1959 Football Team (2013) - Hall of Fame - Bowling Green State University Athletics

1959 Football Team

Induction:
2013

The preseason preview section of the 1959 Bowling Green media guide begins with the following sentence: "The 13 lettermen who will greet Coach (Doyt) Perry on opening practice day will be the smallest number of returning letter winners that the Falcon coach has had in four seasons." Led by those returnees, however, Perry's fifth BG team proceeded to go a perfect 9-0 – the first undefeated and untied season in program history – en route to winning the college division national championship.

Ron Blackledge, Bernie Casey, Bob Colburn and Bob Zimpfer all earned All-Mid-American Conference First-Team honors, while Jerry Dianiska, Russ Hepner and Chuck Ramsey were named to the second team. Perry's balanced squad led the MAC in both total offense, with 371.0 yards per game, and total defense, with just 208.3 ypg allowed.

Casey scored 10 touchdowns in BG's nine games, nearly as many as the Falcons' nine opponents scored altogether. BG scored 38 touchdowns to the foes' 11. Perry's team opened the season by crushing Marshall, 51-7, and BG then topped Dayton, 14-0, in the home opener at University Stadium.

The Falcons then picked up a second consecutive shutout, with a 34-0 win over Western Michigan before a Homecoming crowd of 9,200. The fourth game of the year saw Perry use his first string for only the first quarter and part of the second, as BG rolled up a 43-0 halftime lead en route to a 51-21 win over Toledo.

MAC wins over Kent State (25-8) and Miami (33-16) clinched at least a tie for the conference championship. Casey scored the Falcons' first three touchdowns in the Miami game, giving BG a 21-0 halftime lead vs. the Redskins. After a 23-14 win at Southern Illinois, BG returned home and defeated Delaware, 30-8, in what Perry called "the greatest victory in Bowling Green history."

The final game of the season was by far the closest game of the year for the Falcons, as BG pulled out a 13-9 win at Ohio University. Ohio took a 9-0 halftime lead, but the Falcons rallied, as Colburn threw a touchdown pass, and Jerry Colaner intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter and returned it 30 yards for the deciding touchdown. clinching both the outright MAC title and an undefeated 1959 campaign. The Falcons were voted number-one in the nation in the final UPI poll of the season, and also were named the mythical small college national champions by the Washington, D.C. Touchdown Club.

The list of 1959 football team members follows...

SQUAD MEMBERS
Karl Anderson
Jim Andrews
Ray Bell
Bob Bird
Ron Blackledge
Bob Blue
Bernie Casey
Jerry Colaner
Tom Colaner
Bob Colburn
Chuck Comer
Bob Crofcheck
Jerry Croft
Lloyd Dempsey
Jerry Dianiska
Fred Elliott
Asa Elsea
Bob Fearnside
Ken Fink
Glenn Fitch
Jim Grant
Jack Harbaugh
Frank Hedges
Russ Hepner
Jay Hershey
Tom Hogrefe
Al Hoover
Dick Hunt
Ron Isgro
Willis Jones
Al Junior
Al Kebl
Bill Keller
Bert Kennedy
Roger Klicman
Ray Kwiatkowski
Milt Levy
Don Lisbon
Jay Loescher
Clarence Mason
Wayne Mauk
Dave McClain
Don Meister
Dick Newsome
Joe Nussbaum
Ed Phillips
Jim Potts
Chuck Pratt
Angelo Privitera
Dave Radlinski
Chuck Ramsey
Bob Reynolds
Roger Reynolds
Dan Roberds
Jerry Roberts
Bob Rueblin
Tony Ruggiero
John Ruper
Gary Sherman
Larry Smith
Keith Sommer
Joe Spilewski
Larry Stebleton
Al Studer
Ed Travis
Arch Tunnell
Dick Vura
Mervin Ward
Jim Wasserman
Ken Whalen
Ralph White
Ron Williams
Mike Witte
Bob Young
Lou Youskievicz
Bob Zimpfer

STAFF
Head Coach: Doyt L. Perry
Assistant Coach: Robert E. Dudley
Assistant Coach: Robert M. Gibson
Assistant Coach: William G. Mallory
Assistant Coach: James J. Ruehl
Assistant Coach: Richard A. Young
Freshman Coach: James C. Young
Trainer: Allan Sawdy
Student Trainer: Robert Livengood
Team Physician: Dr. Louis W. Nowack
Equipment Manager: Glenn Sharp
Student Manager: William McKelvey
Student Manager: Steve Morton