SLIPPERY ROCK — The year: 1998.

Before this season, it was the best campaign in Slippery Rock University football history — and the only other year SRU has ever reached the Division II national semifinals.

“We were eight or nine minutes away from going to the national championship ... so close,” then SRU head coach George Mihalik said.

The Rock finished 12-2 that season. No SRU team had ever won more games until this season.

That 1998 season ended with a loss at Carson-Newman, 47-21. D.J. Flick returned a punt for a touchdown that put SRU ahead 21-20 going into the fourth quarter.

Flick went on to become a dynamic receiver in the Canadian Football League and was part of a Grey Cup championship team in that circuit. He works in safety administration for a prison in New York now.

“That was my freshman year,” Flick recalled of 1998. “I expected to red-shirt that season. A couple of receivers ot hurt, I played in our first game at South Florida, caught a touchdown pass and just went from there.”

Flick led The Rock with 10 touchdown catches that year. Jermaine Wynn Jr. and Henry Litwin have combined for 34 TD catches this year.

Quarterback Randy McKavish, a sophomore in 1998, led that team with 2,035 yards and 20 TD passes. Roland Rivers III has 4,261 yards and 50 touchdowns through the air this season.

McKavish, now working in bio-technical sales in Virginia, said the 1998 team played a different style.

“We had the big running game and just pounded at people,” McKavish said. “That was such a physical team on both sides of the ball.

“The numbers (Rivers) is putting up are impressive, they're crazy. The most important numbers he's putting up is wins. That's what it's about and I guarantee that's how he feels.

“You're 0-0 each week in the playoffs. You're playing one-game seasons now. Even if they lose this next game, someday they'll appreciate and be proud of how far they've gotten,” McKavish added.

The 1998 Rock team opened the playoffs by defeating Grand Valley State — coached by current Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly — 37-14 at SRU's N.Kerr Thompson Stadium. The field was natural grass and games there were often played in muddy conditions.

Rock running backs Rick Magulick and Stan Kennedy routinely alternated possessions in 1998. They ended their SRU careers with a combined 7,500 yards and 90 touchdowns rushing.

“Magulick was our 'mudder,'” Mihalik said. “Just a straight ahead, physical guy.”

Matt Kinsinger, Rob Anthony, Casey Vogt and Mike Welhorsky — all teammates in 1998 — combined for 98 sacks in their Rock careers. They still rank among the top 12 all-time in that category at SRU.

Vogt has been an assistant football coach at the college level for years. Kinsinger is a teacher and a defensive coordinator for a high school team in Hot Springs, Ark.

“The game today is highly-paced. Everything is so fast,” Kinsinger said. “The game is more complicated at all levels. When I played, we beat teams with more talent than us because we played harder and more physical. It was fun.

“Undefeated seasons are nice, but it's the experiences you never replace. Just the relationships we made, things the coaches taught us, they last a lifetime.”

Brian Polk, a cornerback in 1998, lives in Canonsburg and works in the oil and gas industry. Tight end-defensive end John Sabo works in the same field as a vice president of a company in Zelienople and now lives in Slippery Rock.

Both have gotten to a number of Rock games over the years.

“Coach Mihalik and his staff grew us from boys into men,” Polk said. “Self-discipline, time management, that all stays with you.

“I love what this year's team is doing. They'll remember this forever. All of us, every former player, we're all pulling for them.”

Current Rock head coach Shawn Lutz was a young defensive assistant on the 1998 team. He is the only coach on the current Rock staff that coached then.

“I'm happy for Coach Lutz,” Sabo said. “Division II football now, at least the top teams, is like Division I football when I played. Everybody is bigger and the game is faster.

“All of us (from 1998) are in our 40's now. We've been to each other's weddings, been in each other's weddings. We're chasing our kids around now, but we still stay in touch.

“It's a great atmosphere at those Rock games. That's never changed,” Sabo added.

While the 1998 team fell short of the title game, its players want this year's team to get there — especially Kinsinger.

The national championship game is in McKinney, Texas, next weekend.

“That's about a five-hour drive for me,” Kinsinger said. “If they get there, I'll be there.

“I love the fact the program continues to succeed, continues to carry on the tradition.”

Flick agreed.

“Those were such good times,” he said of his years at The Rock. “I cherish them. These guys will, too.”