By Frank Rajkowski, SJU Writer/Video Producer

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Oct. 8, 1960.

Inside a locker room in the Old Gym (now Guild Hall), the Saint John's University football team is getting ready to take on archrival St. Thomas.

Head coach John Gagliardi – then in just his eighth season in Collegeville – has watched as his team started the season 0-3 – including a heartbreaking 15-14 setback against Macalester at home the week before.

Sensing the season slipping away, he's come to a decision. 

He will begin to give more playing time to a number of players in what he already believes to be a talented freshman class.

"We started out kind of shaky, and we decided to go with some of the freshmen," Gagliardi recalled in a 2002 interview with the St. Cloud Times. "We were building, so some of those guys got some playing time and they took advantage of it."

Did they ever, starting with that early October afternoon against the Tommies 60 years ago.

Halfback Bernie Beckman '64, an impressive ballcarrier out of Elbow Lake, Minnesota, helped anchor the team's rushing attack, while end Ken Roering '64 and running back Bob Spinner '64 each scored touchdowns.

And defensive back Craig Muyres '64, who later went on to great success as a quarterback (left), had a pair of interceptions.

The end result was a 34-14 win before a crowd of well over 2,000 fans.

"After three losses, I think John was just ready to try something different," recalls Roering (right, prior to the 1963 NAIA national championship game), a standout at St. Cloud (Minnesota) Cathedral High School who had been recruited by the University of Minnesota, but elected to stay close to home because his father had died a few years earlier and his mother – partially paralyzed by a stroke – still had his younger brother at home.

"He knew he had some talented younger players. The freshmen always scrimmaged against the varsity before the season started, and that year, we beat them."

Indeed, once they got on the field, many members of that class – which also included an impressive-looking offensive and defensive lineman from St. Thomas Academy (and member of the 2019 J-Club Hall of Honor Class) named John McDowell '64 – didn't leave it for the next four years.

They formed the nucleus of the Johnnies' teams that finished 9-0 in 1962 and 10-0 in 1963 – the season in which they captured the school's first national championship with a legendary 33-27 upset victory over Prairie View A&M (Texas) in the NAIA national title game.

"I had a pretty good idea about the talent we had (in that year's freshman class) because I'd played against a lot of those guys in the old Central Catholic Conference," said Spinner, a standout at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis.

"So I'd see the names and think 'Wow, we got this guy?' or 'Wow, we're getting him?' It seemed like we were getting a lot of the top players I'd competed against."

And their talent became apparent against St. Thomas in 1960 – a victory which started a stretch that saw Saint John's finish that season 4-0-1, then go 6-2 in 1961.

"We worked hard our freshman and sophomore years and our team really came together," Spinner (left) said. 

"A guy like Bernie Beckman wasn't the biggest guy in the world. But he was so shifty. He turned my head immediately. And John McDowell (who later went on to play in the NFL) was huge. But it wasn't until you started practicing against him that you realized how fast he was."

And, of course, there was Gagliardi, who sent his team onto the field against the Tommies with a bit of the wit that was already becoming his trademark, even less-than-a-decade into his 60-season tenure at SJU.

"He told us 'Guys, when I was first hired here, the monks told me you can lose a lot of games. But you can't lose to St. Thomas. I guess it looks like this is the year we do both.'" Roering recalls.

"Everybody laughed and we went out there and put it all together."

But he is quick to credit some of the older players on that 1960 team for setting a tone that set the stage for what would come about in the seasons to follow.

"You had guys like Gene Kramer '61 (an All-American that season), Bob Gavin '62 and Bernie Kukar '62 (who went on to a long career as an NFL official)," Roering said. 

"Those were good players. Tom O'Reilly '60 started the year at left end before I replaced him. But he never stopped trying to make me a better player. Craig Muyres (also a St. Cloud Cathedral graduate) and I were dayhops (students who lived at home) that year. And we rode back-and-forth (to campus) with O'Reilly and (tackle) Tom McIntyre '63. Those guys were intimidating. But they showed us the ropes and pushed us to improve.

"Those guys maybe haven't gotten the credit that they should have gotten for the success we went on to have."

-2 years ago (2018) - In their first football game since the passing of legendary coach John Gagliardi, the Johnnies defeated then-No. 3 St. Thomas 40-20 in front of an announced crowd of 16,922 on Oct. 13 in Collegeville. Quarterback Jackson Erdmann '20 threw for a then-school record of 470 passing yards, on 28 of 53 passing, with three touchdowns. The 400-yard game was the first of six in Erdmann's career, and the first by an SJU quarterback since Ross Denne '03 in 2002. Fourteen of Erdmann's completions went to wideout Will Gillach '19, who turned them into an SJU-record of 256 receiving yards and two scores. The SJU defense forced seven turnovers, including a 99-yard fumble return for a touchdown by safety Max Jackson '19 that sealed the victory.

-8 Years Ago (2012) - The SJU golf team won the 18-team Golfweek Division III Invitational by one shot Oct. 14-16 at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort (par 71) in Miramar Beach, Fla. Sixteen of the 18 schools were ranked in Division III's top 25.

SJU claimed the title with a three-round total of 876 (+24), followed by then-No. 25 LaGrange (Ga.) in second (+25, 877). The Johnnies were 10-over-par through the final round's first six holes but bounced back to shoot one-over par the rest of the way.

Junior Casey Vangsness fired a one-over par 72 in the final round and tied for third out of the 90 golfers. Sophomore Drew Lynch tied for sixth with a 216 (+3) and senior Dennis Granath tied for 18th with a 219 (+6), thanks to a one-under par 70 on the final day.

11 years ago (2009) - Senior running back Kellen Blaser had an 8-yard touchdown run on the Johnnies' fourth offensive play in overtime (video below) as SJU – ranked No. 6 in the nation – topped then-No. 15 St. Thomas – before a crowd of 12,903 on Oct. 17 at Clemens Stadium.



It marked the Johnnies' 12th straight victory over the Tommies – a streak that dated back to 1998.

22 years ago (1998) - After a fourth-place finish at the 21-team Wisconsin-La Crosse Invitational, the SJU cross country team went on to win its next four races – including at the MIAC and NCAA Division III Central Regional Meets.

The Johnnies, led by two-time MIAC individual champion John Krueger '00, went on to finish fourth at the NCAA Division III Championship that season. Krueger crossed the finish line third at the national meet, SJU's best since Brian Smith '83 (third) in 1983. Chris Erichsen '08 placed third nationally nine years later.

39 years ago (1981) - Sophomore Jeff Graen headed in a corner kick from junior Dave Mazzoni in the first half for the game's only goal as the SJU soccer team topped defending MIAC champion Augsburg 1-0 on Oct. 14 in Minneapolis. The win started a 26-game winning streak against the Auggies that extended through the 2005 season. SJU owns a 37-10-4 (.765) record against the Auggies since 1975.

The Johnnies finished second in the MIAC to Bethel with an 8-1-3 record (10-1-3 overall) that fall. SJU's lone loss was a 1-0 defeat in the season opener at BU. 

-55 Years Ago (1965) - Gagliardi's picked up the 100th win of his collegiate career (including his previous coaching stint at Carroll, Mont.) with a 34-6 home victory against Hamline on Oct. 9 (left; John, with daughter, Nancy, and son, John Jr., following the game; courtesy of the St. Cloud Times).

Many of Gagliardi's other milestone wins also occurred during this time in October:

    -Oct. 18, 1969: Gagliardi's 100th win at SJU, 40-12 at Macalester
    -Oct. 11, 1980: Gagliardi's 200th career win, 45-10 vs. Bethel
    -Oct. 16, 1993: Gagliardi's 300th career win, 77-12 at Bethel
    -Oct. 13, 2007: Gagliardi's 450th career win, 40-0 at Gustavus Adolphus

95 years ago (1925) - Festoons, streamers and pennants surrounded the field as the SJU football team took on Hamline in its Homecoming game on Oct. 17.

But the loss of halfback Walter Miller to injury hampered the Johnnies in a 14-7 loss. The game was preceded by a pep fest on Oct. 15 – complete with a three-round boxing match.