Michigan State University Athletics
Spartan Football Homecoming Heroes
9/30/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 30, 2006
By Jack Ebling, Online Columnist
It started 96 years ago in, of all places, Champaign, Ill.
And if you love Homecoming weekends, a tip of the hat today, please, to University of Illinois alums W. Elmer Ekblaw and C.F. Williams.
Sitting on the steps of a YMCA, they concocted a plan to bring friends back to campus for two days of fun, frolic and football. And it never hurts to pick a Saturday with a dramatic win over an arrogant, in-state Big Ten rival.
The hero on Oct. 15, 1910, was Fighting Illini quarterback and placekicker Otto Seiler, who left his hospital bed to dropkick a 38-yard field goal that beat the University of Chicago.
Seiler had three last-minute, game-winning boots that year - all in 3-0 victories. But he had plenty of help on a team that went 7-0 and outscored opponents 89-0.
Before long, word of that Illinois reunion spread to other parts of the country. And on Oct. 30, 1915, Michigan Agricultural College held its first Homecoming game.
Based on the outcome, it's amazing there was ever a second one. The Aggies were blanked 20-0 by Oregon State in the first of a long series of games that defied all logic, positively or negatively.
MAC had just walloped undefeated Michigan 24-0 in Ann Arbor. Apparently, the celebration was still going seven days later when the Beavers began a parade to the end zone in a 20-0 triumph.
The following week, when Chester Brewer's players and coaches paid attention again, they pounded a solid Marquette program 68-6 and finished the season 5-1.
But whether it's MAC, MSC or MSU, certain Homecoming memories linger. Here's a look at one long-time observer's top five:
• No. 5 . . . Oct. 14, 1950 - MSC MSC 33, William & Mary 14: Huh? Since when is a win over Bill & Mary significant? It definitely was after Biggie Munn's first great team had just lost 34-7 to mighty Maryland in East Lansing. Fans and some of the players wondered, "Where are we going with this program?" The answer began with Jesse Thomas' 90-yard punt return and a solid victory, the first of a record 28 in a row. With that Homecoming win as a building block, the Spartans upset Frank Leahy's Notre Dame team 36-33 two weeks later and wouldn't lose again for an amazing 158 weeks.
• No. 4 . . . Oct. 27, 1990 - MSU 55, Purdue 33: In one of the highest-scoring and most entertaining games ever in Spartan Stadium, Tico Duckett ran wild against the Boilermakers with 210 yards on 34 carries. The other half of MSU's tailback tandem, Hyland Hickson, added 103 in 16 rushes. Of greater significance for Michigan State fans, a team that was 2-3-1 going in discovered its football identity, embarked on a six-game winning streak, including a victory over USC in the John Hancock Bowl, and captured a share of the program's last conference title.
• No. 3 . . . Oct. 10, 1998 - MSU 38, Indiana 31 (double-overtime): In one of the strangest of all Spartan seasons, with major upsets over Notre Dame and No. 1 Ohio State and giveaways to Colorado State, Northwestern and Purdue, Nick Saban's team won it on a 25-yard touchdown scamper by tailback Sedrick Irvin. Shortly before that, Hoosier freshman quarterback Antwaan Randle El was knocked out of the game with a concussion. And on the day's final snap, safety Lemar Marshall (now a starting linebacker with the Washington Redskins and Randle El's teammate) had the hit of year on a game-saving, fourth-and-12 pass breakup. (One personal note: I predicted that seven-point win in overtime - MSU's first - in that morning's Lansing State Journal and was roundly ridiculed, as usual. Saban even asked if I was psychic.)
• No. 2 . . . Nov. 16, 1918 - MAC 13, Notre Dame 7: From the land of the inexplicable again, George Gauthier's team pulled one of the great upsets in school history. Sandwiched between a 14-6 loss to Purdue and a 21-6 defeat at Michigan, the Aggies somehow found a way to beat the Fighting Irish in a driving rain. Despite the conditions, MAC opened the scoring with a rare phenomenon in those days - a touchdown pass. That 20-yard toss from Harry Graves to Edmund Young helped hand Knute Rockne the only defeat in his first three seasons as Notre Dame's coach. A sophomore halfback named George Gipp scored the only Irish touchdown. But maybe it was Gauthier who said, "Go out there and win one for the . . . alumni!"
• And No. 1 . . . Oct. 22, 1966 - MSU 41, Purdue 20: One week after the unbeaten Spartans rallied in the rain for an 11-8 win at Ohio State, the game that cost them their No. 1 ranking and elevated Notre Dame to that spot, Duffy Daugherty's players had plenty to prove. In a battle for the Big Ten championship, fullback Bob Apisa was the unquestioned star. He scored twice on short runs and once on a pass from quarterback Jimmy Raye. Meanwhile the defense was fine against Bob Griese and held the Boilermakers in check. Despite the loss, Purdue recovered and beat USC in the Rose Bowl, since MSU was banned from participating by the league's archaic no-repeat rule. That rule has since been lifted.
And it's OK for the Spartans to go to Pasadena again.
