Honorary Captains Named For Saturday's Crimson & Gold Spring Football Game
Big Rapids, Mich. - Two special honorary captains have been named for Ferris State University's Crimson & Gold Spring Football Game, which takes place on Saturday (April 20) at FSU's Top Taggart Field.
The FSU football program and head coach Tony Annese have announced that former Bulldog football player and longtime Gridiron Club president Bill Scheible along with national champion runner Anna Rudd of the Ferris State women's track and field team will serve as the game's honorary captains and be involved with the pregame coin flip.
Kickoff for the game is set for 1 p.m. (ET) and admission will be free for the contest, which was pushed back a week due to weather conditions last weekend. Ferris State will begin its traditional "Bulldog Walk" at 12:10 p.m. (ET) with warmups starting for the spring game at 12:15 p.m. inside the stadium. The coin toss will be held just prior to opening kickoff.
A member of the Bulldog Athletics Hall of Fame, Scheible played football for the Bulldogs from 1974 to 1976. He later served as an athletics department administrator and alumni relations director at Ferris State before venturing into the business world. For more than 30 years, he oversaw Bulldog Football booster club activity and recently stepped down this past offseason as the Gridiron Club's only president since its inception in 1995. He was an All-GLIAC honoree during his playing career and a three-year starter for the Bulldogs.
This past March, Rudd became Ferris State University's second-ever women's track and field national champion when she won the 5,000 meters at the NCAA Division II Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama. She also earned national runner-up honors in the 3,000 meters and has claimed All-America accolades as a collegiate standout in women's cross country, indoor track and outdoor track while at Ferris State. This year, she also was chosen as both the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Midwest Region Women's Track Athlete of the Year.
The spring football contest will follow Ferris State University's "The Big Event", which will take place on Saturday morning. The annual community event is an important citywide cleanup initiative that involves student organizations. Nearly 2,000 students are expected to participate in the effort and help clean up approximately 300 residences in the community. Members of the Bulldog Football team will also participate in the "Big Event" cleanup effort prior to the annual spring game.
The Crimson & Gold Spring Game will continue FSU's official spring practice drills. The Bulldogs opened the spring workouts on March 22 and the slate includes a total of 15 workouts per NCAA regulations.
Saturday's contest will provide fans with an opportunity to watch the Bulldogs for the first time since last fall in a game-like situation under Annese and his staff. Last fall, the Bulldogs posted a 7-4 overall mark and FSU ranked among the nation's top teams in both rushing offense and total offense.
In 2012, the Bulldogs recorded several impressive wins under Annese's direction, including beating archrival Grand Valley State in the Anchor-Bone Classic for the first time since 1999, snapping a 10-year losing streak to Michigan Tech and topping defending national runner-up Wayne State for the first time in five years. FSU also managed to win seven games for only the second time in the past decade despite facing one of the nation's two toughest schedules in Division II football during the regular-season, according to the Massey Ratings.
Besides putting together an impressive debut season with the Bulldogs, Annese and his staff also recently inked what many consider to be one of the nation's top incoming recruiting classes in Division II football.