Scott Schwedes and his wife folded laundry together and watched Syracuse’s game against Connecticut on Saturday. Late in the fourth quarter, Schwedes was no longer involved in the game only as a spectator. His place in SU record books resurfaced.

Amba Etta-Tawo’s 59-yard catch down the left sideline shoved Schwedes off the top rung for SU’s most receiving yards in a game. Etta-Tawo finished with 270 yards, 21 more than Schwedes had on Nov. 16, 1985.

His wife, Jodi Schwedes, hugged him. She anticipated he’d feel upset. Within five minutes, he received nearly 40 texts. Two days later, he still hadn’t returned about 50 messages he accumulated.

But Schwedes wasn’t upset.

“Records are made for other players for a benchmark to reach,” Schwedes said. “That’s why you make records. That’s what you strive for. You strive to be better than the person who set the record.”

Eleven thousand two hundred seventy one days since his most prolific day with the Orange, Schwedes’ name circulated the Syracuse football community once again. Not a single player on SU’s current roster was alive when Schwedes caught eight passes for 249 yards against rival Boston College in the Carrier Dome 31 years ago. Babers was a graduate assistant at Arizona State. The Miami Vice theme song sat atop Billboard’s Hot 100.

Schwedes hasn’t met Etta-Tawo or head coach Dino Babers, both in their first years at SU, but he’s excited about what they’re doing this season.

He still watches contests, attends home games and donates to the athletic department. He longs for a team that can compete on a national stage and hopes his place in the SU receiving charts gets passed, too.

Schwedes wants to be relevant again in hopes that SU is also relevant again.

***

Two days after Schwedes’s record performance during the 41-21 win over the Eagles, head coach Dick MacPherson addressed the team. He asked Schwedes to stand up so he could acknowledge him.

“Scott, great game, you made that guy quit,” Schwedes remembers MacPherson joking.

The player assigned to shadow Schwedes was Gerrick McPhearson, who went on to play for the New England Patriots. He lined up against Schwedes because he was one of the Eagles’ most athletic defensive backs. But McPhearson was used to playing strong safety, not cornerback, and weighed about 20 more pounds than Schwedes.

Schwedes and quarterback Don McPherson recognized the mismatch early on. On the opposite side of the field, wide receiver Mike Siano —who recorded 852 receiving yards in 1985, good for ninth on SU’s all-time list — attracted defensive attention. Boston College underestimated Schwedes’ speed and got burned.

“It was like watching the roadrunner,” Siano said.

Schwedes realized he could have a record-setting day as the game progressed. When called plays featured him as the primary or secondary receiver, he ran his routes harder.

As the blowout dwindled toward the end, Schwedes ran a fade down the far sideline and he was so open that McPherson thought it was “just too easy.”

“You don’t get that feeling too often in football,” McPherson said.

When the Dome’s public address announcer informed the crowd of the record, teammates forced Schwedes out of the huddle so he could accept the honor from fans.

Later in the week, offensive coordinator Bill Maxwell handmade a commemorative football honoring Schwedes’ 249-yard game. Though the “2” in “249” has peeled off, the ball remains safely in a trophy case in his basement, the only piece of memorabilia he has to remember a game that is no longer historic.

Michael Santiago | Contributing Photographer

***

The record may have been broken, but Schwedes isn’t going anywhere.

The Fayetteville house he currently lives in is “a 9-iron away” from where he grew up. The house is built where he had a tree house as a boy. He started dating Jodi when he was 16 and she was 14.

Schwedes’ father, Gerhard Schwedes, was a captain on Syracuse’s 1959 national championship team. He spent his childhood at Archbold Stadium and idolized Ernie Davis, Floyd Little and Art Monk.

While attending Jamesville-DeWitt (New York) High School, Schwedes was recruited by Penn State, West Virginia, Boston College, Maryland, Michigan and West Virginia.

But he was already a part of SU football royalty, and that’s before he set any school records of his own.

“There was no doubt about going to Syracuse,” Schwedes said, “and I was never going to go anywhere else.”

The 51-year-old Schwedes still has Syracuse gear littered throughout his house. In addition to the game ball from Maxwell, a mug from the 1985 Cherry Bowl and a game-worn jersey from the 1986 SU season.

His 19-year-old son is currently a freshman biology major at the University of Tampa while his 14-year-old daughter is a freshman at Jamesville-DeWitt. Schwedes works from home for his job in medical sales.

As time passes, more of Schwedes’ records will likely fall. There won’t be a third Syracuse football player in the family, at least for the foreseeable future. When he gets older, Schwedes said he’d consider moving to Florida.

But for the time being, he’s content.

“My life is right where I want it to be right now,” Schwedes said, “… I wouldn’t change anything.”

Kiran Ramsey | Digital Design Editor

***

Schwedes was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in the second round of the 1987 NFL Draft. His pro career lasted five seasons before he chose to move back to central New York. Injuries wore him down before he was ready to call it quits.

Since, he’s observed the ebbs and flows of the Orange over the years.

The biggest surprise to Schwedes is how long the record lasted. Offenses began to feature more passing and Syracuse had its fair share of talented quarterbacks and receivers.

Marvin Harrison in 1995, David Tyree in 2002, Mike Williams in 2009 and Alec Lemon in 2012 all had 200-plus receiving yards in a game. But still none had more than 249.

The quest for Syracuse football to be back on the national map has been an arduous one highlighted by the four head coaching changes in 12 years.

“It is really hard to sit here and watch the fans growing restless year by year and slowly the attendance dwindles and diminishes,” Schwedes said.

“But this is the first time I can remember since after Paul Pasqualoni that I really have a good feeling that things are on the upswing. Things are getting ready to happen. For real this time.”

Just four games into the Babers era, Schwedes expects more records to fall. The offensive scheme is conducive to video game-like numbers, but whether or not it’ll translate into wins remains to be seen.

“I’m one of those rare people who absolutely loves Syracuse and I don’t mind the weather,” Schwedes said. “… And I would just love life a little bit more if our football program could turn things around. That would make four or five months of my life much better than it has been the past 15 years.”

Having his record broken is a start.

Daily Orange File Photo

Published on September 29, 2016 at 7:56 am

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds