Honoring Wesleyan's Undefeated 1969 Football Team
http://www.ctnow.com/news/connecticut/hc-wesleyan-football-team-1023-20101022,0,5516455.story
It Was A Tension-Filled Time, Both On And Off The Field
By ERIK HESSELBERG
October 22, 2010
The photo of the 1969 Wesleyan University football squad shows 52
players with Beatles-style haircuts, some with mustaches and long
sideburns, all in rows against the green slopes of Foss Hill.
That season played out against a tumultuous background of anti-
Vietnam war protests and intensifying racial tension would have a
storybook ending, with Wesleyan winning the Lambert Cup and going
8-0, one of only four undefeated teams in the school's 129-year
football history.
Tonight, Wesleyan alumni will gather at a dinner to honor that famous
football team as it is inducted into Wesleyan's Athletics Hall of
Fame. Twenty-eight players from the team are expected to attend.
"This is a great honor," said 1969 head football coach Don Russell,
who is returning for the ceremony and the homecoming game against
Amherst earlier in the day. "Obviously, I admire all my teams, but
these guys are special, and their record is outstanding."
Star Potential
The 1969 team, one of the youngest in years, had only a few starters
returning from the previous season.
Among them was junior Pete Panciera, a skinny kid from Meriden who
bore an uncanny resemblance to quarterback Joe Namath, right down to
Broadway Joe's sloped shoulders and slouchy movements.
"He even had Namath's bad knees," recalls fullback Dave Revenaugh,
who will be at tonight's ceremonies. But Panciera could throw line
drives harder and better than Fran Tarkenton, one sportswriter said.
And Revenaugh, with all his power, could catch. The 6-foot, 220-pound
fullback would become one of Panciera's favorite targets.
Still, the team's youth showed in the season opener against
Middlebury, which saw the Cardinals trailing 14-0 in the third
quarter. Then, Wesleyan rallied, beating Middlebury by just one
point, with strong performances by Panciera, tight end Frank Waters,
tailback Ed Tabor and Revenaugh. The momentum of that first win
seemed to propel the team through its next four games.
Tense Times
In a preseason scrimmage against Army, Wesleyan students shouted
anti-war epithets at the West Point cadets. Later in the year, a bomb
threat would clear the Andrus Field stands after a fight between
African American and white students.
But amid the tension, that winning season coming right after
Woodstock seemed to bring people together. "It was one of those
crazy things," said Panciera. "I'm not sure you can put your finger
on it. We weren't expected to win more than four or five games."
Panciera will not be able to attend the Wesleyan induction tonight.
Wesleyan has an impressive football pedigree. The university boasts
the oldest continuously used collegiate field in the country, which
dates to 1881. A Wesleyan quarterback is credited with throwing the
first forward pass, in 1906, in a game against Yale. Back then, the
Cardinals were known as the "Methodists" or the "Mysterious Ministers
from Middletown." Mementoes from those bruising years a small
leather helmet and the oversize footballs of the era are proudly
displayed in a glass case in the athletic center lobby.
Little Three
The Little Three in 1969 comprised Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst,
with Amherst widely favored that year, featuring standout players
like quarterback John Kehoe and 6-foot-3, 225-pound linebacker Doug
Swift, who would go on to play in the NFL. But Wesleyan boasted the
running talent of Revenaugh and Panciera's slingshot arm. The
Cardinals dealt the Lord Jeffs of Amherst a crushing 28-13 defeat.
With an easy win over Hamilton the following week, Wesleyan headed
into its big homecoming game against Williams with a 6-0 record. For
the first time in years, the Cardinals were looking at a real shot at
the Little Three crown, but the tensions of the era threatened to
disrupt the game. Several black students, provoked by racially
charged comments in the campus newspaper, had beaten a white student
and been expelled. That triggered angry protests by black students.
To ease tensions, the administration agreed to allow a black student
to address the crowd during halftime at homecoming.
The game was a nail-biter. During the first half, Williams star
tailback Jack Maitland, another future NFL player, ran roughshod over
the Wesleyan defense, and at the half, Wesleyan was behind, 14-6.
The Wesleyan band straggled onto the field at the break, along with
woolly-bearded male cheerleaders. A hush settled over the crowd when
they saw a black student take the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen,"
he began. "Wesleyan is in big trouble!" The Williams stands,
interpreting that as a reference to the score, erupted into cheers.
The situation had been defused.
Wesleyan narrowed the gap but still trailed 17-12 in the second half.
With minutes left in the fourth quarter, Wesleyan moved the ball 80
yards, with Revenaugh big-shouldering 20 yards on one play.
For football announcer Seth Davis, Class of 1972, the final touchdown
pass is etched in his memory: "A screen pass to Revenaugh."
"I remember everything like it was in slow motion," Revenaugh
recalled. "There's a kind of poetry to it. You don't hear the crowds
and everything becomes very quiet. When I caught the ball it was like
I was gliding into the end zone."
Wesleyan had won the Little Three championship. And, with another win
in the season's final game, a cliffhanger against Trinity in which
Wesleyan came back in the fourth quarter to triumph 21-18, the
Cardinals were undefeated, and champions.
.
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