Rags to Roses: IU Goes to the 1968 Rose Bowl

By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Student athletic trainer Dean Kleinschmidt was back in Bloomington after serving his second straight summer internship with the Green Bay Packers.

Indiana coach John Pont, during a preseason team meeting with his 1967 Hoosiers, had asked Kleinschmidt what made Vince Lombardi's NFL champion Packers tick.
Kleinschmidt replied: "They love each other."

And that happens to be the mantra of current Indiana coach Tom Allen, whose program will help salute the 50^th anniversary of IU's Rose Bowl team Saturday while hosting Rutgers for a 12 p.m. kickoff.

Allen ends every public talk he gives by intoning "L.E.O.," the acronym representing "love each other" and reminding everybody about the philosophical foundation upon which he is building his program.

The late Lombardi and Pont would doubtless have endorsed that.

And so would the people – IU Rose Bowl team players and staffers and family members numbering over 100 – congregating in Bloomington this weekend.

That group likes to get together. Hence its regular reunions.

"This group has had a reunion every five years," E.G. White, a sophomore guard for the 1967 team, said last week. "For many of us, it's their spouses and extended families, too. And it's like picking up a sentence in
midstream and never losing a beat. It really is a special group of people."

White along with wideouts Jade Butcher and Eric Stolberg, linebackers Ken Kaczmarek and Bob Moynihan, center Harold Mauro and offense/defensive line standout Doug Crusan congregated Nov. 8 at C3 – a
Bloomington bistro in Stolberg's Renwick development – to share stories about their 1967 season for WGCL AM-1370 radio.

Mark Deal, IU assistant athletic director for alumni relations, was among the packed throng on-hand at C3. Deal, speaking with WCGL's Mike Glasscott and Dave Novak. Deal, whose brother Mike played on the
1967 Hoosiers, noted:

"The coolest thing is that Friday night, when we first all get together at Nick's (English Hut, the Bloomington restaurant) for reunion weekends, is watching all those guys when they first see each other."

Because the love resurfaces immediately.

"When we see each other at our reunions, we don't even shake hands," Mauro said. "We hug each other. All hugs. That's our handshake."

THE DEFENSE DIDN'T REST
And it was most certainly a love affair the 1967 Hoosiers conjured up throughout the Bloomington community and the broader IU fan base, via what remains the most beloved season in IU football annals.

A unique season. Still the only campaign to produce a Rose Bowl bid.

And the manner in which that bid was earned only added to the appeal. Because it was enormously entertaining. Full of surprises. And not for the faint of heart.

Eight games were decided within the final four minutes. More than once in the final minute.

For all the swashbuckling sophomores on offense – Butcher, quarterback Harry Gonso, tailback John Isenbarger, et al – the average victory margin for Indiana during its 9-1 regular-season run was just 19-14.

Which also happened to be the exact final score of what seems surely Indiana's biggest football victory ever, over No. 3-ranked Purdue, in that year's pulse-pounding Old Oaken Bucket game.

The veteran, stingy Hoosier defense held nine opponents – including No. 1-ranked Southern California with O.J. Simpson – to fewer than 20 points.

"People like me fell in love with those three sophomores and that offense," Bob Hammel, Bloomington Herald-Times sports editor emeritus, said during the C3 shindig. "And Harry, John and Jade were a big part of why this team went to Pasadena – but so was the defense."

Even coming off a 1-8-1 season in 1966, the Hoosiers sensed they might have the capacity to make some sort of run in 1967.

There was talent in the senior and junior classes, men recruited by Pont's predecessor Phil Dickens, and perhaps even more ability amidst the incoming sophomores (freshmen were ineligible back then, so it was the sophs' first shot at varsity action.)

Consider that Crusan, Isenbarger, Butcher, Stolberg, Cal Snowden, Jim Sniadecki, Terry Cole, Brown Marks and Bob Kirk were eventually drafted by and/or made rosters for NFL teams. Crusan, an All-Pro, and Cole were teammates on the 1972 unbeaten Miami Dolphin Super Bowl champs.

The Big Ten was widely acknowledged as the nation's premier football conference throughout the 1950s and 1960s, but the 1967 Hoosiers had competitive personnel. There was experience, especially on defense, and talent. And they believed in their coach.

"The remarkable thing about that season was these guys did not accept the idea that Indiana football can't win," Hammel said. "And they did that right from the beginning."

Even, really, before the beginning.

THE PUPPIES ARRIVE
Indiana played a pair of 1966 freshmen games under coach Howard Brown, a standout on IU's unbeaten 1945 outright Big Ten champs, including a visit to Columbus to face an Ohio State crew quarterbacked by
Rex Kern who would win a national title as seniors.

IU's freshmen won that game. Handily.

"I think the beginning point of that 1967 season was the year before when the freshmen went over to Ohio State and beat Ohio State," Hammel said. "I think they started feeling, 'Hey, we can play in this league.' "

Then came Indiana's 1967 spring practice. The newcomers got everybody's attention immediately.

Gonso was an athlete, a state diving champion, a :10.2 sprinter for 100 yards, and the recipient of a $15,000 offer from the Detroit Tigers to sign out of Findlay (Ohio) High.

Muncie Central product Isenbarger was recruited in basketball by Kentucky's Adolph Rupp, was fourth in the state pole vault and got letters from fellow Hoosier native Tom Harmon and future president Gerald Ford trying to lure him toward Michigan football. But Isenbarger preferred Pont.

Butcher was a hurdler, a hoopster and the sort of receiver who would record 30 touchdowns in 30 career games.

There was toughness in the group, too. Stolberg would not start the opener against Kentucky due to a dislocated shoulder. But he vowed not to miss another start – and didn't, despite the shoulder dislocating 30 times over the course of the season.

As much as any other characteristic among the sophomore backs and receivers, though, was fleetness afoot in running Pont's new speed-option set out of the I formation. "The speed-option," Butcher recalled, "was fantastic."

Moynihan remembers adjusting to the sophomore jets.

"Harry and 'Iso' and Jade came up (to the varsity in the spring), and we were playing at the old stadium on 10^th Street," he said. "And I remember they ran that option. The first time they pitched it out to Iso, I said,
'I'll meet him at the line of scrimmage.' By the time I got there, he was gone.

"I tried it from about three yards deeper the next time. And still watched him run by me. And I said, 'I'm going to have to go five yards deep to meet him at the line of scrimmage.' I'm talking about speed and stride. I'd not had to deal with that sort of speed before. I knew it was a special group of guys."

Crusan knew it, too, and not just because of speed and skill on display. There was swagger. The sophomores hadn't been beaten up by the likes of Ohio State. They'd beaten Ohio State.

"I've referred to them as brash sophomores," Crusan said. "They hadn't played yet. They hadn't been beat to death by Michigan State or Ohio State or anybody.

"They were like puppies, just running around out there, and didn't know that they couldn't chew that pillow. Nobody had told them."

SLIMMING FOR WINNING
Crusan was among the many veterans who made significant off-season sacrifices to help make the 1967 campaign successful.

A top pro prospect as an offensive tackle, Crusan was told by Pont that the team needed Crusan at defensive tackle for his final campaign. Pont also told Crusan he needed to lose 30 pounds in just over three months.

"My parents back in Pittsburgh were happy that summer," quipped Crusan, who reduced to the prescribed 232 pounds by the deadline. "I didn't eat as much, so the bills weren't as big."

IU's defensive coaches had visited Alabama before spring practice began to study Paul "Bear" Bryant's approach with the Crimson Tide and decided to switch from a 5-3 defense to a 4-4. The Hoosiers had a slew of talented linebackers and wanted to get quicker on that side of the ball.

So virtually everybody along the defensive front eight dropped weight.

There were sacrifices on the offensive side of the ball, too. Isenbarger, a star quarterback in high school, accepted a switch to tailback 10 days before the season began so Gonso could take the reins. Terry Cole, the erstwhile tailback, accepted a move to the blocking-oriented fullback spot. Bob Russell, who along with Gary Cassells gave IU a set of premier guards, decided to eschew medical school for one more year.

"Part of the magic started the year before," White said. "There were decisions made by the coaching staff, talking things over with our players.

"We had great senior leadership. Really outstanding. We had juniors fill key roles on both sides of the ball and we had a lot of talent in that sophomore class. I think the three classes melded very well together. The personalities melded well together."

Crusan summed up the spirit of things: "It's a team game."

BARN-BURNERS AND YARN-SPINNERS
Memorable moments from that glorious autumn? Feel free to choose from a cardiac-clenching cornucopia. From pretty much any game on the 1967 schedule.

Pont drop-kicked a film projector in the locker room during halftime of the opener against Kentucky, with the host Hoosiers trailing 10-0. But the second half produced the first Gonso-Butcher TD connection and a game-winning tipped TD pass to tight end Al Gage.

After Dave Kornowa's fourth-quarter field goal put IU ahead the following Saturday, Kansas missed a 37-yard field goal at the end to fall, 18-15.

Indiana went to 3-0 for the first time since 1928 (the unbeaten 1945 team had a 2-0-1 start) with a 20-7 win at Illinois featuring a 65-yard Isenbarger quick-kick (and later, as a harbinger of sorts, a blocked Isenbarger quick-kick). And with the Illini driving into scoring territory while trailing just 13-7 late, there was a game-clinching pick-six by Kaczmarek.

Then Isenbarger got even more creative (if not necessarily more successful) in his approach to punting situations.

IU had a lead before Isenbarger decided to try running in lieu of punting on a 4^th-and-15, gaining a mere yard and setting up an Iowa TD that forged a 17-14 Hawkeye edge. But the Hoosiers prevailed via a gutsy fake field goal on a 4^th-and-12, which set up the winning touchdown.

???????Isenbarger was undaunted. After Indiana's 20-0 lead at Michigan the following week had shrunk to 20-14, he inexplicably tried and failed to execute another fake punt. "Why do I do things like that?" Isenbarger exclaimed to Pont upon reaching the sidelines. Pont told Isenbarger to sit at the end of the bench for the duration to ponder an answer.

The host Wolverines tied the score and threatened to take the lead before Kaczmarek stuffed Ron Johnson for no gain at the IU five and the Hoosier offense – spurred by running from Isenbarger, reinstated by Pont at Gonso's request – marched 95 yards for a 27-20 victory.

The Indianapolis Star's Bob Collins observed the Hoosiers discovered that not only could foes not beat them, "they can't even beat themselves."

The subsequent week brought a wire from Isenbarger's mom pleading with her son to punt – and then a welcome comfortable 42-7 margin of victory at Arizona.

After a sloppy 14-9 homefield win over Wisconsin, the Hoosiers rallied from a 13-7 fourth-quarter deficit as Isenbarger scored with 2:50 left in what would become three wins in three years over powerful Michigan State.

The Hoosiers were 8-0. The college football world was agog.

"Then we maybe got caught looking ahead a bit for the first time all year," Stolberg recalled of the date at Minnesota, which preceded the showdown finale against Purdue. IU again trailed just 13-7 in the fourth but, this time, a series of disasters ensued in the final minutes and the Hoosiers limped home after sustaining a setback by a misleading 33-7 score.

"Getting off the plane in Indianapolis and the bus ride back from the airport to Bloomington, it was very quiet," White said. "You could hear a pin drop the whole way back. Then the buses pulled up to what is now called the Gladstein Fieldhouse, which was the basketball arena. And everybody said, 'Go in there.' And we said, 'What?'

"We walked in. The lights went on. And there were thousands of people waiting on us. Maybe 8,000 people. Impromptu pep rally. We all kind of looked at each other. I think it helped set the stage."

For the most significant victory in IU football history.

Purdue's defending Rose Bowl champions were a powerhouse, but the Hoosiers were ready.

With the Boilermaker defense set wide to take away Indiana's option, the Hoosiers repeatedly sent Cole up the middle to resounding success in forging a 19-7 lead.

And when Purdue, having pulled within 19-14, mounted a 20-play march that threatened to produce a decisive touchdown, Kaczmarek drilled Boilermaker fullback Perry Williams to cause a fumble recovered at the 2 by IU safety Mike Baughman.

Then a 63-yard Isenbarger punt and more stalwart defense helped the Hoosiers stay out of harm's way.

They were on their way, instead, to Pasadena.

Not just because of the celebrated sophs.

"That's what made that Purdue game so sweet," Hammel said. "Because the defense was the key to it and the running back who won it was Terry Cole, who had his one big day of the season with 155 yards (and a game-winning 63-yard TD burst). It was a wonderful way to finish."

Indiana played competitively if ultimately unsuccessfully at the Rose Bowl against the top-ranked Trojans – who featured six first-round NFL draft choices the following year, and nine overall – falling 14-3.

But the Hoosiers had already secured immortality.

ENDEARING IDIOSYNCRACIES
Michael S. "Mickey" Maurer not only has IU's School of Law in Bloomington as a namesake, he has written a well-researched and very enjoyable book on his alma mater's 1967 football season entitled "Cinderella Ball."

And David Woods' article on the "Cardiac Kids" in the Oct. 26 Indianapolis Star provides another trove from which readers can glean, among a great many things, insights into the players' personalities. Including the quirks.

Just a small sample of details via Maurer and Woods:

Butcher required two hot dogs and a Coke at halftime of every game.

Mauro wrestled a monkey at the Jackson County Fair. Which predictably prompted behavior typical of angry monkeys. Which in turn compelled Mauro's teammates to have him remove his soiled clothes and make the car ride back to Bloomington in his underwear.

(Mauro will tell you he earned his nickname "Monk" for his cloistered, studious behavior, but still …)

When the Hoosiers spent Friday evenings before home games at their customary McCormick's Creek State Park digs, Sniadecki, Marks and Kevin Duffy turned Trekkie – making sure to tune in to "Star Trek."

Pont opened his door at home one Halloween eve to see some rather robust trick-or-treaters. It took him a few seconds to see past the costumes and recognize Kaczmarek, Marks and Duffy.

Cole filled his Los Angeles hotel bathtub with champagne during the Rose Bowl junket.

???????Gonso's pranks were legendary (and their details are perhaps best left opaque.)

"Punt, John, Punt!"

The upshot is that the 1967 Hoosiers were mostly loveable off-field, too.

THEY'VE GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN THEIR HANDS
Almost all the 1967 Hoosiers moved on into the world right in stride. Their success stories cover myriad professions and careers.

???????Gonso is a longtime mover-and-shaker in Indianapolis, a senior partner at the Ice Miller law firm and a current member of IU's Board of Trustees. But he's hardly alone among his teammates to reach rarefied heights.

They were ready when Stolberg initiated an endowed scholarship at IU in memory of Cole, who died of cancer in 2005, becoming the first Indiana team ever to take that sort of step. They've added another one since.

???????Kleinschmidt remembers how Ray Nitschke, the late, great Green Bay middle-linebacker, once said: "Kleinschmidt, let me tell you, there is very little difference in the talent level across the NFL. Very few degrees of difference. What separates us is the great leadership."

But Kleinschmidt feels it was more than that. "There was an emotional and, if you will, spiritual difference with that group," Kleinschmidt said from his New Orleans office this week. "And if you talk with them now, it hasn't changed."

???????Kleinschmidt related a spiritual sort of story when telling the 1967 Hoosiers about the 1967 Packers. He described how veteran guard Fred "Fuzzy" Thurston had taught Packer rookies to "sing for their supper" by belting out a version of the old spiritual "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" and altering the lyrics to encompass both the Lord and Lombardi.

The Hoosiers took the hint, adopting it as their own theme song for the season, but with IU and Pont-oriented lyrics.

And they ended up composing an opus that still resounds through the decades.

"It doesn't seem like a half-century ago," Kaczmarek said. "But everybody moved on with their lives and most have been very successful.

"We know we're getting up in age, and with each passing year there will be fewer and fewer of us. Fifty years is a huge anniversary and we know our timeline is getting shorter, so we'll try to make the best of all the times we can get together."

No doubt they will.

"We had a lot of love on that team," Stolberg said. "Everybody says that. But we did."

And they do.

And this weekend, hugs will ensue.

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