5 Things to know about Syracuse
I’ve accepted the offer from MariusJanulisForThree of to share 5 things to know about respective teams. Here’s what you should know about Syracuse.
1 - Contrary to popular belief, Jim Boeheim has not been involved with every Syracuse basketball game to ever be played. Jimmy first came to Syracuse as a walk-on player in 1963, some 62 years after the first game in school history (a gutty 23-9 loss to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). After graduating in ‘66, Boeheim returned to SU in ‘69 as a graduate assistant, working his way up to assistant coach and finally became head coach in 1976.
2 - Clemson fans know better than anyone the perils of having orange as one of your main colors. Hey, it could have been a lot worse…Syracuse’s original school colors were rose pink and pea green. Imagine the fun Georgetown could have had with that.
3 - Believe it or not, the Syracuse mascot always hasn’t been a walking piece of fruit with arms where his ears should be. It was originally the Saltine Warrior, a Native American named for the salt deposits common to the area. Back before banning insensitive mascots was what the cool kids did, Syracuse banned the Warrior in 1978. He was briefly reborn as a Roman warrior but officially replaced in ‘82 by a big orange. A group of cheerleaders chose Otto over Opie and the name stuck.
4 - We love our “scrappy white guys who shoot the three.” You may remember Jason Cipolla from the ‘96 Final Four squad. Following him and included in our brief infatuation with Eastern Europeans was Marius Janulis. Gerry McNamara carried the torch proudly as well. Currently you’ll find the scrappy, white, three-point shooter role split between Eric Devendorf (scrappy) and Andy Rautins (almost exclusively shoots threes).
5 - Hey we play a little football too! Well, not good football these days. Even though Paul Pasqualoni led the Orange to numerous conference championships, multiple bowl games and two BCS bowls between 1991 and 2004, fans never felt he could get the team over the hump into national prominence. We replaced him with Greg Robinson in 2005, and he’s gone on to…well…win one Big East conference game so far. Don’t even get us started on Rutgers…
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