
50th Anniversary Celebration: 1957 National Championship Football Team
10/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 13, 2007
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Michigan State has won or shared six national titles in college football. And one of those teams - the 1957 Spartans - has been forgotten in debates about the school's best squads. Without an undefeated record or a bowl game to frame their brilliance, Duffy Daugherty's players will have to be content with two facts: Fans who saw them still smile at the thought of those games. And foes who felt their power still wish they hadn't. On the 50th anniversary on Daugherty's fourth team and one of his best, it's time to salute a group that finished 8-1 and won with style. Longtime Michigan State beat writer and columnist Jack Ebling leads a trip down Memory Lane.
By Jack Ebling, Online Columnist
The 1953 and 1955 Michigan State Spartans won Rose Bowl games. The odd thing about 1957 was that the National Champions never had that chance.
In a nine-game season with only one Big Ten team eligible for bowls, MSU had eight victories and outscored its opponents, 264-75. The Spartans had 19 points or more eight times and allowed more than 14 points just once.
That exception to both rules, a 20-13 loss to Spoilermakers of Purdue, cost Duffy Daugherty a perfect season. Worst of all, a blown call that negated a Walt Kowalczyk touchdown and halved Purdue's 14-0 lead brought an apology from the Big Ten office.
But no one can take away the highlights of a half-century ago:
A pair of shutouts - 54-0 over Indiana and 19-0 at California - to open the season.
A 35-6 trouncing of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
A 34-6 romp over Notre Dame in East Lansing.
And a 42-13 win over Minnesota to end the conference season one game back of Ohio State, a team that didn't face the Spartans.
"I think what stands out most about that team is that we could do almost anything," guard Ellison Kelly said. "We could outscore you, or we could shut you out. I can't think of any weak spots we had."
The reasons included a deep group of talented players in an era of one-platoon football and exceptional coaching. MSU tried 21 different ballcarriers against the Hoosiers. And Daugherty's staff knew just how to use them.
"Duffy was a tremendous recruiter," said end and kicker Dave Kaiser, whose field goal won the 1956 Rose Bowl. "He also had assembled what was considered to be the best collegiate coaching staff in the land. He just had a real talented group of coaches, good recruiters and good scouts."
![]() Guard Ellison Kelly earned first-team All-Big Ten honors in 1957. ![]() | ![]() |
Good coaches become great when they have the right players. And the Spartans had two All-Americans: Kowalczyk, a third-place finisher for the Heisman Trophy, at halfback and Dan Currie at center and linebacker. They were joined by Kelly, end Sam Williams, tackle Pat Burke and quarterback Jim Ninowski on the All-Big Ten first team.
"We just had a great team all the way around," Kowalczyk said. "It was so much fun it was unbelievable."
Those gifted athletes were never better than in one of the most lopsided wins over the Wolverines in MSU history. And the Spartans never had a more enjoyable afternoon.
"It was extremely important to beat Michigan," Kelly said. "To run them off the field like that was just unheard of. I told the story the next year about tying Michigan (in 1958) and how disappointed Duffy was. Duffy expected us to beat the hell out of Michigan."
Stats didn't tell the story of MSU's success. Everyone got a chance to play. And when halfback Blanche Martin gained 134 yards against Minnesota, imagine what his total might have been if he had carried 25 times instead of just six.
"We had to go both ways at that time," Kaiser said. "When the ball changed hands, we switched from offense to defense or defense to offense. I think it was the combination of being a group of good all-around athletes who played really well as a team."
No one played better than Kowalczyk, a punishing speedster from Westfield, Mass., who drew the kind of nickname Heisman voters love.
"Red Saunders, the UCLA coach, said, `Bringing this guy down is trying to bring down a blacksmith,'" Kowalczyk said. "Somehow reporters came up with the tag, `The Sprinting Blacksmith.' But I looked it up, and my last name, Kowalczyk, means `son of a blacksmith.' So if somebody says to me, `Hey, you s.o.b., you've got to be careful how you say it. It better be son of a blacksmith!"
Call the '57 Spartans what you will. The history books and three different polls say you have to call them National Champions.