Now that the Eastern Washington football team knows where they’re seeded (second, surprisingly) and where (Roos Field) and when (Dec. 1) they’ll play their first Football Championship Subdivision playoff game the only thing left to be determined is who.
The Eagles get to enjoy Thanksgiving and a two-week layoff before hosting the winner of the Colgate/Wagner first round match up this Saturday. I’m sure some fans had a “Who are these guys?” moment, ala Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when the pairings were announced Sunday morning.
I’m not exactly one of them as I’ve heard of both universities. As for anything else, like locating them on a map, yeah: “Who are these guys?”
From their records, good football teams for starters. Both teams are 8-3, winners of their respective conferences – Colgate Raiders the Patriot League and Wagner Seahawks (yes) the Northeast Conference. Both come in on winning streaks, the Raiders their last six and the Seahawks their last eight.
Both faced common opponents like Holy Cross, Sacred Heart (located in New York City) and Duquesne and beat all three. Still, who are these guys?
As kickoff nears we’ll know more about the winner of Saturday’s match up. But for now, as a public service (because that’s the kind of guy I am) here are a few other informational items on both universities.
Colgate University is a private liberal arts college located in Hamilton, N.Y. It has an enrollment of around 2,800 students coming from 47 states and 42 countries, and was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary but later became non-denominational.
Is there toothpaste involved? Well, yes.
The university was renamed Colgate in 1890 in recognition of the contributions made by the William Colgate family. William Colgate founded a soap company and 1806 on Dutch Street in New York City that eventually became today’s Colgate Palmolive Company.
Hey, I’m just trying to help you brush up on the facts.
According to its website Colgate is the 66th oldest college in the U.S., and according to an entry in Wikipedia was ranked the 18th best liberal arts college in 2013 by U.S. News and World Reports and 37th in the 2011 edition of America’s Best Colleges by Forbes.com.
Couple of Trivial Pursuit facts for you: Colgate owns a 75-million-year-old dinosaur egg, the first ever owned by a college; its student newspaper the Maroon-News is the oldest college weekly in the country and 1932 football team was unbeaten, untied and uninvited to the Rose Bowl.
Colgate’s colors are maroon and white.
Wagner College is located on Grymes Hill, Staten Island in New York City. It’s a private, co-educational national liberal arts college with an enrollment of around 2,200 representing 43 states and 19 countries.
Wagner was founded in 1883 as the Lutheran Proseminary in Rochester, N.Y. and was renamed Wagner shortly thereafter. John G. Wagner donated $12,000 to the school and in appreciation the board of regents renamed the school in honor of his son George, who died before realizing his dream of becoming a minister.
Wagner moved to its current location in 1918. Grymes Hill has some fame in New York City, being the home of prominent families like that of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Nineteen acres of Wagner’s current campus once used to be part of the 100-acre Vanderbilt estate.
Wagner College was one of the four finalists in the liberal arts colleges’ category for Time magazines’ 2001 “College of the Year” award, and it has been ranked in the Princeton Review’s annual “Best 366 Colleges” guide, and the Review’s top-20 rankings for Best College Theatre (second) and Most Beautiful Campus (fourth).
Wagner is the seventh smallest college to compete in NCAA Division 1 athletics. Its colors are green and white.
So there you have it. Whoever wins Saturday faces a long flight out to Cheney and the surprise of a lifetime when they see the red rug of The Inferno in person.
Who are these guys? I’m sure the winner will be asking the same about the Eagles.
And eventually, we’ll both find out.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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