Blackburn Football Enters New Era With
2008 Schedule
The Blackburn College football program will enter a new
era with their 2008 schedule, which features five home
games, two new opponents, and a return to an old
conference affiliation in what will be the 20th season
of varsity football in Carlinville.
The Beavers will look to carry over their momentum from
last season, when they raced to a season-ending
three-game winning streak, scoring a total of 136
points. Blackburn (4-6) broke at least 38 school records
last fall.
After playing in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference
from 2002-07, Blackburn will return to the St. Louis
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which will again
sponsor football beginning this fall. It will be the
second stint of championship football for the SLIAC,
which also sponsored the sport from 1996-99.
Blackburn, which competes in the SLIAC in all other
varsity sports offered by the school, shared the
first-ever SLIAC football title in 1996. The program
also played in the first-ever SLIAC football contest,
defeating Greenville 18-14 on Sept. 14, 1996.
The 2008 season will open with a nonconference contest
at Concordia University – Chicago in River Forest, Ill.
on Saturday, Sept. 6. Concordia, which went 3-7 a year
ago, and Blackburn resumed this series in 2006 after
playing each year from 1990-94.
Blackburn will then host Maranatha Baptist College (2-7)
of Watertown, Wis. in the home opener on Sept. 13. When
the teams last met, on Oct. 20 of last year in
Carlinville, the Beavers set a single-game school record
for points scored in a 61-27 win.
The Beavers will then play in Watertown the following
week in a neutral site matchup against Martin Luther
College of New Ulm, Minn. Martin Luther (6-3) and
Blackburn hooked up in a thriller on Dome Day in the
Metrodome in Minneapolis in 2006, as the Beavers held
off a late rally for a nail-biting 21-17 win.
Week 4 will see the opening of the SLIAC schedule,
beginning with a game at Greenville (5-5) on Sept. 27.
It will be the 11th all-time meeting in football between
the two schools, who have staged some memorable clashes
over the years.
Blackburn will then return home to take on Eureka (2-8)
in the Homecoming game on Saturday, Oct. 4. It will be
the first meeting since 1997 between the two schools.
Eureka joined the SLIAC prior to the 2006-07 academic
year, and Blackburn fans will no doubt recall the
rivalry games with Eureka in a variety of sports
throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
The Beavers will also be at home in Week 6 to host
Principia College (1-8) in another SLIAC game on Oct.
11. The Beavers have beaten Principia more times than
any other opponent, sporting a 13-4 all-time record over
the Panthers. Blackburn has scored at least 50 points in
each of their last four meetings with Principia, posting
a total of 206 points in
those games.
The Week 7 game will feature a new opponent, as
Blackburn will travel to Montgomery, Ala. to take on
Huntingdon College, one of two new “football-only”
members of the SLIAC. The Hawks were 5-5 a year ago. It
will be the first game that the Blackburn football team
has ever played in the state of Alabama and will be the
southern-most contest in the program’s history.
Blackburn will then return home in Week 8 to face the
other newcomer to the SLIAC, LaGrange College of
Georgia, on Oct. 25. A third-year program, the Panthers
went 0-10 in 2007. It will be the third game of the year
against an opponent called “Panthers,” the most times in
one season that Blackburn will have played an opponent
with the same nickname.
In Week 9, Blackburn will renew an old rivalry with a
SLIAC game in Jacksonville against MacMurray College.
The Beavers rolled to a 33-20 win in the season finale
in 2007, which was also played in Jacksonville.
MacMurray struggled to an 0-10 record last season and is
the only team that Blackburn has played in each of their
previous 19 varsity seasons.
The 2008 season will then conclude with a SLIAC contest
against Westminster College (4-6) on Senior Day on Nov.
8. The Beavers and Blue Jays were two of the three
programs that shared the first SLIAC football title in
1996, the first season of the return of varsity football
at Westminster. The two teams have played in every
season since.
This will be the 20th season of varsity football at
Blackburn, which re-introduced the sport with a
seven-game junior varsity schedule in 1988. The Beavers
played a six-game varsity slate in 1989. Football at
Blackburn dates to 1895, with games being played
intermittently until the late 1920s.
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