These guys Are Crazy ... For I-AA Football

NEWARK, Del. -- The distance between the Universities of Pennsylvania and Delaware is 40 miles, just under an hour's drive down Interstate 95 on a Saturday afternoon.

But that short distance belies a much larger gap in the schools' football cultures.

Yes, Penn football was once the biggest gridiron game in Philadelphia. These days, however, the Quakers struggle to gain even a slice of the attention paid to the Eagles. Unlike the sellout crowds of years gone by, fans at Franklin Field now rarely fill a third of the stadium's 52,000-seat capacity.

Like Penn, Delaware's football team has been around for over a century, and the Fightin' Blue Hens now compete at the Division I-AA level. Delaware does offer athletic scholarships and the football team is eligible for the playoffs, but the greater difference between the two programs can be found on the edge of Delaware's campus in Newark.

Nearly every week, all 22,000 bleacher seats in Delaware Stadium are filled. Fans come from across the state and even nearby towns in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and begin arriving soon after lunch for night games.

"This is the only sport that really brings us together," said Delaware senior Brian Engler, a Cherry Hill, N.J., native.

Indeed, the Blue Hens claim the highest rung on Delaware's sporting ladder, rivaled only by NASCAR races at the Dover International Speedway's "Monster Mile."

But while NASCAR was raised in the South before sweeping the nation, Delaware football is entirely home-grown. It is not uncommon to find students who also once came to games with their parents tailgating in the parking lot.

"It's just been a thing throughout the years," said Sam Wise, a Wilmington, Del., resident who has had Delaware season tickets for 20 years. "Families and their children are here all the time, so it's not only an athletic thing, it's a family get-together."

The fever of Delaware football reached its most recent peak in 2003, when the the Blue Hens won their first Division I-AA national championship. Before beating Colgate in Chattanooga, Tenn., for the title, Delaware faced Wofford in the semifinal at Delaware Stadium. As the nation watched live on ESPN2, quarterback Andy Hall -- who would later be drafted by the Eagles -- led the way to a 24-9 win.

Amid the electric atmosphere, the students rushed the field as the clock ticked down, but did so with too much time remaining before the game ended. So Blue Hens coach K.C. Keeler, a former Delaware player, had to conceal a smile the size of the stadium while shooing the fans back into their seats.

When the clock finally did expire, the students rushed the field once again, and this time no one wanted to stop them.

Last season, the Blue Hens made the playoffs once again, but lost in the second round of the playoffs at William & Mary. It seems, however, that the magic from recent years has not fully worn off yet.

With just under 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter this past Saturday against Lehigh, Delaware rallied from a 14-point deficit to tie the game and force overtime.

The Blue Hens scored a touchdown on their first possession, and kicker Zach Hobby easily converted the extra point. Lehigh replied with a touchdown of its own, but Mountain Hawks kicker Justin Musiek hooked the extra point well wide to the left.

The remaining fans from the overflow crowd of 22,537, who at that point filled about 70 percent of the stadium, erupted.

"This was my 44th game as a player or coach," Keeler said. "It's just amazing -- it gets better all the time."

Even Lehigh coach Pete Lembo paid tribute to the atmosphere.

"I've never been to Montana or Georgia Southern," Lembo said, referring to two other Division I-AA schools with large fan bases. "But I would find it hard to imagine that either of those places are better than the environment we had tonight."

Delaware might be one of the smallest states in population, but Keeler is as popular in the First State as Bob Stoops is in Oklahoma or Jim Tressel is in Ohio.

"I was down in Rehoboth [Friday] to speak down there to a group and I happened to stop in a diner to meet a friend," Keeler said, referring to the state's popular resort town. "I was signing autographs in the diner."

Then again, such a comparison makes perfect sense for some Delaware fans, such as Brett Townsend, a senior at Delaware who grew up in Newark.

"Compare the size of Michigan to the size of Delaware, and you'll find our fan base is bigger and has more heart per capita," Townsend said.

He might have a hard time convincing fans of the Wolverines, whose helmets Delaware copies. But that likely won't stop Townsend and the rest of the Blue Hen faithful from trying.

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