April 9, 2009

After just over a month of spring practices, the University of Dayton football team will conclude the off-season with the annual Red & Blue game at Welcome Stadium on Sunday, April 21. This will be the third straight year the Flyers will be divided into two teams and play an actual game instead of conducting a controlled scrimmage. Kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. ET.

UD finished 9-3 overall, and 6-2 in the Pioneer Football League in 2008, head coach Rick Chamberlin's first season in charge of the Flyer football program. Dayton returns 11 starters from that team.

A full day of football will be preceded by a cookout at Welcome Stadium that will begin at 12 noon. Admission to all the day's events is free.

Serving as honorary coaches for the Red & Blue game are former Flyer greats Jim Currin and Dick Durbin. Currin and Durbin were both members of the first Flyer team to reach the post-season, when UD played in the 1952 Salad Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona. Currin was a record-setting tight end, while Durbin was a hard-hitting defensive back.

The game will consist of four eight-minute quarters with limited special teams activity. There will be live field goal and PAT attempts, but no kickoffs (the ball will be placed at the receiving team's 25-yard line in kickoff situations) and all punts must be fair caught.

At halftime, the Flyers will present a check to the National Breast Cancer Foundation with the proceeds raised during their charity lift-a-thon during winter conditioning.

After returning to school from Easter Break, UD will have four more practices before the Red & Blue Game. The Flyers will go Tuesday, April 14 and Wednesday, April 15 (both at 7:30 p.m. ET), Friday, April 17 at 4:30 p.m. ET and Saturday, April 18 at 10:30 a.m. ET.