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Mount Union 48 Trinity 7 by Dick Ross |
CHRISTMAS SURPRISE At the end of last week's piece I told you that I didn't think that I'd be going to Virginia this year. At mid week I got an e-mail from Dorothy "Dodie" Davis, Mount Union's Alumni & Special Events Director that, acting as an intermediary, she had arranged a seat, for me, on a corporate aircraft that was making the trip, down and back on Saturday. Christmas isn't quite here, yet, but this was one of the greatest gifts I'd ever been offered. I hesitated, only to ask my wife's permission, before accepting it.
I just had to be at the terminal, in Canton, fairly early. In order to
avoid a mad Saturday morning dash down I-77, Dave and Millie Snyder,
classmates at Mount Union and friends for over 40 years, offered to put
me
up at their home in Louisville and get me to the airport, on time.
Departing from the McKinley Air
Salem, sister city to Roanoke, is almost home to Mount Union teams and fans.
During the last 10 years, Mount has played more games in Salem than anywhere
other than our home field on Hartshorn Street. The Wable-Harter
building, the home team locker room, at the north end of Mount Union Stadium
is patterned, to a degree, after the locker room building at Salem. Our opponent today is Trinity University of San Antonio Texas, founded by Presbyterians in 1869 in Tehuacana, Texas and relocated again to Waxachchie, Texas, in 1902. In 1942 they were "called" to San Antonio, where at the suggestion of the city, in 1952, they began construction of their "permanent" campus on what had been an abandoned gravel pit, overlooking the city. This would mean that the oldest buildings on their 117 acre campus would be less than 50 years old. Their "landmark" is a tower donated by T. Frank Murchison, which is visible almost from almost anywhere in the city. While the formal church relationship ended in 1969, Trinity still has a "Covenant" with the Presbyterian Church of the USA.
Trinity advertises themselves as a national liberal arts school, with 2,644
students from 48 states and 25 countries. The brochure states that
their tuition and fees total $16,544, and that the average financial
The number in the story all week, however, was the blood alcohol reading for Trinity's #1 quarterback, who had been arrested, drunk and disorderly, Saturday/Sunday following the team's victory over St. John's last week. While the newspaper ink boiled, the quarterback was finally suspended, mostly for violation of a "contract" to stay out of trouble, after a previous incident. The second team quarterback "grew up in one day," as the team plane left without the regular starter.
Mount Union was the visiting team today, purple clad fans filled the smaller
east side stands, sitting in
the
sun with clear skies and mid to upper 40 degree temperatures. A very
strong wind in our faces, from
Trinity's men took the field with silver helmets featuring a tiger jumping
past a "T" and wore solid maroon, with numerals that were rounded, not
"blocked" like the ones you normally see. Mount's men wore
Trinity took over on offense and my week long fears about "second stringer"
being some sort of "ringer" or miracle man were quickly answered as his very
first pass attempt was picked off by #26 Sr. DB Justin
Burton of Salem/West Branch, giving the ball to Mount Union at the Tigers
24-yard line. A distance which FIRST QUARTER SCORE: MOUNT UNION 7, TRINITY 0
As the second quarter opened, Mount Union got both the ball and the wind.
Adamson moved deliberately, alternating runs by Pugh, and pass attempts,
trying to figure the windage, until the Raiders
faced a fourth and 13 at the
Trinity 28. Rob, "the Rifleman," drilled one directly into the chest
of #82 Jr. WR
Teague's extra point was blocked and headed back. It is possible for
the defending team to score two points on this play. Small but scrappy
#8 So. QB and kick holder Zac Bruney of Martins Ferry pulled the Maroon man
down, from behind. The score remained at 13-0.
Following a short series, Trinity had to punt into the wind again, giving
Mount union another short field at the Trinity 35. Adamson put one
out, in the direction of #25 Jr. WR Nick Sirianni of Jamestown, NY who
leaped and stretched for a 25-yard reception. Pugh did the rest, his
39th touchdown of the season, tying Barry Sanders all time record and later
breaking the all-time, all-divisions mark set by Sanders, at Oklahoma State,
in 1988.
There is entertainment at the Stagg Bowl intermission. This year
Salem's field was not in quite as good
condition as we've come to expect, so
the first act was a bunch of guys stomping down divots, like it was
between
"chuckers" at a polo match. Then it was the "Pride of
Salem" Trojan marching band, who put on
The second half opened with two short series by both teams, and then Trinity's best of the day, a wind and penalty assisted 85-yard drive up into the flagpole end to narrow the score to 28-7. One thing you didn't see on TV, when #97 Sr. DT Jeff Knoblauch of Pickerington, seriously injured in the Capital game, came in to give his replacement #90 So. DT Josh Ludwig of East Liverpool a breather, Mount Union's cheerleaders spread out a bedsheet banner to let everyone know "#97 - he's baaack," he didn't want to miss his last game for anything.
Mount's
men don't like anyone sneaking up on them, so after the Tiger touchdown, the
first order of
business was to get back the 28-point margin.
With a 31-yard toss, Adamson to Sirianni, Pugh covered the rest of the
distance, extending the record to 40 touchdowns, while Teague added the
extra point. As
The kick recovery happened right in front of me on the left, if you were
watching on TV, but then they changed ends. What followed were six
straight Dan Pugh runs, which gave Dan a new record for points scored in a
championship game and tied the record for most rushing touchdowns in a title
contest. Pugh was flagged for "taunting" when he spread his arms and
held out the ball, after the score. A penalty which
most observers thought pretty "lame" unless Dan said something, along with
the gesture, that we didn't
After a three and out by the San Antonio boys, Adamson found #5 Sr. TE Josh
Liddell, of Bemus point NY, over the center, for 12 yards, then Leach, who
scampered down the purple sideline to complete the scoring for the day.
As the clock wound down, Adamson and Pugh were removed to individual
standing ovations, followed by # 46, Jr. FB Brian Miller of Orrville and #75
Jr. OT Larry Kinnard, Pugh's principal blockers, and other offensive
linemen, known as the Hogs. The clock ran down to 0:00, and a barrage
of aerial bombs announced the end of the game, almost exactly at 3:00 p.m.,
still in brilliant daylight. A very
quick
game because the wind limited passing, by both teams, a bright ending to
these games, which generally end in gathering darkness. I paused in
the Alumni tent, where I saw many friends from school days and from
following the team.
FINAL SCORE: MOUNT UNION 48, TRINITY 7 Mount Union wins its seventh National Championship and sixth in the last seven years, and has now won 42 straight games since the overtime loss to Rowan in the 1999 semifinals - college football's longest current winning streak. Dan Pugh wins the Gagliardi Trophy and is named the games MVP after 49 rushes for 253 yards and four touchdowns. Rob Adamson put up 222 yards passing with three touchdowns and no interceptions, in spite of the high winds.
From the private airplane, dusk enveloped the landscape as we headed north.
Darkness did not catch us until we approached the Akron-Canton area, with
thousands of twinkling lights. I was on my way home to Cleveland, as I
watched a big orange moon rise into the cloud cover and disappear. My
brother, who rode
At 1:00 a.m. after one more handshake, hug or slap on the back, most of the champions scraped the snow off their cars to head home or looked for campus security to let them into their dorm rooms, for the night.
This is the seventh straight group of seniors who will end their college
careers at 54-1 and, after graduation, will turn pro - at something other
than sports. Celebrate the moment, give thanks that all have made it
home safely, and have a happy holiday.
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terminal at Canton Akron, on a Cessna
Citation II, we were in Roanoke, after less than an hour in the air.
We were met by a van, which took us to the stadium, in plenty of time for
the pregame parking lot festivities,
much
more subdued at 10:00 a.m., than last year's "prime time," after dark
experience. Mount fans roamed the lot, visiting and exchanging stories
on their trips. Jim Thorpe of Alliance was patrolling the parking lot
on a bicycle. I asked him if he'd ridden it down, but it was a gift
for a granddaughter, further south, and no, he was planning the round trip
by automobile.
aid/scholarship
package was $15,529, so you could attend this fine university at community
college prices,
if you can get in, and don't mind moving to Texas. The TV commentator
noted that the entering class had SAT scores that averaged well over 1200,
"Easy to do," he said, "I just took it twice and added the scores."
the Northwest, took many ball caps up and out of the stadium and was strong
enough to knock you off
balance, if you were just standing. Attendance in the more spacious
west stands was fairly sparse - Trinity did not bother to bring their
cheerleaders or a band and large blocks of good seats, purchased early by
overanxious Bridgewater fans, were vacant. Some were even occupied by
Mount fans who bought them
from the internet, not realizing that they'd be on the "wrong" side.
Dorothy saved a seat for me, next to her. Total attendance was listed
as 4,389, just a bit over half of last year's turnout produced by nearby
Bridgewater.
solid
white, with the purple helmets, won the toss and elected to receive.
Trinity took the wind to their backs and the Raiders got the first "try,"
into the fierce head wind. Right from the beginning the "upwind"
tactic seemed to be #7 Sr. QB Rob Adamson of Akron/Manchester handing the
ball to #31 Sr. RB Dan Pugh of Norwalk/St Paul. The drive stalled
after 33 yards, and #12 Jr. QB/P Jesse Burghardt of Uniontown/Lake came in
to punt. Across the field a Texas flag stood straight out in the wind.
"Why is that?" asked Bill Morris '67, "Did anyone here think to bring an
Ohio flag?" Burghardt's high hard punt was stopped by the wind, like
an invisible hand, falling straight down for only 22 net yards, even though
there was no return.
Pugh covered in two plays. The conversion by #11 So. PK
Chad Teague
of Orrville took the count to seven. Both offenses hugged the ground
in the first quarter. Suddenly, at the Mount 10, Trinity realized that
their time before the wind was rapidly running down and they quickly burned
two timeouts to set up a field goal which the kicker "scuffed," like one of
those golf shots we've all had, where the divot goes further than the ball.
Randell Knapp, crossing right to left, just beyond the down
marker. After a three-yard run by Pugh, Coach Kehres showed them the
reverse of the same play, left to right, to Knapp in the end zone.
a
great show. I've always believed that one of the reasons Salem hosts
this event is to "showcase" their band. Halftime statistics: Pugh had
148 rushing yards and two touchdowns and Adamson threw for 124 yards with
two touchdowns and both were just getting warmed up.
the quarter closed, Teague kicked off, trying to drive the
ball deep, it just hovered in the wind, between Trinity's "up" men and the
backs who were supposed to return the ball. In the meantime, all
except #20 in white, Fr. DB Ross Watson, from Austintown/Fitch forgot that,
unlike a punt, the kickoff is a free ball, after it travels 10 yards.
Ross fell on the ball and the Purple Raiders were awarded the ball at the
Trinity 19.
hear
on the sidelines. Teague missed the 35-yard extra point, when it did
carry off to the left, in the high winds.
the
bus with his small son, had the opportunity to be part of the reception by
friends and families, back at the school, when the team buses were escorted
onto campus by the Alliance Fire Department; nice small town, small school
flavor to a national championship.