It’s been a heck of a year and with 2024 coming to a close, it makes perfect sense to rewind the not-so-way-back-machine and reminisce about the highest highs and lowest lows of the past 12 months in Flyerland. To do that, we’re debuting a new free column titled “Ghosts of Hawthorn Hill“.

As some of you know, Orville and Wilbur Wright built their Hawthorn mansion in nearby Oakwood after teaching the world to fly and spending a few years filing those important patents, but some say the ghosts of Will and Orv — along with their sister Katharine — still reside at the residence to keep an eye on things. Wilbur died in 1912 and the house wasn’t completed until 1914, but it still makes for a great story not unlike numerous rumors and legends on the University of Dayton campus and nearby Woodland Cemetery.  The Wright Brothers story starts decades prior however when they lived at 7 Hawthorn Street in west Dayton. The sons of bishop Milton and Susan Wright, the two brothers grew up in a working-class home not unlike most others in the late 1800’s.  It was in this house their love for tinkering and experimentation flourished.  The home was eventually purchased and relocated to the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village, MI. The magic from 7 Hawthorn eventually made its way to Hawthorn Hill located at 901 Harman Avenue. Some say the Wrights never left.

This column will ultimately focus on anything worthy of keystrokes, but we’ll also use it to weave some local aviation history into the storytelling to celebrate the “Flyers” part of our collegiate inspiration. After all, it’s what we’re known for and what we’re called, and no other D-I schools share the name. We can’t forget who we are and why we’re here. It’s a special story.

The year was special with a bunch of “firsts” dotting the calendar as UD athletics hit milestones in several sports that broke glass ceilings and assigned a new bottom floor.  It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows however and it wouldn’t be the Flyer way without some oxygen-depleting gut punches to cool the jets.  No fan base spikes the Kool-Aid quite like the Flyer Faithful; it’s part of our charm and the mortar between the bricks that binds us all together.

UDPride is built from the same construction material and oftentimes suffers the same fate as fans wear emotions on their sleeves.  Glasses are half-full and half-empty at the same time, sparking intense discussions on whose Kool-Aid generates the more outrageous delusions of grandeur. Most of the time it’s a neck-and-neck horse race requiring a photo finish, but that’s what makes UD fans special: they never run out of things to say. Plenty was said on UDPride in 2024 and we’ll get nostalgic and look back at some of the more notorious moments too.

Biggest Headline of 2024: the Passing of Don Donoher

Of all the wins and loss at UD in 2024, none hit harder than saying goodbye to the biggest cheerleader Dayton basketball ever had. He played at Dayton, coached only at Dayton, and ultimately never left the Hilltop after his sideline days were over.  He took the Flyers to within one victory of the brass ring and only the most dominating program, with the winningest coach, showcasing the most dominating player in college basketball history got in the way. In any other era, perhaps Mick’s 1967 squad hoists the mahogany and brings home a national championship to the Gem City. The magic that is UD Arena is single-handedly attributable to the two decades he spent coaching under the gun-metal grey rafters. He set the table so others could feast.

2024 Victory From the Jaws of Defeat: UDPride

 

Hear me out.  Without the multi-year Web site conversion project finally coming online, the platform to celebrate all the other seasonal milestones would have been dead silent.  I rambled endlessly about the hurdles both technical and logistical (and financial) that mired the Web site relaunch, but four months later it’s still hard to believe it happened.  After turning the lights off for over a month, the redux wasn’t without a few potholes when the lights reappeared.  It took several weeks to work through them, and perhaps a bit longer for Priders to familiarize the new site, navigation, forums, tools, and protocols.  It wasn’t just a baby step, it was a giant leap for Flyer kind. The biggest step forward did away with the totally free model and migrated to a fan portal where participation now required admission.  For the most part, Priders were receptive and understanding. The truth is, there were few options and none of them were status quo. It’s the new reality of online news and discussion and the economic model that once powered the web through Google Ads gasped its last breath. Change or die.  I’m still here and you’re still here. Great success!

Breakthrough Performance of 2024: Dayton Softball

The Flyers were picked to win the A10 in the preseason poll and ultimately swept the regular season and tournament titles for their first NCAA appearance in program history.  The program has been consistent under long-time head coach Cara Clark, usually finishing in the Top-5 of the conference, but never breaking the glass ceiling and being the prohibitive favorite. That all changed in 2024 as the Flyers reached the NCAA sub-regional before losing to Tennessee and Miami (OH).  Dayton finished 33-21 (19-7). It was also their first A10 regular season crown since 2015.

Social Slay of the Year: Lexie Almodovar’s Farewell

No single post captured the essence of being a Flyer better than the all-time kill queen’s exit from the gladiator pit. In the changing times of college portals and NIL, she and her fellow seniors never wavered and returned to UD for a very publicized zero-fail mission: get Dayton volleyball past the wall and into the Sweet-16 for the first time in program history.  The humility in her words said everything a fan of college sports would want to read — nevermind UD fans. They played for something bigger than themselves and Almodovar — recently named 3rd Team All-American — left the stage with an Instagram post dripping with endless pride and gratitude to do it at a place like Dayton.

Discussion Topic of the Year: Transfer Portal Thread

It all started on March 25, 2024 when user “lhsgolf19” posted a new topic about Zimi Nwokeji entering the transfer portal.  From there, it was a free-for-all discussion about player movement in men’s basketball. Lynn Greer II — a one-time UD player — transferred from St. Joseph’s.  Fans didn’t forget to notice seven Xavier players exiting Dana Avenue.  There was also talk about the departures of Kobe Elvis (Oklahoma) and Koby Brea (Kentucky), along with the portal acquisitions of Zed Key (Ohio State), Posh Alexander (Butler), and Jacob Conner (Marshall).  The topic is still smoldering with 742 posts and nearly 100,000 views. It wasn’t the most popular topic of 2024, but it was often the most combustible and contentious as Priders poured over available bodies and questioned the losses and/or motivations of the players that left Dayton. There were also a few “Enzos” along the way (rhetorical/redundant posts). The portal and NIL has completely changed the college landscape.  Ten years ago, this topic would have been a blip on the radar.

The “This Didn’t Age Well” Post(s) of the Year

Priders were swapping out the Kool-Aid for straight scotch when UD men’s basketball fell behind 56-39 to the Nevada Wolf Pack with under eight minutes remaining in the NCAA 1st Rd.  Fans were in rare form in the game thread, rendering emotional aid as UDPride member Viperstick languished somewhere over the north Atlantic, while another was paying homage to Thomas Crapper as UD flamed out in a disappointing blowou….oh SNAP!

Mic Moment of 2024: Deuce Doing PR After Beating Nevada

Continuing on the Nevada theme, Mr. All-American provided an in-depth 60-second marketing promo for University of Dayton basketball that would otherwise cost about $2 million for a similar ad on the CBS footprint.  Ridley Scott couldn’t have done better with an unlimited timeframe and budget, yet Deuce crafted this masterpiece entirely from stream-of-consciousness.

Team of the Year: UD Men’s Soccer

The Flyers were supposed to be good in 2024, but not even Head Coach Dennis Currier predicted the level of success that shattered not just program benchmarks but those of any Olympic sport in school history.  Dayton raised eyebrows with a 2-0 win at national powerhouse Indiana, then tied #11 Western Michigan and UMass. The Minutemen eventually reached the NCAA Elite Eight.  The best was yet to come however as Dayton bludgeoned #1 West Virginia by a 5-1 score at Baujan Field — the first Flyer team to beat a #1 ranked opponent since UD baseball upset top-ranked LSU 7-6 on March 13, 1996 in Baton Rouge, LA. The Tigers would go on to win the College World Series.  Currier’s team picked up two wins over Saint Louis on their way to the A10 tourney title.  Doing so catapulted UD to #5 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll — the highest-ever ranking for a UD Olympic sport. They earned a protected seed and NCAA First Round bye, then blanked Michigan 2-0 in front of 2,513 fans on the UD campus.  The magic carpet ride ended with a 3-1 home loss to SMU in the Sweet-16, but Dayton still managed to put Joseph Melto Quiah on the All-America 2nd Team and Hjalti Sigurdsson on the 3rd Team — the first time UD had multiple players tabbed All-American in the same season.  In a year with numerous grand performances both individual and collectively inside UD athletics, no Flyer team accomplished more.

 

Clutch Performance of 2024: UD Volleyball

No team had more greater pressure to perform — much of it self-induced — than Flyer volleyball.  After nearly 20 years of knocking on the door of the Sweet-16 but never pushing through, Tim Horsmon’s senior class made it their life’s obsession to get the Flyers to the NCAA regional in 2024. It was an all-or-nothing mission and the table was set as UD got sent to Waco, TX, sporting a 29-2 overall record for an NCAA 1st Rd match against South Carolina. After topping the Gamecocks 3-1, UD met host #16 Baylor in the 2nd Rd and fell behind 2-1. Their dreams were suddenly on thin ice.  UD tied the match at 2-2 however and completed the comeback with a 15-12 victory in the fifth and deciding set to win 3-2 and reach their first Sweet-16. Lexie Almodovar — later named AVCA 3rd Team All-American — led the team with a career-high 34 hammers to fulfill the promise.  With their backs against the wall in front of the opposing home crowd, Dayton refused to lose and dialed up their best in crunch time with the full-send. Clutch!! Dayton eventually lost 3-1 to host Nebraska in the NCAA regional but didn’t matter. Mission accomplished.

Statistical Enigma of 2024: UD Football

The Flyer football team finished 6-5 (4-4) after starting the season 5-1 — and the lone loss was a 24-13 defeat at Indiana State in a game Dayton surrendered just 92 total yards.  That’s hard to do — lose by double digits to a team with 92 yards of offense.  It happened because UD threw a pick-6 and suffered a fumble return TD that 393 yards of Flyer offense couldn’t overcome. Dayton finished the year losing four of the their last five games despite one of the best defenses in the country. How good you might say?  Head Coach Trevor Andrews’ team led the entire FCS in total defense and passing defense and finished fifth in the nation in PPG allowed.  The bad news: the Flyers were #102 of 123 teams in total offense.  It was a season for the ages on one side of the football and a mistake-prone clown show on the other.

 

Bridesmaids of the Year: UD Women’s Soccer

It was one of those seasons — again — for UDWSOC as arch-nemesis Saint Louis pulled off the “7-peat” in taking the A10 tournament title against UMass — a foe Dayton lost to at Baujan Field in the A10 Semifinals.  UD flushed away a golden opportunity to secure their first A10 regular season title since 2013 when they fell on the road to a less-talented Fordham squad, then tied the Billikens at home to end the regular season. Had UD topped the Rams, a Sloo tie in the season finale would have completed the job. Instead, it made the path to the A10 tourney title all the more challenging because it surrendered home field advantage in the potential title game. It ultimately didn’t matter as UD was upset by UMass and never reached the A10 Finals vs the Bills, but the 14-4-2 (7-1-2) record still felt like deja vu all over gain.  Head Coach Eric Golz is still pining for this first NCAA bid. The last Flyer WSOC team to make the Big Dance was in former Head Coach Mike Tucker’s final season in 2016. We’ll try it again next year.

Under the Radar Performance of 2024: Track & Field

UD Track & Field/Cross Country has to work a little harder to find front page of most fish wraps and Web sites, but you’re missing out if you failed to notice the historic individual performances by RS junior Casey Bogues and freshman Kendall Johnson. Both qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships at historic Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, OR. Considered the world’s cathedral of Track & Field where Steve Prefontaine became a legend running for the Ducks, Bogues and Johnson ended the season with Honorable Mention All-America titles next to their names.  Bogues returns in 2025 as a 5th-year senior while Johnson transferred out to run for the Oklahoma Sooners.

 

Best On Campus Moment of 2024: Total Solar Eclipse

It’s rare to view a solar eclipse and even less so to witness it like locals did.  The UD campus and surrounding metro area were graced with the spectacular astronomical show on April 8th that saw the moon pass directly in front of the sun with 100% totality.  The narrow band of totality was only around 100 miles wide as it raced across the country from west to east, but we fell dead-nuts in the Goldilocks zone to experience the once-in-a-lifetime event.  Unlike most scheduled events that eat up endless media oxygen and are big on hype but short on delivery, this was more stunning than the buildup promised — perhaps in part knowing how rare the experience was for the Dayton area. It only lasted about three minutes but the speed at which darkness fell in the moments before totality left onlookers speechless. It was over as quickly as it arrived, but fear not as you can start making plans for the next total solar eclipse in the Gem City on September 14, 2099.

 

And there you have it. The most unforgettable and forgettable timestamps of the past 12 months.  Never at a loss for unscripted twists and turns, Flyer nation always delivers heart-stopping moments that swell our excitement or send us downstairs to the basement liquor cabinet. There’s no telling what headlines are in store for 2025, except the certainty that Priders will hoist chalices and gnash teeth along the way. It’s what we do, and no fan base does it better.

There’s one thing that 2025 is guaranteed to bring that 2024 couldn’t deliver: more stories and insight from Hawthorn Hill where the past meets the present and pioneering legends never die.