Back in the olden days, when I would have to miss a Johnnie football game, the outcome of Saturday’s tilt would often not be known until Sunday night. After the long drive home and unloading the hunting gear, grabbing the sports page would be the first Johnnie football news of what happened on the gridiron a day and a half ago.
My how things have changed. While there is no substitute for the live experience, there certainly are many options for getting your Johnnie football fix. Cell phone technology and the internet have blown the doors open for access to information. As hard as it was for me to miss the famous Bethel game in 2003, I can never forget listening to the final minutes on my cell phone while sitting in a deerstand with my son, Willie, now a freshman at SJU. Closer to Canada than Collegeville, I held my phone to my ear with my gloved hand, while at the other end, my old SJU pal Louis Dvorak (’77) sitting in his shorts in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, held his phone to his computer speaker which was streaming the radio broadcast of the game.
Of course, the best radio announcers in football today can be found on The Bear, 660 or Relevant Radio 1330 on your AM radio dial, depending upon where you are. Outside the broadcast coverage area, with internet access you can catch the call of the game by Mark, Brian, Charlie and Mike on your computer anywhere in the world. Don’t forget to check out the Thursday night show broadcast live from the Stonehouse in St. Joseph from 7-8 p.m.
Any Johnnie football fan must be familiar with gojohnnies.com, the official website of St. John’s football. Loaded with information, this site has archived information from the past and all the official stats, roster, schedule info any fan will need. From there, you can check out the links to the Johnnie Facebook page, the Johnnie Twitter feed, the Johnnie YouTube site, and several others.
For MIAC footbal discussion during the season, and general football, fishing, beer, women chatter year-round, there is no substitute for the MIAC Post Patterns board. This board is how I met a lot of the ne’er-do-wells who grace these pages and frequent the famous Johnnie pre-game tailgate. The board is a sub-part of d3football.com, which is the peerless site for all D3 football information. If you haven’t already, lurk on the board or register and log in. We always welcome new blood, even Tommies.
For old school meets new school information, there’s the St. Cloud Times website. Reporter Frank Rajkowski does a fantastic job of covering the Johhnies and the rest of the MIAC, and gives you some behind the scenes information with his blog page.
And if you’re reading this, you obviously are aware of johnniefootball.com the unofficial fansite for SJU football, and your one-stop shop for the ramblings and musings of DustySJU, TouchdownTommy, TC, SJUSection105, JohnnieTats, Theo Wick, and others.
No reason to be uninformed, check out these sites. I will be far away geographically on Saturday, but close to the action, nevertheless.
GO JOHNNIES!
finsleft@johnniefootball.com
