COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Homecoming traditionally comes in the fall.
 
But fans of the Saint John's football team could have been forgiven for celebrating it in April 75 years ago.
 
That's because the man who brought Johnnie football to the top of the MIAC was back on campus resuming his old post.
 
Joe Benda – who led SJU to the first three conference titles in program history during a seven-season tenure as head coach from 1930-36 – returned to the job after spending four seasons as an assistant coach under Elmer Layden at Notre Dame.
 
"Welcome back, Joe Benda," wrote Ralph Robeck in the April 24 edition of The Record. "This little phrase voices the sentiments of the entire student body, faculty and alumni. We know that Benda has the qualities and ability of a 'big time' coach. And, as the Twin Cities newspapers so rightly commented on his return to SJU, it is a break not only for Saint John's, but for the whole college conference as well. 
 
"His name, past achievements here at Collegeville and more recently at Notre Dame, plus his traditionally strong, colorful teams should prove a good drawing card all around the loop by adding more zest and new interest in Saint John's games."
 
Benda, a Duluth native, left SJU in the spring of 1937 to take the job with the Fighting Irish, the team for which he played collegiately under legendary head coach Knute Rockne in the 1920s. 
 
He immediately made an impression as a member of Layden's staff when Notre Dame came to Minneapolis and edged head coach Bernie Bierman's powerhouse Gophers 7-6 in the fall of 1937.
 
"The Irish knew just about where every play was going to strike and there was an eager committee on hand to welcome the Gopher ball carrier," read one account of the game. "Joe Benda, (the) assistant coach whose duty it was to chart the Minnesota plays, can take a bow. 
 
"He certainly provided Elmer Layden with as near a line on the opposition as any coach ever had to work with, and having the idea of the style they were to meet, Notre Dame took full advantage of it."
 
But Layden – a member of Notre Dame's famed 'Four Horsemen' backfield as a player, stepped down after the 1940 season to take over as commissioner of the NFL.
 
That meant Benda was on the market and a return to SJU seemed the best fit.
 
"I am very happy to return to Saint John's again to work with the faculty and the boys in the reorganized program of athletics," he wrote the school's dean, Fr. Walter Reger, in his acceptance letter. "I look forward, also, to a resumption of the fine relations I had with the coaches of the Minnesota conference in the past. These recollections, coupled with the deep personal affection I have for Saint John's, make me very pleased to resume my former duties."
 
But Benda's second stay didn't last long due to circumstances beyond his control. 
 
The U.S. entered World War II in December of 1941, and by the fall of 1943, according to "Scoreboard: A History of Athletics at Saint John's University," the student body had shrunk to less than 150. Most of those left on campus were physical deferments, studying for the priesthood or under 18, meaning SJU was unable to field a team that season.
 
Benda eventually accepted a position as an assistant coach for the NFL's Cleveland Rams during the 1944 season but returned to SJU in 1945. He then coached five more seasons, including in 1949 when he was already waging a battle against Hodgkin's lymphoma.
 
"Last fall the college authorities put it up to Joe," wrote legendary sportswriter Red Smith, who roomed with Benda as a sophomore at Notre Dame. "Did he want to rest or try to coach? What the heck, he'd never wanted to do anything except coach.
 
"He wasn't able to get to practice every day. But his green team of sophomores, who had been 'a whale of a freshman team' kept on winning, and in the final game met St. Thomas for the state college conference championship."
 
The Johnnies, who entered that game massive underdogs, hung tough before falling 28-27 before a crowd of 7,000 in Collegeville, just missing a share of the MIAC crown. 
 
"When the season opened no one could predict whether Benda's illness would allow him to see the last game," wrote Jim Byrne in the Minneapolis Star. "But never was a word mentioned at any time or at any place at Saint John's that Joe might not make it. There were days when Joe didn't come to practice, finding it easier to rest in his home on the campus. He came when he could and the players battled against great odds to give him the best record they could.
 
"As the season lengthened and the chill thickened the fall afternoon air, Benda found it taxed his strength even to wear a coat to practice. But he didn't give up and the boys didn't either."
 
The loss to the Tommies marked Benda's final game. He passed away at age 45 at his home in Collegeville on June 20, 1950, and is buried in the Saint John's Abbey Cemetery overlooking Lake Sagatagan.
 
"He loved football and he loved Saint John's and the boys who went to school there," wrote Frank Farrington in the St. Cloud Times. "And what those football players would do for him! A great writer perhaps could describe the feelings of Joe Benda and of those surrounding him in that final season of his coaching career, during all of which he knew he was going to die; the grim loyalty of his players – how they gave their blood for him and fought for him and contributed of their own small possessions in the hope that they could help make his last months a little happier.
 
"There was no question at any time about the football knowledge and personal integrity of Benda. He was one of the greatest assets St. John's University has had. He was fearless, strong and brilliant."

25 years ago (2001)
The Johnnie golf team – ranked No. 3 in the nation in NCAA Division III – opened the spring portion of the schedule with a third-place finish at the 20-team Buena Vista Classic April 13 and 14 in Storm Lake, Iowa.
 
Matt McGovern and Nate Proshek each shot a two-round score of 149 to tie for 10th place.
 
50 years ago (1976)
The SJU baseball team – under the direction of first-year head coach Denny Lorsung – swept Hamline 3-1 and 6-3 in a doubleheader on the road in St. Paul on April 6 to open MIAC play.
 
Tom Witt threw a two-hitter to pick up the win in game one. Jeff Norman was 4-for-4 at the plate in game two and Hank Foehrenbacher added a 355-foot, two-run home run.

90 years ago (1936)
Senior Tom Rowan – a Thief River Falls native – returned for his third season as the top singles player on the SJU tennis team as the Johnnies began practice for the 1936 season.