1956 Tommie team made football history

September 12, 2007

The 1956 St. Thomas football team holds a special distinction in the institution's proud athletic history. Under the leadership of Coach Frank Deig, the '56 Tommies were the lone team in St. Thomas' 86 seasons of MIAC football to compile an unbeaten, untied season and win an outright conference championship.

As a backdrop, the Tommies had 1,450 students in the 1956-57 school year -- half of whom were enrolled in Air Force ROTC. The faculty was comprised of 15 priests and 55 lay instructors. Tickets for home games were $1 for adults, and 50 cents for students. All four home games were played under the lights on Friday nights.

The previous fall, two close losses in bad weather sank St. Thomas to a 4-4 final record. The graduating seniors lost included Bill Rogan and Joe "Peanuts" Brandt, likely related to St. Thomas star Jim "Popcorn" Brandt. Compounding the challenge for 1956 was an injury that would sideline standout halfback Denny Monahan for the season.

Despite being picked to finish fifth in the MIAC race, St. Thomas stormed to an 8-0 finish and shutout regional powers Gustavus and Loras. They scored 30 or more points in five of their eight games, including 100 points in their final three games. They allowed less than nine points a game.

St. Thomas had two important comeback victories on the road. They fell behind Minnesota-Duluth 14-0 but rallied to win 34-14. They also trailed Concordia 13-12 in the fourth quarter in Moorhead but drove 60 yards and scored the winning touchdown with 4:00 to play. It was the seniors' first win over the Cobbers.

A breakthrough victory came Homecoming weekend over Gustavus, 14-0. That ended a five-game losing streak to the Gusties, who were a dominant conference team in the 1950s as they won or shared eight of the 10 MIAC championships. Gustavus had won 41 of its previous 43 MIAC games but St. Thomas used a blocked punt and a recovered fumble to set up short touchdowns, and the Toms' stingy defense did the rest. Coach Lloyd Hollingsworth's Gustie teams won 85% of their conference games over 16 seasons and were shutout by MIAC foes only five times -- including 6-0 by the '48 Cigar Bowl Tommies, and 14-0 by the '56 Tommies.

St. Thomas was 7-0 after it rolled onto the St. John's campus and scored a 33-25 win over the Johnnies. The 33 points were the third most scored by a Tommie football team in 32 trips to Collegeville. The loss helped doom St. John's to a a rare losing finish at 3-4-1 -- one of two losing seasons in a 54-and- counting-year career for Coach John Gagliardi.

St. Thomas closed the season with a trip to Dubuque, Iowa to play a strong Loras team. Eight years earlier, Loras had handed the Tommies'  famed Cigar Bowl team its lone loss on the last game of the regular season, 20-13 in Dubuque. But this time, St. Thomas rolled up 380 yards of offense and sailed to a 33-0 victory.

The Tommies were among eight teams considered for the Aluminum Bowl -- the NAIA National Championship game -- which was held in Little Rock, Ark., in December. But Montana State and St. Joseph's (Ind.) were selected for the trip.

What was the team's secret? Perhaps it was Fr. James Shannon, in his first year at St. Thomas president, who gave some pre-game pep talks to spark the team.

Maybe it was the leadership of senior captain and offensive guard Tom Turk, a DeLaSalle grad, who served in the Korean War before joining the team in 1953.

Maybe it was the Dolan factor. John "Doc" Dolan and F.J. (Steve) Dolan lined up together for a couple of games in the backfield. Their older brother Dan (Class of '51), better known as a star pitcher on the Tommies' 1951 MIAC title team, also was a backup on the famed Cigar Bowl football team. After
injuries sidelined the top two quarterbacks for the 1954 Tommie team, Doc literally was recruited out of the classroom to play football. After three days of practice, he played most of the game in a 19-6 win over Augsburg. In 1956, Doc had a memorable 50-yard scoring run in a pivotal 12-7 win over
Macalester

Some would point to the athletic backfield. Red Wing native Bernie Raetz and Robbinsdale freshman Pat Gorman were a 1-2 threat at quarterback, and speedy halfbacks Dolan (5-foot-6) of Cretin and Jim Andrescik (5-foot-7) of Minneapolis Edison outran bigger defenders. Senior fullback Jerome Castle of
Bethlehem Academy could run and block. Raetz, who wore jersey No. 55, would earn team MVP honors and was compared by Deig to Cigar Bowl QB Ed Krowka.

The receiving corp was dangerous, led by Little Falls' Dick Trafas and Wisconsin native John Amelse.

The offensive line wasn't the biggest in the conference, but Turk, center Dick Sappa of DeLaSalle, tackles Walt Dziedzic of Minneapolis Edison and John Heller of Shakopee and guard Ray Mahowald of Rosemount gave the Tommies' strong protection.

Deig would coach just one more season, before illness forced him to retire. He passed away at age 50, and his 56 victories still rank first among the 28 head coaches in the Tommies' 103 years of football.

It would be 17 years before St. Thomas again won a share of the MIAC football title, and 27 years before the Tommies won an outright conference football crown.

The St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame will include the following from the 1956 football team -- Deig, Raetz, Trafas and Doc Dolan. That trio is joined by other 1950s football players Monahan, Frank Mach and Len Horyza.