COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - In the fall of 2015, ESPN was bringing its "SportsCenter on the Road" program to well-known college football hotspots like Ann Arbor, Mich., and South Bend, Ind.
 
But on Sept. 26, the cable network took a detour, broadcasting live from Clemens Stadium and introducing many around the nation to the tradition and hoopla that accompanied the rivalry between Saint John's and St. Thomas.
 
"When you look at college football, it's easy to default and go cover the biggest schools and the biggest games," said ESPN's Matt Barrie, who co-anchored the show with Sara Walsh, in an interview that week with the St. Cloud Times.
 
"But when you dig in and do the research, you'll find there are great storylines and passionate football fans all over. This was an opportunity to grab onto a unique game that maybe hasn't gotten as much attention outside Minnesota before. It's a chance to let the rest of the nation see, hear and feel what it's all about."


 
Indeed, before dawn even broke that morning, over 3,500 fans were packed into the bleachers to watch the live broadcast, which ran from 6 to 8 a.m. and featured packages on players and coaches from both sides.
 
"This is huge," then-SJU-senior-fan Andy Burke told the Times. "It's huge for Saint John's. It's huge for all of (NCAA) Division III. It's a chance to show that we have just as much pride in our school – and in our team – as the big guys do."
 
The crowd on hand that morning was just a prelude to the record-setting 17,327 fans who made their way into the stadium for the game itself. At the time, it was a Division III national record, and still ranks as the largest home crowd in school history.


 
But big crowds were nothing new in the Johnnie-Tommie rivalry. In the 12 games between 2009 and 2019 (the last meeting between the two schools before St. Thomas exited the MIAC), only one failed to draw a crowd of 10,000 or more – that being an NCAA Division III second-round playoff matchup in 2015 played at St. Thomas on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. 
 
Six of the meetings drew crowds of 16,421 or higher.
 
That included a 2017 matchup moved to Target Field that drew 37,355 and a 2019 matchup moved to Allianz Field that drew 19,508.
 
The crowd in 2015, though, was large enough to leave a lasting impression on Barrie.


 
"Taking the SportsCenter on the Road campaign in the fall of 2015 to college campuses across the country was a great experience for me," he said in an ESPN Front Row news release in 2017.
 
"The most memorable was the one at (Division III) Saint John's back in the fall of 2015. It was probably the coolest thing I've done just to see the support and how excited they were to have SportsCenter on their campus."

30 years ago (1995)
Todd Kuznik and Garrett Dietrick each had goals as SJU defeated Augustana (S.D.) 2-0 in the pouring rain in Collegeville on Sept. 23.

The following day, the Johnnies picked up another non-conference win with a 1-0 home victory over St. Scholastica.

90 years ago (1935)
John Van Buren scored a pair of touchdowns as the SJU football team opened the 1935 season with a 12-0 road win over Bemidji Teachers College (now Bemidji State) on a Friday night (Sept. 20).
 
Van Buren, a 1937 graduate and Mukwonago, Wis., native enlisted in the Navy following graduation and served as a bomber pilot in the Pacific during World War II. 
 
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in March 1942 for his heroic conduct during operations in the Marshall Islands when the formation he was flying in was attacked by Japanese fighters. He was killed in action in June of that year at the Battle of Midway. Ignoring antiaircraft fire, he took part in the initial dive-bombing operations against Japanese naval units. His plane did not return and he was listed as presumed dead.
 
For his actions, he was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross by President Franklin Roosevelt.