This past Saturday saw a premier matchup within Division III as undefeated #15 University of St. Thomas traveled an hour North on I-94 to face off against undefeated #6 St. Johns. Normally, the fierce rivalry makes this game interesting in itself (think a D-III version of 'Bama-Auburn). The fact that they were both undefeated and ranked upped the stakes. A crowd of 12,903, the 2nd largest crowd to watch a SJU football game were treated to an overtime win by SJU. On to the pictures:
drbob wrote:
Very nice series. Nice colors and tight action.
Must've been a good game to watch.
bb
Good game to watch. Horrible game to get into/out of. SJU campus basically has one 2-lane road in and out of it. Like a long cul-de-sac. Fortunately, I was carpooling with some relatives who wanted to go to the game with me, because, while we got close to the exit with about 1 hour to kickoff, I ended up getting out and walking to campus with a nephew with 15 min to go. As we crossed the overpass I estimated the line of cars from the Twin Cities at about 3 miles. I started shooting 15 min after kickoff. The rest of the family that came with me made it in about halfway through the 2nd qtr, and they were by far not the last ones.
Exiting campus took us about 90 min to make it the mile to I-94, then another our back home.
But...it's rare that you see a crowd that size for a D-III contest.
I love the rivalry between these two schools! Epic battles on the field and I would say you captured some very nice photos as well! Back in the 90's 2 of my high school team mates played for the Tommies and 3 for the Johnnies so that was always a good game to attend.
You're killing me with sunny skies and bleachers filled to capacity! Last D3 game I shot at Gettysburg was raining an only a couple hundred fans. With rain in the forecast for tomorrow, it's not looking much better for tomorrow either.
I don't know much about the rivalry, but judging from the posts, it's one that both sides look forward to every year.
Your action and color are both incredible, not to forget your timing. I love that stiff arm in #4 and the quarterback following his blocker in #6...they're all really damn good!!!
Caleb Williams wrote:
Nice work. Nice full crowd. St. Olaf's homecoming was pretty packed this year, but nothing like 12,000 people.
Yeah. The Tommie/Johnnie game is in some rare air for attendance most of the time. The crowd was the 2nd largest in SJU history. I think the largest was 14K, which was, I believe, also a Tommie/Johnnie game.
Tony Brown wrote:
that's what i thought....the CROWD for a d3 game. i've been to Conference USA games with LESS!!!
I'm lucky to cover D3 FB in the MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conf.). We've been the leader in attendance for the past 4-5 years. We average about 5K per team game (though attendance varies by team).
Note: Both St. Johns and St. Thomas made the D-III playoffs. A first round win by both teams will land them in a second round rematch back at St. Johns.
