The sixth annual SHAT Golf Outing was once again a huge success. This year’s version was held at Village Green Golf Course in Hickory, PA. See what happens when a course treats you right? You give them return business. Marty Connelly and Mike Speca finished out their reign as Golf Outing CEOs in grand fashion. This year’s event raised over $8,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and another $560 for the Vietnam Vets Fund. Some new additions to the outing were the par 3 hole-in-one contests sponsored by Rohrich Cadillac (Chuck Lucci Jr.). Up for grabs were vacation trips and the grand prize a Cadillac CTS which was nearly won by Bob Spray. The champions of the tournament were: Tim Shannon, Pat Walsh, Larry Metzler & Dave Spalla who ran away with the tournament with a -14 score. Nice job. Ron Bauer again handled all of the marketing aspects of the event. Thanks to all who volunteered their time and $ to this effort.

With the opening game just 7 days away, the tailgate organizers didn’t have much time to rest following the golf outing. The preparation for opening day always is much crazier to get ready than the other games on the schedule and the 2006 opener against Virginia was set to become SHAT’s all-time insane tailgate with the hard, rocking band Broken Bone leading the way. Aaron Kushner put the finishing touches on the 3 part wooden stage he had built to fit into the Ridge Avenue hillside, the P.A. system and silent generator to power the band’s equipment had been rented and was ready to go for the Saturday event. All of the logistical components had been taken care of; the only wildcard was the weather. Early in the week, it called for 70 degrees and sun. By Tuesday evening Hurricane Ernesto was rearing its ugly head in Florida and was working its way up the East Coast. Late Thursday night, the decision to pull the plug on the outdoor concert had to be made, disappointing both the band and the SHAT-Head mob that had been looking forward to this event for months since Tom Spray had proposed the idea to lead guitarist – Andy Quinn.

Rain would not stop the tailgate from happening though and the weather actually cooperated just in time to start setting up the tailgate. The tents, flags, bar and tables were put in place and it was party time. A huge crowd was on hand led by a contingent of Rennerdale/Chartiers Valley Alumni. Special guest Tim Nieman was on hand to watch his beloved UVA Cavaliers take a serious beatdown by the Panthers. Overall a crowd of over 90 people were in attendance and were not disappointed by what they were served. It was Gable’s specialty – The Where’s the Beef? Tailgate. Tremendous stuff. I believe that there was a type of beef from every ethnic group in the world that don’t find cows sacred. Maker’s Mark was the shot of the day to the delight of many, especially Kush. We also celebrated a triple birthday for Ron Bauer, John Lucci & Chuck Lucci Jr. The opening day cigars were custom cigars that PT had ordered for the golf outing which didn’t arrive in time. These were a thing of beauty with the cigar ring sporting a photo of the famous #90 F. Paterno jersey. They were a huge hit as was this tailgate. In retrospect, it might be good that the band didn’t play that day; people may have ended up in the hospital as everyone was partying in fifth gear the entire time without the added fuel of live music.

On the field, Pitt took control of the game from the opening kickoff. They whipped the Cavaliers 38-13 and dominated all aspects of the game. This appeared to be the team that everyone was expecting to see last season. So far so good, great tailgate, great opening day win.

Week #2 was a Friday night road game against the Cincinnati Bearcats. Pitt relied on big pass plays to Derek Kinder and  sealed the deal with an interception return for a touchdown by Darrel Revis, his 2^nd such effort in two games. The Panthers were off to a 2-0 start for the first time in quite a while.

Week #3 brought the Michigan St. Spartans to town. It also brought back to town Aussie Pitt Fan Brad Smith. He brought some Australian Beer & Rum with him and a recipe for Aussie Meat Pies (Even though Irish Beer Guinness was the main ingredient). PT & Brad slaved at the stove until around 2:30am the night before the game finishing the meat pies. (We had no idea they were going to take 6 hours to prepare). No sleep is always good the night before a noon kickoff game. After spending all evening preparing the pies, we were going to make them a mandatory eat, but they went quickly and were surprisingly good. Despite their tastiness, they will not be making a return to the tailgate unless someone else wants to go through the process of cooking them.

The drink of the day, Bundaberg Rum mixed with some other stuff, was a miserable failure, the first SHAT Drink of the Day to fall flat on its face. It was left on the curb complete with the leaking cooler that it was kept in for the homeless bums to enjoy after the game. (They may have passed on it too). Fortunately, skewer day made up for the weak D.O.T.D. Bob stuck wooden sticks through just about anything you could throw on the grill for a tremendous tailgate. Dave “Bucky” Paul summed it all up when he arrived and witnessed Beer Pong, Washoos & Dice Rolling taking place all at once. “This place is like a F*&^ing Carnival”!

After jumping to a quick 10-0 lead, Pitt got steamrolled as Michigan State soon realized they could run the same three plays repeatedly for big yardage and did just that, coasting to a 38-23 victory. The highlight of the game was J.P. Betsill taking full advantage of his sideline pass as he could be spotted everywhere around the field even helping Derek Kinder to his feet on a last second touchdown play.  

The following week brought the Citadel to town. ZZZZ - Another beauty home game scheduled by Jeff Long. Pitt laid a beating on the Cits 51-6 to raise their overall record to 3-1. There was actually a Citadel fan at the tailgate. This was one of the more amazing things we witnessed during the season. I didn’t know Citadel fans actually existed.

More importantly, Fryfest was in full effect before the game. Gable cranked out fish, shrimp, chicken, wings, twinkies, oreos and many other items that were gobbled up by the hungry crew of SHAT-Heads.

Game #5 brought Toledo to town and Steak & Shrimp Day to the tailgate. Rainy weather didn’t slow down the mob from showing up for surf & turf. Big Lar was on the grill. This year’s edition added multiple versions of shrimp: Garlic, New Orleans & Old Bay Style. Gable cranked up multiple types of potatoes and we even threw in some grilled fruit skewers (Pineapple & Maraschino Cherries). Aaron Kushner showed some serious slicing skills the previous evening getting the pineapple prepared. Bob Strauss & Dan Blocher also were on hand for the long evening of steak marinating and shrimp skewering. Tom Spray made an early a.m. appearance to prepare the Old Bay Shrimp.

The Panthers went on to pummel the Rockets 45-3 to raise their record to 4-1. Heralded Freshmen WR Dorin Dickerson made his Pitt debut and scored an end-around touchdown to the delight of the “throng” of fans at Heinz Field. (Nobody in attendance). One improvement in this year’s team has been its ability to take lesser teams and finish them off once they have them down, something that has not been seen for many years.

The beginning of October brought a small SHAT road trip to Syracuse. Tom & Bob Spray, Bob Strauss, Kurt Bruner, Frank Verdecchia and Pat Thompson made the trek to Syracuse to watch the Panthers square off with the Orange in the Dome. After a fine meal at Tulley’s on Friday night, mayhem nearly occurred with one local tough guy trying to impress his young girlfriend by being a hard-ass towards our table. I’m not sure about math in Upstate New York, but where I come from, 6 vs 2 is usually a losing situation. Luckily our “Maturity” took over and the incident passed over without this punk getting put in the hospital.

After an evening of drinks @ Tulley’s, we continued the party back in the Spray Bros. room. Bob Spray was the big winner of the never ending dice game. However he was a major loser as Kurt and Pat polluted his nonsmoking room with clouds of cigar smoke that still lingered the next morning.

The weather for tailgating could not have been nicer. A box of Krispy Kremes and a couple of quality pizzas from Varsity Pizza provided the food for the morning’s festivities. After downing the food and a few beers, we made our way to The Dome and navigated our way to the press-box courtesy of Kurt Bruner’s connections. We were introduced to former SU coach Dick MacPherson. We were also introduced to Pitt beat writers Kevin Gorman and Paul Zeise, both good guys.

The Panthers behind a major rushing effort from Larod Stephens-Howling (221 Yards) went on to defeat the Orange 21-11, a score that didn’t show the lopsidedness of the game. The Panthers were now 5-1 for the first time since 1991 and looking good doing it. The group of road warriors celebrated in the endzone, but the best parts of the day were still yet to come.

A return trip to the press-box with our Wayne’s World all-access passes, provided one of the greatest F. Paterno moments in the shirt’s 6 year history. The booth next to Bill Hillgrove and Bill Fralic was wide open and the plexi-glass partition was just too tempting to pass up, so Pat and Kurt (wearing the jersey) moved into place. Kurt turned backwards towards the Pitt broadcast booth and PT wrapped on the window to gain the announcers attention. They were buckling over in laughter after realizing what they had just witnessed. Fralic even leaned out around the glass to knuckle-up with us - A tremendous moment in F. Paterno History. This would not end the fun for the day however. Returning to the parking lot to enjoy some victory beers, we had the opportunity to party with former All-American/National Champion, Al Romano. We had a blast listening to old stories from the title season. The only drawback to this chance meeting was that we ran out of beer and had to break into the case of beer we had brought as a gift for Kurt’s connection @ SU. Hey, how many times are you going to get to party with a Pitt Football Legend? We still managed to deliver a 10 pack of IC Light bottles to her home following the parking lot party. 

The Syracuse victory was followed by another Friday Night Lights special. This time the Panthers traveled to Orlando to take on Central Florida in the Citrus Bowl Stadium. They pummeled the Knights to a pulp with Lowell Robinson taking the opening kickoff back 97 yards for a td. Larod Stephens-Howling found the endzone 3 times & Pitt never looked back as they won easily 52-7 and moved to 6-1 for the first time since 1982.

Rutgers was up next as they came to town for a major Big East Showdown. SHAT was ready with a spirited Pittsburgh Bulk Tailgate full of Primanti Style sandwiches, Fried Fish, Pierogies, Kilbo, you name it. In addition we had a surprise visit from Scout.com/Panther Report leader Bob Lichetenfels. It was nice to meet him in person. As is usually the case against Rutgers, John B was a runaway winner for SHAT-Head of the Week. Irish Car-Bombs were once again the culprit. In addition, J.B. introduced a couple of bottles of wine from his F. Paterno Vineyards. How can you go wrong when selecting from such fine vintage as: “Ripple de Running Joey” complete with photo of Joe-Pa running off the field after s*&^ing his pants on the field against Ohio State?

Unfortunately, the game was not great stuff as Pitt’s offense struggled to get it in gear. Trailing 13-3 early in the 4^th quarter, Tyler Palko found Oderick Turner for an 8 yard td that sparked a spirited response from Pitt fans for the first time since the 2005 opener against ND. Pitt had seized momentum in the game, but that would only be temporary as RB-Ray Rice ripped off a 63 yard run following the kickoff and silenced the Pitt crowd as Rutgers wrapped up the win with a td shortly after Rice’s long run.

Appearing to be reeling from the loss to Rutgers, Pitt went on to lay two consecutive eggs on the road with the first loss coming at the hands of the South Florida Bulls in Tampa. Pitt was absolutely awful. Even when Pitt managed to score a td, they f’d that up with Darrell Strong flipping the bird to fans in the endzone. Good job there.

The next debacle came @ Rentschler Stadium in Connecticut. Mark Thompson & Paul Bonetti had the misfortune of being on hand to witness Pitt blow a 14 point lead late in the game and lose to the Huskies 46-45 in double overtime. Uggh. These two have gotten to witness two of Pitt’s worst games played in their history in this stadium over the past 3 years. In 2004, it was the infamous 3^rd Down Slide game by our buddy Walt. This time it was an absolute meltdown in a game that was all but won. UConn needs a serious beating when they come to Heinz Field in 2007.

Even the Hamkey couldn’t save the day as the Mountain quEERs and their high powered offense came to town for a Thursday Night Showdown on ESPN. Another great tailgate was put together by Bob with Sausage, Fried Steak, Roast Beef & The Hamkey along with more F. Paterno Vineyards, this week featuring: “Brittle Bones Joe” with action photos of Joe-Pa getting taken out along the sidelines against Wisconsin set the table for a fun evening. Despite the crappy weather, it rained for most of the tailgate, everyone had a great time. This marked the tailgate debut of Frank Verdecchia Sr. Good to see him make it to a tailgate. This also marked the end of an era, as the original SHAT tent bit the dust in the weather. Wind blew the rickety, old unit apart. We left it behind with the trash. Thanks for 6 solid years of good service tent. Paul Bonetti also had his attempt at perfect attendance derailed by a sneak attack, mandatory, business training course scheduled by his company in Cincinnati on the day of the game.

On the field, Pitt hung with the quEERs for the first half highlighted by one of the most exciting plays in Pitt Football History. Sprung by Derek Kinder’s “two for one special” block, Darrelle Revis returned a punt 73 yards down the right sideline with an array of dekes and a spin move on his way to the endzone. It almost didn’t seem real as it unfolded in front of you. Pitt went to the locker-room with a 27-24 lead, but their lack of speed and depth showed big-time in the 2^nd half as the quEERs ran away with this one 45-27 dropping Pitt’s record to 6-5.

The final tailgate was Italian Day. Gable rolled out the fan favorite lasagnas (Killer – Meat & Seafood), Sausage, Meatballs. In addition, we were treated to the world’s largest retail pizza from Mama Lena’s in McKees Rocks. It was 150 slices of square-pizza beauty delivered right to the parking lot. Most people went and got their obligatory shot of Grappa out of the way immediately. That stuff is awful. Awards day followed with a small number of perfect attendance recipients. Dan Blocher ran his streak to 9 consecutive years. Tom Spray and Pat Thompson ran their streaks to 8 years each. Bob Strauss continued his impressive run to 5 straight years. Newcomers Tom Musgrove and Adam Hamill picked up Rookie of the Year Awards. A very special thank you went out to Bob Gable and Jack Tomino for all of their hard work laying out major food spreads week after week. They’ll be dining @ Hyde Park Steakhouse compliments of SHAT.

On the field, we should have known what was coming when Pitt hit the field wearing some of the ugliest uniforms ever created. Gold, Gold and More Gold was the flavor of the new threads. I don’t know what the Athletic Department was thinking on this one, of course they won’t listen to the fans pleas to go back to the uniforms that everyone wants to see them in – Script Pitt so we really shouldn’t have been surprised that they managed to put together a 3 shades of gold uniform - absolutely embarrassing. This game brought an end to, the Pitt careers of: Tyler Palko, H.B. Blades, Darrelle Revis and Clint Session. These guys gave you everything that could be asked for over the past few years. Good luck to them in the NFL. The game ended with a fifth consecutive defeat 48-24 - a very disappointing end to the season after getting off to a 6-1 start.

On the bright side, Wannstedt was busy on the recruiting trail and was able to pull off another stellar recruiting class led by RB – LeSean McCoy. Hopefully some of the talent redshirted last season is ready to step to the forefront and get things rolling. 

The off-season was a busy one for many SHAT-Heads as well. Founding Fathers Mike Speca (Daniel Patrick) & Dan Blocher (Aidan Josef) both welcomed new baby sons to their families. Angry Frank Verdecchia became an uncle to Dominic Verdecchia. Scott Thompson & Krista Dankowsky tied the knot with a Vegas Wedding (Great Time). Kevin Dowd & Terri Schearer also were married on the same day June 9th. Kevin Kappeler and Stacey Schrettner were married in July. Congratulations to all.

SHAT was also busy in the offseason preparing for the 2007 tailgating season. Mark Thompson found a tremendous fold-up Beer Pong table that was purchased. Brian Kappeler found a monster sized grill (5’ in length) that we purchased for Bob. A new high quality camera was also purchased for the SHAT Photo Team to work with.

The 7^th Annual Golf Outing will be held @ Village Green Golf Course on August 25^th. A record number of players are expected to be on hand.

September 1^st is opening day and will mark the beginning of SHAT’s 10^th Anniversary Season. Once again scheduled to kick off the festivities on opening day is rock band Broken Bone. Let’s hope the weather cooperates this year and they are able to rock the lot like it’s never been rocked before.

See you in the Lot.

PT