Tim Vernick is going to miss suiting up with his teammates Saturday afternoons.

He's going to miss sprinting from sideline to sideline, unleashing bone-jarring hits and swallowing up ballcarriers as a fifth-year senior linebacker for the Slippery Rock University football team.

The Butler High School graduate is going to miss celebrating victories.

Most of all, though, Vernick is go to miss the camaraderie he shares with his buddies, with whom he goes to battle every day in green and white.

“I love the team,” Vernick said. “And I love all the guys on it. Everyone is really close, so it's tough. It's very tough.”

For the first time since 1944, there will be no sports played in the fall at Slippery Rock University.

The resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic forced the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, of which SRU is a member, to suspend all conference athletic events through the fall semester.

The official announcement came Wednesday morning after the board of directors voted Tuesday night to suspend sports through at least Dec. 31.

SRU has eight sports that participate in the fall: football, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's soccer, volleyball, field hockey and women's tennis.

Read the full story in Thursday's Butler Eagle.