BGSU History BGSU History • Falcon Tradition BGSU Hi BGSU
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BGSU HISTORY BGSU HiStory • Falcon tradition BGSU HI Franklin Skibbie scored the first touchdown with BG’s only points in the 10-6 loss to Findlay in the 1920 season opener. That team would post a 7-0 win over Kent State Normal College (Kent State) in the season S finale to record the first win. TORY The 1921 squad was the first to win a confer- ence title capturing the Northwest Conference championship with wins over Defiance, Findlay, and Toledo. BG posted a shutout of Findlay, scoring a school-record 151 points in one of Scott Mruczkowski and Mike Thaler celebrate the Falcons’ the most talked-about games in school history. 28-24 Motor City Bowl win over Northwestern in 2003. It In the season opener against Kent State, played marked the first-time in MAC history that a league school ever behind what is now Ridge Street School, the faced a Big Ten opponent in the post-season. Falcons played possibly the quietest game in school history when all fans were prohibited from making noise because of an illness in the Since Frederick G. Beyerman, an instructor in neighborhood. the physical education department and the first athletic director, announced in July, 1919 that The following season, BG held its first home- Brian McClure is one of only two players in MAC history Bowling Green State Normal College would field coming game on Nov. 4, 1922, which was played (both from BG) to earn league MVP honors twice. an intercollegiate football team, a rich tradition at the Fairgrounds. Bowling Green and Toledo has developed. battled to a 6-6 deadlock. Led by Chet Chapman, the first BG player to earn first team All-Ohio honors, the 1928 team From that very first team, to the first squad to After having a different coach in each of its posted the first unbeaten record while allowing go unbeaten in 1928, to the first perfect record of first five seasons, Warren Steller was selected to just 18 points in seven games. the 1959 national college division champions, to, coach the 1924 squad, the beginning of a very In 1936, the federal government offered to most recently, back-to-back seasons of nationally successful 11-year tenure, the second-longest in help Bowling Green financially in the construc- ranked division IA football. school history. Steller was the first BGSU head tion of a new football stadium and the Trustees coach to have an assistant when Paul Landis was accepted the offer. University Stadium was From former head coach Warren Steller, to hired in 1925. dedicated on Oct. 23, 1937 and served as the Max Minnich, the first BGSU player to be drafted home of Falcon football until 1966 when Doyt by a professional team, to Fred Durig, the first L. Perry Stadium was built. University Stadium All-America selection, to legendary head coach was located in what is now the center of campus Doyt Perry, to Paul Miles, the only football player directly west of Jerome Library. ever to have his jersey retired, to Dave Preston, the career rushing leader, to record-setting quarterback Brian McClure, to head coach Dave Clawson, to Freddie Barne a 2009 Biletnikoff Finalist and NCAA record holder for catches in a season (155) the Bowling Green State University football program has a tradition as rich as any in the Mid-American Conference, and many programs nationally. Since 19 of the 30 males enrolled at Normal College banded together to form that first team, many different people, players, and games have combined to mold the lore of football at BGSU. The following paragraphs will touch on many of the people and games which carved the Fal- con football history. 1919 - First BGSU Football Team Seated (l to r): Claitus Stough, Lester Stough, Tom Noyes, Lawrence Johnson, Dallas Lawrence, Kenton Moore, Ralph The program got off to a rocky start losing Schaller, head coach John Stitt. Middle row (l to r): Herbert Gillespie, Dallas March, Robert Vail, Orville Raberding, Dale its first seven games played. Treese (Capt.), Ivan Lake, Gurney Fry. Standing (l to r): Charles Clucas, Royal Chamberlain, Clive Treece, Frank Clarke, Herbert Troyer. 2012 BGSU Football Media Guide -114- BGSU HiStory • Falcon tradition After back-to-back los- ing seasons in 1953 and 1954, Doyt Perry began his legendary career as the TORY Falcon head coach in 1955 S and made an immediate impact. BG posted a 7-1-1 record, scoring 224 points while allowing only 53. This came on the heels of a 2-7 record the previous season. BGSU HI Perry, whose teams never lost more than two games in any of his 10 One of the most significant wins in school history was the 17-13 victory over 18th-ranked seasons, led his 1959 squad Purdue in 1972. A fourth quarter field goal by Don Taylor was the difference for Coach Don to the first perfect record Nehlen and his Falcons. in school history at 9-0-0. In the process, the Falcons Express Airport after a 1960 game against BG. were named the mythical small college national champions by the Washington, D.C. Touchdown The game netted $170,000 for the memorial Club. fund. BG’s closest game that season was a Mid- The arrival of a skinny, much-heralded quar- American Conference victory at Ohio University terback from Ravenna, Ohio in 1982 signaled by a 13-9 count to wrap up the perfect season the beginning of an 11-year period in which and national honor. the Falcons would make four bowl appearances. The following season, BG came within one The quarterback was Brian McClure and all game of repeating as national champions los- Urban Meyer served as head coach for the Falcons in 2001 and he would do in the next four seasons was lead 2002 and guided BGSU to a 17-6 record and a No. 16 rank- ing only a 14-7 decision to OU at home as the the Falcons to a 34-12 record, a 19-1 record at ing in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll in 2002. Bobcats claimed top national honors. home, two bowl games, and become only the In 1941, Robert Whittaker was named the second quarterback in NCAA history to pass In 1961, Bowling Green played in its first head coach at Bowling Green after compiling for over 10,000 yards. an 11-year record of 89-19-2 at Sandusky High bowl game, the Mercy Bowl at the Los Angeles Coliseum. The game against Fresno State was School. Whittaker’s first of his 14 teams (the lon- He became the starter in the third game of played to raise money to help defray the expenses gest tenure in school history) tied Case Western his freshman season, and despite missing the last of the families of 16 members of the Cal Poly Reserve for the Ohio Conference title and was two games of the regular season, he became the San Luis Obispo football team who perished in thought to be one of the best teams ever, scoring first freshman to be named a first-team all-league a plane crash shortly after takeoff from Toledo 173 while allowing just 40. quarterback. On Oct. 24 and 25, 2003, ESPN’s College Gameday made its home south of Doyt L. Perry Stadium. That marked the first time in MAC history that the nation’s most watched col- lege football pre-game show visited a league venue. -115- www.bgsufalcons.com BGSU HiStory • Falcon tradition BGSU HI Buffalo and Temple, surpassing their victory total of the previous year. BGSU posted its first winning season since 1994 when it reeled off three straight wins to end the season. The Falcons’ 43-42 victory at S Northwestern made them the first MAC team to TORY ever defeat three teams from BCS conferences in a single season. The Falcons ended the sea- son six days later with a 56-21 pasting of MAC Champion Toledo. In 2002, BGSU roared to an 8-0 start includ- ing wins over Missouri and Kansas and were ranked in both the AP and Coaches polls at the same time for the first time in school history. The Mid-American Conference title won by the 1991 team was Meyer’s offensive coordinator, Gregg Bran- the first of two consecutive championships. The 1991 team don, took over as head coach in December, 2002, won all eight of its MAC games, the first of what would turn Paul Miles is second on the BG career rushing list with and guided the Falcons to their first-ever MAC into a league-record 19-game winning streak. 3,238 yards while he is also the only football player to have his West title and Motor City Bowl Championship number retired. At the time of his graduation, he was only and finished ranked in the top 25 (No. 23) in lineup for good in the ninth game of the season the third running back in NCAA history to rush for 1,000 both major polls at the end of a season for the and watched his team win 11 straight games over yards in three consecutive seasons. first-time in school history. the next two seasons and earn its first national ranking since 1985. He would rewrite the BG and MAC record One player who links Blackney, Meyer and books before his career was over, setting five Brandon was All-American quarterback Josh The Motor City Bowl MVP guided the Falcons NCAA records as well. McClure still holds Harris.