Flashback: Great football moments on UST field

November 3, 2003
This is another in an occasional series of stories from the first 100 years of St. Thomas varsity athletics

By GENE McGIVERN
Sports Information Director

It's the 100th season of varsity athletics at St. Thomas,
so it's fitting that history was made Saturday at O'Shaughnessy Stadium as Coach John Gagliardi tied Eddie Robinson's all-time coaching victory record at 408.

The Johnnies and Tommies renewed their football rivalry that began on Thanksgiving Day 1901 at Lexington Park, andf the 2003 game was one of the most excited of all. The Johnnies used a 35-yard field goal with eight second to play for a 15-12 victory, denying the Tommies from posting one of the great upsets in conference history.

This likely was these teams' last meeting on natural grass, as new fieldturf is expected to be installed at O'Shaughnessy Stadium in 2004 to match a similar facility in Collegeville. A third venue where the teams occasionally play, the Metrodome, also is getting new turf in 2004.
 
There have been many other great moments on the St. Thomas football field in 99 seasons of college football. In fact, 85 years ago this week, the Minnesota Gophers played the 1918 Tommies here in a snowstorm, and went back to Dinkytown with a 25-7 victory. It's the only time the Gophers have played an MIAC football team on the road. The Toms scored when Myer Paper hit Red Haggerty with a 35-yard pass that set up Frank Ryan's two-yard TD run. That Tommie team featured Charles Bellinger, a Texan who's believed to be the first African-American athlete in school history.

Other prominent football teams to play here on campus included Northern Iowa, Creighton, Marquette, North Dakota, North Dakota State, DePaul and Drake.

Here's a quick look back at some other significant Tommie football moments at O'Shaughnessy Stadium:
.1913: FB Frank Ward, who later was an Anoka Studebaker auto dealer, scores three TDs and kicks three PATs to lead the Tommies past Marquette, 27-6. Ward almost missed the game due to a case of the boils but lived up to his pre-game pledge to score a TD for each boil... Toms win 23 consecutive home games from 1909-15.

.1940-46: St. Thomas builds a 20-game home-field win streak under Nic Musty, Wee Walsh, Ed Widseth and Frank Deig.

.1947-49: Tommies' famed Cigar Bowl team of 1948 helps build a three-year, 15-game MIAC winning streak

.1962: Vince Lombardi, Jr., runs for four of his 11 career TDs this season

.1967: Dick Gill breaks a punt return for a TD with five seconds left in the first half as the Toms break a long losing skid to St. John's with a 13-2 win... a teammate wearing #50 is Mike Ciresi, who later becomes a world-renown attorney.

.1979: Coach DuWayne Deitz' Toms post a stunning 30-3 win over St. John's on the final day of the season, creating a four-way tie for the MIAC title with UST, St. John's, Concordia and St. Olaf. The 27-point win still ranks as the Toms' largest home winning margin over the Johnnies since 1922.

.1981: Mark Dienhart, age 26, a former NCAA champion thrower and All-American OT for the Tommies, debuts as the Toms' head coach with a 21-14 win over Winona State.

.1983: Future NFL player Neal Guggemos picks off four passes in the second half to help the Tommies edge Hamline 10-7 and finish a 9-0 MIAC season.

.1986: QB Joe O'Connor throws four TD passes in a single quarter in a 44-0 win over St. Olaf.

.1990: Tommies play first home playoff game in school history and fall 33-32 to Central. Star RB Gary Trettel went out with an early injury and WR Aaron Benner had 180 yards in receiving in the second half.

.1992: All-American TE Ryan Davis, then a QB, scores a TD and two-point conversion on the last play of the first half to close the game's scoring in the Tommies' 15-12 upset of the nationally-ranked Johnnies... Tracey Duncan's 45-yard TD off a fumble recovery opened the UST scoring.

.1993: QB Tom Stallings passes for an NCAA record 602 yards in a wild 42-41 victory over Bethel. After a scoreless first quarter, the teams combine to score 12 touchdowns -- all on passes.

.1997: Kicker Joe Warren, who's now the starting goalie for the Minnesota Thunder pro soccer team, blasts a school-record 78-yard punt in a shutout win over Concordia-St. Paul... Future NFL player Ryan Collins catches three TD passes vs. Carleton.

.1998: QB Greg Kaiser, celebrating his 21st birthday, throws a 99-yard TD pass to Mark Warder to tie an NCAA record. Later in the game, Kaiser throws a TD pass and a game-winning two-point conversion pass to TE Chris Chappuis on the game's final play in overtime to give UST a thrilling 29-28 win.

.2002: RB Jake Barkley has a school-record five touchdowns in a 49-25 win over Bethel. Barkley, the MIAC career rushing leader, also had the rare feat of posting one of his three consecutive 100-yard rushing games vs. St. John's here.