Flyers Back Home For Family Weekend

DAYTON — The University of Dayton football team returns home to begin the pursuit of its 13th Pioneer Football League championship when the Flyers host Presbyterian.  

UD will be looking to bounce back from a 55-3 defeat at eighth-ranked Southern Illinois, the highest-ranked team Dayton has ever played.

The Flyers are 1-1 after finishing the non-conference with a season-opening win over Eastern Illinois 17-10 and the loss at SIU.

Presbyterian will be the University’s Family Weekend Game, and the Flyers will also be observing the Hilinski’s Hope Foundation’s College Football Mental Health Week.

SERIES STUFF 
• This is the first football meeting between Dayton and Presbyterian.
• Presbyterian and St. Thomas of Minnesota are in their first season of competing for a Pioneer Football League championship.
• The Blue Hose had played football in the Big South Conference from 2008 to 2019.

GOOD NEWS WORTH REPEATING
The Flyers entered the season with the fifth-best winning percentage (.733, 162-59) in FCS football since 2000 AND have produced the most football Academic All-Americans (34) at any level of competition in the same time frame.  The top five in winning percentage are North Dakota State (.801), Harvard (.7538), Montana (.7537), San Diego (.741) and Dayton (.733). 

STREAKING
UD has not been shut out in a school-record 489 straight games, the best such active string in all of college football. The last team to shut out the Flyers was Marshall, 9-0, on Oct. 16, 1976. That is also the all-time FCS record.

PFL POWER
• The Pioneer Football League is in its 29th season.  The original (and now the only) Division I strictly need-based football league began with charter members Butler, Dayton, Drake, Evansville, San Diego and Valparaiso.  
• UD’s 124-42 record is the best in PFL history. 
• The Flyers’ 12 league championships are more than any other PFL team.  San Diego has 11.

THE MAN AT THE TOP
• Rick Chamberlin is now in his 13th season in charge of Flyer football. His record is 94-42.
• He is third all-time in wins at UD, behind two College Football Hall of Fame members– Mike Kelly (246 wins) and Harry Baujan (124).
• After coaching the Flyers to the FCS playoffs in 2015, Chamberlin was named the 2015 AFCA District Coach of the Year and the PFL Coach of the Year.  He was the school’s first AFCA District Coach of the Year, and his PFL honor was the ninth for a Dayton coach.
• Chamberlin is also in his 47th season as part of the Flyer football program.  A Flyer All-American linebacker in his playing days, he has been a part of 388 of UD’s 688 wins – 26 as a player, 268 as an assistant coach, and 94 as a head coach.  He has also been a part of 506 of UD’s 1,089 games. 
• The Springfield, Ohio native is the 23rd head football coach since the program began in 1905. He is the first of the 11 modern era coaches to have lettered for the Flyers, and the second to be a graduate of the University of Dayton (Pete Ankney was the first alum when he coached in 1963 and 1964).
• Chamberlin, 63, had been on the Flyer coaching staff for 31 seasons before being named head coach. First as linebackers coach and then as defensive coordinator, Chamberlin helped mold the Dayton D’s reputation for its preparation and execution.
• A four-year letterwinner (1975-78) for the Flyers, Chamberlin is the Flyer career record holder in tackles with 419.
• He was named to the Football Coaches Association Small College All-America team as a senior. Chamberlin was the third Dayton player to be named a First Team All-American, but the first defensive player.  He joined the UD Athletic Hall of Fame in 1989.

THE MAN AT THE TOP IN THE PFL
• Rick Chamberlin is the winningest coach in Pioneer Football League history, with 70 wins. 
• No other PFL coach has 60 league wins. 

UP NEXT
• Dayton is on the road for the next two weeks – At Morehead State on Saturday, Oct. 2, and Drake on Saturday, Oc.t 9.
 • The Morehead State game kicks off at 2 p.m. ET.
• The Flyers’ next home game is Saturday, Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. when the Marist Red Foxes visit Welcome Stadium.

COURTESY DAYTON MEDIA RELATIONS