Tommie Sports - Football

Gene's Blog: Toms' 1979 team was special

September 27, 2008

One of the great examples of mid-season poise and perseverence will be celebrated today at O'Shaughnessy Stadium when the 1979 St. Thomas football team is honored. That MIAC co-champion team will be recognized at halftime of the 1 p.m. Hamline-UST football game.

The seniors on that Tommie team are my age, having turned 50 in the last 12 months. if their memories are better than mine, they can Logo tell a compelling story about the 1979 football season of how they shared the MIAC football championship with Concordia, St. Olaf and St. John's.

That season was the MIAC's only four-way tie for a championship -- in any sport -- since the conference was formed in 1920.

Plus, the 1979 Tommies might be the only team in MIAC history to allow 56 points to the eventual fifth-place team -- then later shutout the conference co-champs.

The Tommies' 6-3 overall finish included a 4-0 record down the stretch and a 4-0 record at O'Shaughnessy. The previous season, UST lost three home games by three or less points and finished 5-4.

The Toms' season began with a road trip to Vermillion, S.D., to play the first-ever game in the Dakota Dome. South Dakota was coming off a 24-15 loss to Eastern Illinois, the defending NCAA Division II champion. The Coyotes led just 9-6 in the fourth quarter but eventually won 22-6, aided by two late TDs. St. Thomas would stumble to a 2-3 start, including a game where it fell behind 56-0 at Gustavus in an eventual 56-32 loss.

Then lightning struck. The 1979 Toms won their last four games by a 114-37 margin, including a 30-0 victory over the Johnnies to close the season.

How rare is a shutout of legendary coach John Gagliardi's St. John's teams? SJU has only been shutout three times in MIAC play in the last 30 seasons, and has had only two 30-point shutout losses in conference play in Gagliardi's 56 seasons.

With three games to go, the Tommies hit the road to face No. 5-ranked and MIAC leader Concordia -- the defending NAIA national champs. UST came from behind three times and claimed a 21-17 upset victory in Moorhead. Freshman Jim Gustafson's four-yard scoring catch from Doug Deitz with 46 seconds to play capped an 82-yard drive in the final 6:00.

UST came back the next week and won 23-13 at Hamline, thanks in part to five pickoffs and two recovered fumbles.

On the season's last week, at O'Shaughnessy Stadium, MIAC leader St. John's was looking to claim the outright conference title. St. John's also sought to avenge a 21-3 loss to St. Thomas in 1978 -- the first Tommie victory in Collegeville in 24 seasons. A six-inch snowfall four days before the game would challenge both teams, and the field was slippery.

Against that backdrop, St. Thomas zapped the Johnnies 30-0 with strong performances on both sides of the ball. It was the first Tommie shutout of the Johnnies since 1946. UST forced eight turnovers, held the Johnnies to 184 yards of total offense and stuffed St. John's on three possessions inside UST¹s 10-yard line. Freshman Bob Krueger had an 80-yard interception return for six points. Seniors Joe Dragich (four tackles for loss) and Bill Hren (five tackles for loss) ecelled in their final college game. The Toms' 331 total yards included 100-yard rushing days by both Jeff Pfaff and Scott Robinson.

That UST defense had 44 takeaways in nine games, including a school-record 25 interceptions. Hren had five fumble recoveries.

St. Thomas head coach Dwayne Deitz was named Coach of the Year in both the MIAC and NAIA District 13. His son, senior QB Doug Deitz, was voted conference MVP.

Dwayne Deitz was 54-50-1 in 11 seasons with the Tommies, and is one of four St. Thomas football coaches to win at least two conference championships. Deitz' 1973 football team also won the MIAC title and finished 9-1 -- the first time in 50 seasons a UST football team won nine games. That team won road games at St. Cloud State, Gustavus and Concordia, and its lone loss came against Minnesota-Duluth.

"Our 1973 championship team may have had more talent," the head coach said, "but this team had a lot of guts. Nobody played harder than this squad."

Underclassmen on that team also share in another piece in UST trivia -- the next season, 1980, they played a 0-0 tie vs. Macalester. That's the only scoreless tie in the last 50 seasons of St. Thomas football, and was the last scoreless tie for the Toms at O'Shaughnessy Stadium since 1937.

Gustafson was a first-team All-American as a senior, and his 174 career receptions stood as the St. Thomas school record until P.J. Theisen closed his career in 2007 with 218. Gustafson also was a track and field All-American in the javelin as a junior. The Bloomington native would go on to play four NFL season with the Minnesota Vikings, where in 58 games he had 38 catches for 491 yards and five touchdowns. Gustafson later joined QBs Doug Deitz and Randy Muetzel as 1979 team members who were inducted into the UST Athetic Hall of Fame.

Doug Deitz, who ranks fourth in UST career scoring, was St. Thomas' first freshman All-American in track and field as he placed sixth in the discus at nationals in 1977. As a senior in 1980, Doug was NCAA runner-up in the discus and sixth in the shot put.

Senior starting offensive lineman Mark Vangsgard returned to St. Thomas in 2006 as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Click here for a profile on Mark that appeared in UST's Business magzine:

http://www.stthomas.edu/bmagarchives/2006/fall/alumni_notes_1.html

The team manager was Willy McCoy, who now keeps everything running in his behind-the-scenes role as UST athletic equipment manager.

An interesting side note to that season -- Gustavus started out 5-0 and was ranked No. 1 in NAIA, but went 2-3 down the stretch. An eight-point upset loss to Augsburg denied the Gusties what would have been a five-way tie for the championship. The Gusties averaged 50 points a game in wins over Division II Augustana, Hamline, St. Thomas, St. John's and Poly Tech of Mexico. But as the Tommies jelled late, Gustavus slipped out of postseason contention.

One question comes to mind -- how do we get Poly Tech on on the Tommies' schedule?

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Sports information director Gene McGivern is starting his 15th season at Gene pic St. Thomas and 21st in the MIAC. He blogs periodically on various topics regarding the Tommies, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) and Division III sports.