Quarterback Dave Bennett and Head Coach Ted Dunn, 1965
Description:
A photograph of Springfield College quarterback Dave Bennett and head coach Ted Dunn during the 1965 season. The team finished the 1965 season undefeated winning all 9 of their games. In the only undefeated season in Springfield College football history, the chiefs outscored opponents 252-87. In one of their “best games of the year”, they defeated Northeastern with a final score of 16-14 in front of 12,000 fans. The team was named New England College Division Champions and Dunn was named New England College Division Coach of the Year. In 1890, Amos Alonzo Stagg, a Yale all-American and major league baseball pitching prospect, came to Springfield College (then known as the YMCA Training School) and started the college’s first football team. A grad student in a one-year program to become a YMCA Physical Director, he served as Coach, Manager, Captain, and Player on this original team often called “Stagg’s Eleven” or “The Stubby Christians.” The team finished the first season with a record of 5 wins and 3 losses, playing Yale strongly in the first indoor football game ever played in Madison Square Garden. Among other greats to coach the football team was James Huff McCurdy. McCurdy came to Springfield in 1895 and headed the team till 1917. He is largely responsible for helping to grow the Springfield College football team’s reputation and starting a long tradition of being feared by other colleges, in addition to his innovative work in exercise physiology. Later, Oscar “Ossie” Solem, famous Syracuse University coach, coached the team from 1946-1957.
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