CSC Homecoming pays tribute to undefeated 1958 football team
By Con Marshall
One of the highlights of Homecoming at Chadron
State College this weekend (9/29/2018) will be a reunion of athletes coached by Bill Baker
60 or more years ago.
Now 90 and living in Tucson, Ariz., Baker and
the CSC Alumni Association organized the reunion, which will primarily focus on
Chadron State’s undefeated football team in the fall of 1958.
 |
| Coach Bill Baker (left) with All-Conference Lineman Tom Blundell, an end on the 1958 Eagle squad. |
The Eagles had to come from behind to defeat
Southern State College of Springfield, S.D., 26-20 in the season-opener, but
won all their remaining seven games by at least three touchdowns.
The remaining scores were CSC 35, Concordia
0; CSC 34, Doane 13; CSC 27, Wayne
7; CSC 45, Dana 6; CSC 26, Midland 7; CSC 26, Peru 0; and CSC 32, Nebraska
Wesleyan 13.
A logical question is, why didn’t the Eagles
play arch-rival Kearney State that season? It’s a good question, particularly since the Antelopes also
were undefeated that year, but they were not on the schedule in either 1958 or
’59.
The Eagles rushed for 2,071 yards and passed
for 881 in ’58. They held their
foes to 1,007 yards rushing and 619 passing, meaning they gave up only 203
yards per game.
While Baker, who was just 28 when he initially
came to Chadron State to coach football and track and field in 1955, is still
going strong and will serve as the grand marshal of the Homecoming parade
Saturday morning, time has taken its toll on the ’58 team.
 |
| To get a closer look at the 1958 CSC team – including names – visit our DCJ Photo Gallery |
Seventeen of the 30 lettermen have passed away
and only five of the remaining 13 have made reservations to attend this
weekend’s gathering.
The five planning to attend are Rex Jones,
John McLane, Jerry Rowe, Don Schmaderer and Jim White.
Several others had previous obligations this
weekend or said they don’t travel much nowadays because of physical problems.
However, five other football players that
Baker coached as well as two outstanding sprinters from his track teams and a
couple of basketball players from that era are planning to attend, along with
at least two widows of football players.
Baker says the ’58 team was made up of rugged,
hard-nosed players who worked hard and got along well. Several played
more than one position and started on both sides of the ball. Fourteen of them
received at least honorable mention when all-star selections were made at the
end of the season.
Several of the standouts were from the
Panhandle.
Tom Blundell, a native of Chadron, got the
highest honors. He was selected the outstanding senior lineman in the Nebraska
College Conference and was named NAIA second-team All-American.
Dick Colerick of Alliance and Lonny Wickard of
Minatare and later a long-time school administrator at Bayard, were the
co-captains. Both were all-conference linebackers. Colerick also
was the fullback and Wickard the quarterback, or blocking back, on the
single-wing offense.
 |
| Lonnie Wickard was quarterback for the '58 Eagles |
Guido Santero of Lewellen was the tailback and
played in the secondary on defense. He rushed 117 times for 807 yards and
scored 13 touchdowns to spark the offense.
Wickard, who called the signals, completed 25
of 42 passes for 575 yards and seven touchdowns and had just two intercepted.
He also handled the punting, but was needed for that only 23 times. His
42.8-yard average is still among the best in CSC annals.
Wickard, whose senior-season highlights also
included an 80-yard punt and a 93-yard interception return, was inducted into
the Nebraska Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
Other stalwarts included McLane and Rowe, two
of the players who are expected at the reunion. Both played tackle on both
offense and defense. McLane was from Cambridge and Rowe is a
Valentine native.
The Chadron newspaper noted that the 1958 team
was a “heavy one,” with the line averaging 193 pounds and the backs 180.
The line average included a 158-pount center,
Chadron native Don Mathis, who, at Bakers’s insistence, was inducted into the
CSC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 when the team had its 45-year reunion. The entire team went into the Hall of
Fame in 1998, on the 40th anniversary of that great season.
After coaching six years at Chadron State,
Baker was an assistant football coach nine years at the University of Wyoming
and two years at the University of Arizona. He then was a pro football
scout for 25 years.
(Editor’s Note: Our
thanks to Con Marshall for sharing a great Homecoming story and related photographs about Chadron State
College football – and a great team from 60 years ago! You'll find the above photos and others in our Dawes County Journal Schools Gallery.)
