Unfinished business lingers in Frisco for Eastern Washington football

Members of EWU's 1967 team root for this year's Eagles to achieve what they couldn't

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

The Eastern Washington University Eagles have made a lot of noise this fall and winter on the red turf of Roos Field. It all started with their 36-27 win over Montana on Sept. 18 that officially christened Roos' red rug.

And just a day shy of four months since the Eagles' exciting win against their biggest rivals, the Griz, Eastern officially punched their ticket to the Football Championship Subdivision national title game with an equally exciting 41-31 win over defending national champion Villanova.

On Friday night in Frisco, Texas, at Pizza Hut Park, Eastern plays against the Delaware Blue Hens on ESPN2 to see who will reign as the kings of the FCS football hill.

For the vast majority of today's followers of EWU football, they only know of the exploits of their own team that has raced through an undefeated season and an 8-0 record on Roos' red rug.

Mostly forgotten is a group of young men who, nearly two generations ago, equaled what this year's team has accomplished in reaching a national championship.

They were a team that played and won their share of both big and close games that went down to the wire. And they too christened a new stadium on the campus in Cheney, becoming the first team to play in the “new” Woodward Field, now of course known as Roos Field.

That team, the 1967 Eastern Washington State College Savages, played the Fairmont State Falcons from West Virginia for the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) championship, losing 28-21 in a game played in the University of West Virginia's Mountaineer Stadium in Morgantown.

The team

Three members of that EWSC team, Jim Stookey, Ed Fisher and Jim Northcott recently returned to Cheney – and to campus – to do a little reminiscing and storytelling. While the 1967 Dave Holmes-coached team that finished 11-1 was good, there may have been an even better one.

“He probably had a better team the year before,” Stookey said of Holmes. The group included Nick Landmark, Barry Randle and former Eagles coach Dick Zornes, among others. “We weren't settled at quarterback because George Cross started the year and then Billy (Diedrick) came in. Don Strate was a terrific running back.”

That 1966 team ended the year 7-1-1 but never received an invite to the very limited field of teams offered the opportunity to compete for a national championship. The slight might have come from the fact that this team's schedule didn't have the heavyweights of 1967.

Trips to Humbolt State from Northern California and Cal Western out of San Diego – and of course wins – likely later earned the Savages their post-season invitation.

The start was the big thing that launched the 1967 team on its run, Northcott said. “We went down to Humbolt State and beat them (17-14).”

That was a huge undertaking because the schools in the California league had a national reputation. Much more so than Eastern's league at the time. The old Evergreen Conference of the 1960s was a league composed of Whitworth, Central and Western Washington.

“We didn't really have any weaknesses on this team,” Rogers High grad Stookey said.

“We had some highly skilled players in spots,” Fisher said.

“(Stookey) ran extremely well,” and “Billy (Diedrick) threw the ball and Ed Pohle was a good third back,” Stookey added.

The team ran three basic plays, Northcott explained, the sweep, the off-tackle and the trap. “We ran those plays and nobody could stop us,” the former Gonzaga Prep grad said. “If the opponent stopped one they couldn't seem to stop the other two. That was the way Holmes was, he'd just drill it and drill it and drill it.”

But it was the defense that may have been the biggest factor. “We were a solid defensive team,” Stookey said.

“We only traveled with five defensive backs because of numbers and as a freshman – a true freshman – I was all of them,” the former Shadle Park High School standout Fisher said.

Fisher recalled a play he'd just as soon forget against Cal Western in one of the first ever games played at San Diego – now Qualcomm – Stadium. A missed assignment cost the Savages a touchdown and Fisher had to answer to Northcott, the defensive captain.

“I come back in the huddle and he says so politely, ‘you realize that was your responsibility,'” Fisher said. And he replied, “I'm aware of that but I'm not walking home.”

Just as current Eastern coach Beau Baldwin points to the 30-7 loss at Montana State as the fuel that propelled his Eagles through their 10-game winning streak, Fisher, Northcott and Stookey all agreed that their winning effort against Cal Western (now U.S. International) was the likely turning point in their banner season. Despite Fisher's foible, Eastern won handily 44-19 in front of a big crowd in the San Diego Shrine Game.

The road to Fairmont

Eastern's 28-14 upset playoff win over highly-regarded New Mexico Highlands out of Las Vegas, N.M. came largely on the backs of Stookey and Pohle who each scored a pair of touchdowns.

“It was one of those things if we played them 10 times we might have won once,” Diedrick said. “We got the right one.” He felt the opposite way about Fairmont. “Had we played them 10 times we probably would have won about eight, maybe nine times.”

With the Cowboys from New Mexico Highlands, “Talk about a total mismatch,” Diedrick said. “They ran the power-T and averaged about eight or nine yards a carry.” Eastern still kept future American Football League rookie-of-the-year Carl Garrett in check, limiting him to under 50 yards in the game.

The key part of that game was getting out to an early lead, Diedrick said. “And then our defense played out of their you know what's.”

Eastern forced Highlands to throw the ball more than they were comfortable with, which resulted in a couple of key interceptions. The Savages also survived the nearly 7,000 foot elevation in Las Vegas.

But Eastern may not have made that game had it not been for a brilliant late comeback win (26-21) over Western Washington in their next-to-last Evergreen Conference game.

“The Western game we were behind, 1:30 to go and we had to score a touchdown,” Diedrick recalled. “Ed Pohle had a good return, we went down and scored and there was still about 40 seconds to go and coach Holmes asked me, ‘Couldn't you have used more time?'”

The championship

Fairmont earned their berth into the championship with a 21-7 win over Northern Michigan. But the battle for the championship began with a fight over where the game would actually be played.

The long trip back East might never have had to occur had it not been for the yearly practice where the city of Spokane took the sod out of Albi Stadium when the high school football season ended.

Eastern sought to host the game at Woodward Field where officials thought the 5,000 capacity could be increased to 8,000 with temporary grandstands. However, restroom facilities had yet to be constructed and Holmes, who also served as athletic director, told the Spokane Daily Chronicle newspaper that he didn't feel it would have been proper to bring a national championship game into a stadium, “which would require makeshift arrangements.”

So the scramble was on to find a site for the title game.

When Fairmont students guaranteed their cautious school president they would sell enough tickets to cover the $20,000 bill to host the game, he OK'd the move 40 miles to down the road in Morgantown.

“They got a 40 minute bus ride and we had a seven-hour flight,” Northcott said. The team traveled in an old DC-8 that flew at 20,000 feet. “Right where the weather is,” remembered the flight-shy Fisher, who was guaranteed to throw up every time he flew. “Back then you were in it the whole way.”

The Savages had time to reacquaint themselves with terra-firma following the flight, so much so they built a 14-0 lead in the second quarter on touchdown passes from Diedrick to Dave Svendsen and Pat Zlateff. With 201 passing yards on a 20-of-35 afternoon, Diedrick would be named the game's top offensive back.

But the game turned quickly in the second half. A fumble on the second half kickoff and a snap that sailed over the punter's head led to scores that would help rally Fairmont from a 14-7 deficit and into the lead 21-14.

Stookey passed for Eastern's third score to tie the game at 21-21 in the fourth quarter when he hit flanker Rick Hardie on a halfback pass. However, the Falcons' halfback George Edwards would score the deciding points on a 27-yard run with four minutes to play.

Eastern had one final shot, but had to travel 92 yards to tie after punt return man Roy Spanish was downed at the eight. Diedrick's passing would drive the Savages to the Fairmount 25 but on the next play, Dwight Carpenter sealed it with his interception on the 14 with 1:58 to play.

The loss ended Eastern's 13-game winning streak. The Savages had to endure a nine-hour flight home but were met at Spokane International Airport by an estimated 1,500 well-wishers.

After all the years have passed, memories of that game are still firmly etched in the minds of those who played it. “We should have never lost,” Stookey said.

“They were the third-best team we played all year,” Northcott added.

Unfinished business in Frisco

The vets from the 1967 team see a number of similarities between themselves and this year's No. 1 ranked Eagles. There are no egos and no one who longs to focus attention on themselves for the Big Sky Conference co-champions. “That's what this team was like,” Stookey said of the 1967 Savages. “It was a good, mature (group), we liked each other, and nobody got in trouble.”

Fisher will be the only one of the group to get to watch the game in person. He was to be in Texas for business and suddenly discovered that Frisco was just miles away from where he was to attend a conference on the same weekend. “It's a life-long experience, they'll remember it forever, no matter what happens,” he said.

Diedrick's only seen this year's team on television, he admits, but said, “I'm just very excited and very proud and quite complimentary of the kids and the coaching job (that's been done).”

“From where they've come from – especially this year – they've won some close games down at the end, the final stretch,” said the man who's spent some 40 years in coaching. “That's a sign of great character.

“You know I think they have a great chance,” Diedrick said.

Maybe now's the time for this group of Eastern athletes to grasp what slipped away decades ago.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].