The idea was formed on a September Thursday evening in 1997. After consuming 4 beers in about 20 minutes at Peter’s Pub, long suffering Pitt Football diehards; Mike Speca, Dan Blocher and Pat Thompson weaved up Cardiac Hill into Pitt Stadium to witness what was to become a turnaround event in the history of Pitt Football. This once mighty football program had become an absolute laughing stock over the past five or so seasons. Attending games to witness this team live in action was a true test of mental toughness and required quick consumptions of alcohol to make it through them. How much could you take until you finally broke and just gave up? With the hiring of a new athletic director and a new coach, we had hoped that somehow these guys could help put this program back on the map. What unfolded over the next couple of hours did exactly that.

We settled onto our stenciled numbers on the metal bleachers and watched as the powerhouse Miami Hurricanes with their solid poll rankings came roaring out and scored quickly on a 57-yard touchdown pass in the opening moments. Unlike the Pitt teams of the last 8 years, the Panthers did not roll over and delivered a return shot by scoring on their second possession of the game (of course they missed the extra point). A message was sent that they were going to stay in this game and eventually (with many potential heart attack moments) went on to upset the heavily favored Canes that evening 21-17.

After helping storm the field with thousands of other fans who had been waiting years for a victory of some magnitude worthy of field-goal tear down, we exited the South End-zone through the big metal gate and declared that it was time to start recruiting people for a season ticket group. Apparently this game, in addition to a Liberty Bowl berth, opened many other eyes as well, as we were able to quickly round up 17 people for the following season. The original group of season ticket holders consisted of: Dan Blocher, Mike Speca, Pat Thompson, Larry Thompson, Mark Thompson, Scott Thompson, Russ Dankowsky, Craig Stevenson, Joe Speeler, Mike Norcutt, and Ken & Heidi Gianella.