COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Tudor Flintham '06 has gone to have a lot of success as a head soccer coach.
 
But the traits that have helped make that possible were already in place 20 years ago during his senior season at Saint John's.
 
Nowhere was that more evident than in the moments before the Johnnies took the field to face Macalester in the MIAC championship game on a cold and wet evening on Nov. 5, 2005 in St. Paul.
 
Flintham was the leading scorer and one of just two seniors on a roster that included 16 freshmen and 12 sophomores. 
 
So it fell to him to address the team.
 
"I still remember my speech," said Flintham, a Norwich, England native who took over as head coach at his alma mater earlier this year after leading Gustavus Adolphus to five conference titles in six seasons at the helm there.
 
"It was really quiet. We weren't nervous, but there was a tension in the room before we went out. I just said 'Lads, if you're looking at the guys around you, you're probably thinking you're going to be good for years and years. But you will never have a better opportunity to win a championship than you do right now. So let's go!'"
 
The Johnnies heeded that call, hanging with a Scots team that had won six of the past 10 MIAC championships all the way through a scoreless regulation, then emerging with a 1-0 victory when Flintham scored the game-winner in the 97th minute of overtime.
 
It was sweet revenge for SJU, which lost 3-2 at Macalester in double overtime during the regular season.
 
"We walked away from that game thinking we should have won," Flintham said. "There were some opportunities we didn't take advantage of. So it was a good feeling to go down there and get the win with everything on the line."
 
The victory earned the Johnnies the MIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs, marking the first time SJU had qualified for the NCAA field since 1990.
 
But even getting to the conference title game wasn't easy. The Johnnies, who finished third in the regular season standings, had to go on the road to face second-seeded Gustavus in the semifinals – a team they'd played to a 2-2 two-overtime tie on Sept. 24 in Collegeville. 
 
Round two brought more of the same as the game was scoreless through regulation and two overtime periods. That meant it was decided on penalty kicks and SJU came out on top, 4-3.
 
"I went first and I actually missed the first penalty kick of my career," Flintham recalled. "Fortunately, the other guys came through."
 
One of those guys was freshman Tyler Kodet '09, who tied for the team-lead in goals with Flintham with 11 that season. It was Kodet who'd scored the game-winner in the 94th minute to lift the Johnnies past St. Thomas 2-1 in overtime on Oct. 25 in St. Paul.
 
In all, SJU – which finished the season 14-3-3 overall – played seven overtime games that fall.
 
"We had a lot of younger guys," said Kodet, who now resides in Rochester. "I think there were about seven or 10 freshmen who played a lot of minutes. Tudor and Dan Swift '06 were the only two seniors. We grew as a team as that season went along with some of the close games we played."
 
That trend continued in the first round of NCAA play against the University of Chicago. The Johnnies led 2-1 when Chicago's Giordano Palloni scored on a free kick with 33 seconds left in regulation.
 
Then, in the second overtime, Ryan Ehle's goal ended SJU's season.
 
"We have a young team and we were 33 seconds away from advancing in the national tournament," SJU longtime head coach Pat Haws '72 told the St. Cloud Times afterward. "That stings and our guys are going to carry that with them the next 12 months. But that's a good motivation to have."
 
And 20 years later, Kodet still looks back on that season with fondness.
 
"It was an amazing group to be part of," he said. "We had a lot of fun hanging out together and making some really great memories."
 
Memories like the one Flintham still has of his game-winner to deliver a conference playoff title at Macalester.
 
"Everything settled perfectly and I knew all I had to do was make clean contact," he said. "There was nothing sneaky or pretty about it. I just volleyed the ball into the back of the net. Then, the next thing I knew, a couple hundred people were running on to the pitch celebrating.
 
"It was a pretty special moment."

70 years ago (1955)
Joggin' Jim Lehman, as he was dubbed in the St. Cloud Times, rushed for touchdowns of 91, 34 and 44 yards as the SJU football team rolled past Wisconsin-Eau Claire 33-6 in Collegeville.

He also converted after all three of those scores, giving him a then-school-record, single-season total of 109 points (he was held scoreless in the regular-season finale against Augustana, S.D., the following week).

In all, the senior carried the ball 13 times for 195 yards, an average of 15 yards per carry.

90 years ago (1935)
The onset of cold weather meant the opening of the bowling alleys in Benet Hall.

"Every day from 3:30 to 6, and from after supper till the beginning of the study period at 7:30, Benet Hall resounds with the sound of rolling balls and the clash of pins in the pit," The Record reported in its Nov. 14 edition. "All the old-timers of the sport are awaiting the time when their thumbs will get calloused so they may attempt again to better their last year's record.

"Merle Rouillard is general manager of the recreation hall. Under the direction of Frank Peck, the manager of the alleys, an almost completely new group of pin setters is learning the trick of putting pins on spots. Some of them have been wearing bandages because of their inexperience, but they're learning fast. Joseph Kelso and Lawrence Hennes are Peck's assistants. There's great excitement in bowling circles and judging by the zest with which the sport has started, a great season is with us."