Josh Hirsch: Bears party like it's 1999

PROVIDENCE, R.I. On January 27, 1991, Zak DeOssie went to the Super Bowl. Of course, the six-and-a-half-year-old was in Tampa, Fla., to see his father, Steve, who started 13 games for the eventual world-champion New York Giants. It seems like that was the younger DeOssie's favorite moment in his football life. Until now. The Brown junior linebacker got to play in his own Super Bowl Saturday against Penn. "I've never been more excited for a game in my entire life," he said. DeOssie added that he was "10 times more excited" for Saturday than he was for that other game almost 15 years ago. But it was not just DeOssie. The Brown players, and even head coach Phil Estes, were positively giddy after the win - the Bears' first over the Quakers since 1999. "That's where you kind of gauge your program off of," Estes said about beating the Quakers. For the last six years, Penn has played every Ivy League game - with the possible exception of those against Harvard - with a giant bull's eye on its back, marking the game on the calendar as one of the biggest games of the year. Penn, meanwhile, went about its business winning games (and three Ivy titles) without ever really showing a tremendous amount of emotion after any particular win - except after the Columbia game two weeks ago - the first after the suicide of senior runninback Kyle Ambrogi. But until Saturday, no non-Harvard Ivy team since Yale in 2000 had been able to knock off those big, bad Quakers. And when the final seconds finally ticked off, and no miracle rally or phantom fumble had dashed their hopes, the Bears and their fans rejoiced like it was the Super Bowl. The crowd, which had not been particularly loud throughout the game, finally erupted. The players rushed the field and celebrated, and could barely compose themselves enough to shake the Quakers' hands. Fans stayed afterwards to taunt Penn players with chants of "Overrated!" as they entered the locker room. Meanwhile, the Quakers seemed more shell-shocked than distraught, almost confused at how they could lose to anyone other than the Crimson. The Bears did not really dominate the statistics. Quarterback Joe DiGiacomo had a miserable day, completing nine of 22 passes for only 66 yards. Penn only had nine fewer yards than Brown, as backup quarterback Bryan Walker was not terrible, and the Quakers managed 110 rushing yards. But the Bears had a little something extra that finally trumped Penn's calm attitude to make the plays that decided the game. DiGiacomo's 40-yard touchdown run/impersonation of Michael Vick comes to mind, as do the three drives in the third quarter where Penn had the ball at midfield or better and could not get a first down. The Bears obviously have the momentum in the logjam that is the top of the Ivy League race right now. And while they may not win the championship, or even win next week against Yale, Brown grabbed that with their best accomplishment in years. Brown has not won this big of a game since it beat Columbia in 1999 to clinch a share of the Ivy League title. It has been a long time coming for these Bears, and they made the most of it. And to know what it meant to them, just ask DeOssie. "It's just a great feeling." Josh Hirsch is a junior urban studies major from Roslyn, N.Y., and is senior sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu.