Fresno State Football 1964 – 67

We were going through and doing a general cleaning and we
came upon a practice jersey from my days playing football at Fresno Sate. We also
came upon a t-shirt from my 1977 track & field team at Santa Barbara High
School. Those triggered many memories and thoughts about coaching and athlete
development as I lived them. Today I am going to write about my college
football experience. Latter I will write about the 1977 Santa Barbara high track
& field team, a special group of young athletes.

I started playing football at Fresno Sate as a 17-year old
freshman in the fall of 1964. For those who don’t know Fresno is a city in the
San Joaquin valley. It is an agricultural area, one of the richest and most
productive agricultural areas in the country. It is extremely hot there in the
summer and fall, days over one hundred degrees are not unusual. Fresno State at
that time was around 8,000 students and primarily an agricultural and teacher
preparation school. There was a strong tradition in football in the late
1950’s and early 1960’s. In those days there was no DI, DII, or DII, there was
just large school and a small college division. Fresno Sate played in the CCAA
conference, a strong conference that included San Diego State who was a
national power under future Hall of Fame coach Don Coryell.

I was not recruited. I was a walk on who had been an average
player in high who had a dream of playing college football. I was told I could
earn a chance to play varsity in my sophomore year. Freshmen were not eligible
for varsity in those days. The main source of talent was junior college
transfers. The freshman team had twenty-seven players, none of whom were on
scholarship. We had two coaches, a head coach and a line coach. We played four
games and lost all four. We were outscored something like 120 to 7 – in short
we were awful, it was not a talent hotbed of future prospects for varsity. I
played offensive center and defensive tackle. I averaged 58 minutes a game
playing both ways and on special teams. Physically it was the hardest thing I
have ever done, much tougher physically than decathlon that I did after
college. It took me three days to get over the soreness after each game.

There was no organized off-season program; we were totally
on our own. We had four weeks of spring practice that consisted of four evening
practices and a Saturday morning intra squad scrimmage. Spring practice
culminated in an alumni game. I was awful in spring practice. I was out of
shape after pulling a hamstring (I did not even know what a hamstring was then)
the week before practice started, I was overwhelmed and intimidated, but I must
have done something right because I made varsity and earned a $50.00 a semester
tuition scholarship. Yes you read that correctly tuition was $50.00 a semester.

Fall two a day practices started after Labor Day the first
week in September. In those days we only played ten games. I was third string
offensive center. I did not make the travel squad for our first game an away
game against University of Colorado. My goal was to make the traveling squad
especially for the last game against University of Hawaii in Honolulu. I worked
my up to second string center and made the travel squad. I played in one game
that year about three minutes in a 56 to 0 route of Washburn University. I got
to go to Hawaii. It was the first plane flight I ever took. We played them over
Thanksgiving. I was three years younger than anyone on the team so I was pretty
much on my on when I was there. I walked all over Honolulu. The memory of
Punchbowl Military cemetery and the Arizona memorial are etched in my mind. We
visited both sites as part of a team tour. We played in the old Aloha stadium
on a bare field of red volcanic soil in a rainstorm. We won 10 to 7. We stayed
at the Reef hotel on Waikiki. I saved on my per diem so I could take a
catamaran ride on the Sunday after the game.

In spring I got my scholarship increased to $200 a semester.
It was like I had won the lottery. I actually had a few bucks a week spending
money now. We had a coaching change and the new coach, who fancied himself a
Bear Bryant disciple, wanted us lean and mean. The previous coach wanted us big
and strong. For the first two years I had worked on gaining weight, sometimes
eating up six meals a day during the summer. I got my weight up to a peak of
220 for the start of my sophomore season, but since we did no in-season
strength training I lost most of what I had gained by the end of the season.
That was typical in those days. My junior season under the new coach I was second-string
center again, I played in one game that season against Montana Sate, we lost 50
to 0. The quarterback for Montana Sate was Dennis Erickson, who went onto fame
as a coach at University of Miami. The kicker, a refugee from the ski team, was
Jan Stenerud who went on to along illustrious career in the NFL.

After the season I asked to change positions to offensive
guard. I felt that if I was ever going to play I needed to play a position
where I could take advantage of my speed. Offensive guards in the offense we
ran did a lot of pulling and trap blocking so it was good for me. I earned a
starting position that spring and actually graded out as the top offensive
lineman. Looking back I realize that I played the best football that spring because we had a new line coach. He was calmer he was a
teacher. He cared about you as a person. He took the time to explain things. It
made a huge difference and I responded accordingly. Instead of manipulation,
domination and control mind games it was motivation and learning. It was
actually fun because I was actually being coached. He helped make me better by
teaching. That was a bright spot in the whole foootball experience. I had my scholarship increased to $350.00 a semester. In the spring
alumni game near the end of the game on a downfield block I got a severe
stinger. I lost feeling in my right hand for a week and had terrible headaches
all that spring. I was told to suck it up, it would get better, it was just
part of the game.

I came into fall practice of 1967, my senior year as the
starter at right guard. I was actually mentioned in the Street and Smith College
Football preview magazine. I had hit the big time; except for one thing my neck
was a mess. I played OK during two a day practices. I was now down to 192
pounds. I certainly was not playing anywhere near as well as I had in spring
practice but I held my starting position. Our first game was against University
of Santa Clara. I played awful, on the second play from scrimmage their
defensive tackle hit me on the side of my head and my arm went numb. I played
the first half and was benched in the second half. That Monday I quite the
team, that was the end of my football career.

As look back on the experience I learned a lot.
Unfortunately many of the lessons learned were negative, what I would not do if
I ever became a coach rather than what I would do. It was a brutal experience
in many ways – One water break during practice, not being allowed to take our
helmets off on 100 degree days, full contact four days a week all season, no
regard for injuries, overt racism, constant physical and mental intimidation. I
think the sum total of the experience was that it made me want to coach, to
give any athletes I worked with the positive experience I did not have during
my college career. The only way I could play was to improve my athletic
abilities, get stronger, faster and more agile. So I started a quest then to
learn everything I could to make myself a better athlete. I read and talked to
everyone I could about conditioning. I think the lessons I learned through
trial and error about conditioning helped make a better conditioning coach when
my career took that path.  It was a different
time and place, but definitely a formative experience in my career.