Bucknell Football a Century of Tradition
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BUCKNELL FOOTBALL HISTORY BUCKNELL FOOTBALL A CENTURY OF TRADITION The game bore little resemblance to what we now know as football, and even one of the school names has been changed. In November of 1883, a group of students from Lafayette College journeyed west to play a group from the University at Lewisburg in the relatively new sport of football. The sport was so new, in fact, that the majority of the dozen or so students from Lewisburg, who did not have a coach and had practiced only briefl y, had never seen a game of football before playing in one. The players from Lewisburg, whose school would be renamed Bucknell University in 1886, lost that fi rst game, 59-0, and perhaps because of that experience, their school did not play another offi cial game until 1887. Still, the seeds had been planted for a program that would grow into one of the most respected programs in the East by the 1950s, and will celebrate its 120th season in 2005. Scores of marvelous players have donned the Orange and Blue over the course of the 119 seasons of Bucknell football, and each season gives rise to new names, new heroes, new legends. Here is a quick trip through the colorful tradition that is Bucknell football: 1891 ers in a quarter-century of prosperity, as Bucknell enjoys 24 Still playing without a full-time coach, Bucknell gains its winning seasons in the next 26 years. fi rst victory ever with a 16-10 triumph over Lafayette. The Bison also defeat Cornell (4-0) and Penn State (12-10) on their way to a 6-2-1 record. The team includes Andrew 1924 Wyant, who later goes on to play for the legendary Amos The team sets a then- Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago and is a member school record for victo- of both the Bucknell Hall of Fame and the National Football ries with an 8-2 mark Hall of Fame. and meets Lafayette on October 18 in the fi rst football game ever 1900 played in Memorial Sta- Christy Mathewson concludes his marvelous Bucknell dium. Wally Foster, the football career and begins a professional baseball career captain of that Buck- that ranks among the best of all time. A hard-running full- nell team, scores the back and tackler, “Matty” also excels as a kicker and gains fi rst points in stadium national attention with two fi eld goals against Army. history. 1918 1931 Bucknell records the fi rst of its three undefeated seasons. Led by future NFL Hall En route to a 6-0 record, the Bison are nothing short of of Famer Clarke Hinkle, Bucknell rolls to an unbeaten 6-0-3 dominant, outscoring opponents 236-7. The season ush- record. The Bison’s undefeated mark is tested in the fi nal game of the season, against also-unbeaten Fordham, but the Bison prevail, 14-13, in a classic at the Polo Grounds. 1934 Edward (Hook) Mylin leads the Bison to a 6-2-2 regular-sea- son record and a berth in the fi rst Orange Bowl game, on January 1, 1935. After a two-day train trip to Miami for the game, Bucknell hammers the University of Miami, 26-0. Bucknell’s 1899 football team — Christy Mathewson is in the back row, third from the right. 2005 Bucknell Football • 98 • www.BucknellBison.com BUCKNELL FOOTBALL HISTORY 1951 seconds left, but the Red Raiders drive for a game-winning fi eld goal attempt with four seconds left. After a bobbled In the midst of a four-year stretch in which Bucknell goes snap from center, Colgate completes an impromptu pass 27-8, head coach Harry Lawrence and his team fi nish play that nearly goes for a touchdown, but Bison defensive perfect at 9-0, perhaps the fi nest season in school history. back Robert Hawkins drags down the receiver at the 9-yard The defense includes Little All-America defensive tackle line on the fi nal play of the game. George Young (long-time general manager of the New York Giants), while the relentless offense averages 463.3 yards per game. That breaks the Eastern record set in 1945 by a Davis- and Blanchard-led Army team. 1989 Bucknell’s newly-renovated stadium is rededicated in honor of Christy Mathewson. Much like the stadium’s namesake, 1960 Bucknell opens play in the “new” facility with a victory, hand- ing Dartmouth a 36-20 setback on September 30. After opening the season at 2-2, Bucknell rolls past Lafayette, Lehigh, Colgate, Temple and Delaware — by a combined score of 107-14 — to fi nish 7-2 and win its fi rst- ever Lambert Cup. Quarterback Paul Terhes earns Little 1995 The Tom Gadd tenure begins at Bucknell, and the Bison All-America honors. fi nish 7-4. Rich Lemon becomes Bucknell’s all-time rushing leader on opening day. 1964 Just four years after leading Bucknell to its fi rst Lambert Cup title, head coach Bob Odell repeats that feat, as the 1996 Fittingly, Rich Lemon con- Bison fi nish 7-2. After opening the season with a loss, Buck- cludes his remarkable career nell wins seven of the next eight games, including a 21-14 with a Patriot League title, as season-ending win at Delaware. The Bison squad features Bucknell outlasts Colgate, Little All-America end Tom Mitchell, who would later enjoy a 28-27, in the heart-stopping fi ne pro career with Baltimore and San Francisco. season fi nale. The win gives Bucknell its fi rst football ti- 1968 tle in over 30 years. Lemon graduated with 4,742 rushing Sam Havrilak sets a Bucknell yards, nearly 2,100 more than single-game total offense record Bucknell’s all-time leading the previous record-holder. with 397 yards against Colgate, rusher Rich Lemon. a mark that still stands. Havrilak, who would graduate with every Bucknell total offense record, 1997 The Bison roll out to a 10-0 record before falling to Colgate later played with Tom Mitchell for in their season fi nale to fi nish 10-1. The 10 wins were the the Baltimore Colts. most in school history, and many came in thrilling fashion, as the Bison won seven times by seven points or less. Sam Havrilak 1978 Ken Jenkins arrives at Bucknell, and over the next four years, develops into one of the fi nest 2001 Bucknell celebrates its seventh straight winning season, players in Bucknell history. He would set a school record a fi rst in Bison annals. with 1,270 rushing yards in 1980, and he later played with three NFL teams. 2003 1986 After the legendary Tom Gadd loses a long battle with brain cancer, Bucknell turns to Tim Landis as its 25th head Two years after formation of the league is announced, the coach. Landis quickly resores the good fortunes of the Colonial League (later renamed the Patriot League) debuts Bison football program. After a 2-9/0-7 season in 2002, with six members — Bucknell, Colgate, Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell fi nishes 6-6/4-3 to complete one of the nation’s Holy Cross and Davidson. The Bison’s fi rst-ever league best one-season turnarounds. game is one for the ages. Trailing Colgate in the fourth quarter, 39-25, Bucknell rallies to take a 40-39 lead with 52 2005 Bucknell Football • 99 • www.BucknellBison.com BUCKNELL FOOTBALL HISTORY THE TOP 10 A LOOK AT THE 10 MOST SIGNIFICANT BUCKNELL FOOTBALL GAMES EVER PLAYED . AND THE ONE THAT WASN’T By Brad Tufts into what is now Christy Mathewson-Memorial Sta- Stephen Taylor wasn’t able to observe a dium, and christened the football team practicing as he made his way new fi eld against Lafayette to Harrisburg early in 1846 with the proposed before a crowd of 15,000. charter for the fl edgling University at Lewis- Lafayette won the contest, burg, but even before the name of the school 21-3, despite a 43-yard fi eld was changed in recognition of benefactor Wil- goal by Bison captain Wally liam Bucknell, the sport had been introduced Foster to open the scoring. on campus and gained some popularity. Late that year, Bucknell Today, the sport is a fi xture on fall Sat- beat Navy, 6-0, and Rutgers, urdays, and its history is prominent in any 12-7, to highlight the fi rst of accounting of Bucknell’s athletic heritage. three seasons in which The Bison gridiron story (did you know that Bucknell was coached by the word “gridiron” derives from the manner “Uncle Charlie” Moran, who in which the field was formerly marked?) had led Centre College’s includes many notable games, and we could “Praying Colonels” to a The Bison of 1895 ... their legacy endures a century later. probably argue for the next 150 years as to memorable upset of Har- which were the most signifi cant. vard. The Bison fi nished 8-2 Jefferson (10-6) and Fordham (14-13). The Before designating the 10 most sig- in 1924, which represented the most victories latter was played before a large crowd at the nifi cant games, please permit a look back at ever by a Bucknell team. Polo Grounds, where Christy Mathewson had some of the more noteworthy games played Moran’s 1925 team visited President gained fame for the New York Giants. by Bucknell football teams. Calvin Coolidge in the White House while Edward “Hook” Mylin arrived on the scene In 1881, a group of students from in Washington to play Georgetown, and the in 1934 and led Bucknell to a 7-2-2 record Bucknell and State College (as Penn State Bison were rolling along at 6-2-1 when they that included a 13-7 win over Penn State and was known in those days) played a game of played at the University of Detroit on Thanks- a 26-0 rout of Miami in the Orange Bowl.