Slippery Rock University is a destination for college football fans, and it’s not just for the school’s peculiar name. While Penn State, Michigan and LSU’s football stadiums are on many fans’ bucket lists, one fan traveled to SRU’s Mihalik-Thompson Stadium from Florida to discover a supportive community and a great college football atmosphere.
Ed Woodruff, a Florida resident and graduate of Florida State University, got to check SRU off his list with his brother, Richard, when they attended a game at SRU on Aug. 31.
“We were surrounded by people who were just extremely friendly, welcomed us, made us feel at home and shared stories about Slippery Rock,” Ed Woodruff said. “We just had a marvelous time.”
Woodruff primarily mentioned two catalysts for his interest in SRU and its football team. He recalled a book series he read sometime in the 1950s that followed an fictious athlete who went to Slippery Rock, and he thinks fondly of the times public address announcers at Division I football stadiums would share the Slippery Rock football scores during their own games, most notably the tradition at Michigan Stadium.
Additionally, Woodruff knew a faculty member at FSU named Herb Reinhard Jr., who ended up serving as SRU president from 1979-84.
Over the years, Woodruff would mention to his brother, Richard, who lives in South Carolina, that they still needed to visit SRU for a football game. Unfortunately for scheduling, Richard is also a big college football fan and, as a result, could not miss the Clemson University games.
“When I checked the schedule this year, I noticed that the first game was the Thursday night game before the rest of the season started,” Woodruff said. “I said, ‘You’re fortunate. This game is on Thursday night. We can go up, and you can be home in time to see LSU versus Clemson on Saturday.’”
After doing some digging on when and where they could buy tickets, Richard Woodruff’s wife, Gwen, got in contact with Kelly Patton, an administrative assistant for SRU Athletics. Patton helped the brothers get their trip figured out before eventually finding the two at the game.
“She proceeded to be wonderful talking to us. I repeated the story to her in person about how this was something I had wanted to do for a long time,” Woodruff said. “Yes, we had indeed come from Florida and South Carolina to see a Slippery Rock football game.”
Woodruff also credited Holly Pipher, from SRU’s Advancement Office, for being welcoming and accommodating during their visit.
Since making the return trip to Florida some hundreds of miles away, the University community has continued to find him. Woodruff picked up an SRU hat at the game, and it has served as a conversation starter.
“The next day at the airport I was wearing my Slippery Rock hat. I’ve worn it every day since I got back,” Woodruff said. “I was in a grocery store, walking down the aisle when a woman said, ‘Is that Slippery Rock University?’”
He also met a man from Oklahoma who noticed his hat and followed Slippery Rock as well.
SRU may not be the largest football school in the country by sheer numbers, but the energy and the community can follow even those who did not attend SRU well beyond the small town’s borders.
