thursday, dec. 5, 2024
celebrating 121 years
N • Late snowfall
free
C • Funk n’ Waffles
S • Tokyo triumph
The city of Syracuse saw its first snowflakes over two weeks later than usual, leading to concerns about future snowfall across the region.
The restaurant celebrates 10 years in downtown Syracuse with sweet and savory treats and a weekend of concerts.
Syracuse defeated Louisville 24-13 in the 1989 Coca-Cola Bowl at the Tokyo Dome. The trip’s memories will last a lifetime.
Page 3
Page 6
Page 16
So fresh, so clean photos by joe zhao, jacob halsema, aaron hammer By Cooper Andrews managing editor
I
f Fran Brown starts talking about his 12-year-old son Brayden’s pee-wee football games, he doesn’t want to stop. The length of Brown’s grin multiplies at each point of pride he spills about Brayden — especially his ability to play every position on the field, Brown said, joking the versatility could lead to Brayden’s Syracuse commitment one day. He only saw Brayden play three times this year. But when Brown wasn’t there, he’d watch his youngest son’s film like he was scouting an opponent. Why? It suppresses the ups and downs of the season. Brown’s at peace when his mind is on family. Brown cherishes when he can incorporate family into his coaching lifestyle. Brayden hangs with SU’s team all the time. Even Brown’s eldest son, Fran Jr., works out with Syracuse players when he returns home for the summer from Saint Francis University. “They raise my son, too,” Brown said of his players. “That’s how you know you have a good team. When I bring
How Fran Brown washed Syracuse’s losing narrative away in historic first year as head coach my son around, I don’t blink an eye, I know they’re gonna take care of him. They’re doing the right thing, showing him how to be a little man.” It’s emblematic of Brown’s culture — a nurturing but demanding environment that’s been a stark difference from SU’s previous brain trusts. Brown, a 42-year-old from Camden, New Jersey, has used that to spark a historic program turnaround since Syracuse hired him as its 31st head football coach last November.
Brown helmed SU’s third season with over nine victories since 2000, caused by a dynamic culture change and a top-25 transfer portal haul, per 247Sports. He won four November games, which the Orange hadn’t accomplished since 1997. He also notched the most wins for a first-year SU head coach since Paul Pasqualoni in 1991. His journey included bumps like coaching mishaps and self-admitted embarrassing losses. But Brown’s rejuvenating season brought Syracuse out from the abyss of mediocrity into a program that oozes potential. That sentiment was sealed when Brown’s Orange shocked Miami, then-ranked No. 6 in the nation by the College Football Playoff Committee, on Nov. 30 to close the 2024 regular season. SU clawed back from a 21-point deficit, its largest comeback ever, to spoil the Hurricanes’ ACC title hopes in a 42-38 win — the Orange’s first AP Top10 victory since 2017. The triumph reflected the kind of program Brown has built. It’s explosive, it’s resilient and it’s tough — Camden tough, as Brown likes to call it. see brown page 14
state
Onondaga Nation to restore sacred creek after colonial theft By Ahna Fleming
senior staff writer
Onondaga Creek, muddied by more than 100 years of pollution, may soon flow with a renewed glimmer under the care of its original protectors, the Onondaga Nation. After reclaiming 1,000 acres of ancestral land on Sept. 30, the Onondaga are working to restore the
creek and its once-thriving brook trout population, as well as save a local snail species on the brink of extinction. The land is the largest plot ever returned to Indigenous peoples in the history of the United States. But the added 1,000 acres make up only 0.04% of the total 2.5 million of treatyguaranteed land New York state has taken from the Onondaga since the 17th century.
“For the Onondaga people, there has always been that hurt about the loss of our lands,” Bradley Powless, a council member of the Onondaga Nation, said. “It does take one educating ourselves about how that happened, so we know to be mindful not to repeat those actions in the future. If you know how it happened, maybe you can help heal that hurt a little bit.”
‘A horrible, shameful history of colonialism’ Neal Powless, who is Bradley’s brother and serves as Syracuse Universit y ’s Ombuds, said discovering maps of the Onondaga’s territory in SU’s Bird Library — and seeing the Onondaga’s federally recognized land contrasted with the 2.5 million of which they are
guaranteed sovereignty by treaty — shocked him. “That was shock, that was frustration, little bit of anger,” he said. “To only have access to less than 1%, it’s still not enough to engage the way that we ancestrally know how to engage.” 1615 marked the first European colonial invasion of Onondaga territory. Before that, the Onondaga see onondaga page 4