Waynesburg College celebrates 1966 national title
Dan Dvorchak and Tom Babbony still recall their first plane ride, and still with a little trepidation. It was a four-engine propeller-driven plane that carried Dvorchak, Babbony and 31 of their friends from Pittsburgh to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in December of 1966. Juniors at Waynesburg College at the time, Dvorchak and Babbony graduated from South Union Township High School, now a part of the Laurel Highlands School District, in 1964 and, along with their Yellow Jackets teammates, were on their way to play in the 1966 NAIA championship football game against New Mexico Highlands.
Undefeated through nine games, the Yellow Jackets weeks earlier had entertained thoughts about participating in the Tangerine Bowl. But Instead of heading to Orlando, Fla., they were on their way to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the campus of the University of New Mexico and a date with history.
“Early in the year we never thought about getting a bid to play in the post season,” Babbony said. “But near the end of the season we were looking at the Tangerine Bowl and our coaches were considering it. We only had 1,100 students and only four teams made the NAIA playoffs.”
Dvorchak, 60, remembers it as “a tough season with a lot of close games.”
Waynesburg shut out its first two opponents, Slippery Rock, 31-0, and Susquehanna, 6-0, and topped Ohio Northern, 30-7, to up its record to 3-0.
“When we were 3-0 we were thinking we could win seven or eight games,” said Norwin High School grad Fran Bedont. “We never thought about being national contenders, especially with two freshmen quarterbacks.”
Bedont is one of four members of the reunion committee organizing the 40th anniversary bash honoring Waynesburg’s 1966 NAIA national champions. The celebration is set for Saturday, when the current Yellow Jackets football team hosts Thomas More College.
Those two freshmen quarterbacks in 1966 were Glassport’s John Huntey, who was “more of a thrower,” Dvorchak noted, and Don Paull, from North Union, now also part of the Laurel Highlands School District, “who was more versatile. We lost both our head coach, Mo Scarry, and our All-American quarterback, Harry Theophiledes, to the Washington Redskins, and got a new head coach, Carl DePasqua, who recruited both quarterbacks.” Paull passed away in a swimming accident his senior year at Waynesburg College.
Waynesburg improved to 6-0 after disposing of California State College (California University of Pa.), 20-7, and dismantling Frostburg State, 58-0, and Geneva, 54-0, and were nationally ranked, said Dvorchak, who earned a degree in Business Administration and worked at Republic Steel prior to forming his own company which made and distributed school lockers and metal shelving for libraries in Florida.
Three narrow wins closed the regular season, with West Virginia Wesleyan (13-7), Findlay, Ohio (7-6), which missed a game-tying extra point when the ball on the snap from center stuck in the muddied turf, and Westminster (14-13) all falling to the Jackets, now ranked among the nation’s elite NAIA teams.
“Waynesburg was a member of the NAIA, along with larger and nationally known schools such as Grambling, Morgan State, and San Diego State,” said Dvorchak, a three-year starter at flanker who resides in Longwood, Fla., north of Orlando.
“We had a decent season in 1965,” remembers Bedont, who resides in Fairfax County, Va. “And we only had five returning seniors and an offense with no experience at quarterback. But we had a veteran defensive team. We knew we could play good defense and our offense took advantage of what teams gave us. We never let each other down on the field. It was a pride thing. We took care of business and challenged each other. There was not one guy on the team I didn’t like. We were a close team.”
Babbony, who earned a bachelor’s degree in math and was employed as an industrial engineer prior to becoming involved in human resources and industrial relations, echoed the players’ sentiments regarding the team’s pre-season outlook.
“We actually thought it was going to be a bleak year,” he said. “But we hung together and got better as the year went on. A lot of us had played together since our freshmen year. That season and the championship game represent some of the greatest moments of my life. When people put their minds to a common goal, this is what they can achieve.”
When the Yellow Jackets faced New Mexico Highlands in the opening round of the playoffs Dec. 3, that game proved to be more of a test than the championship a week later against Wisconsin Whitewater.
“We were losing 20-7 at the half,” Dvorchak recalled, remembering the day as though the game were played yesterday.
“Carl DePasqua gave us a tremendous motivational speech at the half. He told us we were equal in talent and we came out and took the lead.”
However, New Mexico Highlands scored with 1:40 left to take a 27-23 lead.
“That’s when Carl put in John Huntey, our passing quarterback,” Dvorchak added, still with an excitement in his voice as he relived the moment.
With 14 seconds left, DePasqua called the halfback option, with Rich Dahar tossing the game-winner to Robert Miltenberger for a 30-27 Waynesburg win.
In Tulsa a week later on December 10, Waynesburg controlled the game against Wisconsin Whitewater for a 42-21 win and the national championship. On the same day, coincidentally, Morgan State defeated West Chester, 14-6, in the Tangerine Bowl.
“That was one of greatest accomplishments in the history of Western Pennsylvania football,” Dvorchak said. “None of us were recruited by bigger schools, but we jelled as a group. For a little school we had phenomenal talent,” including three players who would play in the National Football League.
Don Herrmann, from New Jersey, played wide receiver for the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints; center Joe Righetti from Fredericktown (Beth-Center High School) played for the Cleveland Browns; and Dave Smith, from New York City, who played at Waynesburg, then Indiana University of Pa. before playing professionally for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
When the newly crowned national champion Yellow Jackets arrived at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport Sunday afternoon, there were over 2,000 people waiting, Dvorchak recalled. When the caravan began rolling from the airport down Rt. 19 to Waynesburg, “That’s when it started sinking in,” Dvorchak added. “No one can take away what we accomplished that year, and each year it becomes more important.
“Each year our teammates have become closer and remain in contact.”
For winning the NAIA national championship, the players were awarded Caravel wristwatches at the NAIA Banquet of Champions, but as the thirty-fifth anniversary approached in 2001, Bedont, who earned All-America honorable mention honors as a senior, suggested that the players receive long-awaited national championship rings.
“So we bought them for ourselves,” noted Dvorchak, whose cousin’s son, Michael Dvorchak, is a quarterback at Uniontown High School this season. “Each of us wears it with pride.”
This Saturday, 24 former players will meet for the 40th reunion. There will be “some tailgating before the football game,” Dvorchak promised, and the players will be honored during a halftime ceremony. A banquet is scheduled later that night, with an evening of what also promises to include “a lot of storytelling.”
“But our focus is to honor Carl DePasqua,” Dvorchak continued. “We have had reunions every five years starting in 1976 and now this 40th is the big one. Carl believed in us and was voted Coach of the Year by the Washington, D.C. Touchdown Club, NAIA Coach of the Year and was honored by the Pittsburgh Dapper Dan Club. Waynesburg was recognized as the best small college team in the country.”
As a point of emphasis, Waynesburg scored 305 total points, while surrendering only 95. Dvorchak caught 29 passes that year and his 113 career pass receptions finds him fifth on Waynesburg College’s all-time list.
In addition to Dvorchak, Babbony and Paull, Ron Karpiak, from Dunbar High School (now part of the Connellsville School District), and Dallas Crable, from German Township (part of the Albert Gallatin School District) were also members of the team. Karpiak is deceased and Dvorchak noted that committee members and teammates have been unable to locate Crable.
Babbony, who resides in Pottstown, Pa., added an interesting sidelight: “By the next year we had won 19 straight games and played at Fairmont State in mud up to our ankles. We had a fast team, but they were bigger, slower, more plodding. We lost 7-0 and Fairmont was National Champion in 1967.”
To hear Bedont, 60, a retired teacher, head football coach and athletic director, and now principal of an alternative high school, Babbony, and Dvorchak speak about their 1966 Waynesburg College NAIA national championship football team, one would think that title came last year, so vivid and flawless are their memories.
Or as Dvorchak’s wife, Vicki, puts it, “When we go to a reunion, we hear the same old stories.”
But what magnificent stories they are. And no one from that team would trade those memories.