On we go .....

Talk about the champions, or the Top 25 nationally-ranked team!
TMH
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Re: On we go .....

Post by TMH » Mon Apr 18, 2022 10:46 am

Richb-3 wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 8:07 am Students do seem to show up at Stabler duals, and there seemed thousands at PPL.

Contra intuitive.
It's been my experience that students show up for "events". Wrestling at PPL vs Penn State was such an event as was basketball at PPL vs Villanova. The last wrestling match in Stabler was 2016 vs Penn State but the latter made it an "event" for students, not wrestling. The basketball playoff games were an "event" and students showed up big time but not for other games. They didn't even show up en masse during CJ's senior year after beating Duke.

The days of Lehigh wrestlers being on a pedestal for other students as LU Engineer alluded is over IMO.


whiz wit
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Re: On we go .....

Post by whiz wit » Mon Apr 18, 2022 11:43 am

Last match at Stabler was vs OkSt in '19. Less than half full (2930).
Richb-3
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Re: On we go .....

Post by Richb-3 » Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:47 pm

Most recent dual at Stabler was Dec 2019 vs PsSU. 6000+ attendance. OkSU was a
Saturday evening. Nits was 20 days and about 5 hours later, Friday Evening


Hope not LAST DUAL at Stabler.

I don't think Lafayette Bktball draws well at Stabler. Of course the Pards are pretty awful almost every year in every sport. So I would be curious if students would show up at Stabler for a name Bktball team, although not likely to happen.
whiz wit
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Re: On we go .....

Post by whiz wit » Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:56 pm

The LU-OkSt dual in '19 was on a Saturday afternoon. I remember it well. An okie with a cowboy hat sat down next to me not long before the thing was supposed to start and asked me if the arena would be filled.
This guy had come from Oklahoma to watch the dual and LU obviously wasn't able to get their home arena more than half filled for a dual against a top team.
Mountain Hawk
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Re: On we go .....

Post by Mountain Hawk » Mon Apr 18, 2022 6:56 pm

We had Marquette in during the Darren Queenan era and it was pretty packed that night I think.
Richb-3
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Re: On we go .....

Post by Richb-3 » Mon Apr 18, 2022 7:10 pm

I was at a packed LU BktBall game against the Pards in the P+Q era.

These days, I think Buck may sometimes have more fans than us at stabler. (I have to think the Kempa era was pretty disappointing, and maybe killed interest.
LUEngineer
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Re: On we go .....

Post by LUEngineer » Mon Apr 18, 2022 10:29 pm

I believe that my point was that wrestling still outdraws basketball at Lehigh. I am not talking about the Lehigh students as they have become true nerds & don’t support anything but themselves.

Lehigh & Penn State are perhaps the only schools that wrestling outdraws basketball.
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Re: On we go .....

Post by Mountain Hawk » Tue Apr 19, 2022 6:41 am

LUEngineer wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 10:29 pm I am not talking about the Lehigh students as they have become true nerds & don’t support anything but themselves.
Not sure if nerds describes them. Lehigh is not a school that kids go to if they are looking for that big school sports atmosphere. Those kids will head to Michigan, PSU, and Wisco or a myriad of ACC choices now - and they'll do it more cheaply. These kids are hyper plugged in with smartphones in their hands and always looking for the next social activity. If we ran a cocktail bar (they don't even drink beer) up on the mezzanine you might get some to show up, but student interest in LU sports has, to a large degree, shrunken down into athletes supporting other athletes in person.
Lehigh will just never be a sports factory. Its been an increasingly large hurdle to jump over for the last 40 years, but especially so in the last 20. In my mind Villanova is a good example of a place that has built name recognition by funding a single sport - an especially good basketball team. Yes, FUNDING it. The school has reaped huge benefits from it in terms of brand building and no doubt they have closed the reputational gap on Lehigh (and perhaps surpassed it) in the last 10-20yrs.
The times, they are a changin'
Oracle
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Re: On we go .....

Post by Oracle » Tue Apr 19, 2022 8:22 am

Agree
LUEngineer
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Re: On we go .....

Post by LUEngineer » Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:42 pm

Good comments from MH & at one time Lehigh dodo the same by promoting Wrestling as their Big Time sport.

Then they began to promote all sports equal such that the freshman weren’t educated to the unique historic tradition that was a nationally competitive wrestling program.

Don’t you remember when we lined up 2 hours before match time to get into Grave Hall? That was because John Steckbeck prepped us during freshman week.

You can bet that Villanova makes sure their students know about their men’s nationally competitive Basketball program while their football team plays in 1AA including against lowly Patriot League teams
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