May 19 – Director of Athletics Daryl Gross announces the Carrier Dome, Coyne Field and practice facilities will convert from AstroTurf to grasslike FieldTurf.

May 20 – Men’s basketball coach Jim Boeheim tells WTVH that troubled guard Billy Edelin will not return to Syracuse in the fall. Edelin reportedly took courses at a Division-II school in West Virginia over the summer.

June 1 – The football team reveals new uniforms. The new uniforms follow the team’s ‘Respect the Past, Represent the Future’ theme by putting numbers back on helmets but giving the rest of the uniform a modern, edgy look.

July 1 – The Big East officially expands, welcoming Cincinnati, South Florida, Louisville, Marquette and DePaul to the league and making way for what should be an interesting season of men’s basketball.

July 12 – The women’s basketball team adds Mary McKissack, formerly of LeMoyne, to its coaching staff. McKissack fills a vacancy after the Orange saw two coaches, two players and a trainer leave in the offseason.

Aug. 9 – Syracuse senior Gerry McNamara appears on the preseason Wooden Award list for the second time. The Wooden Award is given to the nation’s best college basketball player.

Aug. 23 – Football head coach Greg Robinson ends a summer-long quarterback battle by naming junior Perry Patterson the starting QB a year after former head coach Paul Pasqualoni passed on Patterson and gave the starting job to then-freshman Joe Fields.

Aug. 25 – For the second consecutive year, SU changes its official athletics logo. This time Syracuse opted for a block ‘S’ similar to earlier logos.

Aug. 26 – SU unveils three billboards in Times Square, including one draping down the side of a skyscraper. The ‘Orange is in the Apple’ billboards try to build on Syracuse’s already strong fan base in New York City.

Published on August 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm