10 YEARS AGO THIS SEASON – Seven seasons after revitalizing its football program, Colorado State Pueblo joined Colorado (1990) and Northern Colorado (1996 & 1997) as national champions. The Thunderwolves capped a 14-1 season by posting a 13-0 shutout win over previously undefeated Minnesota State. Chris Bonner passed for 191 yards and a touchdown. Columbine prep product Cameron McDondle ran for 113 yards to become only the second college football player in Colorado history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season. Twenty years earlier, Rashaan Salaam was the first with 2,055 yards in 1994. As written on ESPN, “the victory capped a remarkable rebuilding job by ThunderWolves coach John Wristen, who played quarterback for the school when it was known as Southern Colorado in the early 1980s. The program was disbanded along with several others in cost-cutting moves in 1985, and Wristen was brought on board in 2007 to revive it. Pueblo won four games the following year and simply kept improving, going unbeaten in the regular season the three previous seasons. Each of those years ended in playoff disappointment, though. But after losing its only game to Fort Lewis (23-22) earlier this season, Pueblo made sure to finish things off this time.” Two-time Gene Upshaw Award winner Darius Allen and Morgan Fox led the CSU Pueblo defense. Five of the ten football-playing schools posted winning records in 2014. Air Force and Colorado State finished 10-3 with bowl appearances. Colorado Mines posted a 10-2 record and tied CSU Pueblo for the RMAC title with 8-1 marks. The Orediggers fell 34-23 in playoffs to Ohio Dominican, which lost to CSU Pueblo 31-28 in the quarter-finals. Colorado Mesa posted a 6-5 record.
20 YEARS AGO THIS SEASON – Colorado Mines (12-1), Colorado (8-5), and Adams State (7-4) had winning records among the state of Colorado schools. Colorado Mines won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title, and Adams tied Chadron State for second. In the NCAA Division II playoffs, Colorado Mines defeated Midwestern State in the Orediggers first-ever post-season appearance. Eventual national runner-up Pittsburg State eliminated Mines in the second round. The Buffs shared the Big 12’s north title and lost to Oklahoma in the championship game in Kansas City. CU finished the season winning the Houston Bowl with a 33-28 victory over Texas-El Paso.
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Chad Friehauf Mines quarterback Chad Friehauf from Brush (Colo.) High became the first-ever winner of the Harlon Hill Trophy (top player in all of NCAA Division II) from the RMAC in 2004.
- He established NCAA Division II single-season records for completion percentage (74.4%), total offense (5,363), and total offensive yards per game (412.5).
- The RMAC Offensive Player of the Year, Friehauf established RMAC and NCAA Division II records for single-season passing yards (4,646) and school records for pass attempts (516), pass completions (384) and touchdown passes (39) and pass completions (384) in a season.
- In addition, Friehauf had 717 rushing yards (5.0 yards per carry) and 15 rushing touchdowns in 2004.
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Joel Klatt Colorado prep products Joel Klatt (Pomona) and Bobby Purify (Colorado Springs Palmer) led the Buff offense. Klatt threw for 2,398 yards and 11 touchdowns, and Purify rushed for 1,97 yards and nine scores.
- Adams State’s Adam McGurk from Longmont (Colo.) High was the RMAC defensive player of the year, as he had 126 total tackles with 20 for losses, 7.5 sacks, seven pass deflections, and five forced fumbles.
30 YEARS AGO THIS SEASON, the 1994 season was memorable as Colorado and Colorado State posted double-digit win totals, and the Buffs’ Rashaan Salaam won the Heisman Trophy. Salaam’s New York appearance capped a remarkable campaign for CU as the t Buffs won the fall’s most memorable game with a 27-26 contest at Michigan. The “Miracle at Michigan” on September 24 saw the Buffaloes trailing 26-14 with 2:16 remaining in the game. Colorado scored two touchdowns in the final minutes, the last being a 64-yard pass from Kordell Stewart to Michael Westbrook on the last play of the game. CU finished the season with an 11-1 record and No. 3 in the polls behind Nebraska and Penn State as the Buffs posted a 41-24 Fiesta Bowl win over Notre Dame in Coach Bill Mcartney’s last game for the Boulder school. Salaam had one of the best individual seasons in college football history, rushing for a school-record 2,055 yards and becoming only the fourth college running back to run for more than 2,000 yards in a season. He also amassed 24 touchdowns. In winning its first of three Western Athletic Conference titles under Coach Sonny Lubick, Colorado State entere
d the post-season as the 10th-ranked team in the nation and fell to No. 16 after losing 24-14 to Michigan in the Holiday Bowl. In Lubick’s second season in Fort Collins, his 1994 Rams also posted the school’s 10-win season as the Rams posted upset road wins at then-No. 22 BYU (28-21) and then-No. 6 Arizona (21-16). Western Colorado was the top college division team in Colorado as the Mountaineers won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title with an 8-3 record and advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs, where Coach Carl “Duke” Iverson lost to eventual national runner-up Texas A&M Kingsville.
40 YEARS AGO THIS SEASON, Fort Lewis College won its only conference championship as the Skyhawks posted a 7-2-1 record. Coached by first-season mentor Bill Cooke, FLC tied the school record for wins in a season with one of the two losses to Football Championship Subdivision school Weber State. The 1984 Skyhawks finished the season with a 6-0-1 record highlighted by a 30-29 victory over New Mexico Highlands in the season finale (Nov. 10, 1984) to secure the RMAC title. Team leaders were Kevin Hula, who finished with a school record of 17.5 sacks, and other All-RMAC picks Rob Groetzinger, Tom Rieber, and Randy Wells. A total of 15 players from the 1984 team received All-RMAC recognition. “The one thing about the 1984-85 team is they are the toughest kids I’ve ever coached, and I’ve seen a lot of great ones,” said Cooke, who replaced Gary Barnett as the FL coach. “After we lost to Eastern New Mexico (Week 3), Hula was fired up. He greeted everyone off the bus when we returned to the hotel and said, ‘We’re not going to lose another game.’ And we didn’t. We had tough kids. Having coached for over 40 years, those were the toughest and most disciplined players I’ve ever coached in my life.“
50 YEARS AGO THIS SEASON, ONLY three of the 11 schools playing college football in Colorado had winning records: Colorado College 8-1, Northern Colorado 8-1, and Western Colorado 6-3. Two of the three coaches with winning records that season – Bob Blasi at UNC and Bill Noxon at then-Western State, are in the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. Gerry Carle, the Colorado College coach in 1974, led the Tiger program for 33 seasons (1957-1989) and compiled a 137-150-5 record. Carle coached more seasons and games than any other football coach in the history of Colorado collegiate football.
