In 1972, just a little past my sixth birthday, my dad took me by the hand, pointed to the television set, and told me that the man on the screen was from Bowling Green. Not such a big deal, maybe, if it were the local news broadcast, but even my toddler’s mind grasped that this was something far more significant than that.

This was the Olympics, and the goofy-looking guy with “USA” on his back (and a baseball cap on his head — even during the national anthem, which later required a public apology) was wearing a gold medal. His name was Dave Wottle, and thanks to my dad’s words, this track star became my very first athletic hero. After all, he was from MY hometown.

Okay, not technically. I couldn’t tell you where Dave Wottle was born if my life depended on it — but to my 6-year-old logic, since he was a BG student, he was a BG native, and I was damn proud. Thus began what has become a lifelong love affair (some would argue obsession) with Falcon athletics.

The names are embedded in my memories as firmly as my sister’s birthday or my mother’s maiden name — Phil Villiapiano and Jeff Groth, Mike Liut and Dave Ellet, Joe Faine and Marcus Newbern … all part of Falcon athletic lore, and for one recent graduate of that very same Bowling Green State University, all part of growing up.

What follows, then, is a kind of mental scrapbook, a mish-mash of memories — you won’t find many numbers in this essay, for while statistics are an integral part of athletics, they can no more tell the story of a person’s memories than can a work of art be judged by telephone. The people of Bowling Green athletics are what remain with me, from the heroes of my youth to the classmates of more recent times — and everything possible in between.

Where to start? The same place all athletic contests begin: with the face-off, with the tip-off, on the pitcher’s mound, with the coin flip at the 50-yard line. In short … in the middle.

When I was a junior in high school, I spent much of my free time at school defending my politics and my sports loyalties; St. John’s High School in south Toledo is about 99.6 percent Republican and even more fervently supportive of the University of Toledo Rockets.

Thus, while the majority of my classmates were spending 1982 glorying in a Reagan presidency and screaming for Rocket quarterback Jim Kelso to take UT back to the California Bowl, I was fervently trying to scrape well-intentioned, yet ill-fated “Anderson for President” stickers off of my locker and praying that (and this is my favorite BG football name of all time) the Dayne Palsgrove-led Falcons could rebound from a disappointing 5-5-1 campaign in 1981.

When not commuting up to school, I was working part-time at — appropriately, I suppose — “The Falcon House” athletic supply outlet. One Saturday afternoon as I was stamping price tags on boxes of running shoes, my boss switched on the radio to listen to the BG football opener against Ohio University. I was appreciative of that, especially since I was kind of depressed that I wouldn’t actually be at the game, as an old schoolmate, Art McCormick, was the Bobcats’ regular punter.

Art got plenty of work that day.

Bowling Green stormed to a 40-0 victory in such a dominating fashion that starting QB Palsgrove played only the first half before giving way to a green freshman for second half mop-up duty. I’ve often wondered if Dayne ever regretted letting coach Denny Stolz sit him down that Saturday, in much the same manner that old-time New York Yankee first baseman Wally Pipp must have regretted letting a kid named Lou Gehrig take his place one afternoon in the Bronx. By the end of the second half, the kid quarterback had shown Ohio University, the fans and, most importantly, Coach Stolz that he might want to reconsider who his starting signal-caller would be the next week against Western Michigan.

By the end of the year, Palsgrove had willingly moved to wide receiver (there was no other way he was going to get any playing time), and the kid had taken Bowling Green to that California Bowl II the Toledoans were so counting on. The kid’s name, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, was Brian McClure; and 10,000-plus passing yards, 34 wins, and a Buffalo Bills jersey later, he would be recognized around the nation as the greatest player ever to take a snap in a Mid-American Conference football game. And when it all started, I was selling shoes.

Toledo. I’ve already mentioned the personal rivalry I had to deal with all through high school (and again now that I’ve moved to T-town on a more permanent basis), but only a native Bowling Greener (Greenite? Greenian? What the hell is it, anyway?) can truly appreciate the intensity of feeling toward that other school up north that a student can only get a taste of in four or five years at BGSU.

The nuns always taught me that “hate” was a mortal sin, so I will eschew using that word in describing my feelings for the University of Toledo. Instead, perhaps this: intensely personal loathing, wrapped in mutual dislike bounded by general distaste and scorn.

You think I’m kidding? When I was a sophomore in high school, I cried for an hour when John Weinert’s hoop squad couldn’t hit the last shot in a heart-breaking loss to the evil men in blue and gold — and I was only watching the game on TV! I tried to explain to mom why I couldn’t go to school the next day (for some odd reason, Toledo fans seem to feel the same way about BG people as we do about them), but she made me go face the gauntlet anyway.

The next time I was a sophomore (at BGSU, that is), for the first time in my life I witnessed goalposts being torn down (hell, I HELPED tear down goalposts) after a wonderful 20-0 victory over — who else? — Toledo. It was an MAC title-clinching victory in the midst of what would later be dubbed the “perfect” 1985 season (I put “perfect” in quotes because though we finished 11-0, apparently there was some game played in California at the end of the season that no true Falcon fan can remember the score of) and while our cheerleaders were chanting “ten and oh! ten and oh!” we exuberant orange-and-brown backers seated behind the UT bench were shouting in unison “three and seven! three and seven!” in honor of the 1985 Rocket effort.

But who could blame us? A shutout win, clinching the league title, at home, over our hated (sorry, Sisters!) arch-rival? It had to have been the highlight of the season.

Well, not quite. Earlier in the year, there was this little matter of what one overstating sophomore BG News columnist called “The Greatest Football Game Ever Played,” and it had come against that other hated arch-rival, the Miami Redskins. The swing of emotions that happened then seems almost surreal now.

Falcons lead 7-3, late second quarter … McClure will throw, incomplete … wait, he’s hurt! Brian is down! He’s not moving … They’re carrying him off the field … Goodbye, California Bowl! … Now at quarterback for the Falcons, #12, Rick Neiman … Who’s that? Oh jeez, he’s only thrown two passes in his whole life! … “And with just two minutes remaining in the game, the score now Miami 24, Bowling Green 14.”

Time to pack it up and go home, dreams of an undefeated season dashed in the year’s third game, and first at home … “Neiman just threw a touchdown pass” … “That’s nice, the score will look better on the news tonight … where’s my coat?” … “We got it! WE GOT IT!”

I had never seen an onside kick work before. But the elated screams of my pal Woody seated next to me (especially as he lifted me from my seat by the neck) convinced me and 20,000 some other fans that maybe this Falcon squad had a little magic left over from the previous week’s stunning win over Kentucky.

They did. Neiman trotted confidently onto the field, and suddenly in the course of some 90 seconds, the 24-14 deficit had metamorphised into a 28-24 lead. When a last-second desperation Miami pass into the end zone was knocked away, what has since been dubbed “The Miami Miracle” was reality, and we fans were hugging complete strangers, screaming ourselves hoarse, yelling inane things like “Bring on Miami of FLORIDA!”

It’s one of those funny things about athletics — the crowd psychology can really bring a diverse group of people together, if only for an afternoon. And for that one Saturday in October 1985, though not one of us fans played a single down of that game, we all spent the rest of the day feeling pretty good about ourselves.

Hey, Rick Neiman, wherever you are … thanks for the memories.

And the football names and memories continue: Mike Wright and Mark Miller … Gehad Youssef and “Fuzzy” Zeller … “Dirty” Johnson and “Cowboy” Jones … Dave Preston and Bernard White … Martin Bayless and Gerry Bayless … Chip Otten and Mike Otten …

Maybe this idea of “crowd psychology” shouldn’t surprise me. Any self-respecting shrink could write a book about “The Abnormal Crowd” after just a weekend or two of Bowling Green hockey, especially should he opt to sit in the infamous Section A.

I’ll never forget my first Bowling Green hockey game — I was just 12 years old, and my dear old dad decided to brave the elements and the students to take me to the 1977-78 NCAA quarterfinal game at The Ice Arena with No Name to see the Falcon icers take on Colorado College.

Mike Hartman. Mark Wells. John Markell. These were the rough-and-tumble icers playing for then-BG coach Ron Mason (yes, that Ron Mason), and my sixth-grade mind was overwhelmed at the overflow crowd that spilled into the aisles and onto the floor. Thank God we had reserved seats! It would be another seven years before I was ready to throw body blocks in order to get seats “on the glass.”

I don’t think I entirely understood hockey at the time, but there were some things I did grasp — like the odd people to our right (that would be Section A) who called themselves “The Bleacher Creatures” and the rhythmic chant that began midway through the victorious third period: “Providence! PROVI- DENCE!” No, it wasn’t a prayer of thanks, but instead an acknowledgement of BG’s destination — Providence, R.I., to face Boston College in the NCAA semi-finals. A tough loss ensued, crushing any national championship hopes, leaving Falcon fans to settle for third in the nation. But the best was yet to come.

Mason left, lured away by that green and white school in Michigan, and Jerry York came on to lead the Falcons through some tough years. But the new coach brought in some pretty good young players, with names like Duncan and Galley, Wansbrough and Cavallini (and a cocky goalie named Kruzich) — and then, it was 1984.

My senior year in high school, and it all came together for the Falcon icers. I still get chills every time I picture the moment and hear the call … “Just over seven minutes gone in the fourth overtime, this is the longest game EVER played in NCAA hockey history … Duluth with the puck in the BG zone, Danny Kane takes it away, he’s on a two on one to his left for Gino … Cavallini SCORES!!! Bowling Green State University is the NATIONAL CHAMPION!” I went to school the next Monday with a smile broader than I ever thought possible — when was the last time Toledo had ever won any kind of national title?

The hockey memories are perhaps the most powerful of all simply because of the incredible emotion that can be felt inside that Ice Arena. Maybe it’s that crowd mentality again, but there’s nothing quite like it: “Who’s he? Nobody!” … “That’s debatable!” … “Hey Kruizer, when’s the baby due?” … “Go green, go white, go suck an egg!” It’s all part of Section A.

But perhaps the most memorable of all chants came on Feb. 27, 1987, in the first round of the CCHA playoffs against Ferris State.

Ferris was outmatched that Friday night, right down to their freshman goalie, young Mike Williams. Williams actually played a pretty good game, but as it is the nature of the Section A animal to pick on the opposing goalie, every time there was a score we would yell “sieve!” or some similar such cleverness. Then Williams surrendered two quick goals, and we sitting in the front row of section A were suddenly inspired.

Together, Mark, Woody, Donny, John and I (and numerous others) started the rhythmic chant “Mi-key! Mi-key! Soon all 3,000 fans had joined in; it sounded a little like a massive “Life” cereal commercial! A friend later told me that while listening to the game on the car radio, she had been unable to hear the play-by-play because our chanting was so loud. And as the game clock wound down, John sitting next to me took advantage of a moment of silence to yell at the Ferris goalie, “Yo, Mikey! Just think — you only have three more years of this!”

Such is life as a Bowling Green hockey fan.

The hockey names and memories go on: Wally Charko (“Hey Wally! Pay attention!”) and Brian Stankiewicz … fellow Bowling Greeners (Greenians? … whatever!) Tom Shirkey and Steve Dickinson and Eddie Powers … George “Hobey Baker” McPhee and Brian “Shoulda Been” Hills … Olympians Kenny Morrow and Mark Wells … Paul (Will you please decide how we should pronounce your last name?) Ysebaert and Paul Titanic … George Roll and Mike Pikul (If we only had a guy named “Hamburger”) … Andy “Shorthanded” Gribble and Tom “Funny Guy” Pratt …

Despite the sometimes mystical aura surrounding Bowling Green’s hockey program, I have always been of the vocal minority that, when there is a hockey game at the same time as a basketball game, will unhesitatingly opt for a trip to Anderson Arena. Basketball has always been my passion, and growing up I wanted nothing more than to some day follow in the footsteps of Rosie Barnes and David Greer and play point guard for the Falcons.

As one of the last cuts from the St. John’s freshman squad in 1980 that dream died quickly, but the loyalty is still there. As a faithful participant in the BGSU basketball camps, I learned to shoot a jump shot from Bill Faine, who scored 1,055 points in his Falcon career, and was thrown out of a camp intersquad game by a referee named John Weinert, who is the third-winningest coach in BG hoops history. Saturday morning pickup games at Anderson Arena (until we were chased away by a maintenance-type person) were the closest I ever came to playing for BG.

One memorable pickup game came after a BG victory that saw Marcus Newbern score his 1,000th career point. As the crowd was leaving, we played five-on-five half court, when suddenly Newbern, dressed to kill and wearing shoes with two-inch heels, emerged from the locker room. “Hey, nice game, Marcus,” we all yelled, and in response, one of the most colorful players in BG history took our ball, streetclothes and all, and performed a slam dunk for us. Pretty heady stuff for a thirteen-year-old to see!

It was more than a little frustrating that while I was in high school, Bowling Green basketball teams compiled a four-year record of 72-42, while my four collegiate years saw the Falcon squads stumble to a 46-65 mark; however, the support never varied. At one point in that eight-year span, I attended 75 home games in a row, viewing games that ranged from a 121-point performance against Lake Superior to a stunning loss to somebody called Findlay College.

Perhaps the most interesting development to watch during that time span was not the shift in coaching philosophy from Weinert to Larranaga nor the pursuit of various players toward 1,000 career points but the remarkable progress of the women’s team. In 1980-81, the Kathy Bole-coached Falcon ladies were 12-16 and played to home crowds of about 100, mostly family and friends; by 1987-88, the Fran Voll-coached Falcons, led by Jackie Motycka, were consistantly putting together 20-win seasons, and many fans were leaving Anderson after the women’s game was over! The dominance prompted one opposing coach to remark, “The second-best team in the Mid-American Conference every year is Bowling Green’s bench.”

But while the women are fun to watch (everybody likes a winner), I’ve always been a diehard men’s basketball fan, and the names and faces I watched from the first row in the student section are as fresh as ever:

Anthony Robinson and David Jenkins … Duane Grey and Colin Irish … Keith “Gun ” Taylor and Jooooeee Faaainne!!! … Mike “Pirahna Man” Miday and Joe “Jam” Moore … Steve “1,000 even” Martenet and Brian Miller…

Ah, Brian Miller. Not one of the first 30 or 40 names likely to come up in a discussion of BG basketball history — but for this one fan, undoubtedly the first. Why? I mean, Miller wasn’t even the most famous “Brian M” on campus during his BG years (there’s that McClure kid again), didn’t make it in the pros, didn’t score 1,000 points in his career, and was a starter only during perhaps the worst stretch in BG hoop history. So why the personal fascination with the one-time Falcon point guard turned shooting guard?

See, Brian was, like me, a one-time St. John’s Titan. I doubt if he even remembers me, though I did cover a little basketball for the old high school newspaper, but just as I was thrilled to see a Bowling Green “native” like Dave Wottle run in the Olympics, it was even more satisfying to see a St. John’s “native” at Bowling Green.

Though he spent his sophomore year as the BG point guard (and I believe he led the MAC in assists), by the time I got to BG his junior year, Miller was purely a scorer. Fun to watch — 29 points against Toledo once while being guarded by his former SJHS backcourt partner Bobby Borcherdt, and some of the most acrobatic driving layups in Bowling Green since the days of Butch Komives. It was fun for me to watch — hell, my girlfriend at the time, who accompanied me to all those basketball games, had a huge crush on Miller, and I didn’t even mind!

Of course, this isn’t about Brian Miller at all; it’s about being able to live vicariously those athletic dreams that never came true. Miller on the hardwood, Neal Mahoney on the gridiron, former “Johnnies” … guys I knew in high school were more fun to watch because somehow, in some unexplainable way, it made it seem more like I was on the court or field myself. Just as the entire Bowling Green community took that victory lap with Wottle in ’72 and skated with Scott Hamilton to Olympic gold in ’84, I was taking every jump shot with Miller, throwing every block with Mahoney.

A quick aside — after all, this is a “mental scrapbook,” so who says things have to be in order? — that year of 1984 gave Bowling Green one of the rarest ice triple crowns ever. As Hamilton, who learned to skate in the Ice Arena, was wrapping up the men?s Olympic gold, Cavallini was securing the NCAA hockey title and the Bowling Green High School Bobcat icers were winning the state crown. Talk about the glory for the home folks! For one year then, BG was undeniably the Ice Capital of the United States.

Vicarious feelings aside, I knew from the very beginning that there was only one way that this frustrated athlete would ever get to really participate in Falcon athletics — as “Freddie Falcon.” The big feathered mascot had scared me as a munchkin, amused me as a child, and annoyed me as a teenager. But now as a college student, I saw no better way to pledge my undying support to Falcon athletics than to spend a year suffering in several thousand pounds of mascot suit.

As most even casual BG fans know, there are two Freddies selected every year, but they may not realize that this happens in a competition that begins with a written essay, an in-suit tryout in front of the gathered former Freddies and Freidas, and finally, for the lucky three finalists, a half an hour at the Annual Greek Life “Beta 500″ performing for several hundred students in an extremely boisterous mood.

Twice, I was one of those lucky three … and twice, I finished third in the competition. It was worse than getting cut from the SJ basketball team, a tougher, closer loss than the 29-28 deal against Fresno State in Cal Bowl II; yet, looking back, those two half-hour shots at being Freddie are way up there with the absolute highlights of my collegiate experience.

I mean, for such a professed BG sports nuts, what more exciting, fulfilling experience is there than actually personifying Falcon athletics? The anonymity was wonderful (two Chi Omegas who really disliked me my freshman year kissed my beak and had their picture taken with me — the irony was delicious), and to hear hundreds of people chanting “Freddie, Freddie!” is a real head rush. So it’s arguable that my most memorable moments in BG athletics came at the 1985 and 1987 Beta 500′s — and I wasn’t even Greek!

But perhaps it’s as my old friend and former Resident Adviser Mark said to me after the second phone call telling me “You’re great, but you were third” … “Damn, it’s a good thing you weren’t Freddie. Not only would everybody have known it was you once you stopped showing up at every single sports event on campus, but you never could have handled it yourself. Imagine being at a basketball game and seeing a ref make a horrible call against us. You would’ve ripped the Falcon head off and run onto the court screaming. Don’t you think that would have tarnished the Freddie mystique just a little bit?”

Freddie Falcon failures behind me, the long loyalty I’ve held for Bowling Green athletics will, I’m sure, remain strong for the rest of my life. I’ve even already informed my significant other that should we ever buy a house, there will be one room designated as “The Bowling Green Room,” painted orange, the whole nine yards (had to use a sports metaphor there; it seemed a propos). Lucky for me she’s a Section A regular, and I’ve even dragged her to a couple of football games. Maybe by the time she’s ready to graduate, she’ll have built a cache of memories about BG sports for herself.

Wait, wait, this story can’t be over yet … I haven’t even written about BG baseball … Kip Young and Larry Owen and John Knox … Orel HERSHISER for Chrissakes, how can I not write about him?… and volleyball and gymnastics and soccer… what about trips to Joe Louis Arena for CCHA playoff games and trips to the Glass Bowl in Toledo for football and Frank Booker and Stephanie Coe and Brian MacLellan and Rich Dackin and Roger McDowell and …

© 1987, Michael E. Doherty, Jr.
Reprinted with permission from Miscellany Magazine 6.2: Spring 1989. Author’s copyright.

Doyt L. Perry, the coach with the most wins in Bowling Green football history, died Monday night of natural causes. He was 82.

Perry had been a resident of the Bowling Green Manor nursing home for nearly two years.

He led the Falcons to a 77-11-5 record in 10 years as head coach, retiring in 1964 with the highest winning percentage among the nation’s college coaches.

“He was one of the most respected college football coaches of his day,” said USC football coach Larry Smith, who played under Perry in the early 1960′s. “He ran an incredible program, taught fundamentals, and proved he could be a consistent winner.”

Bowling Green teams won five Mid-American Conference championships during his reign, including the national college division championship in 1959. After coaching, Perry serve as BG’s athletic director for six years. Several of his assistant coaches went on to major-college coaching jobs, including Bo Schembechler of Michigan, Don Nehlen of West Virginia, Larry Smith of Southern California, Bill Mallory of Indiana, Jim Young of Army, Jerr Berndt of Temple and the late Dave McClain of Wisconsin, his son-in-law.

“His players and assistants believed in him so much,” retired equipment manager Glenn Sharp said. “He didn’t have the best athletes, but he had a knack of impressing on them how to win. I don’t know how he did it.”

“There was only one Doyt Perry. That’s the best way to put it,” Smith said. “The players got a kick out of him and his mannerisms. He had a way of getting his players to laugh. That was Doyt.”

Perry’s career as a football coach was legendary, but his contributions off the field may have been even greater. He was a firm believer in developing the student athlete, and caring for his players as individuals.

Of the 56 players on his 1959 championship team, 52 left Bowling Green with degrees, according to former assistant athletic director Don Cunningham.

“How the athletes did in the classroom was uppermost in his mind,” Cunningham said. “He believed the players came here to get an education, and football was a part of that.”

“He did everything that there was to do for Bowling Green and its football program,” Sharp said. “Above all, he was a great person, and the football success just came along. All the players just totally loved him. It’s a hard thing to put into words.”

Another of Perry’s more notable characteristics was his ability to prepare a team to play on game day, Cunningham said. He surrounded himself with good coaches and players, then became the catalyst who put it all together.

“He could prepare a team better than anyone,” Cunningham said. “He could get people ready kind of like coach (Gary) Blackney did this season.”

Perry was inducted into the National Football Foundation’s College Football Hall of Fame in June of 1988. The University’s football stadium, built in 1966, was named after Perry. Since that time, the Falcons have won more than 65 percent of their home games.

Perry was born in Croton and graduated from the University in 1932 after lettering here for three years each in football, basketball and baseball.

Survivors include his widow, Loretta; sons David of Atlanta and Doyt of Columbus; daughter Judy McClain of Madison, Wis.; four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

A funeral service will take place at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the First United Methodist Church, 1506 E. Wooster St., followed by a private burial at Oak Grove Cemetary. The Dunn Funeral Home is handling arrangements. There will be no visiting hours.

(Re-printed from The BG News, February 12, 1992.)

LAKE PLACID, NY – It took four overtime periods to do it, but Bowling Green’s hockey team brought home a national championship when they defeated the University of Minnesota at Duluth 5-4 in last Saturday’s championship game here.

Sophomore Gino Cavallini clinched the title for BG, when he backhanded a Dan Kane pass into the UM-D net with 7:11 expired in the fourth overtime. Earlier in the season Cavallini recorded the winning goal against Ohio State in overtime.

“The first thing that came to my mind was Terry Flanagan (assistant coach) telling me to break for the net,” Cavallini said of his winning goal. “Everything we worked for all year came out in the overtime.”

Overtime situations are nothing new to the Falcons as it was their tenth game to end in a tie after regulation play. The last three seasons have ended in overtime, but this year the icers did it on a winning note.

The win marks the first time BG and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association has won a national title. In the league’s 13-year history, a second place finish by Northern Michigan in 1980 was the best a CCHA team has done in national competition.

“It’s great for us to have it,” BG head coach Jerry York said. “The goal of every coach is to win the national title. Not many teams have been able to win a national title.”

Before Cavallini performed his heroics, the Bulldogs forced the Falcons to come from behind and overcome a two-goal deficit with just 8:05 remaining in the game.

Senior Peter Wilson brought the Falcons within one when he picked up the rebound off Mike Pikul’s shot from the point. Wilson, who has had a rough year offensively, began the game on the fourth line, but was moved up to play on the same line as Kane and Cavallini.

“Pete did a nice job,” York said. “It’s great for him to be able to go out and talk about this game for the rest of his life.”

John Samanski knotted the score at four. Wayne Wilson dumped the puck in the Bulldog zone and goalie Rick Kosti tried to gain possession but the puck bounced away from Kosti and Samanski scored iwth 1:47 left in regulation play.

The comeback marked the 16th time BG has overcome a deficit and eventually won. Besides offensive gems by Samanski and Wilson, strong defense sparked the Falcons’ rally, including 17 saves by goalie Gary Kruzich.

Kruzich made a total of 32 saves including two shorthanded breakaways in the second and third overtime. The freshman goaltender earned the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award for his strong performance in the nets.

“He played outstanding,” York said. “He really made some tremendous saves.”

The devense could also be found on the blueline in seniors (Wayne) Wilson, Pikul, Garry Galley and Dave Ellett. Both Galley and Ellett were selected to the all-tournament team, rounding off the BG selections for the all-tournament team.

“We had to dig down deep,” Ellett said. “There was so much exhaustion and excitement built up, that when the puck went in I felt so much relief.”

Galley got the Falcons going early in the first period when he received a Dave O’Brian pass from behind the net to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead. The junior from Ottawa produced a goal and one assist in Lake Placid and had two goals and three assists in the quarterfinals against Boston University.

In the 2-1 semifinal win against Michigan State, BG displayed strong defense again, but Galley attributed the defense performance to the team’s forwards coming back into the team’s zone and helping out the defensemen.

Like the championship game, BG gon on the board first in the opening period with a goal by Jamie Wansbrough. MSU’s Bill Shibicky evened the score at one in the second period.

Samanski put in the winning goal when he deflected Pikul’s shot from the point past Spartan goalie Norm Foster.

Winning Lake Placid seems to come natural for the Falcons as they won the Key Bank tournament last December defeating Cornell 6-4 and Clarkson 2-0.

“We definitely had an advantage,” Kane said. “Although the team’s practiced all week in the rink, it’s the game situation that counts. The wide ice surface could make the game wide open.”

(Originally appeared in the March 27, 1984 BG News.)

LAKE PLACID, NY – One thing can definitely be said for the entire National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament — goaltending was the key to sending the championship game into overtime.

It was a tournament where three of the four goalies were freshmen, with the other netminder being a senior.

In the championship game, wich took four overtime periods to complete, BG’s Gary Kruzich made one spectacular save after another, and his counterpart, Minnesota-Duluth goaltender Rick Kosti, did the same.

Kosti, one of the three freshmen, made a tournament record 55 saves in the championship game and had a total of 83 saves for both the semi-finals and the finals. His strong efforts earned him first team honors in the tournament and he could have easily been selected as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player if the Bulldogs would have won.

He also displayed strong goaltending efforts in the semi-final game Thursday against North Dakota and held the Sioux to just one goal in 29 attempts to lead his team to a 2-1 overtime victory.

Kruzich, however, also performed nothing short of spectacular when he continued to stop the Bulldogs in pressure situations. One of those situations came in the third overtime when UM-D outshot BG 6-0 and Kruzich prevented all six shots from entering the net.

“I like pressure,” Kruzich said. “But four overtimes is too much. I might get a nervous breakdown at 19 years old. I thought we were going to miss our plane.”

The freshman from Oak Lawn, Ill. has seen pressure situations in other competition. in the NCAA quarter finals he faced Boston University in the second game of the total-goals series, which was another overtime game.

Going into the game, the Falcons were forced to overcome a three-goal deficit in order to advance to the final four. In winning 5-1 and advancing, Kruzich displayed remarkable skill in holding the Terriers to a single goal.

One reporter in the press box said, after watching Kruzich for just one period, BU might have a tough time scoring. he then began to collect as much information about the 5-foot-6 freshman as he could.

Another reporter said he didn’t think Kruzich knew where he was at becaue any other freshman goaltender would certainly show more nervousness than he showed.

Besides amazing the reporters who saw Kruzich play for the first time, the BG goalie came through in both overtime games, a total of five extra periods, and held his opponents scoreless.

And after the strong display against UM-D, as well as 25 saves against Michigan State in the semifinals, Kruzich received a just reward in being named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. He surrendered just five goals in 157:11 of play.

In the semi-final, Kruzich only let one shot in the net, and in that time a Spartan player rested on top of Kruzich, preventing him from any chance of stopping the puck.

It might have been tough for the 35 media who selected the all-tournament team to decide between Kosti or Kruzich for MVP, but they did not make a wrong choice in selecting Kruzich.

Anyone who watched him shut down UM-D for four overtime periods, and stop a flurry of last minute shots from MSU, knows what he did to help the Falcons capture their first NCAA title.

With all the pressure situations Kruzich has faced this season, next season’s games might seem like practice, but after playing as much as he did, I doubt the MVP will want to see a tray of ice much less a sheet of ice until that time.

(Originally appeared in the March 27, 1984 BG News.)

Ay Ziggy Zoomba is Bowling Green’s unofficial fight song. Gilbert Fox, an Air Force bombardier in World War II stationed in Italy, brought a loose translation of a Zulu war chant back with him, and since its introduction in 1946 to a campus spirit assembly, it has kept its place in BGSU history. The Falcon football team traditionally sings “Ay Ziggy Zoomba” after each victory.

Forward Falcons
Forward Falcons, Forward Falcons
Fight for victory,
Show your spirit, make them fear it
Fight for ‘ol Bee Gee.
Forward Falcons, Forward Falcons
Make the contest keen,
Shout out the fame of our mighty name
And win for Bowling Green!

Alma Mater
Alma Mater, hear us,
As we praise thy name,
Make us worthy sons and daughters
Adding to thy fame.

Time will treat you kindly,
Years from now you’ll be
Ever dearer in our hearts,
Our University.

From your halls of ivy,
To the campus scene,
Chimes ring out with gladness
For our dear Bowling Green.

When all is just a mem’ry
Of the bygone days,
Hear our hymn, Dear Alma Mater,
As thy name we praise.

The Falcons
Before 1927, BG teams were called the Normals or Teachers. Ivan Lake ’23 suggested the nickname after reading an article on falconry. Lake, managing editor and sports editor of the Sentinel-Tribune in Bowling Green at the time, proposed the name change because it fit headline space and because falcons were “the most powerful bird for their size and often attacked birds two or three times their size.”

Bowling Green’s athletic teams have been known as the “Falcons” ever since.

School Colors
Orange and brown have been the school colors at Bowling Green State University since 1914, the first year of classes. Legend has it that Leon Winslow, an industrial arts faculty member, got the idea from watching a women’s hat on a trolley to nearby Toledo, Ohio. He liked the brown and orange color combination.

So too, did former Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown. Following a trip to BGSU in the 1940s, Brown used the colors for his All-America Conference team.

(Taken in most part from various BGSU media guides and other publications.)

Saturday, February 16, 1963 – Loyola (Chicago) vs. Bowling Green at Bowling Green

After the nail-biting overtime victory over Marquette at the Stadium to preserve their perfect record, the 21-0 Loyola Ramblers set out on a nine-day road trip to Bowling Green, New York City, and Houston. It was going to be a 3400-mile trip to three diverse venues with markedly different teams and opposing crowds.

Loyola hosted Bowling Green and their dynamic center Nate Thurmond in the 1961-62 season, and recovered after a horrible start to win the game 81-68.

“We beat them the year before at our place, and they thought we ‘jobbed’ them with the officials,” Miller remembers. “In those days, there was a lot of that. In those days teams would have their local officials that would really job you, and I think that’s what Bowling Green thought we did to them [in 1961-62].”

Thurmond had led the Falcons to the NCAA Tournament as the Mid-American Conference champion as a junior in 1961-62, and had Bowling Green in contention for the MAC title as a senior in 1962-63. In an era where the average major college basketball center was around 6’8″ and 210 pounds, the 6’11″, 235-pound Akron native was a monster.

The jam-packed homecoming game crowd of 5,734 at Memorial Hall chanted, “We Want Loyola” to fire up their squad against the #2 ranked team in the country. Bowling Green, led by Hall of Fame coach Harold Anderson, played the classic inside-outside game against the Ramblers. Thurmond averaged over 17 points and over 17 rebounds per game in the center position. When the Ramblers– the tallest of whom was Les Hunter at 6’7″– put bodies on Thurmond, it left outside shooter Howard Komives wide open, and Komives hit with regularity.

Bowling Green streaked out to a 9-0 lead, which invigorated their already fevered crowd. The Falcons hit on seven of their first eight shots from the field. And then Komives went on a binge, scoring 23 first-half points as the Ramblers were left shell-shocked. Bowling Green led 29-12 before Loyola cut the deficit to 47-35 at the half.

The Ramblers’ game plan changed in the second half, but Bowling Green was ready. Thurmond was held to six points in the first half under a double-team of Les Hunter and Vic Rouse, but he exploded in the second half as the Ramblers drifted out to guard Komives. The Falcons then pounded the ball inside to Thurmond, who scored 18 second-half points. Even with increased defensive pressure on the outside shooters, Komives scored nine more points.

Bowling Green not only beat the #2 team in the country, they destroyed them, 92-75. After 22 games, the Ramblers finally found out what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a merciless beating. And for the second game in a row, Loyola didn’t receive a single point off the bench.

“They just beat us,” recalls Egan. “They were prepared for us-we didn’t play especially bad, but they were very hot and they had a good team. They had Thurmond and Komives, and the refs on the road are a little tougher. All their players played well, and we played pretty average– they should have beaten us. There was no fluke about it, they just beat us.”

“They were poised for us, because we had beat them the year before, it was their homecoming game, and everything was just perfect for it,” Ron Miller reflected. “I think they could have beat the second best pro team that night.”

Komives led all scorers with 32, and Thurmond had 24. Hunter led Loyola with 24, and Harkness had 21. Loyola still won the battle of the boards 45-38, but that was mostly due to the high shooting percentage by the Falcons.

Lost in the disappointment of the first loss of the season was the fact that Jerry Harkness passed Jack Kerris for the all-time Loyola scoring title. Harkness’ 21 points put him at 1560 on his career, surpassing Kerris’ 1556.

Another saving grace of the evening was the news that #1 Cincinnati, the only other undefeated team in the country, had fallen by one point, 65-64 at Wichita State. The Bearcats had a 64-58 lead with 1:32 left to play, but instead of playing conservatively, the Bearcats turned over the ball and compounded their errors with fouls. It was Wichita State that held on to the ball while time wound down– reversing the tables on the Bearcats in front of 10,639 screaming Wichita fans– to end Cincinnati’s undefeated season and 37-game winning streak.

Copyright 2002, John C. Thomas. Courtesy Ramblermania.com

In 1988-89, Voll led the Falcons to a 69-59 win over Cincinnati at Anderson Arena in the NCAA Tournament, the first win by a women’s basketball team from the MAC in the national tournament. The game was played before 4,100 fans, at the time the largest crowd in the history of the program.

Fran Voll – BGSU Athletics Archive

Voll coached one academic All-American, one freshman All-American, a Naismith Award winner and two MAC Freshmen of the Year while at BGSU. Voll’s student-athletes had a 100% graduation rate during his seven seasons.

Voll, a native of Marion, Ohio, had a high school coaching mark of 208-17 (.924) at Delphos St. John’s, and was the winningest high school girls’ basketball coach in the nation prior to coming to BGSU in 1984. While at St. John’s, Voll’s teams won three state titles in nine years, and he was twice named Ohio prep coach of the year. In October of 1991, Voll resigned from his coaching post to take the position of Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Development at BGSU. In that position, he worked primarily with fund-raising and public relations while running the Falcon Club. He held that position until 1996, when he took the head-coaching job at Central Michigan University, where he remained until 2000.

Voll’s overall collegiate coaching record is 187-134 (.583), including a 116-68 (.630) mark in MAC games. He still ranks second in MAC history on the coaching wins lists, both overall and in league contests.

Voll, a 1968 graduate of BGSU, currently is the principal at Marion Catholic High School. He and his wife, Marty, reside in Marion, Ohio, and have three sons, Joe, Matt and Mike. All three sons are BGSU graduates who work in the field of education as administrators, teachers and/or coaches.

(Information on this page courtesy BGSUFalcons.com press release, July 8, 2002.)

NCAA Tournament

1987
(8)Illinois 80, (9)BGSU 64

1988
(7)St. Joseph’s 68, (10)BGSU 66

1989
(9)BGSU 69, (8)Cincinnati 59
(1)Maryland 78, BGSU 65

1990
(5)South Carolina 93, (12)BGSU 50

1993
(7)Florida 69, (10)BGSU 67

1994
(10)Creighton 84, (7)BGSU 73

2005
(4)Kansas State 70, (13)BGSU 60

2006
(5)UCLA 74, (12)BGSU 61

2007
(7)BGSU 70, (10)Oklahoma State 66
(7)BGSU 59, (2)Vanderbilt 56
(3)Arizona State 67, (7)BGSU 49

2010
Michigan State 72, BGSU 62

2011
Georgia Tech 69, BGSU 58

OVERALL: 3-10
HOME: 1-2
AWAY: 0-4
NEUTRAL: 2-4

Women’s NIT

1998
Butler 95, BGSU 90

2008
BGSU 64, Dayton 52
Michigan St. 74, BGSU 66

2009
BGSU 72, Syracuse 69
Indiana 75, BGSU 67

2012
VCU 72, BGSU 71

2013
BGSU 76, SMU 70
BGSU 61, Duquesne 54
Drexel 50, BGSU 47

The 1920′s teams featured players who participated in multiple sports, including five-sport athletes Carl Bachman and Franklin Skibbie, who also played on the football, baseball, track and tennis teams. Much of this was due to the limited number of men enrolled at the college at the time, but a few of these men excelled in whatever sport they were playing at the time. During their time at BG, both Bachman and Skibbie, along with three sport star Hayden Olds, were named to the All- Northwest Ohio Conference teams in both football and basketball.

In 1945, Wyndol Gray became the Falcons’ first All-American, as The Sporting News named him to their first team as the brown and orange would make it all the way to the title game of the National Invitational Tournament. The Falcons would continue to make a name for themselves under head coach Harold Anderson, and it all came to a head in the early 1960′s. Nate Thurmond became one of college basketball’s dominant big men, and Howard Komives lit it up from outside, leading Bowling Green to MAC championships and NCAA tournament bids in 1962 and 1963, knocking off second-ranked and unbeaten Loyola (Chicago) in the process during the latter season.

The Falcons made a return appearance to the NCAA Tournament in 1968, in head coach Bill Fitch’s only season on the BG bench. They wouldn’t win their next MAC title until 1981, but would win it again in 1983. On December 18, 1990, the Falcons beat Michigan State in East Lansing, Michigan, 81-79, in one of the biggest upsets in school history. The 1997 team won the regular season MAC title, but a loss in the postseason tournament sent them to another NIT berth for the school.

The 1999-2000 season would see the Falcons win their eighth MAC championship, but also witness a bit of history on the floor as well. On February 16, 2000, senior Anthony Stacey passed Howard Komives as the school’s all-time leading scorer. His 1, 938 points scored remain the standard at the university.

A total of 26 Falcons have been drafted by NBA teams, and BG boasts three of the six highest NBA draft picks in MAC history. The San Francisco Warriors took Nate Thurmond third overall in the 1963 Draft, the highest pick of a MAC player ever. Antonio Daniels became the second earliest pick taken when Vancouver drafted him fourth in 1997, and Howard Komives was taken thirteenth by the New York Knicks in 1964. Currently, Daniels (Washington) and second all-time leading scorer Keith McLeod (Utah) represent the Falcons in the NBA.

A list of how they have fared in the NCAA Tournament in school history:

1976-77
Michigan 7, BGSU 5

1977-78
BGSU 5, Colorado College 3
Boston College 6, BGSU 2
BGSU 4, Wisconsin 3 (Consolation)

1978-79
Minnesota 6, BGSU 3

1981-82
BGSU 2, Northeastern 2
Northeastern 3, BGSU 2 (OT, Northeastern wins 2-game total goals series)

1983-84
Boston U. 6, BGSU 3
BGSU 5, Boston U. 1 (OT, BGSU wins 2-game total goals series)
BGSU 2, Michigan State 1
BGSU 5, Minnesota-Duluth 4 (4OT) (Championship)

1986-87
Harvard 7, BGSU 1
Harvard 3, BGSU 0 (Harvard wins 2-game total goals series)

1987-88
BGSU 5, Vermont 1
BGSU 5, Vermont 1 (BGSU wins 2-game total goals series)
Maine 5, BGSU 1
Maine 4, BGSU 3 (Maine wins 2-game total goals series)

1988-89
Boston College 8, BGSU 5
Boston College 4, BGSU 2 (Boston College wins 2-game total goals series)

1989-90
Maine 8, BGSU 4
Maine 5, BGSU 2 (Maine wins 2-game total goals series)