Masters in the Mud
August 01, 2004 02:20 PM | General
August 10, 1999
Those associated with West Virginia University sensed things might be different when Jim Carlen arrived at West Virginia University in 1966.
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| West Virginia coach Jim Carlen came to Morgantown with big ideas. (WVU Sports Communications) |
That era in WVU athletics was dominated by the shadow of a man who was no longer there -- Jerry West. People usually talked about basketball first. Back then, you could find basketball information in the football media guide: It was a not-so-subtle reminder to everyone that, while football was important, basketball was the show. And rightfully so.
Basketball had spent nine straight years in the Top 20, ending in 1963. The school's most famous athlete (West) appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1965 and he was already distinguishing himself as one of the game's all-time greats. Football on the other hand, had been respectable in the 1960s, securing a Liberty Bowl berth in 1964, but it didn't quite reach the level of the early 1950s when Art "Pappy" Lewis reigned supreme.
Carlen soon became aware of this and he immediately caught people off guard. By his own recollection, he started out in several different directions.
"I had all of these ideas, and (athletic director) Red Brown would just sit back in his chair, listen and let me do them," remembers Carlen.
Jim Carlen meant different things to different people. No two persons could render an identical description of this stocky, self-confident Tennessean. His booming, heavily accented voice couldn't be mistaken though. And he was rarely at a loss for words. The school's publicist at the time, Eddie Barrett, characterized Carlen as one who "talked in a staccato fashion that suggested his larynx was having a hard time keeping up with his brain."
"I remember Jim Carlen as being very business-like," quarterback Mike Sherwood recalls. "He wasn't particularly close to his players, but he knew everything about you."
"Jim used to sit in his office and preach to you," says long-time sportswriter Mickey Furfari. "Looking back on it, in some respects, I think some of his ideas were too stringent and unrealistic."
"Jim used to get on his assistant coaches about their behavior -- even the behavior of their wives, which I thought was crossing the line," says retired Charleston Daily Mail sports editor Bill Smith, who wrote books about the coaching careers of Bobby Bowden and Don Nehlen.
Carlen may have made his opinions known, but he was also a salesman and West Virginia University football was a tough sell in 1966. The coach convinced WTRF in Wheeling to produce the "Jim Carlen Show," to be aired on television stations throughout the state. He held clinics for local kids after football practice, telling them "you may not need us, but we sure need you."
He drove the winding, twisting roads of West Virginia with fundraiser Lysander Dudley, raising money for the athletic department's scholarship fund. He even begged then-governor Arch Moore to construct better highways so he could quit losing Bluefield boys to Virginia Tech.
"You didn't measure recruiting in West Virginia back then by miles," Bobby Bowden once said, "you measured recruiting there by hours."
"The best way to get to Charleston, believe it or not, was to take Route 7 over to New Martinsville and then go down the Ohio side," assistant coach Hayden Buckley remembers. "It was an awful long trip."
"It took us 11-12 hours to get to Morgantown from Bluefield," recalls running back Pete Wood, now the health and safety manager at Chrysler Corporation. "Morgantown was in a completely different state to us down in Bluefield."
At the same time Carlen was making his stump speeches, he was also working on Red Brown to get West Virginia out of the Southern Conference. He reasoned that by being in the Southern Conference, it was difficult to convince great players to come to West Virginia. Two years later, Carlen finally convinced Brown and West Virginia became an independent. (By the 1970s, teams like Stanford, California, Indiana, Illinois and SMU replaced VMI, The Citadel, Villanova, William & Mary and George Washington on the schedule.)
During his first team meeting, Carlen outlined several rules to his team. No smoking, drinking, swearing or cutting class. Church was mandatory. He also required that all of his players lose weight. In exchange, he discontinued the practice of training at Jackson's Mill which many players likened to boot camp. He held "Coke" breaks for his players during practice and rarely scrimmaged during the season because as he used to say, "I'm not losing football games on the practice field."
The few lonely reporters who covered the team were given carte blanche access to his practices. During breaks he answeree questions from writers, fans or whoever else cared to show up. Carlen was also smart enough to hire youthful, energetic and talented assistant coaches to help him pull it off.
"I had great assistant coaches and I let them coach," remembers Carlen.
Among those assistants was 35-year-old Bobby Bowden, who eventually took charge of the offense.
"You could tell even then that he was going to be a great coach," running back Bob Gresham recalls. "He could see things that no one else could. I remember he would draw up variations of plays that we never practiced right on the sidelines during a game. And they worked!"
"Once, when Bobby was head coach, a writer from Richmond asked him why he liked the long bomb so much," recalls Bill Smith. "I'll never forget his answer. He told the writer `Ain't that an easy way to score?' That's Bobby Bowden."
Bowden's swashbuckling style was the perfect compliment to the more rigid and structured Carlen, who learned from Pepper Rodgers that running the football and playing good, aggressive defense was the way to win football games.
"I guess you could say Coach Carlen was somewhat conservative," says Sherwood, who tossed just two passes in the 1969 Peach Bowl.
"Jim Carlen and Bobby Bowden blended well," says Gresham, a 1,000-yard rusher in 1969.
At the time Carlen took over, by his estimation he had just one player on his team (Garrett Ford) who was good enough to make the first string at either Penn State or Syracuse. Amazingly, with just a couple of months under their belts, Carlen's assistants went out and signed a recruiting class that included Carl Crennel, George Henshaw, Oscar Patrick, Ron Pobolish, Mickey Plumley, Lew Schooles, Eddie Silverio, Jim Smith and Terry Snively. Each played significant roles in the coming years.
"Some of us were probably a little undersized, but we were all good athletes who were versatile," remembers 5-foot-7-inch, 168-lb., Ron Pobolish. "A lot of us who came to West Virginia during Carlen's first year played many different sports in high school."
Carlen's first team in 1966 wasn't very good, losing the opener at Duke 34-15 and finishing the year with a 3-5-2 record. The following year, Carlen added Jim Braxton, Dale Farley, Charlie Fisher, Bob Gresham, Art Holdt and Mike Sherwood to the freshman team, while the varsity improved to 5-4-1.
By 1968, Carlen's system was nearly in place. West Virginia won seven games and gave Penn State a scare, losing 31-20 in Morgantown. Carlen's methods proved he could produce a winner. At the same time the football program was being constructed at WVU, the country around it was falling apart.
In January of '68, the North Vietnamese launched the "Tet Offensive," proving to Americans that the war wasn't going the way the government had presented it. Horrified television viewers witnessed the death of New York senator Bobby Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, barely two months after an assassin took the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis.
Rioters took to the streets in many cities, burning down buildings and causing massive destruction. Peace marches, demonstrations and moratoriums erupted on college campuses around the country. Mayor Richard Daley's policemen proved that democracy still needed some tweaking after their performance at that summer's Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Those who went to college in the late 1960s arrived with great hope -- hope that they wouldn't eventually wind up in places like Binh Gia, Con Thien or Khe Sanh.
"My draft number was like 230 or 250," recalls Gresham. "One of my best friends from high school was drafted and he was killed in Vietnam in less than a year.
"We were concerned about the stuff going on at the time, but we tried to occupy our minds with other things," he adds.
"I think the coaches did a pretty good job of taking up our time," remembers linebacker Dale Farley, now a tobacco farmer in his hometown of Sparta, Tenn.
"A lot of us were from small towns, and we were kind of in a shell in Morgantown," remembers defensive back Terry Snively, now a high school football coach in Hannibal, Ohio.
"There were a lot of people back then who did wear their hair short, who didn't protest or cause problems," says Farley. "It just so happened that those people (dissenters) were making the most noise."
Dissatisfaction, disruption and rebellion were on the minds of many college students when the fall semester began in 1969. Carlen and his coaches, meticulous in their organization -- practicing every day at the precise time posted on the team's bulletin board -- and wary of dissenting students with their long hair and far-out ideas, kept their players' minds on football. That's because Carlen had built a pretty good football team in 1969.
"We had a ton of good players in 1969, players my assistants had worked hard to get over the last four years," Carlen admits. "We also had a bunch of good boys from great homes who didn't care who got the credit."
A perfect example was quarterback Mike Sherwood, who was described by reporters at the time as "Cool-Hand Mike." Some of his teammates called him "Plunkett," in honor of Stanford All-American Jim Plunkett.
"I wouldn't trade Mike for any of the quarterbacks they've had up at West Virginia, except maybe Major Harris," says Carlen.
"I remember one time driving home from practice and recalling that Mike Sherwood did not make one mistake the entire practice," says Buckley. "That's how good he was."
"Mike Sherwood was just what our team needed," recalls Crennel. "He just had a lot of confidence in himself."
Sherwood passed for a then-school record 407 yards against Pitt in 1968 as a sophomore. As a reward, he was informed that the following spring he had to learn the veer meaning less passes from his golden arm. The reason for the change was due to West Virginia's incredible stable of running backs that included Jim Braxton, Bob Gresham, Eddie Williams, Pete Wood and Eddie Silverio.
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| Running back Jim Braxton, pictured in this 1969 game against Maryland. (WVU Sports Communications) |
Braxton and Gresham were solid starters, but Williams was the AP "Back of the Year" in Ohio and Wood says he turned down offers from Virginia, Penn State and Notre Dame to come to West Virginia. Gresham went on to play five years in the NFL, yet undoubtedly the most gifted of the bunch was the late Braxton.
"Jim Braxton was a great football player and a great guy," recalls Sherwood.
"Jim was such a talented player," remembers Pobolish. "Not only was he a great runner, but he was a great receiver as well. Later on, Bobby Bowden made him a tight end because of the number of running backs they had. He also kicked extra points. I was right next to him on the kickoff team, and I used to stall so he could catch his breath."
"Jim Braxton is probably the smartest football player I ever coached," admits Carlen. "He just had a real knack for playing the game. You couldn't tackle him, and he was such a great blocker."
"Of all my years working at West Virginia, I always thought Jim Braxton was one of the best blockers I've ever seen," says former equipment manager Carl Roberts, who served under coaches Dud DeGroot, Art Lewis, Gene Corum, Carlen, Bowden and Frank Cignetti.
On the flip side, split end Oscar Patrick, who caught 50 passes in 1968, and Wayne Porter were both reliable threats returning at receiver.
"Oscar was a big-time wide receiver," says Sherwood. "He was a big target at 6-5."
The offensive line was comprised of quick, agile blockers who could get out in the open field and stay with their men. That group consisted of Wayne Brooks, Ron Cecil, Dick Roberts, Tom Horvath and Mickey Plumley.
"Go back and look at the weights of that line -- they didn't average but 205-210 pounds," marvels Carlen. "But they were quick and got after you."
"The reason the offensive line was so small back then was because he ran us to death," remembers defensive lineman George Henshaw, now assistant head coach with the Tennessee Titans.
The tight end, Jim Smith, was "one of the best in New Jersey when we got him," says Carlen.
The defense was equally talented. Dale Farley, who had his heart set on Tennessee, but wound up going to Morgantown sight-unseen, was a big-time linebacker who "could have played anywhere in the country," according to Carlen.
Carl Crennel was an absolute monster at middle guard, joining athletic George "Duke" Henshaw, Charlie Fisher, Art Holdt and Bob Starford to give the Mountaineers a quick and aggressive front line.
"The defensive line protected the linebackers," says Farley. "They were outstanding."
The secondary had speed with seniors Terry Snively and Ron Pobolish at safety, while Leon Jenkins and crafty Mike Slater manned the corners.
"You could say our defense was kind of like the old saying, 'float like a butterfly and sting like a bee,'" Crennell recalls.
"Jim Carlen's defense was built on quickness," says Henshaw. "He adopted a southern philosophy in the north. Most of the northern teams were much bigger, but not as quick."
After starting the season 4-0, the first real test for West Virginia came at Penn State on October 11. Coach Joe Paterno, who took the Penn State job the same year Carlen began at WVU, was loaded with players. All-American Mike Reid anchored the defense while Franco Harris carried the offense.
Patrick, who sat out the VMI game after injuring his knee at Tulane on Sept. 27, reinjured it in warmups and couldn't go. From there it only got worse.
"They had us before the game started," admits Farley about the 20-0 loss. "Our defense just spent too much time on the field that day."
Before the game West Virginia had risen to No. 17 in the national polls, but fell out completely after the Penn State loss. Penn State finished the year 11-0 and defeated Missouri in the Orange Bowl. The Nittany Lions ranked second to undefeated Texas in the final polls.
"Of all the games I've coached in my career, the Penn State game in 1969 is one I wish I could have had over," Carlen laments. "I would have done some things differently in that game."
"We had great expectations that season and the Penn State game was a disappointment," admits Crennel. "Later, when I played in the Canadian Football League, I came to know some of the players from that Penn State team. I told them if I knew then what I know now, the game might have turned out differently."
"The Penn State game cost us the Orange Bowl," states Carlen.
After the loss, WVU had no trouble with Pitt on Homecoming. The following week was a different story, however. West Virginia needed an official's call to avoid losing at Kentucky. Trailing 7-0, the Wildcats scored a touchdown late in the game and attempted the two-point conversion. The pass was completed, but the official ruled offensive interference, which ultimately decided the game.
"Thankfully the official who made that call was from the SEC," Buckley quips.
Wins followed against William & Mary and Richmond, giving West Virginia an 8-1 record entering the season finale at Syracuse on Nov. 22. In the meantime, Carlen was getting antsy. Very few bowl feelers were trickling into Morgantown and, according to the coach, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
"I've never said this before, but I called Bobby Dodd down at Georgia Tech and told him to place a call on my behalf to the Peach Bowl committee," Carlen reveals. "I told Bobby we could whip any team they line up down there."
Carlen's persistence and stubbornness paid off and West Virginia was extended an invitation to play South Carolina in the second annual Peach Bowl. All that remained was Syracuse at snow-covered Archbold Stadium. This wasn't the same Syracuse team that possessed Larry Csonka, Jim Nance and Floyd Little, or Jim Brown and Ernie Davis, but Syracuse at Archbold Stadium was no cakewalk. West Virginia found out quickly, trailing 10-0 at halftime. But the Mountaineers rallied and scored two second half touchdowns to win the game 13-10 and finish the season at 9-1.
With the regular season completed, the coaching staff decided to start with a clean slate. Bowden and fellow assistant Jack Flick spent a week in Texas learning the wishbone, and came back to Morgantown with just three weeks to teach it to their offense.
"I remember walking into the locker room and looking at the chalkboard," recalls Morgantown Post sports editor Tony Constantine. "I approached Carlen and I asked him, 'Is this the wishbone I'm looking at?' Carlen told me it was. He also told me not to write anything in the paper about it."
Mickey Furfari, the sports editor of Morgantown Dominion-News and the Post's rival paper at the time, also knew about the change, but kept mum as well.
"Reporting was much different then," recalls Furfari. "Today, I'm certain they (West Virginia) couldn't have gotten away with it."
Still, West Virginia wasn't taking any chances.
"I know when we would practice and the press was around with the wishbone you had three backs and on the regular option there was only two," said Bowden. "Well, we would take that third guy and not let him practice when the press was around so they didn't know what we were doing."
What West Virginia did was install a completely new offense for the Peach Bowl, and it caught South Carolina and its veteran coach Paul Deitzel completely off guard.
Back in those days you practiced longer," remembered Bowden. "It gave you a lot of time to change things if you wanted to. I called Darrell Royal down at Texas and got him to explain to me exactly how they ran the wishbone.
"So we sneaked it in there and we probably had three and a half weeks to work on it."
"They had no idea whatsoever how to stop it," remembers Peach Bowl MVP Eddie Williams, who tore the Gamecocks up for 208 yards. "I'm sure they were thinking of Braxton, Sherwood and Gresham. Not Eddie Williams!"
To Sherwood, the switch wasn't that big of a deal.
"As a player, I wasn't privy to why they made the change," he admits. "We had practiced it some during the season and the blocking was the same. All they did was move Braxton from fullback to wingback with Gresham, and put Williams in at fullback."
Some have speculated that Carlen, being from the South, knew the weather could be unpredictable in Atlanta at that time of the year. Installing the wishbone could turn bad weather to his advantage.
Carlen scoffs at that suggestion.
"The reason we put in the wishbone was because we had several great running backs," he says. "Plus, Oscar Patrick was hurt and we had very little depth at wide receiver."
The Peach Bowl was played in quagmire conditions. The rain began as soon as the team left the motel and lasted throughout the night.
"I was a mud game that had to be won on the ground," Bowden said. "Eddie Williams got 206 yards rushing and they never heard of Eddie Williams."
"When I got off the team bus, the water just rushed up to my knees," Furfari remembers.
"I had a good feeling after pregame warmups," admits Buckley. "We made sure to get our guys down in the mud and get them accustomed to the conditions. On the other side of the field, the South Carolina players were looking for dry spots to loosen up. That's when I knew we had 'em."
"I asked for 300 towels from the Georgia Tech people (the game was played at Georgia Tech's Grant Field)," says Carl Roberts. "They ended up giving me 275."
While the game was completely dominated by West Virginia, one image still persists to Roberts.
"Toward the end of the game, I glanced over and saw Governor Moore using a towel to help wipe off some of the players. That is something that I will never forget," he admits.
West Virginia finished the game with 356 rushing yards. Besides Williams, Gresham gained 98 and Braxton had 60. South Carolina, which won the ACC and finished the regular season with a solid 7-3 record, could manage just 190 total yards.
Many South Carolina supporters believe to this day that if not for the rain, the outcome may have been different.
Carlen agrees.
"If it hadn't rained, we would have killed 'em," Carlen proclaims. "South Carolina had no idea how to stop the wishbone, and they had a little quarterback (Tommy Suggs) who couldn't get the ball over our linemen. On a dry day, we'd still be running 30 years later."
West Virginia's 14-3 win locked up a 10-1 record for the Mountaineers, making the 1969 team one of just four teams in school history to capture 10 or more wins in a season. WVU also finished the year ranked No. 17 in the nation -- the first Top 20 final ranking in 14 years.
More importantly, this team put Mountaineer Football back into the minds of West Virginians, providing the foundation for Don Nehlen's outstanding, nationally known program fans enjoy today. Collectively characterized as "close-knit," the 1969 West Virginia University football team was comprised of hard-working, selfless individuals who placed the common good ahead of themselves.
That is evident today in the many successes enjoyed by the players from that team. Ranging in all fields from dentists to farmers to educators to coaches to businessmen, it was teamwork and commitment that drove them. A University building is named for one (Braxton), and a graduate scholarship is named for another (Wood).
"Most of us came in together in the same group, and almost all of us left there with our diplomas," says Henshaw.
That was the mission of Carlen and his staff when they took over in 1966 -- to mold boys into responsible young men and to make West Virginians proud of their football program.
They succeeded at both.
The day after the Peach Bowl, Carlen announced he was leaving to take the Texas Tech job, where he led the Red Raiders to four bowl games in five years. After that, he spent seven years at South Carolina, coaching three more bowl teams and a Heisman Trophy winner in running back George Rogers.
"I would say the first block in the foundation to build the new stadium came when Carlen was there," says Smith.
"You have to give Jim credit; he was an excellent football coach," remembers Furfari.
"Jim Carlen was well-organized, and he had an absolutely fabulous coaching staff," says Henshaw. "They were great leaders."
Like an eastern Tennessee used car salesman, Carlen offered good football to West Virginians.
And they bought it.
