"Remember (the) Maine."
Dan Crowley, '01 (below right) remembers that day, not February 15, 1898 when the battleship Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor to ignite the Spanish-American War but rather almost two decades ago on November 16, 1991 when the Black Bears shipwrecked the Tigers 49-34 on a rain-soaked grass field in Orono.
On that inauspicious occasion Dan, a freshman, served up seven interceptions, a dubious stat that remains a single game record for a Towson quarterback. He is also one of four quarterbacks who share the NCAA FCS record.
It was a "Tim Tebow" kind of day. But it hasn't remained stuck in Crow's craw. He has almost forgotten about it.
"I remember the start of the fourth quarter," Dan says. "I told coach (Phil) Albert that things weren't going too well and if he wanted to pull me, I would understand. He put his arm around me and told me this was a great learning experience. He assured me it was not the end of my college football career."
Indeed.
"Crow" went on to throw for 8,900 yards and 81 touchdown passes. In his junior year, he threw only FOUR interceptions in 217 attempts the entire season. During that year, he led the Tigers to an 8-2 record and their first national ranking as a NCAA Division I-AA (now FCS) program, number 24. That sterling record included wins at Connecticut (28-27) and at Delaware (32-30).
That Delaware victory in Newark was one of the most memorable wins for this writer in 36 years of covering Tiger Football. Crow mixed throwing passes to wide receiver Mark Orlando, '95 before All-American running back Tony Vinson, '94 scored the game winner on a three-yard burst with 10 seconds left on the clock. It was his fourth touchdown of the game.
After his collegiate days, Crow enjoyed a productive eight-year career in the CFL while playing for four different teams including the Baltimore Stallions, the Montreal Alouettes, the Edmonton Eskimos and the Ottawa Rough Riders. Later on, he led the Bergamo Lions to successive Italian Football Federation titles, garnering championship game MVP honors both times.
"Quite honestly I set so many positive records at Towson that the seven interceptions are barely a memory," Dan says. "We were very young that year and playing a lot of freshmen but Coach Albert and Gordy Combs stayed with us. We finished our careers with back-to-back 8-2 seasons and were very successful."
The Towson Hall of Famer returned to his alma mater this past February as the Tigers' Director of Development for Team Support. He'll be the sidelines Saturday when the Tigers take on the Colonial Athletic Association leading Black Bears in the tenth and most important meeting between the teams. Maine has won six of nine games between the schools, including the last five in a row.
It will be Crow's first trip back to Orono in 20 years.
He's excited for the 2011 Tigers.
"The big difference in this young team and the one we had back then is the cohesiveness and camaraderie," Dan says. "Rob Ambrose, '93 makes a point every week that it's a team concept, not individual. The kids get it. They're living it."
Dan will be joined at the game by another former Tiger quarterback, Ron Meehan, '81 who is in his first year as a Tiger broadcaster. He is serving as the analyst on the Tiger Football Radio crew along side play-by-play partner Spiro Morekas, '83.
Ron, also a Towson Hall of Fame member, has much better memories if his first trip to Maine in 1979. A junior quarterback for the Tigers, he passed for 202 yards and scored a rushing touchdown to lead the Tigers to a stunning 13-7 victory over the Black Bears.
The Tigers were playing only their second game as an NCAA Division II program and that was their first win over an NCAA Division I-AA opponent. Meehan led the Tigers to a 9-1 record that season.
