College Football Finally In SWFL

[Choctaw_fan]

I read this morning that Ave Maria University will have their spring game this Saturday and they are set to start competing in the Mid-South Conference in the fall. There was no mention in the article as to what NCAA division they are in. I left the panhandle a few years before the University of West Florida started their program. But now, I get a second chance to see college football locally. Yeah!

Notre Dame watch out. The plan has always been for Ave Maria to be the Notre Dame of the South!

 

[Hwy17]

They are NAIA along with other Florida colleges, Southeast University, Webber International, Warner Southern, and Edward Waters University.

 

[jambun82]

Ava Marie traveled to Deland to play Stetson, an NCAA Division 1-AA program, at Spec Martin Stadium last November.

 

[Silver King]

Ave Maria exists because of SK who convinced his old boss, Tom Monaghan (Ave Maria is ALL his concept for a conservative values, Catholic community/university), whose yachts he ran (Tigress and Tigress II - Monaghan owned the Detroit Tigers), it would be better to operate on the West Coast of Florida than the East Coast while we were down during the winters - we summered in the Great Lakes. SK, got dockage at the Naples Yacht Club on New Years Eve 1985, and the seed was planted (The Boss liked Turnberry Isle) then SK slowly exposed him to South Seas Plantation, Boca Grande (Board member Bo Schembechler loved it there), Long Boat Key, etc. and the rest, as they say, is history...

 

[Bartow..Billy]

Is that one sentence?

 

[Choctaw_fan]

Good, I'm glad they're in NAIA. We need more lower division teams in Florida. Their mascot is what looks like a bull dog but they are the Gyrenes which was a slang for the US Marines. Anyone know the history of how they got that name?

 

[Neutral 0bserver]

Ave Maria exists because of SK who convinced his old boss, Tom Monaghan (Ave Maria is ALL his concept for a conservative values, Catholic community/university), whose yachts he ran (Tigress and Tigress II - Monaghan owned the Detroit Tigers), it would be better to operate on the West Coast of Florida than the East Coast while we were down during the winters - we summered in the Great Lakes. SK, got dockage at the Naples Yacht Club on New Years Eve 1985, and the seed was planted (The Boss liked Turnberry Isle) then SK slowly exposed him to South Seas Plantation, Boca Grande (Board member Bo Schembechler loved it there), Long Boat Key, etc. and the rest, as they say, is history...

Is that one sentence?

Silver King may have got charge a few times, but he have never been sentence.

 

[Silver King]

I left it open and may continue it to make it a longer sentence at a later time.

 

[Silver King]

Good, I'm glad they're in NAIA. We need more lower division teams in Florida. Their mascot is what looks like a bull dog but they are the Gyrenes which was a slang for the US Marines. Anyone know the history of how they got that name?

Monaghan served in the USMC.