The eagle is pointing towards Carleton!

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to attend the Carleton/St. Olaf football game at Sullivan Field in Northfield. According to the Carleton Game Day Program this was the 103^rd time the two teams have met, 100^th time as varsity programs.

This is a big game for football players at each school. I clearly remember the four times I participated in the Carleton/St. Olaf game. The first time was the very first time I played college football. The game was at St. Olaf. We lost 9-0 as we had two bad snaps on punts. The second time I was injured and watched from the sidelines. The third time we lost at St. Olaf. In a low moment for me, I sacked the St. Olaf quarterback. Low, you might think? After the sack I proceeded to point with disdain challenge the "manhood" of the St. Olaf sideline and their fans. Not a great act of sportsmanship. My best friends on the team almost killed me on the sidelines for that.

After losing three straight times, Bob Sullivan gathered the returning players at the end of the season. He gave us a medallion with the date, “10-19-85” on it. I carried that medallion with me the entire year. The day of the game I taped it to the inside of my uniform. And the game turned out splendidly. Carleton won 35-7.

This game has quite a lot of meaning. 

This year St. Olaf decided to choose this game as their Homecoming. I’ve never heard of a school choosing their rivals’ homecoming as their own homecoming.

I arrived at noon this past Saturday and immediately enjoyed the tail gate party by the parents of the football game. Many alumni were present. The weather was beautiful and close to four thousand people attended the game.

Carleton got off to a terrific start. We scored on our first drive and then forced a turnover and scored again. We missed the extra point, but that didn’t seem to be a big deal. After the touchdown I turned to another football alum and said that if Carleton could stop the ‘Oles on the next drive the game could be a blow-out. But if we didn’t, the game would probably be close. 

Unfortunately, St. Olaf went on a methodical seventeen play drive to score a touchdown. 

Game on. 

Carleton led 23-10 at halftime, but I was anxious. Unless they turned the ball over St. Olaf had proved they could score almost every time they had the ball.

And my premonition was correct. The ‘Oles went on two long, drives and eventually took a 31-30 lead with a little less than four minutes remaining in the game. That missed extra point was important. Their second drive took almost ten minutes of clock and went 98 yards. Ouch!

After the Oles' touchdown, Carleton got the ball back and dropped three passes. We punted. All St. Olaf had to do was continue what they had done, and they would win the game. I have to admit, I was not optimistic.  If I had been charting the percent chance of winning at the start of that drive, I would have said St. Olaf was at eighty percent.

St. Olaf ended up with a fourth and two with about two minutes left. If they made a first down the game was over. They went for it. It made sense to me. But Carleton held. And suddenly it seemed like there was a chance. The percentages were moving towards Carleton--50/50?

Carleton drove down the field with help by two, clutch third down conversions. Carleton’s quarterback, Jack Curtis had ice in his veins. Carleton was left with a 30 yard field goal to win the game. And-the-kick-was good!! Carleton was ahead. 

St. Olaf didn’t have enough time to score and Carleton won!

Pandemonium on the Carleton side of the stands. For the second year in a row Carleton has beaten St. Olaf! 

St. Olaf has a very good football team. They could play Carleton ten times and each team might win five. But all that matters this year is Carleton 33 St. Olaf 31.

We did plenty of celebrating on the field. I got to hold the goat trophy that I had held thirty-three years earlier on the same field. Plus standing next to Pete Machacek, my linebacker mate, with that goat trophy was very special.

We walked down to the town square of Northfield and turned the eagle towards Carleton—another ritual for the winner. The eagle was already facing Carleton as won last year, but it was turned 360 degrees. 

The football alumni continued the celebration at the Armory in Northfield. We remembered the Carleton/St. Olaf game in 1973 when Carleton broke a long losing streak against the ‘Oles. We also lifted up a new program where anyone can make a direct donation to Carleton that will benefit the football program. 

Tom Journell is an outstanding coach. He understands Carleton and the type of football player who Carleton will recruit. He has a terrific coaching staff. The program is in very good hands. 

I love Carleton football alums and players. They are some of the most fascinating people I’ll ever meet. They are intelligent and have the athletic skills to play for a Division III team. But they also know that they will probably never play in the pros. But that doesn’t stop any Carleton player from training as hard as they can to do their best. Before my senior year of football, I'm guessing I trained as hard as any player in the conference. I've always shared with anyone who would listen that when I ran onto the field with a Carleton jersey on my back there was no one playing football at any level that day who wanted to win a game more than I did.

As I was driving back to my home on Saturday, I was musing about why these athletic games are so important. For my entire life I’ve been playing in games and then cheering at games. Does it really make that much of a difference if the team I’m rooting for scores more points than the opposing team? It obviously does. I'm not sure why it matters, but I can assure you that it does. I’ve always said that all is right with the world when Carleton beats St. Olaf in football. If you pressed me, I’m not sure I could explain why this is. What I do know is my heart is happy that the eagle is pointing towards Carleton for another year.