Strong Vincent High School (Erie Pa.) has said yes to a Week 4 football match up with Saint Ignatius for the 2012 season.
The contracts still need to be finalized, but Wildcats Athletic Director Rory Fitzpatrick '88 said the verbal agreement is a two-year deal. A site for this coming season's game against the Colonels hasn't been determined yet. The game in 2013 would be played in Week 3.
Strong Vincent went 8-3 this past season after advancing to the second round of the PIAA playoffs.
The Colonels were 5-1 in their District 10 Region 6 league competition, finishing second to Erie Cathedral Prep. A breakdown on Strong Vincent's 2011 record had the Colonels 4-1 at home, 4-1 on the road and 0-1 at a neutral site.
If everything is finalized with Strong Vincent it would give Saint Ignatius nine games for this coming season and leave the Wildcats with one date to fill - Week 7.
We'll keep you posted, but, as we've said on the corner in past years, a big tip of the cap (or helmet) goes out to Rory for his tireless efforts in filling multiple open dates.
NOTE: In case you historians out there are wondering, Strong Vincent was opened in 1930. The school's athletic nickname (Colonels) is very appropriate. Here is the Webmaster and Strong Vincent web page bio on "The Man."
He was a gallant officer, beloved and respected by his command and by all who knew him. - James C. Rice, Strong Vincent's successor to command of the Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac.
Overshadowed by other Union officers in the fight for Little Round Top, the youthful Colonel Strong Vincent actually may have done more to save the Union and help turn the tide of the battle of Gettysburg for the Union than did more popular Union heroes of that fight such as G.K. Warren or Joshua Chamberlain. Unlike Warren or Chamberlain, Vincent did not survive the fighting at Gettysburg; Vincent was mortally wounded defending his home state of Pennsylvania, crying to his men "Don't give an inch!" Such was the importance of Vincent's actions at Gettysburg that he was promoted to general on the battlefield.
The Army of the Potomac on the march to Gettysburg was full of Pennsylvanians who felt a special significance in fighting on the ground of home. Some, like Colonel Richard Roberts of the 140th Pennsylvania, made patriotic speeches before giving their lives in places like the Wheatfield. Of the many Pennsylvanians in the AOP was a very young Colonel commanding he Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Corps, Colonel Strong Vincent.
Strong Vincent was born in Waterford, Pennsylvania on June 17, 1837. He graduated from Harvard in 1859 and pursued a career in law, opening an office in Erie, Pennsylvania in the northwest corner of the state.
When the war broke out, Vincent was amongst the first to volunteer, serving as the adjuctant at the rank of 1st Lt. for a 3 month milita regiment. When that expired, he reenlisted and became the Lt. Col. of the 83rd Pennsylvania, a regiment destined to finish one file behind the Fifth New Hampshire in number of battle deaths.