Centre Football and Baseball, 1968-69
Pre-season football in 1968 started off like a game of musical chairs with fifty people. A few of us already owned seats as the music started so we could sit down and watch the fight for vacant chairs. Schenz, Stan, Marty, and a couple of others were locked into our positions. But there were seven other positions on offense and as many as eight on defense that were up for grabs. On offense, the quarterback, wingbback, fullback and at least three offensive lineman positions were contested. On defense, it seemed that only Stan and Russ Shearer were locked in at defensive end. GG would start but it wasn't clear at which position. Some of the competition was between two players who might play offense or defense interchangably and it needed to be determined which one was best suited for which job. For example: Ethridge and Easley; one would start at quarterback and the other would start in the defensive backfield or vice-versa; or Gary Hall and Gary Kleine one of whom would start at wingback and the other at defensive halfback.
The 1968 Centre College Colonels.
As the competition went on, Marty, Stan and I served as an ad hoc jury judging the talent. One day when we saw a particularly unsuited player being manhandled out of contention, Marty delivered this Appalachian pearl of wisdom, which I had never heard before: "You caint make chicken salad outta chickensheeitt."
There were many question marks that would be tested in the crucible of competition. Our senior class was like the senior class of two years before-- small with only a handful of worthy lettermen. Schenz, Beaudin, Shearer and Will Johnson were the only starters. We had fourteen juniors but after that it was all freshman and sophomores. It took a couple of weeks for the young ones to find their place and feel comfortable.
My love Betty Fowlkes was selected to the cheerleader squad. The players loved our cheerleaders. They always seemed more attractive than those of our opponents. The ladies traveled with us when we played away. At one point in 1966-67 they collected trading stamps from the community to buy a van to transport them to games that didn't require flight on an airline.
1968 Centre Cheerleaders.
The season started dismally. Schenz, who I have praised for invincibility, had his ribs caved in early in the first game against Kenyon. We had manhandled Kenyon in 1967 because they were largely a freshman team although they showed up with what would eventually become the best quarterback-receiver combination in small college football; sophomores Bill Christen to 6'-3" Chris Myers. On this day in 1968, Myer's caught nine of the 11 passes Christen completed (out of 20 attempts) for two touchdowns. Not only did Schenz get hurt, but we lost GG Benning, who had won Ziggy's middle-linebacker position and who "received a sharp blow to the head and was unable to play any of the second half" according to the Advocate-Messenger. We lost 21-6.
We rushed for more yards and had an advantage in first downs 14-11 but they had a hundred more yards passing. The game was closer than the score indicated because Kenyon scored their last touchdown very late in the game, but we got beat fair and square. Our pass defense was overpowered by Myers much of the game and the offense was without the big play Schenz could have provided. I was shocked by the outcome given we had drubbed Kenyon the year before by a score of 33-7. Myers was a special player and would prove it again the following year. In pregame analysis, Harmon called Christen to Myers, "one of the finest passing combinations we have seen in recent years."
We had to shake it off because following week we had an even more important game against our conference foe Southwestern in Memphis (which is now named Rhodes College.) We would be without Schenz again because he had damaged cartilege in his rib cage. We were stronger than Southwestern, but things fell apart again for us.
The flight down was frightening with heavy turbulence. We couldn't land at Memphis because of a storm so we had to sit in Nashville for a while until the weather improved. Eventually we made it, but the ordeal did not bode well for the following day.
In the first half of the game, we made it to Southwestern territory only once and were trailing 13-0 at the half. We came out on fire in the second half and drove to the Lynx 10 yard line when disaster struck. Ethridge threw a pass to Marty that was intercepted and returned 90 yards for a touchdown.
In the fourth quarter we drove down again and Ethridge hit me with a 14-yd touchdown pass. We missed the extra point. Later we drove down again and scored when fullback Steve Campbell went over from the 1-yard line. Then I scored on a two point play that bounced off another receiver into my hands. Time was running out. We drove into their territory again, but Ethridge threw another interception that ended the game 20-14 in Southwestern's favor. Statistically the game was a rout by us. We had 22 first downs to their 11. We had 331 yards in total offense compared to their 127. Statistics are for losers but we needed them to remind us we dominated everything except the score.
i caught 11 passes in the game for 94 yards. By the numbers, it was the best game i ever had. It was a long trip home. We had lost two straight.
But good things started to happen. Our next game would be Washington and Lee at our Homecoming. Schenz would be back. GG Benning was proving to be an excellent middle linebacker. His freshman protege from Hazard, Ky, Anthony "Rock" Olinger, was anchoring the middle of the defensive line like a boulder, a very mobile boulder. He had blocked a punt against Kenyon. Stan was leading the team in tackles. Kleine was playing stellar both ways and returning punts and kickoffs for good yardage. Ethridge had solidified his job as quarterback and Mike Easley was playing safety like a pro. Steve Campbell was dominating as a blocking and running fullback. Our fill-ins for Schenz-- Scotty Hunt and Lawrence Gorin--had played well in both games.
Washington and Lee proved to be the turning point of the season. They played their usual stingy defense that had held us to 3 and 0 points respectively in our previous two contests. We moved the ball repeatedly deep into their territory but could only manage a field goal by Jay Van Arsdale in the first half. Rock Olinger came of age in this game. He and Stan were outstanding, with 10 and nine tackles respectively. Together with the rest of the defense they set back W&L with 112 yards in losses. The team awarded Rock the game ball for his efforts, a high honor for a freshman. Mike Easley, who was now being referred to as our rover, had 9 tackles and punted eight times for a very respectable 42 yard average. Kleine went both ways in this game and picked up 24 yards rushing. He would be our primary wingback throughout the rest of the '68 season and the entire season in '69. He remembered the game this way:
The W&L game was the game I played every play except the kickoffs (total of 3) Steele gave me a rest. I was down to 143 lbs after the game and in need of some weight gaining beverages.
Schenz returned to form against W&L. He had 88 yards on 24 carries. At one point he gained 37 yards on four consecutive carries. I don't think his rib cartilege was fully healed, but he played anyway. We were lucky he survived it. Our ferocious defense held them to 11 yards rushing and 82 yards passing. We had 145 yards rushing and 85 passing.Their rushing average suffered from quarterbacks sacks inflicted mostly by Rock and Stan. The Generals became very familiar throughout the game with their own territory. They threatened a couple of times in ours but only after we had turned the ball over. The final score was 10-0.
We only completed five passes in the game and I got two of them. One resulted in a 42-yard touchdown that iced the game for us early in the fourth quarter. I ran what we called a drive pattern which is kind of a v-shaped post pattern. The defensive back went for my fake and i broke clear. Ethridge put the ball right on the money at the nine yard line. The d-back made a last ditch effort and brushed my heel with a swipe but I danced out of it and scored.
Ethridge barely getting off the pass for a 42-yard touchdown. Steve Campbell (31) and Tony Hohman (60) blocking.
Washington and Lee incurred a tragic loss just before the 1968 season. Their long time coach, Lee McLaughlin, was accidentally electrocuted in his summer home near Lexington, Virginia in August. Buck Leslie, his assistant, was named the new head coach. McLaughlin had a respectable 44-24-3 record at W&L when he died.
For us there was a mood change from uncertainty to cautious confidence in the week after the win at Homecoming. The following Saturday we were to play Washington University in St. Louis. They were 1-3 and we were 1-2. To salvage the season, we needed to win the remainder of our conference games against Washington U and Sewanee. Although Southwestern was 2-0 in the conference, we could still catch them if they lost another and we won both of ours.
Schenz was spectacular against Washington U. In a game described as "a smash and maul affair" in the Advocate-Messenger and which featured 21 punts-- a sure sign of a defensive battle-- our defense came through with several clutch plays. Rover Mike Easley intercepted passes twice while WU was inside our ten yard line.
Schenz carried 24 times for 153 yards. In the second quarter with the game scoreless, we ran an end sweep, and Schenz broke free and raced 76 yards for the only touchdown in the game. It was exhilarating to look up from the ground after throwing a block to see that play! We missed the extra point, but Washington was unable to score all game except in the final minutes when after being pinned to our one yard line and pushing it out to the four on three rushes, Ethridge purposely ran around in our end zone to burn the clock and then dropped a knee to give Washington a two-point safety-- a safety that ironically saved us by eliminating the need to punt from the back of the end zone and allowed us to kick to them from our own 20 yard line as per the rules. Steve Campbell's kick off the tee put them on their 41 yard line. The defense held and we had a victory by the baseball score of 6-2.
The next day there were these two paragraphs in a report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The coach (or the reporter) was a little confused. Tony Hohmann, a pleasant surprise of a transfer from West Point that season, played offensive tackle. He must have meant Tony "Rock" Olinger. I would also suggest he meant Stan Peskoe instead of Russ Shearer, who was a good defensive end, but not as good as Stan. Stan was a freshman when he beat sophomore Russ out for a starting position. On that particular day at WU, Stan was a monster gobbling up runners and passers. He had 13 unassisted tackles and five assists. And instead of Gary Hall, a good defensive back, he could have meant GG Benning, our quickest and most ferocious linebacker. After the game our deliriously happy team wanted to award the game ball to Coach Harmon, but he declined the honor and gave the ball to Peskoe. Despite getting the names wrong, Coach Martin of WU was right. Our defense was quick and nasty.
The statistics show we had 10 first downs to their eight; that we had 280 total yards to their 171. They completed only 11 of 32 passes for 120 yards with three interceptions, two of which were drive-killers. We were a better team but the game could have gone either way. We were lucky to get out of St. Louis with a win.
We were 2-2 and 2-1 in the conference. The University of the South at Sewanee would host us next. They had humiliated us the year before at our Homecoming and something had to be done about that!
A lot of the problem playing against Sewanee had to do with adjusting to their supposedly antiquated single-wing offense. When you look at it now, it's not a lot different from the shotgun offense except the single-wing was more of a running offense that attempted to double up blockers on defenders at the point of attack. Our defensive linemen had grueling games against Sewanne every year because they were constantly being mob-blocked. Stan Peskoe had to deal repeatedly with Bubba Owens, the powerful, 5'- 7," 195 lb speeding block of a man coming out of the backfield on play after play, for all four years he played. Sewanee under Coach Shirley Majors had been running the single-wing for a long time and his teams were good at it-- so good that they were a two touchdown favorite over us in the week before the game.
The game turned out to be the most exciting of our season. It seems many of our exciting games required that we give up two touchdowns before we shifted into gear. Sewanee scored two touchdown early with tough ball-control drives, one of which covered 95 yards. The score was 14-0 in the second quarter.
The turning point came when a few minutes before halftime sophomore Scotty Hunt intercepted a pass at our two-yard line. If they had scored, the game could have been over. We then executed a 98-yard drive in 13 plays with Kleine pulling in a four-yard pass for the score and Van Arsdale kicking the PAT. At the half we were down 14-7.
In the third quarter, Easley intercepted another pass, his third in two games, which allowed us to drive 34 yards with Steve Campbell pushing it in from the two. Van Arsdale again kicked the PAT to tie the score at 14 apiece.
The deciding drive started at Sewanee's 47. We got to the nine and Schenz carried it in. I remember throwing a downfield block and looking up to see Schenz breeze easily into the end zone without a tackler near him. It was gorgeous and symbolized the sea change in the game. As the Lexington Herald-Leader put it, "Centre dominated the game in the fourth quarter." We wore them down and out.
Sewanee attempted a comeback, but our new safety, freshman Mark Dexter of Danville, intercepted another pass. Jay Van Arsdale added a field goal for good measure and we headed home with a 24-14 victory and a 3-1 record in the conference.
Our pass defense with Easley, Dexter, Hunt, Gary Hall, GG, freshman Al Gross, junior Cabell Francis and Kleine (when needed) had matured into a potent force. Combined with our stellar defensive line of Peskoe, Olinger, Russ Shearer, John Henshaw, Jay Van Arsdale, Jack Eicher and converted offensive lineman Will Johnson, the unit had become virtually impenetrable. Much of the credit should go to Herbie McGuire for his work designing the defense. Harmon was fulsome in his praise for us. He was quoted in the Advocate-essenger as saying, "I just didn't believe we would become as good as we are now. It is difficult to play as many freshman and sophomores as we do and come up with a team that can beat Sewanee, Washington U and Washington and Lee."
But there was a problem. Our next opponent was DePauw. Even Harmon admitted it when in the same column he described DePauw as "probably the best team on our schedule in recent years."
Depauw turned out to be not the best team on our schedule although they were the biggest and strongest of the teams we played. I think Kenyon was better. We outplayed DePauw and flummoxed them for three quarters and most of the fourth. They outweighed our lineman on average 20 lbs a man. Our little quick guard, Fred Marcum, who stood 5'-9" and weighed a muscular 160 lbs was opposite some big cushion who must have weighed 260. When Freddie hit him he almost disappeared in the guy's belly fat.
DePauw had 27 letterman and 15 starters returning from their 1967 team.
They competed in the indiana Collegiate Conference (ICC), which included teams like Indiana State (Larry Bird's alma mater), Butler University, Ball State, the University of Evansville-- all schools much bigger than we were. DePauw had a student body three times the size of ours. When we played them they were 3-1 in their conference, which was eventually won by Indiana State. The Midwest was the dominant region in football in those days with teams like Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue from which NFL Hall of Fame QB Bob Griese graduated in 1967. The Big Ten was viewed by many as the best conference in the country. The ICC was like a little Big Ten.
I had a good game with at least five catches. I caught a pass on DePauw's one in the first quarter and Schenz then rammed it over. In the third quarter we got the ball on the DePauw 31 after an interception by Al Gross. I had two receptions as we got the ball down to the five, but DePauw held and Jay Van Arsdale kicked a field goal. We were up 10-7. We stopped them again and took over on our own 26. In the ensuing drive I caught two more passes but then we lost possession on a fumble. (We lost two costly fumbles in the game. Prewitt Lane in his column judiciously did not name the culprits.) The statistics of the game were mostly even except in one crucial category-- they didn't lose any fumbles. We had 209 yards of total offense and they had 274. We outgained them on the ground 101 to 59.
We were never behind until they scored a touchdown with 33 seconds left in the game. We were ahead until there was four minutes left in the game when they kicked a field goal to tie the score. Prewitt Lane, the observant and accurate sports writer for the Cento, described what happened:
On fourth down [DePauw running back] Sacramento ran for eight and the first down. It looked like the Colonels might hold as they forced an incomplete pass and a penalty, but on third down [from the 18] with only 33 seconds remaining in the game, Pottenger threaded the needle to hit Ralston, who was well-covered in the endzone."
Final score, DePauw 17, Centre 10. I had one unpleasant episode in the game. I had caught a pass and in the pile after the tackle a defensive back was grabbing my privates and grabbing hard. I suspect he was trying to get me to swing at him. I had caught quite a few passes that day and apparently he didn't like it. I yelled at him: "What are you, a faggot??" I complained to the ref: "That guy was grabbing my balls!" The ref said, "I didn't see it."
We surprised them. One of their players said to me after the game, "You guys are really good!" They came expecting an easy game of it and we almost beat them.
Gary Kleine had this to say about the game:
Upon arrival in Danville on Friday, DePauw took to Farris Stadium for
their game day dress rehearsal. They were an impressive group of very
large, impeccably attired competitors. Knowing that we would be the
underdogs, we dressed for our practice in our disheveled and rag tag
practice attire. We were on the adjacent practice field as DePauw took
the game field. After we completed our drills, we straggled by their
hulking numbers as they were gawking at our intentionally unorganized
ragtag bunch.
Our subterfuge worked as they clearly were taken aback by our competitive performance.
. . . The DePauw starting tackle , a bruising 6'2' 230 lb beast, was a high school teammate of [mine]. Sharing a post game Saturday steak at Cowan [Dining Hall], the blazer attired Doug McAlister confirmed [to me] the overconfidence and nonchalance that nearly doomed the Tigers. "We were out played and very fortunate to get out with a win."
The loss to DePauw was the bad news. The good news was that on that same Saturday, Sewanee beat Southwestern at Sewanee by a score of 28-14, thus guaranteeing us a share of the College Athletic Conference title. Southwestern had yet to play Washington and Lee. That game was a home game for Southwestern and we had hopes the Generals might prevail, but that was not to be. The following week Southwestern exploded on W&L and beat them unmercifully, 38-7. W&L could hardly score points all season.
There was talk in the Southwestern locker rooom according the Commerical Appeal of Memphis that Southwestern players considered themselves champions because they had beaten us in our second game. That got my hackles up. There never was a more lop-sided game in our favor that we lost than the one against Southwestern on September 28th. If we could have arranged a play-off with them, we would have beaten them soundly. (We did, in fact, beat them the next time we played them in 1969.) Our freshmen and sophomores were blooming into prime players. Steve Campbell, Rock Olinger, Jack Eicher, Al Gross, Scotty Hunt, Lawrence Gorin, Mark Dexter, Dave Hanson, Joe Constanzo, Freddie Marcum, Paul McHugh and Tony Hohman were, or were becoming, outstanding players.
We visited Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio next. Prewitt Lane in the headline to his column in the Cento described the game artfully: Colonels Successful in Northland Raid. This was the game Schenz showed himself a legitimate triple threat who could run, receive and throw passes. He been a quarterback at Deer Park High School in Cincinnati in 1964, but split time behind a guy named Jim Prather who was a Cincinnati Post All-Star in Hamilton County that year. Schenz had scored several touchdowns but was overshadowed by Prather. He was just a little guy then at 5'-8" and 155 lbs. In his senior year at Centre he was listed at 5'-11" and a solid 175 lbs.
In the Wilmington game, Schenz rushed 20 times for 88 yards and two touchdowns, caught three passes for 34 yards and one touchdown and threw a halfback option pass to Gary Kleine for 20 yards. The man could do it all.
It was becoming predictable, but again we gave up an initial touchdown to our opponents. At least it wasn't two this time. After that we proceeded to score four touchdowns in the remainder of the first half, which produced the final score, 28-7. Steve Campbell scored our first touchdown. Schenz ran for 18 yards for the second. After Takacs caught a crucial 40 yard pass, Schenz caught one for a 22 yard touchdown. For our fourth touchdown, Schenz scored from five yards out after Steve Campbell rambled 35 yards with a screen pass. There was no scoring by either team in the second half. Ethridge was very proficient in this game, completing 12-24 passes for 149 yards.
The next game against Hampden-Sydney at home proved that football can break your heart even when you don't lose. What happened in our game no longer happens in college football games except on very rare occasions. We thought we were a lot better than Hampden-Sydney because in the last five games we were much better than our opponents with the exception of DePauw and we very easily could have won that game.
We went out there and beat Hampden-Sydney solidly for more than three quarters. At the end of the third we were up 24-7. We got another touchdown early in the fourth quarter to make it 31-7, a seemingly safe lead. Harmon started substituting in our bench players late in the third quarter. Hampden-Sydney took advantage of that--and fast. I think they scored with 9 minutes left in the game and then twice more. And that was it. The reader may ask, how did they tie the game if they only scored three touchdowns? After each touchdown, they successfully executed a two-point play. Final score: 31-31. Unbelievable and highly improbable, but true.
I felt sympathy for Coach Harmon after the game. From the Lexington Herald:
"It's just one of those things," Harmon said as he walked off the field after giving Stokely Fulton, the Hampden-Sydney coach, the traditional handshake. Then he added, "Excuse me," and headed for the locker room.
Harmon had reason to be angry.
I remember sitting on the bench after being removed from the game early in the fourth quarter. it was a cold damp day. We sat there for at least fifteen minutes before we were ordered back in to get some offense going. Our substitutes were going three and out every time they took the field after H-S touchdowns. When the starters were put back in it turned out that we couldn't blunt the charge or keep possession of the ball either. Hampden-Sydney was on fire and we couldn't put it out.
The statistics were ridiculous. We had 472 yards on offense to their 277, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. We completed 16 of 28 passes with five interceptions. I don't think all the interceptions were thrown by Ethridge. As many as two might have been thrown by back-up quarterbacks who went in late in the game.
Whatever the truth, it didn't feel like we had dominated the game even after the score was 31-7. It felt close the whole way. But I suspect my teammates thought the game was over when Ethridge ran in from the three to score our fourth touchdown. It wasn't and if truth be told, a tie seemed worse than a loss at the time. Now I look at it and can say 5-3-1 looks a little better than 5-4.
Harmon placed all the blame on himself after the game for substituting too early and not stopping the disaster in its tracks when the starting offense and defense were still game-limber and eager to play. But, it was entirely on his shoulders. I sympathized with him because he knew he let fifty young men down and had to live with it. But he also felt he had an obligation to his bench players who showed up to practice every day all season, were abused by the starters and rarely got a chance to play in a game. He wasn't the kind of man to let something like that impact his duty to the team in the future, but it had to be killing him inside.
The season ended on a high note. Hanover came to town looking to avenge the game the year before in Indiana when their talented quarterback Phil Winning broke his ankle playing defense on a goal line stand. We were starting to dominate the game when that happened, but Winning's injury made it easier because their offense suffered for it against our predatory defense. In '68 they had been upset the week before in a game to determine their conference championship. Their record was a respectable 5-4. if they beat us they would have a winning season. They hadn't beaten us in the eight previous meetings starting in 1958, but there was one tie.
It was Parent's Day Weekend at Centre and my parents made the trip down from New Jersey. I was delighted to see them. I remember the first time they had come down in my freshman year. My mother even after having had nine children was still a beautiful, youthful looking woman. After the game against Maryville, my father took us out to dinner at the Town House restaurant in Danville. We had an elegant old black waiter who was very attentive to my mother. At one point he said something that made it clear he thought my mother was my date and not my mother-- that my father was treating us to dinner. He thought she was a student at Centre. My father had just turned 39. He looked a little older than that. My mother would be turning 38 in a few months and she looked 22, or at least she did to the waiter at the Town House.
My father was always looking for ways to rein in my hubris over my accomplishments, although I knew he was very proud of me. In the game against Hanover he was given the opportunity to belittle me good-naturedly for something that happened within two minutes of the start of the game. In our first possession, I ran a deep bend-in across the middle and caught a perfectly thrown pass from Ethridge. According to the Courier-Journal,
Hanover's middle linebacker, Mike Robinson, fell down just as he was about to hit Eaton. Robinson . . . picked himself up and overhauled Eaton some 60 yards later, but the damage was done.
He tackled me on the four-yard line. We scored two plays later, five plays after the opening kickoff. My father used the occasion to mock me: "How did you get chased down by a linebacker? A linebacker was faster than you?" I didn't have a suitable answer. In my expert opinion, Robinson fell down because I juked him one way and went the other.
It was the last game for seniors Schenz, Beaudin, Shearer, Johnson and Wentz. Schenz had another one of those games that inspired superlatives from all who witnessed it. He gained 171 yards in 22 carries with two touchdowns. The headline at the top of the page in the Danville Advocate-Messenger blared, "SCHENZ RUNS WILD AS CENTRE WINS, 43-14." Sports writer Bill Spencer, who must have been a member of the Jerry Schenz Fan Club, could barely contain himself. After describing our first touchdown by Steve Campbell, he wrote, "Two minutes later, the inimitable Mr. Jerry Schenz waltzed 45 yards with the pigskin in his hands to increase the margin to 12-0." Later he wrote, " . . . at the Panther 26 Jerry Schenz displayed his flawless form to the crowd and dashed the remainder of the way to give Centre an 18 point advantage." Mr. Spencer's fancy verbiage is understandable. Schenz was electrifying-- even to those of us who played with him. In this his final game he had 162 yards in 22 carries.
Spencer also reported that freshman Lawrence Gorin had one of the most sensational runs of the year when he "twisted, turned, fell, rolled, and plowed over anybody who got in his way to a 58-yard touchdown that would not be denied."
Other highlights: Will Johnson recovered a Hanover fumble after a hit by Jack Eicher on a Hanover runner; Gary Kleine, going both ways, intercepted a pass, recovered a fumble, caught an 8-yard touchdown pass and scored the two-pointer after to make the score 40-6. With six minutes left, according to the Advocate-Messenger, Ethridge and I hooked up for a 25-yard scoring pass, but it was nullfied by a holding penalty. The Cento claimed it was Marty Takacs who caught that pass. I suspect the Cento was correct. Our offensive line was great, but even the great ones occasionally get caught.
The final score was 43-14. The season ended. We had tied with Southwestern for the conference lead with each team posting a 3-1 record. They had a total record of 5-5 and we were 5-3-1 on the season. Since playing Southwestern, we had won five of seven games and tied the one against Hampden-Sydney that should have been a victory. Southwestern had scored 171 points against all opponents and given up 196. We had scored 173 against all opponents and given up 125 which was 72 points less than Southwestern. Although they played one more game than we did, that number speaks for itself. We had given up less than 14 points a game and they had given up more than 19 and a half.
Schenz's last gallup for 44 yards, from a photo in the Cento. I like this photo because it captures most of the players in our offense. Left to right: me on the ground (89), Dick Wentz (77), Ethridge (12), Schenz (22), Joe Constanzo (75), Marty (85), Tony Hohmann (60), and Gary (21). Missing or unidentifiable: Steve Campbell, Kirk Beaudin, Fred Marcum and Paul McHugh.
Statistically we had a good year. We were the only team in the College Athletic Conference with a winning record. Schenz was our star performer, even though he had been knocked out of the first two games. In seven games he carried the ball 161 times for 795 yards averaging 4.9 a carry. He caught 11 passes for 162 yards and threw two passes for 20 yards. He was named a Little All-American, honorable mention. He and Stan Peskoe were voted honorary captains by the team after the season.
Paul Ethridge ranked second in passing in the Conference. He completed 87 of 170 passess for 1,039 yards, five touchdowns and a 51.7 completion rate.
Fullback Steve Campbell tied Schenz for the team scoring lead with 48 points. He rushed 129 times for 420 yards and a 3.2 average.
I ranked second in the conference in pass receiving with 40 catches for 460 yards and two touchdowns. Marty had 15 catches for 196 yards.
Stan Peskoe led the team with 76 tackles and 34 assists. Freshman Anthony "Rock" Olinger was second with 60 tackles and 25 assists. Our defensive backfield was stellar: Mike Easley had 53 tackles, 24 assists, intercepted four passes and recovered three fumbles. Freshman Mark Dexter led the team with five interceptions including three in one game. Middle linebacker GG Benning had 39 tackles and 34 assists. Compared to Bill Silvey the year before, that doesn't sound like much but Stan, Rock, Jay Van Arsdale, Jack Eicher and Russ Shearer were making so many tackles at the line of scrimmage that GG was getting fewer opportunities than was Ziggy in 1967.
Gary Kleine intercepted two passes and was as valuable on defense as he was running and pass receiving on offense. He rarely came off the field. Sophomore Tony Hohmann was voted best blocker by his teammates. I had the privilege of playing next to him on the offensive line. He could move people out of the way. Ed Rall was named most valuable non-letter winner by his teammates. He was a team-player in baseball and football.
The Class of 1970--Marty, Gary, Stan, GG, Ethridge, Mike, Preston Miles, Raoul Baxter, Jay Van Arsdale, John Henshaw, Cabell Francis and I-- would be seniors in the autumn of 1969. Twelve of us had made it through the first three years. In the team picture of 1966, i count 21 freshman in our class, which makes a better than 50% survival rate. (In an early report in 1966, it was reported that 23 freshman had tried out for the team.) Given that we were playing for free, I call that commendable. Marty, Stan and I had the distinction of having started and played as long as we were needed in every game-- all 27-- during those three seasons. With such a talented class, we were optimistic about our chances in 1969. We also had strong players in the freshman and sophomore classes who would join us armed with an extra season of valuable experience. An undefeated season in 1969 was a distinct possibility.
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The 1969 baseball team looked to be our best yet. We had seven starters returning, including junior outfielder Buddy Baker, high scorer on the basketball team, who was a starter as a freshman, sat out his sophomore year, and now returned to play right field. Power hitter, Scotty Hunt, would return to play centerfield and he along with our entire infield-- Ethridge at first, Rall (when not pitching) at second, me at shortstop, Robbie Partin at third and Jack Eicher behind the plate-- were ready to improve our '68 season record.
The problem was we still had Western Kentucky, Morehead State, and Eastern Kentucky, all scholarship teams on our schedule which meant several defeats were built in. If you removed the outcome of those six games, we would have had a winning season against colleges that did not offer athletic scholarships. When we played Morehead and lost a triple-header that was played because a previously scheduled double-header had been rained out, we learned that they had been practicing for two months while we had been practicing for two weeks. Two other games were played against Georgetown College of Georgetown, Kentucky, which was also a scholarship team.
Scotty Hunt was the leading hitter on the team. You could tell someone in his past, perhaps his father, had knowledgeably steered him in the right direction: he was right-handed in everything but he hit from the left-side, which gives hitters in baseball a slight advantage since most of the pitchers they will face will throw right-handed. Someone had encouraged him as a boy to switch. Another clue was the perfection of his swing. It was without hitches or wasted motion-- as clean and powerful as a karate chop. He knew how to get the barrel of the bat on the ball. He was beautiful to watch and as I was usually on deck when he batted second in the order, I got the best possible view.
After our first six scheduled games were rained out, we opened the season at Maryville College in Tennessee and split a double-header. We lost the first game 3-0, and aided by the pitching of Walt Mills and two hits by Ed Rall we got away with a 7-6 victory in the second game.
Then came the triple-header versus Morehead State. We lost 7-0, 7-2 and then 8-3. In the final game, in a preview of things to come Scottie Hunt hit a 3-run homer. The we returned home to face Transylvania.
Our first home game in a double-header saw Ed Rall pitch a masterful game against Transy to win by a score of 2-1. Unfortunately, we lost the second game, 9-5. Then we played extremely well against Western Kentucky, another Ohio Valley Conference scholarship team and, suprisingly, split a double header with them. Ed Rall put in a fine effort in the first game but we lost 3-2. Rall walked in the sixth inning and Scotty Hunt drove him in with a triple. I hit a sacriice fly that scored Scotty, but we couldn't get another run across. In the second, left-hander Al Gross took the mound. Here's how it was covered in the Cento:
This was a great accomplishment for Centre baseball. Western Kentucky that year won the Western Division of the Ohio Valley Conference with a 10-1 interleague record. They were defeated in a three game playofff for the overall championship by the Eastern Division winner-- none other than the aforementioned Morehead State. We played good baseball against them both under the circumstances.
Next we traveled up to Lexington to play Transylvania again. Scotty Hunt dominated the game with two homers, one a three-run blast in the third inning and another in the 9th inning. We won 8-5. Ed Rall scattered seven hits as we won our fourth against six losses.
Berea came to town next. Al Gross was flawless in the first game of a doubleheader and shut out Berea 3-0. In the second game we had a lead but lost a close one, 7-5.
The Bellarmine Invitational was played at the end of April in Louisville and included four teams: Bellarmine, Transylvania, Thomas More and Centre. This did not go well. As Prewitt Lane put it in the Cento: "Last Saturday's tournament in Louisville was not the best ball the Colonels have played." I thought this might be our opportunity to shine playing against three opponents whose colleges were of similar stature to Centre. (We did not play any college or university that had a amaller student body than ours with our 673 students.)
At Bellarmine, we only got to play against Thomas More and Transylvania (for the fourth time that season). We lost 16-6 and 4-2 respectively.
There were often noisy build-ups in the papers for these types of invitational tournaments (including ours two weeks later when all the spring sports teams in the College Athletic Conference would gather in Danville), but when it came to reporting on the actual games, meets or matches, or publishing box scores and detailed descriptions, the reporting was often missing in journalistic action. The few papers who would process and print a box score were in Memphis or St Louis. Once in a while you would see one in Lexington, but only for a University of Kentucky game. Small college games didn't rate much column space. That said, the Advocate-Messenger in Danville did a pretty good job covering Centre sports.)
On April 29, Hanover came to town for a nine-inning game. We had owned them in football several years in a row and on this day we would dominate them in baseball. Scotty Hunt once again provided the excitement by hitting two homeruns, the second one in the ninth with one man on to secure the win by a score of 6-4. He had also homered in the sixth inning. Ed Rall pitched the full nine innings and before Scotty's homer in the ninth drove in the tying run to make the score 4-4. He only gave up six hits but three errors by our defense allowed Hanover to score three of their runs. I was on deck when Scotty walked it off. It was a thing of beauty.
Scotty was having all the fun with home runs and I wanted get some of that. We went to Georgetown to play a double header on Saturday, May 3rd. Tigers coach Joel Stockstill started all-American pitcher Bob McLeod against us in the first game. He had been drafted by the San Francisco Giants after the previous season but decided he wanted to stay in college and graduate. He had earned all-American honors in 1967. Earlier in the season, he had beaten the University of Kentucky in mid April by a score of 4-2 and driven in a run himself. On this day, there were Major League scouts in attendance to watch him pitch. We got off to an early lead. In my second at bat, he threw me a hanging curveball that I hit well beyond the bleachers in left field and off the top of the wall of the college gymnasium beyond. We were ahead 5-2 in our half of the the sixth but the Tigers scored three in the bottom of the inning to tie the game. In the seventh they singled across another run and walked off with a 6-5 win. McLeod helped his cause by hitting a home run. He would sign with the New York Mets after the college season and spend three years in their minor league system before he retired with arm problems.
In the second game I hit another home run in grown-man territory and was called into pitch in relief in the third inning. We scored five runs in the fourth. We held them and I got the win by a score 9-6. But in the seventh and final inning with the score 9-5, I tired and loaded the bases with no outs. Ed Rall came in, allowed only one run and got the save.
At Georgetown, I went four for six on the day with two home runs, a double and a single. Best day I ever had. Georgetown Coach Stockstill told me after the game that my home run off McLeod in the first game was the longest he'd ever seen hit at that field. He had been coaching there for five years and had a 56-32 record.
Sometimes these exploits can get embellished upon the re-telling over the years. The fish always get bigger, never smaller. But I found independent confirmation of my long home in the Advocate-Messenger while researching our games. In a description of the games at Georgetown, a reporter wrote:
Shortstop Doug Eaton, a standout Centre football player last fall, hit a long home run in each game against Georgetown. One of the blasts, approximately 400 feet, was regarded by veteran fans at the game as one of the longest seen there in recent years.
Freshman Al Gross had just started coming into his own as a pitcher and a hitter. He'd become an effective regular in the rotation and had raised his batting average a hundred points in a month. I had always used a K55 Mickey Mantle bat by Hillerich and Bradsby, aka Louisville Slugger. The 125 model of that bat was produced by H&B for use by college and professional players. But in late April of that season, I had found a signature Mickey Mantle bat by Wilson that worked for me. It had been hanging around in the bat bag for months and no one was using it because it was so heavy-- heavier than any bat I'd ever used. I found that the ball jumped off that bat like no other. Late in the day at Georgetown, after observing what I was doing to the ball with that bat, Al Gross decided to use it. Unfortunately, he broke it and I bitched at him for breaking it. My apologies, Al. I had to go back to the original Louisville Slugger K55. I hit another home run a few days later so maybe it wasn't the bat.
The K55 bat was originally made by Hillerich and Bradsby in the 1930s for Chuck Klein who played for the Phillies; thus the "K" in K55. The number "55" was a specific form they had shaped on the lathe to his specifications. In 1932 Klein was the MVP in the National League. The next year he won the Triple Crown. Mickey Mantle liked the bat shape and used it for much of his career. It had a thick, one-inch handle that tapered up to a 2-5/8" diameter at the barrel. Some of the great hitters of the game used the K55, including Roberto Clemente, Mike Schmidt and George Foster. George Brett was using a K55 when he hit the home run and then went berserk over an ump's call that disallowed the home runn in the famous "Pine Tar Incident" at Yankee Stadium in 1983. I have large hands and it was perfect for me.
At that point in the season, Scotty was batting .365 with five home runs, three triples, five doubles and 15 runs batted in. I was hitting .308 with one triple, three doubles, two home runs and 11 runs batted in. I would have had more rbi's but Scotty batted in front of me and he was hogging them all and leaving the bases empty for me.
After Georgetown, we had a double-header with Bellarmine at home. Jack Eicher hit a two-run single in the first game and we went on to win 5-2 with Walt Mills getting the victory in relief. The second game was close but Bellarmine jumped ahead late in the game and won 7-2.
Our final regular season game was slugfest against Eastern Kentucky University, another scholarship school. Prewitt Lane captured the chaos in the Cento:
Centre took a four-run lead in the third on Eaton's homer that drove in three runs and Al Gross's double that scored Baker. Eastern picked up two in the fourth and again in the fifth. Both teams scored three in the seventh. Baker's blast in the bottom of the ninth tied and sent it to the fateful tenth frame.
Four-baggers by Cook and Andrews accounted for five runs as Eastern hit everything in sight. A triple off Young Hall and two errors also contributed to the run production.
The Colonels showed they still had hope as they tallied two in their half of the tenth, but they came up short.
Very short. Eastern scored nine runs in the tenth to win 17-10. We, however, had the right to be proud of how we played, if not how we pitched. Eastern had 10,000 students with probably 8,000 undergraduates. Western Kentucky, with who we had split a double-header was roughly the same size. To give some idea of what we were up against, Morehead had an athletic dormitory described in their campus guide this way:
This tri-level, two-story residence hall houses the University's athletes. Its 34 modern, four-man, carpeted suites, house 136 men.Completed and occupied in the fall of 1967, it is located on a hillside overlooking Breathitt Sports Center.
Except for the regrettable Morehead triple-header, we played them all tough.
You can't blame Harmon and AD Briscoe Inman for scheduling games with any college that would play us. We needed to play to get better and that we did with varying results.
Unfortunately, we weren't "better" when we played out the season in the CAC tournament hosted by Centre in 1969. Going in I actually thought we would win it based on my experience the previous two years. I thought we were a stronger team.
The first game against Sewanee, who beat us handily in the championship game in '67, was close. The Advocate-Messenger wrote that Centre's team, "apparently the strongest here at the college in recent years, was favored by many to take the title." Favored status and a couple of bucks will get you a beer at your local tavern. Ed Rall pitched a flawless game for six innings giving up only four hits and no runs. We led after six, 1-0. But Ed gave up two homers in the seventh and we lost 3-1.
The weather was horrendous in central Kentucky that weekend. Torrential downpours and F3 tornadoes blasted the area. According to the National Weather Service, "During the evening of May 10, a series of deadly, high-intensity F3 tornadoes struck several counties in central and southern Kentucky." Some areas got 8 inches of rain. There was an outbreak of tornadoes near Danville that resulted in fatalities. The weather for our game on Friday the ninth was acceptable, but Saturday when we played Washington and Lee it was barely playable. Later in the day it became unplayable. The final between Washington U and Sewanee was cancelled and both were declared the winner with a reduced and evenly divided number of points toward the total in the overall competition in five sports.
Our consolation game against W&L was played on Saturday morning on a messy field. The Generals beat on our pitchers (including me) unmercifully. The game is a blur to me except for one pitch I threw. W&L had a left-handed power hitter who had hit balls from our young pitchers all over the field and off and over our fences. They scored 17 runs so he had ample at-bats. In the later innings I was called into pitch because there was no one left for W&L to humiliate. I don't recall how many runs I gave up, but I do remember facing this particular left-handed hitter with two outs and runners in scoring position. He had scorched a few fastballs on the inside corner so our pitchers were trying to pitch him outside and off the plate. In response he was crowding the plate. Jack Eicher, our catcher, and the umpire were setting up way outside. After I got two strikes on this collegiate Lou Gehrig, Eicher called for a fastball outside. I decided to surprise him and go for the inside corner. With the pitch, the umpire shifted his head back inside to view the pitch and hitter jumped back from his position almost on top of the plate. The ump raised his fist and cashed him out. Afterward, Jack asked me if I had done it on purpose. I told him I did; a small victory salvaged from a miserable weekend.
Final stats for the season show a very average team-hitting performance and a below average pitching performance. We played several nearly flawless games, but more that were sloppy. The final tally of individual stats:
Al Gross was our leading hitter at .291, which surprised me. I don't know how all the averages ended up below .300, but that's what the numbers show. I could find no more detailed published information, but I suspect that Scottty Hunt was definitely the leader in runs produced and slugging percentage and I was likely second. I was suprised to find I was the only pitcher with a winning percentage, but that is because I often pitched when we were behind and the game was lost. Bill Fowler, who I had endured for three years because Harmon was impressed with his fastball-- never mind that he lacked athletic intelligence and natural ability-- finally showed what little value he brought to the team. Harmon was a great football coach but did not have a lot of knowledge of baseball. Ed Rall and I would have been better coaches at that time. A couple of years later, Jack Eicher became the coach after he graduated. From 1989 to 2004, Ed Rall was Centre's baseball coach.
Ed Rall was 3-6 in 1968 but far and away our best pitcher, having pitched nearly 20 innings more than anyone else. If we had more talented pitchers, Ed could have played 2nd base exclusively and would have improved our defense there. Robby Partin played second base when Ed pitched, but then we were weak at third, Robbie's usual position. Robbie was a good fielder but our defense was strongest when Ed played second. We turned quite a few double plays in the two years we played together.
If we only played colleges that were similar to ours-- colleges, like Berea, Transy, Bellarmine, Maryville, Hanover, and our four rivals in the CAC, I believe we would have had a winning team. But that was not possible under the circumstances of a limited budget and the emphasis on academic performance over sport at Centre. Yet, I'm glad I went there and was not a scholarship athlete at a more win-at-all-costs university. I was better educated at Centre than I would have been as a scholarship athlete elsewhere.
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Betty Fowlkes was a competitor also. Beauty pageants have always been a form of competition for women. Betty was chosen by fellow students to represent Centre College at the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival held each year since 1931 in Pineville, Kentucky, which is located in the southeast corner of Kentucky near the Cumberland Gap and the southwestern point of Virginia. The gathering was scheduled at the end of May every year. A co-ed from each college and university in Kentucky was chosen to represent their school. There were 22 candidates in 1969.
Libby Dedman from Centre had been crowned Mountain Laurel Queen in 1967. She later married Van Young, co-captain of the 1966 football team who had mentored me in my first year at Centre. Libby was a tall, stunning platinum blonde whose family owned and still owns the classic Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, some ten miles north of Danville.
Betty and I drove to Pineville and participated in the pageant. I remember meeting the Governor of Kentucky, Louie Nunn, the first republican governor of Kentucky in 20 years. We received the best in southern hospitality while there and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Each young woman representing their college is a celebrity at the pageant and citizens of Pineville treat them as such.
In the weeks in the run-up to the festival, the candidates had their photos run in the local Pineville Newspaper. Here is a grainy rendtion of the photo Betty's mother sent in for publication:
The three-day festival was held on the weekend of May 23-25 in the center of Pineville. It had a mountain craft show, an art exhibit, a parade, a flower show, a concert by the Eastern Kentucky University Band, a luncheon with Governor Nunn, a Boy Scout Skilorama at a nearby park, the pageant in which the Mountain Laurel Queen was crowned and a Grand Ball honoring the Queen after her coronation. At the luncheon we shook hands with Governor, who gave Betty a look that said , "Oh, my!" When he shook hands with me, he quickly diverted his gaze and looked back at her. This happened to me frequently when I was in the company of Betty. She got all the attention. I was an extra.
She was a magnet for gawkers. Five months later it happened at the Washington D.C. airport on the weekend we played W&L in October. Because it was hot with temperatures in the 80s and because we had packed ourselves into a small chartered plane, our gross weight after the game was much higher than it had been before. Perspiration increased the weight of our equipment enough to endanger the flight. If I recall correctly, a half-dozen players and/or cheerleaders had to be taken off the flight and scheduled for another flight, which would connect with Washington, D.C. where we would spend the night and fly into Lexington the next morning. Coach Harmon asked me if Betty and I would agree give up our seats and take the later flight. I checked with Betty and she agreed.
We spent the night in D.C at an airport hotel. The next morning at the airport, we were waiting at the gate when I saw a group of very tall men walking toward us. It was the Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team. Oscar Robertson, one of the great all-time NBA players and a member of that team, was walking toward us when his eyes fixed on Betty. He kept staring at her as he walked by, turning his head to ninety degrees. As she was going out of view, he looked at me and gave me a nod of approval.
Ten years later, I was visiting Betty again in Washington, D.C. where she was working. It was a hot day at the end of summer. We went for a walk on the streets of the city. She was wearing a tube top. A young man walking by from the other direction smiled and stared at Betty as we walked by. I noticed it and as we passed him I looked back and saw him, with his head still turned, walk into a signpost. I said to her, "Did you see that?" She said, "No." "That guy just walked into a post." She laughed.
Betty did not win the Mountain Laurel contest. A woman named Kay Pinkley from Murray State won it. She was attractive. She bore a passing resemblance to Natalie Wood and was worthy of the honor. Betty's beauty was more dark and mysterious. Her large, brown eyes made her so. She could have been a Hindu debutante at Le Bal des Debutantes in Paris or Miss Mexico in the Miss Universe pageant. She also had the aura of being from Centre College, one of the more exclusive colleges in Kentucky. She was well-spoken and intelligent. Her mother had a doctorate in childhood education and had guided her through school.
One of the judges, a charming middle-aged woman, told us she had voted for Betty but that other judges thought that because a Centre girl had recently won the crown that they didn't want to give it to another Centre girl so soon afterward. This turned out to be nonsense because while Centre's Libby Dedman had won the title in 1967, another young woman, who like Miss Pinkley was from Murray State, had won it the year before in 1968.
Factions in the culture around that time had started to scorn beauty contests. It was the feminist thing to do. Misandry was spreading back even then. The question was being asked why beautiful women should have to perform as if they were to be auctioned off. I've never been that interested in beauty contests but I believe they serve a purpose and that is to celebrate and encourage reverence for lady-like behavior and the female form.
The sophisticated women at Centre, to keep things in perspective, held a mock male beauty contest in 1966 called the Bachelor of Ugliness. I know this because I was selected as one of the candidates as a freshman. Van Young and Walter Davenport were also. Thankfully, I didn't win. Walter did. His acceptance speech was hilarious.
The contest appears to have been a one-year occurence although contests with the same name were held at other colleges in the South including Vanderbilt. It was good-natured satire. That said, I was slightly annoyed that my picture with the other nominees was on the front page of the Cento.
As for beauty contests, let the show go on. Betty was selected by her fellow students and felt honored to be in Pineville. I enjoyed myself. May in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky when nature displays the color of its blooms is beautiful. It was a quaint, traditional celebration of feminine beauty and virtue. Without such diversions, life would be diminished.
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