Guest Post: My Favorite JMU vs. UR Games

Steve Brown did it again. For the second time this season, he won the prediction contest. In this piece, he takes us down memory lane to recall some great games versus the Ticks from the past.

This is my second guest blog post of the season and I am thrilled that it’s during Spider (a.k.a. “Spatter”) week. I have many memories in my life formed by football. My days as a football player in my youth were short and they should have been, I lacked talent.  Some of my best memories are as a fan and JMU supporter. I got my first taste of football when the Washington Redskins used to be good. My dad took me to my first Dallas v. Washington game on October 22, 1972.  I was 9 years old and I remember RFK was literally rocking with fans because the seats were swaying with the jumping and cheering. 

My wife and I had our first date at the JMU v. UVA football game on September 17,  1983. She only agreed to go with me because I had a car. JMU beat UVA in 1982 21-17 and we were looking for a second straight win. It didn’t happen despite two punt return touchdowns by Gary Clark.  The date with my bride to be was more successful than the Dukes were that day. Thanks to JMU football bringing us together; we have been together for 36 years. Below is the article from The Breeze. 

Not only are my wife and I into JMU football, my children are as well. On December 2, 2017, my daughter got married in Richmond. This was a home playoff game, but I was happy to miss this game for such a special day for our family.  She did marry a Virginia Cavalier and he’s a fine young man despite his choice of schools. We all got dressed early enough to watch most of the first half of the playoff beat down in the bar. I walked her down the aisle at halftime. 

Enough about memory lane and back to talking about the game circled on our calendar all year: Senior day with a chance to win the CAA title against the Spiders. We stand and yell loudly at every game, but we will yell a little louder at this game. We bring a ton of streamers to every game, but we bring more streamers to this game. We yell at the referees every game to call holding against the opponent every game, but we are more obnoxious with our yelling at the refs during the UR game. 

I did some research and I can’t find a game where JMU has won the conference title against UR at home or away. You can mark this down in permanent marker: IT WILL HAPPEN ON SATURDAY and it will sweet. As part of Tick week (for those that don’t know, the UR Spider looks like a blood sucking parasite), here are my top 5 JMU wins over UR with some family history sprinkled in:

5.  10/10/87 at JMU—“We Won Our First”—This was JMU’s first win against UR and it was at home 41-3. This started a 5-game winning streak. JMU had lost 4 in a row after beginning this series in 1981 (my first game at City Stadium). 

4.  11/13/99 at JMU—“The Family Weekend Event“—We brought our kids to their first UR v. JMU game in ‘99. We moved to Richmond in 1998 from Florida and this game in mid-November 1999 was special. JMU was co-champions with UMass of the A10 Conference that year.  

3.  10/1/11 at JMU—“Blackout”—This was the first blackout and UR was riding high with their QB transfer from USC, Aaron Corp. We sacked him 7 times for a loss of 47 yards. It was the first time JMU wore the black jersey and we have never lost in the black jersey. 

2.  11/5/16 at UR—“The Catch”—#7 JMU was playing at #6 UR. Both teams were loaded with talent and JMU wanted to keep the winning streak alive while also avenging the loss from 2015 when we hosted ESPN College Game Day. Richmond was 1 game back in the CAA standings at 4-1 and JMU was 5-0. JMU was behind 37-33 at the 6:43 mark in the 4^th quarter but took the lead for good when Kloostermann high pointed the ball from Schor for the touchdown with less than 2 minutes to go in the game. 

1. 10/11/08 at UR—“Scotty, Scotty, Scotty.” Nothing more needs to be said if you are a JMU fan. It felt like we had 10,000 JMU fans at City Stadium for this game. My family had seats on the 30 and this game was a slobber-knocker. JMU was undefeated against the FCS with the only loss being against Duke. JMU was tied with UR with less than a minute to go. Scotty McGee was the best punt returner in the nation. The only thing UR needed to do was kick it away from Scotty with 8 seconds to get to overtime. Scotty ran the punt back 69 yards for the game winning touchdown. It was the #1 play on ESPN that night. Some random JMU man hugged my 16-year-old daughter out of sheer joy when we scored that TD and it didn’t seem creepy or odd. We were all just a purple and gold family going crazy.