sad, it's sad.
52:23
SPEAKER_01: And it's just like the only way this fake is like if like in Alabama and Auburn, or maybe if Notre Dame and USC can't play anymore.
52:31
SPEAKER_01: If Notre Dame and USC are one of those big draw games couldn't happen anymore, then I guarantee you you would see a change.
52:39
SPEAKER_01: But that's that's just you know, vote for me for NCAA commissioner in 2024.
52:46
SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I just I I just that drives me nuts about college football.
52:50
SPEAKER_01: It's just literally they always the fans who are your customers are always wrong.
52:56
SPEAKER_01: They never do anything that benefits.
52:58
SPEAKER_01: And and look at why like Pitt literally in 2008 had a four-win season going into the last week of the season.
53:07
SPEAKER_01: If they would have been in the current setup, they would have had to play like who?
53:12
SPEAKER_01: Wake Forest or like you know, some no-name nondescript team.
53:16
SPEAKER_01: But no, they got to play West Virginia at the end of the year, their biggest rival at that point.
53:22
SPEAKER_01: Like, and that's what makes you know these games interesting, and it's just uh they're getting rid of it.
53:28
SPEAKER_01: They're just getting rid of it and not replacing and for no good reason.
53:32
SPEAKER_01: For no just so you can have the SEC have a have and ESPN is just you know, you can't tell me more people would watch wouldn't watch these rivalry games than they would, you know, whoever, you know, Pitts uh or Nebraska or whoever is gonna play at the end of the season.
53:50
SPEAKER_00: So I I don't have anything to add to that.
53:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean you're spot on.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: I totally agree.
53:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand, like to your point, what you just said there at the end, wouldn't you make more money and have more people with rivalry games and playoffs and everything else, but it's just not what they do, and I've I've never understood it either.
54:11
SPEAKER_00: I miss it greatly.
54:13
SPEAKER_00: Um it's just it is hard to get excited about Pitt versus Georgia Tech when it could be Pitt versus West Virginia or Penn State.
54:21
SPEAKER_00: But that's where we're at.
54:22
SPEAKER_00: I I will comment on Penn State just a little bit.
54:25
SPEAKER_00: I think the hatred for Penn State, you know, I you talked about kind of West Virginia fans having that you think you're better than us edge, and I I definitely understand that.
54:34
SPEAKER_00: Of course, you know, they don't help their cause when they go out and set fire to couches.
54:39
SPEAKER_00: But however, I get the I get the sentiment, and I think that's the way that pit fans have always thought of Penn State.
54:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they just think they're so above everything, and and the arrogance at Penn State was on display for years and years.
54:54
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'll never forget Tim Curley, who is their AD, who's now or was in prison, uh, you know, when when they renewed the whenever they announced that renewal of the rivalry, that 2016 to 2019 four-game series, they might have announced that, I don't know, like 2010 or something, somewhere around that time.
55:14
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget him being on the radio on a Pittsburgh station and just, you know, downplaying everything about it.
55:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, oh Tim, do you think that this might be an annual thing?
55:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it has to be exciting to be and have that rivalry back on.
55:30
SPEAKER_00: And he couldn't have been more condescending about Pitt.
55:33
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was just literally like uh I mean, well, we needed to fill a spot in the schedule, so I guess we played Heitzburg or whatever the school's called.
55:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know.
55:45
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, back to I I have to I have to finish up, you know, covering up for child abuse.
55:50
SPEAKER_00: So bye.
55:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean that and and when that whole scandal broke, it it it was it was just totally epitomized the attitude of Penn State football.
56:01
SPEAKER_00: We're above everything, nothing can touch us, you know, and if some kids are complaining about you know some bad stuff happening, sweep it under the rug, don't do anything about it, make it go away, because we are Penn State, and that's all that matters.
56:16
SPEAKER_00: And if people get hurt and people get run over and lives get ruined, so be it, because we are Penn State.
56:23
SPEAKER_00: So I could I could go on a uh another hour rant about Penn State and their arrogance and and you know, again, the lives that it ruined, but I'll just stop there.
56:34
SPEAKER_00: Um but yes, you're you're spot on about you know the the the college football just it doesn't make any sense at all.
56:43
SPEAKER_01: I think it's just run by a bunch of people that don't know how to run a business, and or they let you know, and and ESPN like thinks they're like doing something that's gonna get them ratings when it's like that's not I don't think people want to see Alabama Auburn like every day, you know what I mean?
57:02
SPEAKER_01: Like that's a rivalry, and it's a big rivalry, but like imagine that not happening.
57:08
SPEAKER_01: You know, it it just like I don't think people could understand that not happening.
57:13
SPEAKER_00: But imagine if they announced that the Steelers and the Ravens weren't gonna play each other anymore, or the Penguins and the Flyers, or the Yankees and the Red Sox, or you know, it just or even even you know the the high school teams in your town that that are fierce rivals, and they just said, Oh, no, no, no, no, it's not gonna play anymore.
57:32
SPEAKER_00: It just it takes away so much of the fun of sports, and and college basketball is the only entity that seems to want to take away all the fun out of you know what makes their sport fun.
57:46
SPEAKER_00: So again, no explanation, but it is what it is.
57:51
SPEAKER_01: Well, when we're in charge, we'll change all that.
57:55
SPEAKER_01: But until then, we'll have to deal with the uh Pit Duke football game, I guess.
58:02
SPEAKER_01: Excitement.
58:03
SPEAKER_01: Um thanks for tuning in.
58:05
SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoyed my rant.
58:07
SPEAKER_01: Um uh we love uh hearing from you.
58:11
SPEAKER_01: Uh give us a good rating on wherever you get your podcasts at.
58:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh our website is uh Pittsburgh Sports Memories.weebly dot com.
58:19
SPEAKER_01: We're on Twitter and Facebook if you feel so inclined to uh like us or um friend us.
58:24
SPEAKER_01: Uh thanks for tuning in.
58:26
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm Steve Ward, and uh we'll talk to you next time.