With more than 500 career victories (509 to be exact) safely tucked under its belt, Springfield College will open its 2009 season on Saturday, September 5th, with a home game versus Fitchburg State College of Fitchburg, Mass. at 7 p.m. in Amos Alonzo Stagg Field. That will be the first of four home dates as SC plays a nine-game slate in 2009. The other home games will include Husson on Oct. 10, and will conclude with two straight home games versus Ithaca on Oct. 31 and versus St. John Fisher on Nov. 7.

There are two main differences between the 2008 and 2009 seasons besides swapping home and away sites. First, SC has added King's (Pa.) to the schedule, and will play that squad on the road on Sept. 12. Secondly, the Norwich contest which normally concluded the regular-season has gone by the wayside. (Norwich has departed the Empire 8 conference). That game has not been replaced.
The Oct. 10 game versus Husson will be a Family & Friends Day.

The Nov. 7 contest versus St. John Fisher will be Homecoming Day.
Head Coach Mike DeLong (’74) three seasons ago won four Coach of the Year awards for leading his team to a 10-2 overall record, an Empire 8 co-title, and an NCAA post-season tournament berth. He will start the ’09 season as the winningest active Division III coach in New England with 154 victories in 27 years as a head coach. Twenty-five of those years have come right here at Springfield where he has recorded 142 victories, including a sparkling 48-25 mark the past six years. In five of the past 11 years (‘98, ’00, ’02, ’03, '06), Springfield teams have gone on to compete in the NCAA Division III Tournament. In ’95 and ’04, Springfield teams also won ECAC post-season tournament contests.

In 2006, Springfield's Chris Sharpe was recognized on the national level as he was awarded the Melberger Award, emblematic of the National Player of the Year in Division III. The QB established 12 school records and six NCAA Division III national marks on '06. Sharpe also received a bevy of further awards, including the Gold Helmet Award for the season from the New England Football Writers Association, the Joseph P. Zabilski Award from the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston, the ECAC Division III Northwest Offensive Co-Player of the Year, and the Empire 8 Offensive Player of the Year.

Derived from the English game of rugby, American football was started in 1879 with rules instituted by Walter Camp, player and coach at Yale University.  In 1888 tackling as low as the knee was permitted.  From 1876 through 1879, the game was rugby, with only a few minor American embellishments. But during the next four years (1880-1883), all this would change.  Walter Camp contributed some of the changes from Rugby and Soccer to American football.  The first thing that Walter Camp changed was that one side retained undisputed possession of the ball, until that side gives up the ball as a result of its own violations.  Walter also changed the line of scrimmage, and 11 players on a team instead of 15.  Camp created the quarter-back and center positions, forward pass, standardized the scoring system, numerical scoring and the safety, interference, penalties, and the neutral zone for football.  A touchdown increased in value to six points and field goals went down to three points in 1912.  

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