SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Recent Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame inductee and Susquehanna University alumnus Dick Purnell '58 is the next guest speaker at Susquehanna football's weekly Quarterback Club meeting, to be held on THURSDAY, Nov. 6, at 12 p.m.

Purnell replaces the previously planned guest speaker, who cancelled his appearance.

Purnell was inducted into the PA Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 1 after a successful high school and collegiate athletics career. He came to Susquehanna from Ashland High School in Ashland, Pa., where he graduated in 1954. He earned varsity letters in football, basketball, baseball and track & field at Ashland.

At Susquehanna, Purnell (left) was a quarterback for the football team for four years and served as a co-captain for the 1956 and 1957 seasons. He earned Little All–America honors in 1956 when he accounted for 1,072 total yards and was an all–state honoree in 1956 and 1957.

In 1958, Purnell quarterbacked the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League.

He was an assistant football coach for SU from 1989 to 2002.

The Quarterback Club is a luncheon that usually takes place Fridays from 12–1 p.m. during Susquehanna University football season in the Apple Community Room of the university's James W. Garrett Sports Complex in Selinsgrove, Pa. The event happens every week whether the team is playing at home or away.

The day of the event was switched to Thursday this week to accommodate the team's travel to Worcester, Mass., to play Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 12 p.m.

The weekly cost for admission and lunch is $8.50. A yearly membership to the QB Club is $40, which does not include the weekly fee for lunch. QB Club members receive season tickets in a special seating section and admission to the club's annual postseason awards banquet.

This week's Gus Weber Crusader Football Player of the Week, sponsored this year by Jeff Edmunds, attorney-at-law, and the law firm Carpenter & Carpenter, who will present $100 to the Player of the Week's favorite charity, is senior quarterback Derek Pope (Selinsgrove, Pa./Selinsgrove Area).

Pope completed a game-high 27 passes on 39 attempts in Susquehanna's 49–42 loss to St. Lawrence University on Nov. 1. He threw for 282 yards and a game- and career-high four touchdown passes.

Pope is donating his $100 to the United Way.

The Crusader Football Player of the Week award is named in honor of the late Gustave Weber, who was Susquehanna's president from 1959 to 1977.

Susquehanna head football coach Steve Briggs and his staff will speak at the luncheon, show a highlight film and introduce Pope, who will also speak. SU's director of athletics communications Robert Healy, III will give a synopsis of the past week in Crusaders athletics.