Football Parents/Grandparents/BK Alumni and Friends of Bishop Kelly:

As you all know, Thursday, June 20th is our annual Knights of the Gridiron Football Luau. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend this fun event designed to raise additional moneys for our boys football budget. This event has been a critical fundraiser in the overall success of our football program. The ENTIRE program benefits from the money raised at this event. Coach Brennan and the Knights of the Gridiron help complete the budget with this event. We have been able to buy equipment, uniforms, video equipment, goal posts, coaches clinics, balls, helmets, shoulder pads, and many other critical needs to the Freshman, JV, and Varsity football team in the past.

We are looking for the following from our Football parents and Alumni for this year’s event:

-Captain a table of 8($35 per plate or $280 per table) – Nick Brady and Peter Oliver have volunteered to help assist with table captains to fill the house! Please contact Nick directly at isgnick@idahosportinggoods.com (484-3780), or Peter Oliver at peter@tokcommercial.com (947-0816) to reserve your table for your guests and/or volunteer to be a Table Captain.

-Donate a Dessert to the auction – Contact  amy.l.lodge@hp.com

-Donate a silent or live auction item -  If you have an auction item, please contact Terry Heffner at theffner@guildmortgage.net ( and/or Tony Haws at tony.haws@usmichelin.com.  These items could be a basket, golf outing, dinners, certificates, vacation home stay or anything to help out with the event. We are always looking to add new items to our live and silent auctions.

We need volunteers for the following:
-Coordinator for silent auction table displays
-Coordinator for live auction displays
-Cleanup coordinator
-Bartenders

** If you are interested in volunteering in any capacity, we could use your help! Contact Pat Shalz at pat@tokcommercial.com (947-0834). For help with decorations, please contact Judy King, WE5Kings93@msn.com, for bartending or check in and out station contact Jim Redinger at jredinger@watrust.com  or Coach Brennan at tbrennan@bk.org

Thanks in advance for your support of this event, and we hope to see you on June 20th!

CofI will play in the Frontier Conference, an expansive four-state NAIA confab including Carroll, Rocky Mountain, Montana State-Northern, Dickinson State, Southern Oregon, Montana Tech, Eastern Oregon and Montana Western.  BK alum Butch Hyder ’11 plays for Montana State-Northern, and Dan Schaffeld ’08 is at Montana Western.  Recent BK grads  Zach Thiry ’04 (Carroll) and Brock Hyder ’09 (MSU-Northern) had outstanding careers in the Frontier Conference.  Brady is likely to play defensive back and serve as a return specialist and could be the first Yote to touch the ball on the opening kickoff in ’14.

A three-sport athlete, Brady competes in basketball and lacrosse as well as football. His parents,  Nick and Pam Brady, both graduated from BK in 1981, and brother Nicko ’10 was a football and basketball starter and is an assistant coach in the Knight’s football program.  Cory’s cousin Tim Brady ’04 played linebacker at Boise State, and his uncle Mike Brady ’76 was a receiver and return specialist for the Broncos way back when.

Cory was a key threat for the Knights this past season, helping the squad to an 8-2 season record and a berth in the 4A post season.  Among his highlights was a two touchdown performance against Skyview in the season opener, both on electrifying punt returns.

“He’s a playmaker with a high football IQ and a nose for the ball,” commented BK Head Coach Tim Brennan.  “Cory is an athlete and a competitor, and I think College of Idaho made a great choice by inviting him to help build the program.”

CofI is the one of three colleges to bring back football in recent years, following the lead of Pacific University and George Fox College, both members of the NCAA D-3 Northwest Conference. In fact the Yotes and Pacific both dipped into the West Coach cradle of football coaches at UC-Davis to find leaders for their startup programs.  The Boxers hired UC-Davis veteran Keith Buckley in 2009, with Moroski being picked up by the Yotes in late 2012.

A list of other BK alums currently playing college football can be found here.

The annual event, the brainchild of Andy Brunelle ’78, has featured an impressive list of speakers and “guests of honor” since it originated in 2006, and the latest iteration was no different.  Ysursa joined the ranks of Boise Mayor Dave Bieter ’78,  U.S. Representative Mike Simpson, Bishop Michael Driscoll, Governor Butch Otter (STA ’62) and others who have been skewered publicly as a result of Brunelle’s creative mind.

John & Andy Brunelle at 2007 Loaves & Fishes.

The founding committee of the Loaves & Fishes event included Andy Brunelle, John Brunelle ’79, Marc Johnson, and Rev. Thomas Faucher.  In summer of 2006 they asked Catholic Charities of Idaho if they would like to be the recipient of any excess revenue from the dinner.  “Not only did Catholic Charities say ‘Yes,’ they also wanted to be active partners in the venture and possibly develop the idea into their signature event in Boise,”  said Andy. “They’ve done a great job on this over the past seven years, finding the right balance between politics, religion, fundraising, and humor. Those nuances make this a special night, and CCI obviously has the right people with the ability to make it work extremely well, which is gratifying to all of us who got this thing started.”

Ben Ysursa and Dave Skinner at 2013 Loaves & Fishes

Mike Kennedy and Bernard Ysursa at 2013 Loaves & Fishes

The roastee this year, Ysursa, was on the receiving end of good natured jibes from his brothers Jess Asla ’80 and Bernard Ysursa (STA ’61) and cousin Dave Skinner ’71, BK’s football play-by-play announcer and longtime faculty member.   Master of Ceremonies Mike Kennedy, a Coeur d’Alene city councilman and supporter of CCI,  was masterful in his role, keeping the show on track with humor and wit.  As the event came to a close is was Ysursa’s turn at the microphone.  In his final remarks, Ysursa stated his three keys to a good life: Food. Fame. Football.  He quickly corrected himself, saying “the real three keys are faith, family, and friends.”

More information is available here.  Here is an excerpt:

Finally, 2012 San Jose relievers Edward Concepcion, Josh Osich and Jose Valdez are each making their first appearances in big league camp. Osich, with his mid-to-upper 90’s fastball from the left side, is considered the top prospect of the bunch and could move quickly through the upper levels of the system if he can remain healthy.

Osich was a three sport athlete as a Knight, including time at linebacker in the fall when not doing work for BK baseball skipper Bobby Sutcliffe.  He  is believed to be the first AlumKnight in a MLB spring training camp since the 1970s when Nick Ysursa ’70 was advancing through the Philadelphia Phillies system.

Readers can access the box scores for each season from 1964-69 by scrolling over the Coaching Eras button on the navigation bar.  Work is underway to gather similar information from all seasons of BK football.

The boxes tell the scoring story for each season, with “Highs & Lows” now being aggregated. Highs & Lows from the 1964 season are presented here.

In addition, the Longest Scoring Plays from the Forrestal Era are listed below:

The media buzz about “how to stop Colin Kaepernick” is deafening.  The problem was solved a long time ago by  BK alum Timmy Brady ’04, who sacked Colin (above, on his back) and secured a win for Boise State.  The Atlanta Falcons will try to do what Timmy did, read about it here.

Brady was simply doing what other AlumKnights have been known to do when facing future NFL standouts.  Like the time Colt Brooks ’02 bottled up Adrian Peterson. The BK boys just make it look easy to knock down rising stars.

Colt Brooks hammers AP.

While three Big Sky Conference schools would like to forget about the Bearkats, the Eastern Washington University football team is about to become quite familiar with Sam Houston State.

The Eagles will host the Bearkats at Roos Field Saturday (Dec. 15) at 1:05 p.m. Pacific time in the semifinals of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs, with a berth in the championship game on the line. This week’s meeting, a rematch of an epic battle between the two schools in the 2004 quarterfinals in Cheney, will be televised on ESPNU.

The winner of this week’s game punches its ticket to a repeat trip to Texas to play for the NCAA Division I title. The championship game is Jan. 5 in Frisco, Texas, at 10 a.m. Pacific time on ESPN2. Eastern played and won in the game in 2010; Sam Houston State played and lost in last year’s title tilt.

The radio broadcast of this week’s game, featuring Larry Weir, Paul Sorensen and Keith Osso, starts 1 1/2 hours prior to kickoff with the Eagle Tailgate Show. It may be heard on 700-AM ESPN, via the web at www.700espn.com and via iPhone application (search for “700 ESPN” and download the free app). The broadcast is also available via www.tunein.com and tunein’s mobile phone app.

Second-seeded Eastern, which ranked fourth in the final regular season Sports Network Top-25 poll, advanced to the semifinals with a wild 51-35 victory over Illinois State on Dec. 8, and will enter this week’s game 11-2. The Eagles, who have won five games in a row, defeated Wagner 29-19 in the second round on Dec. 1.

The 10-3 Bearkats ended the regular season ranked fifth and are unseeded in the playoffs, but have knocked off Big Sky foes Cal Poly (18-16) and Montana State (34-16) in consecutive weeks. A year ago, the Bearkats eliminated MSU in the quarterfinals (49-13) and Montana in the semifinals (31-28).

Both teams have advanced to the national championship game in the past two years, with EWU defeating Delaware 20-19 for the 2010 title and Sam Houston State falling to North Dakota State 17-16 in 2011.

(Eastern Washington news release).

BK alum Cody McCarthy ’11 and the Eastern Washington Eagles host Illinois State today on the red turf at Roos Stadium.  The former 4A Player of the Year is in his second season as a linebacker for the Cheney, Wash., school.

Something will have to give when Eastern puts its 6-0 home record against the remarkable 6-0 road record of Illinois State.  The Redbirds will probably not be swayed by seeing lots of red at “The Inferno” this week in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoffs.

Kickoff on EWU’s red turf is 3:05 p.m. Pacific time in a game broadcast live on ESPN3.

The radio broadcast of this week’s game, featuring Larry Weir, Paul Sorensen and Keith Osso, starts 1 1/2 hours prior to kickoff with the Eagle Tailgate Show. It may be heard on 700-AM ESPN, via the web at www.700espn.com and via iPhone application (search for “700 ESPN” and download the free app). The broadcast is also available via www.tunein.com and tunein’s mobile phone app.

(NOTE: most of this was taken from EWU news release)

This is one time BSU would like to NOT be in the elusive 8.3% of major college teams — but maybe it will change soon.

The ten universities with nary a single QB snap in NFL history are:  Air Force Academy; Ball State University; Boise State University; Florida International; Kent State; Northern Illinois; North Texas; South Florida; Western Kentucky, and Wyoming. Of that group, only Boise State with Kellen Moore and Northern Illinois with Chandler Harnish have QBs in the NFL. But Harnish is just a practice squad player and not listed on the Indianapolis Colts’ depth behind super rookie Andrew Luck and Drew Stanton.  Moore has yet to see the field for the Detroit Lions, but he is listed third on the depth chart behind Matt Stafford and Shaun Hill.

Some schools had near misses, such as Wyoming (Casey Bramlet 2004 by Bengals in 7th Round); Ball State (Nate Davis 2009 by 49ers in 5th round); and Kent State (Jose Davis 1999) among others.  If Kellen gets a snap this season, BSU gets off the list. Here is a rundown of every NCAA D1 school with a sample QB listed: