![\"Still](\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HistoricYellowjackets_06.jpg\")
IN THE ZONE:<\/strong> Alumnus Vince Russo tosses the football into the air in jubilation after running 40 yards for a touchdown during a 1961 Yellowjackets game against Hobart. (University of Rochester Athletics footage)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nVince Russo \u201961 was watching football on television two years ago when he recalled a fleeting moment of glory he had on the gridiron as a member of the University of Rochester<\/a> Yellowjackets.\r\n\r\n\u201cI was watching these guys get knocked all over, and I said to myself, \u2018Darn it, I used to be able to do that,\u2019\u201d says Russo. \u201cAnd then I remembered that play.\u201d\r\n\r\nThat play unfolded during the third quarter of a game against Hobart College at Fauver Stadium in 1961<\/a>. He was on the defensive line when the ball slipped from the grasp of a Statesmen running back and arced backward through the air into the waiting hands of Russo, who ran 40 yards for a touchdown en route to a 27\u20136 Rochester victory.\r\n\r\n\u201cI kept telling anyone, if a defensive lineman caught a fumble like that and ran 40 yards for a touchdown, it would make ESPN\u2019s \u2018Top Ten\u2019 nowadays,\u201d he says.\r\n\r\nFor 60 years Russo recounted his version of that play to family and friends with no visual evidence of its ever happening aside from the moving pictures in his mind\u2019s eye. But he knew, too, that there once was proof in the form of footage captured on 16-millimeter film in the early days of what is now routine in college athletics\u2014the postgame video review.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_640022\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]![\"Terry](\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/inline-2025-01-24_Terry_Gurnett_1415.jpg\")
GAME KEEPER:<\/strong> Terry Gurnett, who has been with the University for 50 years, adds athletics footage he finds to his collection in Goergen Athletic Center for safekeeping. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nOn a lark, he emailed the Department of Athletics and Recreation<\/a> inquiring whether the footage might still exist. He heard back that it did indeed.\r\n\r\nThe footage sat on a shelf in a Goergen Athletic Center storage room amid hundreds of tin canisters of 16-millimeter film and VHS tapes. To aging Yellowjackets yearning for a glimpse of their glory days, the storage room\u2019s contents amount to a treasure trove of game footage from decades past.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_640102\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"350\"]![\"Still](\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HistoricYellowjackets_14.jpg\")
(University of Rochester Athletics footage)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe keeper of the treasure is Terry Gurnett \u201977, the former longtime women\u2019s soccer coach who is now the associate director of athletics for Advancement. Gurnett, who has been with the University for 50 years, recalls finding the films in closets, desk drawers, and storage rooms around campus. When he happened upon one, he put it on the shelf.\r\n\r\n\u201cI\u2019ve just amassed all this,\u201d Gurnett says with a sweep of his arm, gesturing at an assemblage of Yellowjacket paraphernalia, budget books, and fitness equipment in the storage room. \u201cI figured if I didn\u2019t save them, who the heck would?\u201d\r\n\r\nThe collection is meticulously inventoried and consists of film footage of more than 1,000 athletic contests, mainly of football and men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball games. The majority of the footage spans the 1950s through the early 2000s, but the earliest date to the 1920s. The oldest is a 1927 football game<\/a> between Rochester and Hobart.\r\n\r\nOf course, most of it can\u2019t be easily viewed or shared. Reel-to-reel projectors are limited to select movie theaters nowadays and video cassette machines are yard sale fodder.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_640032\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2000\"]![\"Terry](\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/inline-2025-01-24_Terry_Gurnett_1505.jpg\")
A REEL CHALLENGE:<\/strong> Digitizing the thousands of hours of athletics footage is a daunting task. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\u201cIn a perfect world, I would take each one of these, digitize it, and make it available to everyone online,\u201d Gurnett says.\r\n\r\nBut that\u2019s a daunting task. Digitizing the entire archive could cost as much as $152,000, according to an estimate Gurnett received for the work.\r\n\r\nStill, the athletics department has made inroads in digitizing the footage. To date, 70 games have been added to one of the department\u2019s YouTube channels, @uofrathletics1850<\/a>. Dozens more await uploading.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_640112\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"350\"]![\"Still](\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HistoricYellowjackets_03.jpg\")
BAND AID:<\/strong> Film of a 1927 football game shows a Rochester marching band, helping prove that the ensemble formed years earlier than thought. (University of Rochester Athletics footage)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSome of that effort has been financed with the help of alumni, like Russo, who sent Gurnett a check that covered the cost of digitizing the game featuring his moment in the sun and several other games.\r\n\r\n\u201cI told them if you find that film, I\u2019ll get in my car and drive to Rochester just to watch it,\u201d says Russo, who makes his home in Dayton, Ohio. \u201cSeeing that again was on my bucket list.\u201d\r\n\r\nRusso didn\u2019t have to make the trip. Gurnett sent him the digitized footage<\/a>, in which Russo scrambles into the end zone and tosses the football into the air in jubilation.\r\n\r\nAs artifacts important to the annals of the University go, footage from a forgettable midseason athletic contest is a far cry from, say, the University\u2019s founding charter.\r\n\r\nYet there is historical value in some of the footage, says University archivist Melissa Mead. She notes how film of the 1927 football game shows a Rochester marching band, providing evidence that the band was formed years earlier than previously thought.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey have different value to different people,\u201d Mead says of the footage. \u201cMostly the value is to alumni athletes, but to the archives and to me the value is what it shows about the University and athletics and the people who attended the games.\u201d\r\n\r\nFor former athletes in their golden years, the prospect of seeing moving pictures of themselves in their glory days is a chance to dip a toe in a fountain of youth.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_640162\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"350\"]![\"Archival](\"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/HistoricYellowjackets_17.jpg\")
HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES:<\/strong> A 1961 Yellowjackets basketball game featuring alumnus Michael Cohen, who scored the 100th point of the game. (University of Rochester Athletics footage)[\/caption]\r\n\r\nMichael Cohen \u201961, who captained the basketball team, recalls riding the bench in the last game of the regular season against Hamilton College in 1961 as his Yellowjackets neared the 100-point mark\u2014an extraordinary feat in those days.\r\n\r\nAs Cohen tells it, the coach, Lyle Brown, summoned him to take the court so he could score the 100th point of the game. He missed shot after shot until his teammates set a pick for him and he let the ball fly to its mark.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was very important to me,\u201d Cohen says of having footage from that game.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere are probably still people alive who remember that game. I sure as hell do. It\u2019s stuck on my brain.\u201d\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nA version of this story appears in the spring 2025 issue of <\/em>Rochester Review<\/a>, the magazine of the University of Rochester<\/a>.<\/em>","background_color":"#ffffff","width":"width-medium"},{"acf_fc_layout":"card_grid","anchor":"","css_class":"","title":"","description":"","background_color":"#FFFFFF","width":"width-medium","columns":"1","cards":[{"card_title":"
Let\u2019s get digital<\/p>","card_text":"Want to help preserve Yellowjacket game footage? Contact Associate Director of Athletics for Advancement Terry Gurnett.\r\n
Email Terry<\/p>","card_background_color":"#f4f4f4","card_hover_color":"#283faf","card_link":{"title":"","url":"mailto:tgurnett@sports.rochester.edu","target":""},"card_hover_arrow":"","card_image":640262,"card_image_size":"image_thumbnail","card_image_placement":"image_left","card_image_hover_state":"hover_fade","card_image_link":""}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","anchor":"","css_class":"","title":"
Join the campaign<\/p>\r\n\r\n
For Ever Better<\/h2>","content":"
Support the people, ideas, and innovations that make our world ever better. There are so many ways to help: make a gift, get involved, stay connected, and share your Rochester story.<\/p>\r\n
Give Now<\/a> \u00a0Learn More<\/a><\/p>","background_color":"#ffc70a","width":"width-medium"}]},"yoast_head":"\n