There is a nice article on the YSU site that covers the history of football. Unfortunately it was written by a Buckeye fan and not proof-read before publishing. YSU's colors are NOT "SCARLET" and White. We are RED (Sometimes called Cardinal or Primary Red) and WHITE.
Proud of it folks. Sorry this needs to be corrected.
https://www.ysusports.com/sports/fball/2020-21/releases/ysu-football-historyThe Youngstown State Penguins' football team will celebrate 80 years as a program this fall having contributed in multiple ways to the legacy of the game.
We've had five "Homes," had both the youngest and oldest ever head coach roam the sideline, gone from small college status to Division II to our current FCS affiliation, been members of three conferences (Mid-Continent Conference, Ohio Valley Conference, Gateway Conference/Missouri Valley Football Conference), won four National Championships, finished runners-up on three occasions as FCS members and were runners-up in Division II in 1979.
We've had 23 players drafted by NFL teams, 26 players overall have played in the National Football League with a handful also making a name for themselves North of the border in the Canadian Football League.
There have been 54 players overall sign professional contracts, nine have played in the Super Bowl while three players were Pro Bowl selections, and three others members of the World Bowl.
One of the most ever-lasting contributions YSU has made to the grand old game over the years, it might be that the penalty flag, as we have become accustomed to viewing but taking for granted in today's game, which was the brainchild of our first head coach, Dwight "Dike" Beede who was hired to lead our very first team in time for the 1938 season and the coach who became the youngest head coach in the nation at the time of his appointment, then the oldest at the time of his retirement in 1972.
Prior to the 1941 season officials used horns, buzzers or whistles to signify a penalty, but they were also used to signify the end of a play which caused confusion for both teams.
It was Beede who took a proactive approach and looked for a way to eliminate any unnecessary confusion so the architect of the side-saddle-T formation went home one night after practice, had his wife, Irma, assist in a visual signal and the rest, as they, is history.
Irma used one her daughters' Halloween costumes, cut it up and sewed it together with pieces of bedsheet, adding a drapery weight in the corner of the four flags that she designed so it would fall to the ground and thus was born the very first penalty flag.
Beede introduced the flags during their home game at Rayen Stadium with Oklahoma City College and on Thursday, October 17, 1941, the penalty flag made its first ever appearance in a football game on any level.
One of the officials on the game was Jack McPhee, the second ever Youngstown College (1930-32; 1933-35) basketball coach who in 1939 was also a part of college football history when he was on the crew that officiated the first ever televised football game between Fordham and Waynesburg at Triboro Stadium in Randall's Island, New York.
The Penguins won, 48-7 and McPhee liked the flag so much (which remains on display at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Ga.) that he kept it and continued using it during his time as an official in the Western Conference (frontrunner of the Big Ten Conference) and in many high-profile games like the Rose Bowl, Army-Navy and Notre Dame-Southern California contests.
For her efforts, Irma Beede came to be known as the "Betsy Ross of Football," a real game-changer whose roots can be traced to Youngstown State University and its football program.
"THE EARLY YEARS"
We've come to appreciate the friendly confines of the Arnold D. Stambaugh Stadium and Sports Complex, which was dedicated on September 4, 1982, against the Akron Zips.
Dwight "Dike" Beede Field was actually the Penguins' fifth home field and the very first permanent structure on campus as the program depended on area high school sites in order to play their games.
Our other "away from home" home fields included Rayen Stadium, South High Field, Campbell Memorial High School's Red Devil Stadium and Austintown Fitch High School's Falcon Stadium.
"THE PRE-WAR YEARS"
Our very first game as a program was played on Thursday, September 15, 1938, against Geneva College, a team that featured a diminutive quarterback named Dom Rosselli and the guy who would later become the Penguins basketball and baseball coach.
The team posted a 4-5 overall mark that season and followed that up the following season with another 4-5 record, going 7-1-1 in 1940 before posting their first of two unbeaten seasons (the other came in 1994 when they went 14-0-1) in 1942 when they went 7-0-1.
They posted a 6-3 ledger in 1942, going 28-14-2 over that five-year stretch before the program was halted due to the outbreak of World War II.
"THE POST-WAR YEARS"
Play resumed in 1946 with Beede leading his charges to a 7-1 mark.
Nothing else would interrupt the football season after the war and the Penguins concluded the decade 23-9-3 (1946-49) for a 43-13-5 (.746) overall ledger in 61 games played
The 50's was another decade of growth under Beede with the team going 43-40-3 (.517) in 86 games played, following that up with a 47-36-5 (.563) finish in the 60's.
Beede would coach from 1970-72 (he was the oldest coach in college football when he called it quits after the 1972 campaign), finishing 0-9 in 1970 with that team the only Penguin football squad ever failing to post a win.
He went 2-6 and 4-4-1 over his last two seasons before giving way to Rey Dempsey in 1973.
Dempsey's first team finished 4-6 but the following season, 1974, they posted an 8-2 mark to earn the program's first-ever Division II playoff appearance, a first-round loss to Delaware.
"THE 70's"
Dempsey bolted for the NFL after the 1974 season, joining forces with head coach Rick Forzano and the Detroit Lions as their special teams coach.
Bill Narduzzi, an East Canton native was picked to replace Dempsey, going 5-4 his first year. It was a sign of things to come for by the end of the decade he led the team to a 10-2 mark and the Division II playoffs in 1978, and an 11-2 mark and the Division II playoffs a second straight season where they advanced to the Zia Bowl championship game, finishing runners-up to an earlier nemesis in the decade, the Delaware Blue Hens.
He posted perfect 5-0 marks in their first two years of play in the Mid-Continent Conference (1978-79), won both championships and between Beede, Dempsey and Narduzzi the program played 100 games and went 55-44-1 overall.
"THE 80's"
Narduzzi helped the program transition from the Division II ranks to Division I-AA when they became members of the Ohio Valley Conference (1981).
In 1986, Jim Tressel became the program's fourth head coach and after suffering through a 2-9 maiden campaign, followed that up with an 8-4 mark in 1987 and the program's first-ever Division I-AA/FCS playoff appearance. YSU also advance to the playoffs in 1989 and picked up its first win beating Eastern Kentucky in the opening round.
"THE 90's"
Tressel took the program on a ride unlike any other previous decade as the team won four National Championships (1991, 1993, 1994 and 1997), finished runners-up on two occasions (1992 and 1999) with Tressel engineering the transition to the Gateway Conference (they had been an independent from 1988-96) in 1997.
The first title in 1991 was sweet as the Penguins closed the year on an impressive run to make the postseason. The Guins rallied to beat Villianova 17-16 in the first round at Stambaugh Stadium. In the quarterfinals, YSU went on the road and knocked off top-ranked Nevada-Reno 30-28. Back in Youngstown, YSU used a dominating rushing attack to beat Samford 10-0. In the National Championship Game, the Penguins rallied again in the fourth quarter to defeat Marshall 25-17 in Statesboro, Ga.
The second title came in 1993 as the Penguins rolled through the playoffs with the first three rounds at Stambaugh Stadium. YSU beat Central Florida 56-30 in the opening round, dispatched of No. 2 Georgia Southern 34-14 in the quarterfinals and beat Idaho 35-16 in the semifinals. In the title game, the Penguins' defense put the clamps on Marshall in an impressive 17-5 on the Thundering Herd's home turf.
The 1994 Penguins finished the campaign with 14 consecutive wins following a season-opening tie. YSU opened the playoffs in a nationally-televised contest against Alcorn State led by the high-flying Steve McNair. The Penguins earned a 63-20 victory in the contest. In the quarterfinals, the Guins earned a hard-fought 18-15 win over Eastern Kentucky and beat Montana, 28-9, in the semis. In the title game, YSU dominated Boise State earning a 28-14 win in Huntington, W. Va.
In 1997, YSU defeated McNeese State 10-9 to win its fourth title of the decade. The Penguins opened the playoffs with a home win over Hampton before having to play on the road for the next two games before reaching Chattanooga. In the quarterfinals, YSU broke Villianova's hearts again with a 37-34 in Philadelphia. A trip out to Eastern Washington was ahead in the semifinals as the Penguins beat the Eagles 25-14 to advance to the title game.
YSU also played for the National Championship in 1992 and 1999. In the 1992 playoffs, the Guins beat Villanova, The Citadel and UNI before losing to Marshall in the title game. In 1999, YSU won at Montana, beat North Carolina A&T and Florida A&M at home before falling to Georgia Southern in the final.
Overall, the program had its greatest success as they posted a 103-30-2 mark in 135 games played, a sparkling .770 winning percentage.
"A NEW CENTURY OF YSU FOOTBALL"
Tressel went 9-3 overall in 2000, his last season at the helm, accepting the head coaching job at Ohio State where he went 106-22 (.828) from 2001-10.
Long-time Penguins assistant Jon Heacock assumed the head coaching reins in 2001. Heacock led the program to share of the conference title in 2005. In 2006, he helped lead the Penguins to an 11-3 mark in 2006 and an appearance in the FCS semifinals. The Penguins defeated Western Kentucky on the road to clinch the outright Gateway Football Conference title. In the playoffs, the Guins earned home wins over James Madison and Illinois State. The JMU contest was televised nationally on ESPN2 as the Guins rallied in the fourth quarter for the win.
Tressel and Heacock combined to go 69-47 (595) in 116 games played in the decade.
"THE 2010's"
Eric Wolford succeeded Heacock in 2010 and in five seasons at the helm posted a 31-26 (.544) mark, including a best finish of 8-4 in 2013 before yielding to former Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini, who assumed the top spot from 2015-19.
Under Wolford, the Penguins knocked off No. 1 North Dakota State on Nov. 12, 2011, 27-24 at the FargoDome. To open the 2012 season, YSU picked up the program's first-ever win over a BCS team beating Pittsburgh, 31-17 at Heinz Field.
Pelini led the team to a 12-4 mark and FCS runner-up finish in 2016, his second year at the helm which marked the first time the program had ever played 16 games in a single season. During the playoff run, the Penguins beat Samford, Jacksonville State, Wofford and Eastern Washington. The semifinal win over Eastern Washington featured a game-winning touchdown grab by Kevin Rader with one second remaining that earned national-media attention and took social media by storm.
After the 2019 campaign, Pelini accepted the defensive coordinator position at FBS national champion LSU (his second stint) and between Wolford and Pelini the program went 64-54 (.571) in 112 games played. Doug Phillips, the eighth head coach in school history, will coach his first game in the fall of 2020.
"BY THE NUMBERS"
The Penguins have had seven head coaches in their first 79 seasons and all have posted winning ledgers.
By winning percentage, Jim Tressel (.700) sits atop the list having gone 135-57-2 from 1986-2000, followed by Rey Dempsey (.600), who went 12-8 from 1973-74, Jon Heacock (.577), who was 60-44 from 2001-09, Bill Narduzzi (.571), who authored a 68-51-1 ledger from 1975-85, Dwight "Dike" Beede (.552), who went 147-118-14 from 1938-72, Eric Wolford (.544), who was 31-26 from 2010-14 and Bo Pelini (.541) who went 33-28 from 2015-19.
"BY VICTORIES"
By victories, Beede tops the list with 147 wins, followed by Tressel (135), Narduzzi (68), Heacock (60), Pelini (33), Wolford (31) and Dempsey (12).
"THE 'ICE CASTLE' CHILLS ITS OPPONENTS"
After spending their first 41 seasons without a place to call home, the Penguins have enjoyed the friendly confines of Stambaugh Stadium, which has affectionately become known as the "Ice Castle" for the past 38 campaigns.
They went 5-2 this past season at Dwight "Dike" Beede Field and in 251 games played have posted a 183-67-1 overall mark, an impressive .731 winning percentage.
Included in that mark are four undefeated seasons (9-0 in 1993; 9-0-1 in 1994; 6-0 in 2005 and 8-0 in 2016), 14, one-loss campaigns, just three losing seasons and six non-winning campaigns, a true home-field advantage.
"OVERVIEW"
You cannot mention college football without mentioning Youngtown State University as playing a major part of its growth process.
From its initiation of the penalty flag, to All-Americans, to Academic All-Americans to the record-setting athletes that left their mark in the professional ranks, YSU has a rich football tradition with many successes, both on and off the field.
In nine decades of play they've won as an independent and as members of a conference, advancing to the game's biggest stage while proudly representing the scarlet and white.
Moving forward and with the bar set so high, each new group of athletes and coaches will be entrusted to carry our banner of success both locally, regionally, statewide and on the national stage.
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