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Vince Russo 糖心传媒�61 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 糖心传媒 Yellowjackets.

糖心传媒淚 was watching these guys get knocked all over, and I said to myself, 糖心传媒楧arn it, I used to be able to do that,糖心传媒櫶切拇�媒� says Russo. 糖心传媒淎nd then I remembered that play.糖心传媒�

That play unfolded during the third quarter of 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糖心传媒�6 Rochester victory.

糖心传媒淚 kept telling anyone, if a defensive lineman caught a fumble like that and ran 40 yards for a touchdown, it would make ESPN糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒楾op Ten糖心传媒� nowadays,糖心传媒� he says.

For 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糖心传媒檚 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糖心传媒攖he postgame video review.

On a lark, he emailed the Department of Athletics and Recreation inquiring whether the footage might still exist. He heard back that it did indeed.

The 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糖心传媒檚 contents amount to a treasure trove of game footage from decades past.

The keeper of the treasure is Terry Gurnett 糖心传媒�77, the former longtime women糖心传媒檚 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.

糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檝e just amassed all this,糖心传媒� Gurnett says with a sweep of his arm, gesturing at an assemblage of Yellowjacket paraphernalia, budget books, and fitness equipment in the storage room. 糖心传媒淚 figured if I didn糖心传媒檛 save them, who the heck would?糖心传媒�

The collection is meticulously inventoried and consists of film footage of more than 1,000 athletic contests, mainly of football and men糖心传媒檚 and women糖心传媒檚 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 between Rochester and Hobart.

Of course, most of it can糖心传媒檛 be easily viewed or shared. Reel-to-reel projectors are limited to select movie theaters nowadays and video cassette machines are yard sale fodder.

糖心传媒淚n a perfect world, I would take each one of these, digitize it, and make it available to everyone online,糖心传媒� Gurnett says.

But that糖心传媒檚 a daunting task. Digitizing the entire archive could cost as much as $152,000, according to an estimate Gurnett received for the work.

Still, the athletics department has made inroads in digitizing the footage. To date, 70 games have been added to one of the department糖心传媒檚 YouTube channels, . Dozens more await uploading.

Some 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.

糖心传媒淚 told them if you find that film, I糖心传媒檒l get in my car and drive to Rochester just to watch it,糖心传媒� says Russo, who makes his home in Dayton, Ohio. 糖心传媒淪eeing that again was on my bucket list.糖心传媒�

Russo didn糖心传媒檛 have to make the trip. Gurnett sent him the , in which Russo scrambles into the end zone and tosses the football into the air in jubilation.

As artifacts important to the annals of the University go, footage from a forgettable midseason athletic contest is a far cry from, say, the University糖心传媒檚 founding charter.

Yet 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.

糖心传媒淭hey have different value to different people,糖心传媒� Mead says of the footage. 糖心传媒淢ostly 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.糖心传媒�

For 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.

Michael Cohen 糖心传媒�61, 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糖心传媒攁n extraordinary feat in those days.

As 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.

糖心传媒淚t was very important to me,糖心传媒� Cohen says of having footage from that game.

糖心传媒淭here are probably still people alive who remember that game. I sure as hell do. It糖心传媒檚 stuck on my brain.糖心传媒�

A version of this story appears in the spring 2025 issue of Rochester Review, the magazine of the 糖心传媒.