COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - The late fall of 1963 was a time of loss and tragedy for both the Saint John's University campus community and the nation.
 
On Oct. 30, the Johnnie football team – in the midst of an undefeated season – suffered a terrible loss when 18-year-old Matthew Christensen, a freshman from Cretin High School whose older brother, Nick, was also a member of the team, was struck and killed by a vehicle while riding his bike back to campus.
 
"That was difficult," Craig Muyres, the starting quarterback on that team, said in 2019 in advance of the squad's induction into the SJU J-Club Hall of Honor. "What do you do when you lose a teammate like that? It was hard on us and it was even harder on his family. I think we all tried to pull together to play for Nick."



Then, less than a month later, the nation as a whole was sent reeling when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
 
"I think I was in Father Martin's economics class when I heard," Bernie Beckman, one of the team's standout running backs, told the St. Cloud Times in 2002. "Someone came in with the news and everything shut down."
 
It was against that backdrop, then, that the Johnnies prepared for the first postseason game in school history – a matchup with Emporia State (Kan.) in the NAIA national semifinals, scheduled for Nov. 30, 1963 at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.
 
The Fighting Presbies led NAIA in total offense that season – ranking No. 2 in passing and No. 10 in rushing.
 
"I wonder how to defense a team with offensive records like they have," SJU head coach John Gagliardi told the St. Cloud Times in the week before the game. "I guess you'd have to say it's going to be a challenge, but it kind of scares me."
 
In the event of a tie between Emporia and SJU - which set two NAIA records for run defense that season - a tiebreaker known as the "PHYT" system was set to be deployed. 
 
 
According to a story in the Nov. 29, 1963, edition of the Times, the P stood for penetrations, meaning if the score was deadlocked at the end of regulation, the team with the most penetrations inside its opponent's 20-yard line would be declared the winner and advance to the national championship game (known as the Camellia Bowl) on Dec. 14 in Sacramento, Calif.
 
The F stood for the second tiebreaker -- first downs. The Y stood for yardage -- net passing and running. The T stood for toss, as in coin toss, which would have been the fourth and final tiebreaker.
 
"I prefer that method to the other possibility suggested," Gagliardi told the Times. "There was some talk about using the California method. That calls for putting the ball on the 50-yard line, giving each team four offensive plays and determining the winner by whichever side of the 50 the ball winds up on after eight plays. I'll take the method we've got. Coaches have enough grey hairs already without trying the California method."
 
As it turns out, there was absolutely no need for tie-breakers of any kind. Before a crowd of 12,438 chilly fans (the temperature at game time was around 26 degrees), the Johnnies rolled to a 54-0 win.
 
Rich Froehle carried 14 times for 163 yards and two touchdowns and picked off a pass in the first quarter. Bob Spinner rushed for 93 yards and one touchdown on just six carries. Stan Suchta finished with 88 yards and one touchdown on five carries and Beckman rushed for 72 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. Joe Hartle added 71 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries.
 
The Johnnies rushed for 494 yards in all and held Emporia to just 108. The offensive totals ended at 535 yards for SJU and 204 for the Fighting Presbies.
 
"Of course, I never dreamed of this," said Gagliardi, whose team was just the second from the MIAC to advance to the NAIA playoffs, which began in 1956 (Gustavus fell 41-12 to Arizona State in 1958), in the Times afterward. "Anytime there are 11 men on the field against you, they've got a chance to beat you. That's all I could think about before the game.
 
"But it was really great, wasn't it? You work hard for a game and set a lot of plans for it and then when it comes out like this, you can't help but feel pretty satisfied."
 
The win set up a showdown with Prairie View A&M in the national championship game two weeks later. The Panthers boasted a roster featuring a number of players who went on to great professional success, including NFL Hall of Famer Ken Houston and wide receiver Otis Taylor, who led the Kansas City Chiefs over the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV a few years later.
 
But SJU pulled off a shocking upset, winning 33-27 before a crowd of 12,220 and delivering the first of Gagliardi's four national titles.
 
"We went through a lot," Ken Roering, an All-American receiver on that team, said in 2019. "But we pulled even closer together as a result of that. And we helped to establish a tradition that John was able to build into a dynasty that endures to this day."

20 years ago (2003)
A day after being named the winner of the 2003 Gagliardi Trophy, SJU senior wide receiver Blake Elliott carried the ball 15 times out of the backfield for 136 yards and a touchdown as the Johnnies defeated Linfield (Ore.) 31-25 in an NCAA Division III national quarterfinal on Dec. 6 at Clemens Stadium.

45 years ago (1978)
Sophomore Pete Germscheid and junior Dan Quinn each won three matches as the SJU wrestling team finished as runner-up at the Terry Haws Invitational held on Dec. 2 at the Warner Palaestra.

The Johnnies beat Pillsbury Baptist 53-0 and Upper Iowa 23-20 before falling to Southwest Minnesota State 26-13 in the championship match.

75 years ago (1948)
The SJU basketball team's matchup against Carleton on Dec. 1 was moved to St. Cloud Tech High School to accommodate the larger crowd expected, given the game was preceded by the St. Cloud branch of the SJU Alumni Association's annual stand-up dinner.

85 years ago (1938)
The Saint John's community mourned the loss of Fr. Virgil Michel, the dean of Saint John's University, who died at age 48 of an infection early on the morning of Nov. 26.

Fr. Walter Reger was named acting dean after his passing.