Fifty years ago, Baldwin-Wallace had a team for the ages.
![baldwin wallace.JPG]()
Baldwin-Wallace CollegeThe 1961 undefeated Baldwin-Wallace football team.John Snell stood in the lobby, surrounded by pictures of former Baldwin-Wallace football coaches Lee Tressel and Bob Packard. There were more pictures of great teams and outstanding athletes in the school's history.
"I'm only the third football coach in B-W history since 1958," Snell said. "All three of us are B-W grads. All three know that this is a special place. And I'm always humbled to have this job."
Now in his 10th season as head coach and his 17th year working at the school, Snell knows very well what happened in 1961.
That was Tressel's fourth season as head coach, and his first breakthrough year.
The final record was 9-0, a shock coming after he had a 12-11-2 record after his first three seasons.
But the members of that 1961 season could sense it coming. The school is honoring the 1961 team this weekend, along with the 1981 B-W team that lost the OAC championship game.
"We had some very good talent on that team," said Obie Bender, a linebacker and guard on the '61 squad who weighed only 180 pounds. Those Jackets had linebacker Tom Goosby, who later played for the Browns.
They also had three other players eventually drafted by the NFL: John Gregory (Bears, 1963), Don Hyne (Lions, 1964) and Jerry Roberts (Packers, 1965).
But this isn't a feel-good story about a team from 50 years ago.
Like most coaches from the past such as Tressel or in the present like Snell, these men would say their real trophies are not on display in a gym lobby. Nor are they plaques on the wall.
Long after the games are forgotten, it's the lives of the players that matter.
More than football
Yes, Goosby played pro ball -- but for much of his career, he was in charge of facilities such as the University of Akron's Rhodes Arena. He had leadership ability that carried him far once he hung up his helmet and shoulder pads.
There was Bill Lacey, one of two quarterbacks who alternated that season. But he also went to Wharton Business School, and served as CEO of the Ralston Purina Corporation. He was Tressel's "stay-ahead quarterback," who took over for starter Tom French, "My get-ahead quarterback," according to Tressel.
Here's how Sports Illustrated characterized that team: "Rising power Baldwin-Wallace had a 9-0-0 season last year. Coach Lee Tressel's quarterback Tom French (51 percent complete for 529 yards in 1961) and many fine receivers promise spectacular passing. Although slow, halfbacks Gary Stoufer (629 yards) and Art Van Rensselaer (164 rushing, 132 receiving) and fullback Ernie Prince (203 yards) are dynamic runners. All-America guard Tom Goosby heads a fierce defensive line."
![coaches.JPG]()
Baldwin-Wallace CollegeThe Baldwin-Wallace coaches in 1961, from left, were Larry Van Dusen, Don Swegan, head coach Lee Tressel, and Paul Adams.The kicker on that 1961 team was a fellow named Bill Kelso. He also played some fullback.
When Kelso became a media star in 1990s, he said his dream while in college was to play in the NFL -- but the pros were not interested in a 5-9 fullback.
Instead, Kelso studied history.
In 1994, he had a dream of finding the Jamestown (Va.) settlement, which supposedly was long gone -- underwater. Kelso started by himself with a shovel, some maps and his head filled with research and theories. And it wasn't long before he discovered the exact location of America's first settlement, a fort dating back to 1607.
This was huge news, and Kelso was praised for going against the standard view of Jamestown to make one of the most remarkable historical finds in decades.
Tressel wasn't around to see this, having died in 1981 from cancer at age 56. But Tressel knew Kelso was a driven, gritty, determined football player -- and those values translated well into real life.
The power Tressel built
Terry Krivak was a 230-pound lineman who blocked for Joe Namath at Beaver Falls High when Tressel recruited him.
"There was something about the coach and his wife," said Krivak. "I was living in western Pennsylvania, and I had other scholarship offers. But he talked me into B-W. I came to Berea [in 1961] and really never left."
![bill lacey.JPG]()
B-WB-W quarterback Bill Lacey.Krivak taught in the Berea school system, first at the elementary level, then in junior high, where he also coached football. His goal was to become a principal. He eventually served as superintendent of the Berea City School District.
He talked about how Tressel insisted his players have on-campus jobs. Krivak started as a busboy in the cafeteria, "and I worked my way up to dishwasher," he said. "He made sure you showed up for class and for your job."
Discipline, hard work, structure.
"It started with the people coach Tressel recruited," Bender said. "He and his wife not only recruited the player, but he got to know their parents. He wanted people who came from families with those strong values."
Bender said his father worked at Republic Steel. His mother originally had only three years of formal schooling. She returned to school -- and eventually became an elementary school teacher.
Bender said he came home from a practice at Canton McKinley and found Lee and Eloise Tressel in his living room, talking to his parents.
"Before I could say anything, my parents told me that I was going to Baldwin-Wallace," Bender said.
He graduated from B-W in 1962, then earned a Ph.D in counseling psychology. He began as a teacher in the Canton school system, and then spent 36 years in high-level positions at B-W.
Bender's resume is longer than the Ohio Turnpike, as it includes helping to develop the PGA's First Tee Program and working in player development for the Browns from 1999 to 2004.
Developing coaches
There was Larry Shinn, a lineman on the team. He graduated magna cum laude, earned a divinity degree, taught religion and became an ordained Methodist minister.
He now is the president of Berea College in Kentucky.
Fullback Ernie Prince was president of the Urban League in Westchester, N.Y.
Other players such as Jim Laut and Luke Izer became teachers and high school coaches.
Then there was Bob Fisher, who Tressel recruited to play football. Yes, this is the same Bob Fisher who coached baseball and won 700 games in 42 years at B-W.
He also was a football assistant at the school for 35 years.
It began when Tressel gave Fisher a "facts of athletic life" speech -- his knees were bad, football was not going to work.
"So he asked me to become a student/assistant coach [in 1961]," Fisher said.
This was when Tressel was one of only four full-time coaches. It's when his wife used to wash and mend many of the players' uniforms. It was when the Tressels hosted dinners at their home. It was when a 7-year-old Jim Tressel was on the sidelines for games and practices.
"I was put in charge of helping to coach the junior varsity," Fisher said. "He was already training me."
He was only 19.
"That team had a lot of guys who wanted to be there, wanted to go to school and wanted to be coached," Fisher said. "It's no accident that so many of them went on to do some extraordinary things."
Marcus Benard will receive the rest of his 2011 salary despite being out for the season.
