Shortly before the Homecoming football game against Wabash kicked off, members of Wittenberg's 1969 National Football Championship team took to the field to participate in an honorary coin-tossing event. The event marked a day of celebration for the 1969 team, which remains among the finest in small college football history and one of just two teams in the illustrious history of Wittenberg University football to finish the season unbeaten with 10 or more wins.
More than 40 years after the team’s win in the first-ever Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, it isn’t the games or the trophies or the accolades that members of Wittenberg University’s 1969 football team remember most.
It is the people. It is the place. It is the passion – not to mention the rigorous practices and training sessions that bonded a group of young men to their first-year head coach and prepared them for an unlikely run to an undefeated season.
“The 1968 season ended the era of Hall of Fame Coach Bill Edwards,” said Tom Young, class of 1970 and a senior captain and linebacker on the team. “The responsibility for perpetuating the winning tradition of Tigers under Bill Edwards quickly became the responsibility of the 1969 team as we began the Dave Maurer era.
“Those of us on the team and those close to the program that played under Coach Maurer during his 15 years as an assistant had no concerns that Wittenberg would maintain the winning Tiger tradition. However, the 1969 team knew it would be our performance that would prove to all else that there would be no drop off in the program under the new coach. Beginning with the conditioning program, a very tough camp and the dedication of the assistant coaches, we began the physical and mental preparation we knew it would take to have a successful season.”
The results were astounding, even by the elevated standards of Wittenberg University football in the 1960s and 1970s. The 1969 edition of the Tiger football team became the first in school history to reach double figures in wins without a loss. It remains one of just two teams – along with the 1973 squad that won the inaugural NCAA Division III Tournament – to accomplish that feat.
The 10-0 campaign capped a decade in which Wittenberg compiled a phenomenal 79-9-1 record, good for an .889 winning percentage, the best in what was then known as the College Division. But it also came on the heels of the first season with more than two losses since 1959.
Young wasn’t alone in realizing that the 1969 team had a unique chance to build on the success of Edwards, a member of Wittenberg’s class of 1931 and the architect of the Tigers’ gridiron resurgence after taking the reins in 1955. He also is among those that credit the smooth transition to another future National College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Dave Maurer, who had been groomed for the position as an assistant coach under Edwards.
“I think all of us on the team coming into that season took it as a personal challenge that we had lost a Hall of Fame coach, not realizing that we were about to be blessed with another, and that we had lost extremely strong leadership off the 1968 team,” said Ray Ward, class of 1970, a tight end who was the team leader in receptions in both 1968 and 1969. “I think the seniors on the team played for Davey as much as anything.
“What maybe we didn’t realize, but that came out during the season, is that we had a really strong junior class that helped fill the holes with what we lost from 1968.”
To Ward, it was a combination of Maurer’s leadership and a special team chemistry that created momentum as the Tigers survived numerous close encounters during the season.
“I believe as with any championship team, there has to be a camaraderie or closeness that when things get tough and close, like the Baldwin-Wallace game, nobody gives up. In fact, everybody turns it up a notch,” said Ward, who holds school records for receptions in a game and season by a tight end. “I think – no, I am sure – that the 1969 team had that closeness and toughness and would not lose.”
They didn’t lose, despite narrow margins of victory that started with a season opening 20-18 nail-biter at Capital. They didn’t lose, despite the absence of a conference-leading tailback or a record-breaking wide receiver or a quarterback posting gaudy numbers. They didn’t lose, despite the fact that at season’s end, just one player, linebacker Larry Peacock, was named first-team All-Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC).
Six players were named second-team All-OAC, and two others were named honorable mention. Shortly thereafter, Young earned All-America honors.
But those were individual awards. The 1969 team was just that – a collection of talented players who believed in each other and who grew closer as the season went on. They held the OAC trophy after the season and staked their claim to the College Division national championship after beating William Jewell 27-21 in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, named for the iconic University of Chicago and College of the Pacific coach.
“I don’t think we set a goal to be undefeated, but we did know to win them all we had to win the first one and improve from there,” said Young, who is one of eight players and coaches on the 1969 roster who later were inducted into Wittenberg’s Athletics Hall of Honor. “To a large extent it was a rebuilding year, especially on the offensive and defensive line where we had to replace several all-conference players.
“When you look back you realize the heart of this team was the desire to excel, to never give up and the dedication of the season to our new head coach.”
That dedication trickled down to even the youngest of players, who would carry it forward to build the foundation for what turned into an equally successful run in the 1970s. Roger Parker, class of 1973, was just a freshman on the 1969 team, but he was no less invested than the upperclassmen.
“I remember Coach Maurer didn’t believe in doing a lot of yelling and screaming before games. He would tell us to go and lean a little to the left, a little to the right, and save it for the game – then we play rock ’em, sock ’em football,” Parker said. “To have three of our four coaches back for this celebration is unbelievable.
“We hated these guys, we loved these guys. They gave us every chance to be the best we could be. There was never a Wittenberg Tiger that stepped onto the field that ever believed he would not win.”
Wittenberg honored the 1969 team with commemorative gold coins as part of the opening coin-tossing event. Team members also displayed their championship rings throughout the day, which brought back to campus three of the team’s coaches and representatives of the Maurer family. Additionally, the team enjoyed a tailgate and an evening reunion and dinner.
Written By: Ryan Maurer
Photos By: Erin Pence
