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Mercy Bowl 1961
Fresno State 36 Bowling Green 6
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Note: The 1961 Mercy Bowl was a fundraiser in memory of Cal Poly football players who perished in a plane crash at Toledo, OH on October 29, 1961. A note of thanks is extended to the Fresno State University, Henry Madden Library, and the Bowling Green State University Library, Center for Archival Collections, for research assistance and photographs.
By Al Larson Long Beach, CA Press-Telegram
That's the question everyone's asking today, including 51 slightly stunned Bowling Green State College warriors.
The Ohioans came West with a sky-high reputation that centered around the fourth best defensive record in the nation. But by the time Fresno finished carving up the Falcons, 33,145 in attendance at the Coliseum's Mercy Bowl game knew they'd been treated to the year's greatest aerial feast.
If Bowling Green came away with one lesson, it's this: (1) West Coast football stock went up 36 points and, 2) the CCAA must be rated on a par with any small college conference in the country.
Bowling Green learned its lesson of the simple ABCs the hard way as the brilliant passing of quarterbacks Beau Carter and Jon Anabo and the uncanny receiving of end Jan Barrett carried the Bulldogs to an amazing 36-6 victory Thursday.
The Falcons, who were treated to a twist party Wednesday night, literally had their own necks twisted as Fresno struck for three touchdowns in the third quarter to annihilate the Midwest's finest major college representative.
Bowling Green found Carter a bitter pill to swallow. The slender 19-year-old sophomore fired two touchdown passes to Barrett and scored twice on runs of four and eight yards, while Anabo's passing put Fresno in position for a 29-yard field goal in the first quarter and led to another touchdown in the third period. The AC sparkplug gained an astounding 368 yards in the air, clicking on 22 of 43 attempts.
Barrett, who grabbed six passes for 161 yards and two TDs, was selected the game's outstanding lineman while sports writers honored Carter as the most valuable back.
Fresno coach Cecil Coleman said in the dressing room he thinks the Bulldogs should be named the No. 1 small college team in the nation. The latest AP poll listed them third with Pittsburg, Kans. on top.
"We wanted to let them know that someone out here wanted to hit hard," Coleman said. "I'm tired of hearing this stuff that West Coast teams don't want to hit."
The Bulldogs coach pointed out that Bowling Green, which is ranked as a large college, was better than any of "CAA members, but he didn't feel that they played as well as he had seen them in game movies. Coleman told how films did point out weaknesses in the Falcons' secondary and "we knew we could pass."
"We weren't given any pep talks before the game or at halftime," tackle Doug Brown related. "We just wanted to win our 10th game."
The Long Beach star, who plans to play with the Rams next year, recovered a key fumble in the second period to set up Fresno's go ahead score.
Asked when he planned to sign with the Rams, Brown said first he was going to play in the All-America Bowl game at Tucson next month and then the Senior Bowl in Alabama Jan. 5. He was drafted by L.A. as a sophomore two years ago.
Doug and some of his teammates were close friends of the Cal Poly players killed in the plane crash last year. This game was played for the benefit of their families.
With donations still pouring in from around the country, actual revenue won't be known until Wednesday.
"We were just beaten by a better team. We couldn't stop their passing. I didn't think anybody could beat us this bad," Perry added. "They simply killed us on the long pass when they needed it."
For Bowling Green, Mid-America Conference kingpins, the 36 points scored by Fresno was the most ever run up against a Perry-coached team. Ohio University in 1958 piled up 28 against the Falcons for a previous high.
Fresno took the opening kickoff and marched 60 yards before calling on Nick Masich to boot a 29-yard field goal.
The Falcons took a brief 6-3 lead in the second period. Arch Tunnell intercepted a Fresno pass, returned it 23 yards to midfield, and Jim Potts set up the score with a 42-yard throw to Larry Smith on the Bulldog seven. Fullback Ray Bell plunged for the touchdown from the two.
Brown's fumble recovery led to Fresno's second touchdown. Carter passed to Barrett 45 yards for the payoff and the Bulldogs carried a 10-6 lead into the dressing quarters.
But it was superior manpower that doomed Bowling Green in the third period as Fresno exploded three times.
Line stars were numerous for the winners. Jack Bohan, Montie Day, Jan Faris, Larry Fogelstrom, Bill Laughlin, J.R. Williams and Mike Slagle will be back to haunt foes next year while seniors Brown, Don Brockett, Jay Buckert, Sonny Bishop and Glenn Riggert bowed out in grand style.
Potts, who had to pass only on rare occasions this year, went to the air 17 times and completed 9 for 155 yards. For the day, the Falcons gained 208 airborne. This ran the combined air show to a dizzy 576 yards.
Russ Hepner led BG's running game, which netted 111 yards, but ripping off 45 yards on 13 splants.
Fresno's game plan was to "play it loose." By the end of the third stanza, the Falcons were a dead goose.
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Bowling Green's Roger Reynolds carries as Jim Potts (15) hurdles defender to try to provide blocking. (Bowling Green State University Special Collections)
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Attendance: 33,145
Scoring Summary
First Quarter FS- FG Masich 29
Second Quarter BG- Bell 2 run (kick failed) FS- Barrett 45 yard pass from Carter (Masich kick)
Third Quarter FS- Seifert 1 run (Masich kick). FS- Barrett 23 yard pass from Carter (kick failed) FS- Carter 4 run (Masich kick)
Fourth Quarter FS- Carter 8 run (pass failed)
Individual Statistics
Rushing
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October 29, 1960
Bowling Green, Ohio (UPI) Four Ohio college
football teams went into last weekend's action unbeaten and untied.
Three came out that way.
Bowling Green, the nation's second-rated small college football power used fourth and fifth stringers throughout the second half Saturday but still overwhelmed California Poly Tech, 50-6.
Ted Tollner, the Californian's quarterback from Palo Alto, completed 18 out of 32 passes for 246 yards, but the Mustangs were unable to counter Bowling Green's hard-driving ground attack.
Reserve players scored four of Bowling Green's seven touchdowns. But the Falcons' first string quarterback Jim Potts hurled three touchdown passes, one of them 76 yards.
Co-captain Bernie Casey, a senior halfback carried for two more Bowling Green tallies.
California Poly's sole score came in the third period when Roger Kelly, a halfback from Bakersfield, Calif., returned a punt 45 yards.
Bowling Green took a 27-0 halftime lead on Casey's 2 yard plunge and Potts' 7 yard toss to Guy Mauk in the first quarter and a Potts-to-Dick Newsome 22-yard pass and Jim Andrews' six yard run in the second period.
Casey hustled nine yards to open the BG third period, then Kelly returned the punt. Second stringer Clarence Meason took a 22-yard pass from Potts and fifth string halfback Chuck Pratt took a four-yard pass from fourth stringer Archie Punnell to close the scoring.
The Mustangs from San Luis Obispo, Calif, dropped their fifth game in six starts while Bowling Green took its 17th straight victory.
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Cal Poly defender wraps up Bowling Green ball carrier in game played October 29, 1960. (Bowling Green State University Special Collections)
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Scoring Summary
First Quarter BG- Casey 2 run (Elsea kick) BG- Mauck 76 yard pass from Potts (Elsea kick)
Second Quarter BG- Newsom 22 pass from Potts (Elsea kick) BG- Andrews 6 run (Pass failed) BG- Casey 9 run. (Elsea kick)
Third Quarter CP- Kelly 45 run (Run failed) BG- Meason 22 yard pass from Potts (Klieman run) BG- Pratt 4 pass from Punnell (Privitera pass from Punnell)
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A reporter for the Toledo Blade said there were 17 bodies at the airport terminal. He said at least one other body was known to be at a mortuary. Of 10 persons taken to a Toledo hospital, two were dead, the reporter said.
An operator in the control tower said he understood there were 18 survivors.
The chartered Arctic Pacific airline plane went down in a heavy fog and burned. The weather bureau at the airport said the visibility was zero.
The team had played Bowling Green University Saturday. The plane took off from Toledo shortly after 10 p. m. (EST), and a man in the control tower called the sheriff a few minutes later to report he "saw a flash."
All available ambulances were sent to the scene, and the airport terminal was turned into a morgue.
The plane carried a party of 43 from the college at San Luis Obispo. In the party were 36 players, plus coaches, managers and trainers.
Sports Editor John Nettleship of the San Luis Obispo Telegram Tribune also was reported with the party.
The team had taken a chartered bus the 25 miles from Bowling Green to the airport.
News that the plane had crashed stunned Cal Poly San Luis Obispo- a city of 18,000 persons.
All faculty members of the college- California Polytechnic Institute of San Luis Obispo is its full name- were called to the college to assist families of football players who reported there to receive reports from the scene of the accident.
"My God, it can't be the Cal Poly team," Mrs. Gary Van Home Sr., mother of the team's star fullback cried when she first heard the news from radio station KPRL at nearby Paso Robles. Her son, Gary, was aboard the plane and she wasn't sure at that time whether he was among the survivors.
Her cry of incredulity was the general pattern as telephone exchanges of newspapers and radio stations were jammed all through San Luis Obispo County.
Since the college team is made up principally of boys from the area, the circle of people personally involved was very wide.
Not all those aboard were football players. John Nettleship, sports editor of the San Luis Obispo Telegram and John Bachina, a leading insurance agent in San Luis Obispo, were passengers on the plane.
So were these three members of the coaching staff: Head coach Leroy B. Hughes, a graduate of Oregon: and assistant coaches Howard O'Daniels and Sheldon Harden, both of Santa Clara.
At the crash site, Walt Williamson, backfield coach of team-one of 43 members of the school's party aboard-gave this account:
"We started to take off. Visibility wasn't very good. One hundred feet off the runway the plane started to veer off."
"The left wing hit. Everything went."
"The whole front of the plane was gone."
Williamson said he was sitting next to the team physician, Dr. Arthur James.
"I don't know what happened to him. Roy Hughes (head coach) was cut in the head. I pulled him outside."
Williamson escaped with leg cuts.
"The stewardess got out all right. She was in the rear. Seven persons back there got out. Thee plane was burning, but it didn't blow up."
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The wreckage of the Arctic Pacific charter flight. |
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Cal Poly's Mustang Memorial Plaza pays tribute to those lost in the 1960 plane crash. |
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In Memory
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In
adjoining dressing rooms, a downhearted Doyt Perry reviewed his defeat.
TOLEDO,
Ohio- An airplane carrying members of a football team home to California
crashed in fog Saturday night and burned. At least 20 persons perished.
There were 48 aboard the plane, the sheriff's office said.
