SLIPPERY ROCK— Standing along the sidelines Saturday night at N. Kerr Thompson Stadium, Rick Magulick glanced down at the artificial turf.

"If this stuff was here when I was, I never would have played," the former Slippery Rock University running back mused.

Actually, he was only half-kidding.

"Ricky was a mudder, no question about that,"SRUcoach George Mihalik said.

And he played at a different time on a different field for a different team.

A special team.

Magulick shared time in the backfield for the 1998 SRUfootball team that compiled a 12-2 record, reeling off 12 consecutive victories before losing a 47-21 decision to Carson-Newman in the Division IInational semifinals.

Eighteen members of that team returned to The Rock last weekend for a 10-year anniversary reunion.

AD.J. Flick punt return for a touchdown late in the third quarter gave The Rock a 21-20 lead through three quarters of that semifinal game. Flick went on to receive a free agent tryout with the Steelers and became a successful wide receiver in the Canadian Football League.

"We were a quarter away from going to the national championship game, where no Rock team has ever been,"receiver Scott Whipple said. "That's the one part of that season that still hurts."

Everything else is nothing but fond memories.

The Rock won four consecutive PSACWest championships from 1997-2000, reaching the Division IIplayoffs in 1997, 1998 and 1999. The program hasn't gotten back there since.

"If we didn't have to play Youngstown State or South Florida to start every year, that group would have reeled off three consecutive undefeated seasons,"Mihalik said. "That's unheard of."

Magulick and Stan Kennedy shared time in the backfield in 1998 and remain SRU's the number 1 and 2 all-time leading rushers. Quarterback Randy McKavish still holds numerous Rock passing records. Brian Polk tied a single-season school record with eight interceptions that year.

The numbers were good. The chemistry was better.

"Team unity,"Polk said. "That's what did it for us. That team is tight to this day. When one of us gets married or becomes a father, the word gets around to the rest of us."

Whipple has been best man at three teammates' weddings, has attended six weddings involving former teammates and figures on hitting a couple more.

"Agood football team becomes a brotherhood,"Mihalik said. "And brothers are family forever."

Slippery Rock High graduate Larry Raisley was a redshirt freshman on the 1998 team as a wide receiver.

His high school team ended a 14-year playoff drought by reaching postseason play his senior year. Then he became part of the most successful football run in SRUhistory.

"I was pretty fortunate,"Raisley said. "The chemistry of that team made it successful. We always hung out together, on and off the field."

Knoch graduate Bill Bzorek, whose younger brother Josh is a senior offensive lineman and all-America candidate at Edinboro this year, was a freshman on The Rock's 1998 squad as well.

"The younger players were treated the same by the older, veteran guys,"Bzorek said. "I remember being dropped off at the dorm for summer camp that year.

"I didn't know a soul. I was scared out of my mind. But once I saw how close that group was ... you become part of it so quickly."

While SRU landed prize recruits like McKavish, nose tackle Matt Kinsinger, Flick and Kennedy to help form that team, a number of stalwart players on that squad were not highly sought recruits.

Some of the key contributors, offensive lineman Jerry Baker, defensive lineman Rob Anthony, Omar Mitchell, to name a few, were walk-ons.

Even Magulick came to SRUsolely because he received the George Mihalik Sr. Scholarship Award, which goes to a player from Cambria County, Mihalik's home county.

"Ricky addressed our (current) team before the (Kutztown) game and told them that 1998 team wasn't the fastest, most athletic or the biggest — it just had the biggest heart,"Mihalik said.

While The Rock was in the process of winning 33 consecutive regular season games against Division IIopponents and going further than any SRUfootball team before or since, Whipple said there was no historical perspective at the time.

"We were just doing what we were supposed to do: Go out and win games," he said. "I mean, we expected to win. We played a lot of teams with more athleticism and talent than we had. Still, we knew we were gonna win."

Magulick remains in football today as a coach for Glendale High School.

Regardless, his return to N. Kerr Thompson Stadium hit him harder than he thought.

"God, I miss this," he whispered, to no one in particular.

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