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125 YEARS OF W&M FOOTBALL - Part One: 1893-1969

As the William & Mary Football program moves into the final week of a historic season, this article is the first of five feature stories that celebrate William & Mary's 125th anniversary of football. Subsequent articles will cover the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and the period from 2000 to date. It is by no means meant to be a complete history, but rather a high-altitude view of the great teams, players, games and coaches of each of the five time periods.

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By Peter M. Kalison '57
Former sports information director at W&M, 1955-1957

Football started at William & Mary in 1893 through the efforts of two students: Charles L. Hepburn, who established an athletic association on campus and organized the team, of which he was the quarterback and served as the coach of the team; and Harry Gass Humphreys who captained the team.  Three games were played, none against other universities.

The first football field, which was used through 1907, ran on campus owned land along side Richmond Road in the area where Monroe Hall stands.  At that time the first Cary's Field, primarily a baseball field with old bleachers seating 500, was used for football and situated where Blow Gym was later constructed. In the late 1920s Cary Field moved to where Bryan Hall now stands and, finally, in 1935, the present site for Cary Field opened.  W&M played many of its home games in Richmond and Norfolk in the years prior to 1935.

One interesting side note: on September 24, 1927, lights were installed for the first college football night game on the East Coast.  A 12-0 loss to Catholic University, the game attracted a then-record crowd of 6,000 fans.  Night games continued until the opening of the new Cary Field in 1935.

W&M's first game against a college team was in 1894, a 28-0 loss to Hampden-Sydney and its first intercollegiate win came in 1898, a 5-0 victory over Randolph-Macon.

William & Mary's initial outstanding team was the 1926 edition, which won the Southern Intercollegiate Championship.  The squad went 7-3 and won a post-season game, at Chattanooga, 9-6.  Art Matsu, the Tribe's All-East quarterback, won the game on a last minute, 47-yard dropkick field goal. Matsu was truly the first big star for the Tribe and one of the first prominent Japanese-American football players in the country.  Despite his small stature (5-6, 150 pounds), Matsu was an outstanding all-around player who impacted every phase of the game.  He shared the spotlight with Melvin "Meb" Davis, who, as a receiver, caught many of Matsu's passes, and made All-State teams for two years.

Two outstanding coaches, Branch Bocock (1928-30) and John Kellison (1931-34) were at the helm for the Tribe during W&M's winning teams of that eight-year period when W&M fashioned a 40-18 record (with an additional five ties).  Those teams were led by W&M Hall of Fame players like halfback Clarence "Red" Maxey, lineman Otis "The Reedville Strong Boy" Douglas and halfback Billy Palese.  Palese had a famous six-touchdown game, in which he reportedly carried the ball just seven times, in a 95-0 rout of Bridgewater in 1931.  The six rushing TDs remain the W&M single-game record.

The biggest win of the era came during the 1932 season in the form of a 6-0 upset win over Navy at Annapolis.  The decisive touchdown came curtsey of a 19-yard run by the 5-9, 165-pound Palese.  It was the first win over a major eastern football powerhouse by the Tribe and had such an impact it was front-page news in the sports pages of the New York Times and Washington Post.

W&M football changed forever with the arrival of head coach Carl Voyles in 1939 and his successor, Rueben "Rube" McCray in 1944.  Both recruited some of the greatest players and produced some of W&M's greatest teams during their coaching tenures.  Voyles amassed a 29-7-2 record during his four years (1939-42) and McCray a 45-22-3 mark in his seven seasons (1944-50), playing against a major college football schedule.

Voyles recruited a fabulous freshman class that included all-time Tribe greats like guard Gerrard "Buster" Ramsey, center Tex Warrington, end Glen Knox, tackle Marvin Bass, fullback and placekicker Harvey "Stud" Johnson, back Jackie Freeman, and end Al Vandeweghe.

As almost every player did back then, they played both offense and defense.

Ramsey, W&M's original First-Team Associated Press All-American, is in the College Football Hall of Fame and is considered by some as one of the greatest guards ever in Tribe football history. He teamed with his co-lineman, the formidable Marvin Bass, also a Phi Beta Kappa, to anchor one of the finest W&M defenses.

The pair sparked one of the Tribe's exciting 1940 Homecoming win over an undefeated University of Virginia squad.  UVA was led by its all-time All-American running back, Bill Dudley.  Ramsey and Bass were credited with creating havoc in the UVA backfield all afternoon and held Dudley to minimal rushing yardage to spark the signature 13-6 win.

Voyles' 1942 powerhouse team won 10 games, tied one (a 7-7 game at Harvard) and lost one (14-0 to North Carolina Pre-Flight, an NFL-loaded military all-star team).  W&M won the Southern Conference Championship, the school's first, and recorded wins over Oklahoma (14-7), Navy (3-0), Virginia Tech (21-7), Dartmouth (35-7) and Richmond (10-0) and ended up the season ranked 10th in the nation.

In his four seasons, Voyles never lost to a major in-state opponent, winning nine and tying one.

He left in 1943 when William & Mary did not field a football team due to World War II.

McCray continued to recruit outstanding talent to Williamsburg when he assumed the head coaching position in 1944.  He brought in no less than a dozen eventual William & Mary Hall of Fame players (Fullback/DB "Flyin" Jack Cloud, end Bob Steckroth, center/lb Tommy Thompson, HB Tommy "The Kid" Korczowski, halfback "Jumping" Jack Bruce, ends Vito Ragazzo and Lou Hoitsma, guard George Hughes, tackle Lou Creekmur, QB/P Buddy Lex, halfback/DB Tom Mikula, and guard Knox Ramsey).

Cloud was the team's poster boy.  He rose to national prominence and his photo appeared on the front cover of Street & Smith's annual Football Magazine. Cloud was a relentless, powerful fullback who, Mikula, his blocking back, once told me, would "literally run right over me if I was in the way." Cloud was part Cherokee Native American, which was natural publicity for a team called the Tribe.  He scored 45 touchdowns for W&M in what amounted to his three seasons (he was injured most of his final year in 1949).
In 1949, Lex connected with Ragazzo for what was at the time an incredible 15 TD passes.  The figured established an NCAA Div I record for many years and, remarkably, STILL stands as the school's single-season mark.

Eight players from the 1946-49 teams played in the NFL with Creekmur eventually earning pro footballs highest honor, election to the NFL's Hall of Fame.

Three games stand out among McCray's 49 wins.  In 1946 at Cary Field, his 49-0 thrashing of a very good Virginia Tech team signaled the Tribe was a program on the rise.  A year later, in 1947, Cloud and Lex powered another statement win, this time a 21-0 domination of a previously undefeated and fifth-ranked Wake Forest.  The shutout win powered W&M to the Southern Conference Championship that season.  And in 1948, W&M faced an undefeated and second-ranked North Carolina squad, led by All-American Charlie "Choo-Choo" Justice, in Chapel Hill.  The two teams represented the best the Southern Conference had to offer and W&M shocked the heavily favored Tar Heels by scraping out a 7-7 tie.  The Tribe defense was able to contain the explosive playmaking of Justice, while Hoitsma caught a pass to tie the game. The Tribe came tantalizing close to an upset, as it intercepted a Justice pass late in the game and returned it 80 yards to the UNC 10-yard line, but time ran out before William & Mary could line up for the game-winning attempt.

The 1947 and 1948 squads each played in bowl games. The 1947 unit played in the Dixie Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., and fell in a hard-fought, 21-19, contest against the University of Arkansas.  In the 1948 post-season game William & Mary thrashed Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State), 20-0, at the Delta Bowl in Memphis, Tenn.

McCray resigned after the 1950 season due to a major recruiting scandal that revolved around high school transcripts and was replaced by his former lineman, Marvin Bass.  Bass coached just one year, winning seven of 10 games in 1951, and was followed by another former player from the Voyles/McCray era … Jackie Freeman.

Freeman was also athletic director for W&M and his ability to win was hampered by the aftereffects of the scandal, low financial support and few scholarships despite continuing to play a major Southern Conference Division I schedule.

Jackie had one remarkable season during his six years as head coach, the famed 1953 "Iron Indians" squad that is now part of the program's legend.

In that year, playing with just 24 men on the squad against another major schedule, the team posted a 5-4-1 record.  Wins included a 16-14 upset of Wake Forest at the Tobacco Bowl in Richmond, a 7-6 triumph at NC State, and a 21-0 pasting of Richmond.  But the highlight was a 6-6 tie at Navy, a game that drew tremendous national attention as the undermanned Tribe battled a heavily favored Midshipmen squad.  Receiver Tommy Martin took a pass from quarterback Al Grieco for the tying score in the fourth quarter.

The game was featured in the next week's issue of Life Magazine.

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During the team's final three games, all losses, they dressed as few as 18 men, injuries having knocked six players out of action.  A recruit from the student body who had never played a game of football, John Risjord, was playing by that time.

Two players on that team went on to NFL careers; the multi-talented Charlie Sumner and fullback/DB Bill "Bullet" Bowman.  Sumner went on to play six years in the NFL and was long-time NFL defensive coordinator who won three Super Bowl rings, while Bowman started for two NFL Champion Detroit Lion teams at fullback.

However, victories were hard to come by in the ensuing years as the financial support remained at low ebb. Freeman left after the 1956 season and was succeeded by Milt Drewer.  Drewer had sporadic success before he left after the 1963 campaign.

In his first season, 1957, the Indians had a sensational upset of then undefeated #10 North Carolina State, 7-6, in Raleigh.  The game was the Wolfpack's only loss of the regular season.  Entering the game as three-touchdown underdogs, William & Mary scored in the fourth quarter and the Tribe's quarterback, Bob Hardage, kicked the winning extra point even though he hadn't attempted on since high school.  The team's defense, led by end Larry Peccatiello, stifled the Wolfpack's explosive offense in recording the upset.

The 1964 season saw the dawning of a new era, as then William & Mary President, Davis Y. Paschall, took a chance with the hiring of Marv Levy.  The gamble paid off big time.  Levy came to W&M from the University of California with added financial dollars behind the program and brought with him a knack for recruiting, a passing-oriented offense and had a personality that worked well with alums and the media.   He also recruited top assistants like Larry Peccatiello, Augie Tammariello, and Lou Tepper to his staff.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Coe College, with a Masters in History from Harvard, Levy perfectly fit accommodating his football program to the academic rigors of William & Mary.

Levy, of course, went on to great heights with the NFL's Buffalo Bills, guiding his team to a record four-consecutive Super Bowls. During his five seasons at W&M, Levy reinvigorated the program and, while not developing championship teams, posted some terrific victories including the greatest upset in W&M's annals that recharged the program.

His teams won games over Southern Miss, Villanova, Ohio University, East Carolina, Temple, VMI in the Tobacco Bowl and pleased alums with three wins over Richmond; and tied a very strong West Virginia team.

30515However, the game that defines Levy at William & Mary, and forever earned him fame in Williamsburg, occurred on October 21, 1967 at Navy.  The Midshipmen were #1 ranked in the East, and ranked fifth nationally.  The Midshipmen were coming home after major wins over Syracuse and Michigan, and heavily favored over the Tribe.

W&M, trailing 16-0 with fifteen minutes to play, scored 27-consecutive points to shock the football world, 27-16.     
(note: this writer and my wife, Marsha, were at this game.  We were so energized by not only the win, but how we won it, that we and another W&M couple, Polly & Dick Rowlett, drove a car through Academy ground, honking the horn repeatedly ... how we were never stopped and thrown out or arrested I'll never know!)

W&M's quarterback, Dan Darragh, led the comeback with several TD passes including the winning score with four minutes remaining — a 55-yard toss to the smallest player on the field; 5-7, 155-pound halfback, David Slotnick.  The Tribe defense, led by linebacker Adin Brown (who had blocked one Navy punt), stopped Navy cold in the fourth quarter as the Middies failed to move the football effectively.

It was the lead sports story on television that night and the lead in all the Sunday papers.  The Flat Hat come out with a special edition and the entire student body, President Pascall, and perhaps half of Williamsburg greeted the team when it returned to campus that evening.

The allure of the professional ranks powered Levy's departure from W&M after the 1968 season, but he always cites William & Mary as one of the great experiences of his life.  "The College", he told me several years ago, "is a wonderful university … we had smart and dedicated young men and I am always excited to return to the school."

Levy's successor was another eventual Hall of Fame caliber coach, Lou Holtz.  Holtz came to Williamsburg from Ohio State.  Holt's diminutive appearance hid a fiery and passionate leader.  Holtz brought his new version of the triple option offense to Cary Field and it flourished for three seasons under his mentorship.

His three teams (1969-71) played high-scoring, close games with major powers and did well within the Southern Conference, including a championship in 1970 that earned the Tribe a Tangerine Bowl invitation to Orlando, Fla. That team won the title with two remarkable comebacks in its final two conference game: a 29-28 win at Davidson on a field goal with 14 seconds remaining, and a last minute 34-33 win at Richmond.  The Richmond remains memorable in Tribe gridiron history, as Steve Regan threw a 12-yard TD pass to a future Tribe Hall of Fame receiver David Knight to secure the victory.

Holtz had some excellent players along with Regan and Knight: guard Jackson Neale and fullback Phil Mosser were All-Southern players.  Holtz also recruited and signed defensive back, Warren Winston, the first African-American scholarship football player at William & Mary.

The ambitious Holtz left after the 1971 season for the head coaching job at N.C. State, and a new college president, Thomas A. Graves, succeeded Davis Pascall and hired Jim Root, a former head coach at New Hampshire.  Root coached for eight years, and worked through a challenging time for the Tribe's program.  Still, Root produced some impressive wins over teams like UVA, Navy and twice over Virginia Tech.  His eight years at W&M was the longest tenure as head coach for any Tribe coach up to that time.

But after Root left in 1979 a new era launched in 1980…the Jimmy Laycock era.
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