Ernie England was not your typical wide-eyed freshman on the football team when the defensive lineman first arrived at Saint John's University in the fall of 1976.
By then, the 22-year-old, 6-foot-4-inch, moustache-clad St. Cloud Cathedral High School graduate had already served four years in the Air Force as a communications specialist – a role that took him to some of the most perilous places on the globe in the early 1970s – Beirut, Berlin and the jungles of Thailand, to name a few.
He'd also played a competitive and physical brand of football in the United States Armed Forces Conference, which featured teams representing a number of military bases across Great Britan and mainland Europe.
"It was high-intensity football," England recalled. "Kids came from all over the country. Our quarterback was a West Point graduate who'd played for Army. One of our tackles played at Bowling Green. Our running backs came from some really great high school leagues in the South. You were competing for your spot every week.
"The league was divided into two divisions. The champions from Europe and England then played each other in the USAF Super Bowl. It was huge back then. Even the locals got into it. We'd pack seven or eight thousand people onto the base for the Super Bowl game. Our team (Wiesbaden) won it two years when I was there."
His military gridiron exploits earned him a full-ride offer at Oklahoma's East Central University upon his discharge. But a phone call from legendary SJU head coach John Gagliardi altered those plans.
"I'd just gotten out of the military, and I was back home in St. Cloud after a trip out west to Glacier National Park," he said. "My mom said John had called and I should call him back. I did and he said 'You've been away from home for four years now. Why not hang around a little?
"That really hit me, especially when he told me how many other guys on the team were from Cathedral, Tech, Apollo and other schools around Central Minnesota. I wanted to be part of that."
But adjusting to practices with the Johnnies – who adhered to Gagliardi's famous list of no's, including no full tackling in practice – took some getting used to after years on the rough-and-tumble Armed Forces circuit.
His initial exuberance earned him the nickname Berserko Bob from his teammates.
"I remember when Ernie first came in, he didn't really understand how we practiced," recalled Mike Grant, a tight end for the 1976 Johnnies and the son of legendary Minnesota Vikings head coach Bud Grant, whose team was en route to its fourth Super Bowl berth that season. "He was going crazy. Some of the guys had to tell him to take it easy. "But he was such a dominant player. He had tremendous quickness for a nose guard. He made a big difference on that team."
Indeed, England claimed the starting job at nose guard right away and earned All-MIAC honors as SJU finished 10-0-1 and won the NCAA Division III title with a dramatic, last-second 31-28 win over Towson (Md.) State.
"We were dominating that game," said England, whose team took a 28-0 lead into the fourth quarter before Towson rallied to tie the score. "I had a bunch of sacks on their quarterback and we had him in a hurry to get rid of the ball. I've always wondered how we gave up 28 points in a row like that when we had them against the wall. I think we just got tired, but I'm not sure.
"The good thing is we still won the game. That's my top memory of my time at Saint John's – winning that national championship."
But England went on to play three more incredible seasons, leading the Johnnies to MIAC titles in both 1977 and '79. He finished his career as a four-time All-MIAC selection and a two-time All-American (in 1978 and '79).
"I just remember what a dominant force he was on the field," recalled linebacker Joe Kiley, a sophomore during England's senior season. "He had such an imposing persona – the size, the speed. He was the total package.
"I remember during my freshman season, I was talking with some of my classmates at (the cafeteria) after practice. We were musing about what it had to be like for opposing centers to play against Ernie, not conscious of the fact that one of the guys at the table had to go against him every day on the scout team. He just looked up at us and said, 'It really sucks.'
"I've watched a ton of Saint John's football – in my time there and after. But I've never seen a guy who's dominated on the defensive side of the ball the way Ernie did – at Saint John's or in the entire MIAC."
Current SJU head coach
Gary Fasching '81, who played linebacker and shared the defensive huddle with England, said having him up front made everyone else's jobs easier.
"Other teams couldn't handle him one-on-one," Fasching remembers. "They had to double team him and that allowed us to roam free. He was tough, but he was fast too. He could go sideline-to-sideline. He had everything you look for in a defensive lineman."
After graduating from SJU, England went to training camp with the Dallas Cowboys in 1980. After that, he worked in several places before getting an associate's degree in nursing from Anoka-Ramsey Community College and settling into a long career with Allina in Coon Rapids.
He retired in June of this year, but still resides in nearby Andover.
"I really enjoyed my time at Saint John's," he said. "The faculty were awesome. They were always interested in your life and how things were going. It was a great four years."
