2008 Woodie Awards
Column: Last true 'Brown Bowl'
Tom Giles
Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Sports
The year 2002. That was the last time Northeastern football beat UMass. Don Brown was the head coach. He took the Huskies to the top of the Atlantic-10, back before it was the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), winning a share of the conference with a 7-2 mark. Dave O'Brien, Northeastern's athletics director at the time, rewarded Brown and his staff with contract extensions and pay raises to assure their stay at Northeastern.
Not long afterward, UMass spoke with Brown about its head coaching vacancy, and Brown breached his contract and left to take the head coaching job in Amherst (but we won't get into that mess). An entire roster of student athletes found their fate hanging in the balance, not knowing who they'd be playing for. But at least they had adjusted to life as a student athlete. What about the incoming freshman class? That group was recruited by Brown and his staff and had committed to play for them. Instead they would play the next four or five years for a stranger (which thankfully was Rocky Hager).
And so a rivalry was created. The annual game between Northeastern and UMass became known as the 'Don Brown Bowl.' So far, UMass has been on the winning end of the first four contests. Many students that knew of the rivalry have graduated. The underclassmen who attend Saturday's game (Parsons Field, noon) will see it as a cross-state conference match-up and nothing more. But it is so much more.
Northeastern is coming off its first win in the CAA of the season, a 35-17 drubbing of Towson in Maryland. The Huskies dominated the second half, outscoring the home team 28-0. The same team that started 0-3 has now won back-to-back games handily, and has looked scarily good in the process.
A win over UMass would give Northeastern a 2-0 conference record and a win over a ranked opponent.
Such a win might even garner some votes in the Football Championship Subdivision's top 25 poll. Consider this: Of the Huskies' three losses, two of them were on the road at the hands of Football Bowl Subdivision opponents, including one against Ball State, now ranked 25th nationally. The other was a heartbreaking overtime loss on the road to Football Championshp Subdivision perennial powerhouse Georgia Southern. This team could be one of the best in the conference, and a win over last year's division champ would only warrant that.
Not long afterward, UMass spoke with Brown about its head coaching vacancy, and Brown breached his contract and left to take the head coaching job in Amherst (but we won't get into that mess). An entire roster of student athletes found their fate hanging in the balance, not knowing who they'd be playing for. But at least they had adjusted to life as a student athlete. What about the incoming freshman class? That group was recruited by Brown and his staff and had committed to play for them. Instead they would play the next four or five years for a stranger (which thankfully was Rocky Hager).
And so a rivalry was created. The annual game between Northeastern and UMass became known as the 'Don Brown Bowl.' So far, UMass has been on the winning end of the first four contests. Many students that knew of the rivalry have graduated. The underclassmen who attend Saturday's game (Parsons Field, noon) will see it as a cross-state conference match-up and nothing more. But it is so much more.
Northeastern is coming off its first win in the CAA of the season, a 35-17 drubbing of Towson in Maryland. The Huskies dominated the second half, outscoring the home team 28-0. The same team that started 0-3 has now won back-to-back games handily, and has looked scarily good in the process.
A win over UMass would give Northeastern a 2-0 conference record and a win over a ranked opponent.
Such a win might even garner some votes in the Football Championship Subdivision's top 25 poll. Consider this: Of the Huskies' three losses, two of them were on the road at the hands of Football Bowl Subdivision opponents, including one against Ball State, now ranked 25th nationally. The other was a heartbreaking overtime loss on the road to Football Championshp Subdivision perennial powerhouse Georgia Southern. This team could be one of the best in the conference, and a win over last year's division champ would only warrant that.
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