 |
 The legendary Elmer Layden went 48-16-6 in seven seasons as head coach of the Dukes from 1927-33. |
 |
Duquesne University Football History
The 2008 season marks the opening of an exciting new era as the program has become a scholarship-granting, associate member of the Northeast Conference.
Bowl titles (Festival of Palms in 1934, Orange Bowl in 1937 and ECAC Bowl/Classic in 1995 & 2003), a club football national title (1973), a I-AA mid-major national championship (2003) and Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Football League titles (1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007) are all part of the winning fabric that is Duquesne football.
The most recent chapter of Duquesne's football history was closed in 2007 when the Dukes completed a 14-year run as a member of the MAAC - which was founded as one of the nation's few NCAA Football Championship Subdivision non-scholarship conferences. From 1994 through 2007 the Dukes compiled a 75-9-0 MAAC record which included 11 championships, a 39-game league winning streak that tied the second-longest ever by an NCAA FBS or FCS school (Dec. 23, 1999 to Oct. 28, 2006) and brought home the first national championship in league history in 2003.
Winning, however, is not new to the Duquesne football program.
From its meager beginnings, Duquesne football evolved into a national powerhouse in the late 1920s under the direction of legendary head coach Elmer Layden. Layden, who earned a measure of fame as a player as one of Notre Dame's Four Horsemen, quickly made a name for himself as a head coach. Under Layden, the Dukes posted a 48-16-5 mark from 1927-33, including an undefeated regular season (9-0-1) in 1929. In 1933, Layden's Dukes capped a 9-1-0 regular season by earning a berth in the Festival of Palms Bowl (which would be named the Orange Bowl the next season) where they defeated homestanding Miami (Fla.) 33-7.
Layden, who left Duquesne to take the head coaching job at Notre Dame following the `33 campaign, laid the groundwork for the most successful era in DU history.
In 1936, the Dukes made another national splash when head coach Clipper Smith guided Duquesne to a 7-2-0 regular season and a 13-12 win over Mississippi State in the 1937 Orange Bowl. Boyd Brumbaugh keyed the win with a late-game 72-yard (69 yards in the air) halfback pass to Ernie Hefferle for the winning score. Brumbaugh, an honorable mention All-American, went on to play professionally for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mike Basrak, the standout center for the `36 Dukes, became the first DU player to earn first team All-America honors.
DU finished the 1936 season ranked No. 14 nationally and enjoyed national rankings in the final Associated Press polls of 1939 (No. 10) and 1941 (No. 8) as well.
Former Dukes standout Buff Donelli took over as head coach of his alma mater prior to the 1939 season and posted a four-year record of 29-4-2, highlighted by unbeaten teams in 1939 (8-0-1) and 1941 (8-0-0). Donelli's 1941 Dukes - which finished the regular season as one of three undefeated, untied teams - led the nation in scoring defense, rushing defense and total defense. The 1941 Duquesne defense surrendered just 21 points all season. Only one other team - Mississippi with 21 points allowed in 1959 - has given up 21 or fewer points in a season since. In 1941, Donelli had the distinction of coaching two teams at the same time, as he also coached the Pittsburgh Steelers. Layden, who was by then the commissioner of the NFL, made Donelli choose between the two and Donelli elected to remain at Duquesne.
Duquesne's glory years ended with the onset of World War II, as DU was one of the first schools to cancel football to help with the war effort.
The war sidelined a Duquesne program that was among the nation's elite. From 1933-45, Duquesne (71-22-2, .762) had the sixth-highest winning percentage in the nation behind Alabama, Tennessee, Duke, Fordham and Notre Dame.
Duquesne is noted for establishing numerous "firsts" in collegiate football. Layden is credited with devising the system of hand signals that officials use today. The signal system was put to use for the first time on Nov. 11, 1928, when Duquesne hosted Thiel College at Pitt Stadium. Layden was also the first coach to use two sets of uniform jerseys for home and away contests. In 1929, graduate manager John Holohan conceived the idea of the city's first night game at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. On the evening of November 2 of that year, the Dukes made history by defeating Geneva College, 27-7, in front of more than 27,000 spectators.
After playing football for four years following World War II, Duquesne did not return to the gridiron until 1969 after a group of students formed a team at the club level. DU struggled to a 2-4-0 mark in `69 before Dan McCann took over and quickly made the Dukes a force to be reckoned with. McCann's 1972 Dukes finished the season 7-1-0 and were ranked No. 3 nationally by the National Club Football Association. The next season, Duquesne defeated Mattatuck CC in the National Club Football Championship game at Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Stadium. The title game victory capped a 10-0-0 season for DU. McCann added three more top 10 national finishes before the Dukes elevated to the Division III level prior to the 1979 season.
Following a leave of absence from 1984-87, McCann returned and finished his 19-year career with a 91-74-3 record. McCann is noted as having the third-longest tenure of any coach in Duquesne athletics history behind former rifle coach Dave Cramer (30 years) and Charles "Chick" Davies' 21 years as a head coach of the men's basketball team.
Greg Gattuso, a former standout defensive lineman under Joe Paterno at Penn State in the early 1980s, took over the program in 1993. The `93 season also marked the return of football to the Duquesne campus, as Arthur J. Rooney Athletic Field was dedicated on October 30 of that year.
Gattuso, who finished his 12-year career as the winningest coach in school history with 97 victories, didn't take long to leave his mark on the Duquesne program with conference titles in 1995 and 1996. His `96 squad scored more points (392) than any other team in school history and also became the first varsity team to post an undefeated regular season since 1941. In addition, Gattuso's 1995 and 1996 Dukes reeled off a school-record 19 consecutive wins. Under Gattuso, Duquesne continued to thrive, adding six consecutive titles between 1999 and 2004, including a mid-major National Championship in 2003.
Jerry Schmitt, who served as offensive coordinator for Gattuso's first championship teams, returned to the Bluff from Westminster College to take the reins of the program prior to the 2005 season. In three seasons, Schmitt has guided the Dukes to three MAAC championships and extended the school's streak of consecutive league titles to nine. The 2006 season saw the end of a 39-game MAAC win streak for the Dukes. The 39-game conference win streak ranks tied for second among all FBS and FCS schools trailing only a 44-game streak by Oklahoma in the Big Eight from 1952-59.
From its days as a national powerhouse, to numerous top 10 rankings as a club team in the 1970s to its emergence as a FCS mid-major force, Duquesne football has always been synonymous with one thing - winning.
HISTORICAL NOTEBOOK
DUKES DOWN NO. 1
Duquesne is one of a few schools that boasts a victory over The Associated Press' top-ranked team. On Oct. 21, 1939 the Dukes, coming off a 7-0 victory over Manhattan at the Polo Grounds, stunned No. 1 Pitt 21-13 at Pitt Stadium. The loss dropped the Panthers - who had claimed an AP national championship in 1937 - to No. 18 the ensuing week. Three weeks later, Pitt severed football relations with Duquesne ending the six-game series which the Panthers led 4-2. According to an AP story in the Nov. 8 New York Times: "No reasons were announced for the break, which became known at a meeting between Athletic Directors Jimmy Hagan of Pitt and Aldo (Buff) Donelli of Duquesne." Duquesne, which split its last four games against its cross-town rival (DU handed 8-1-1 Pitt its lone loss in the Panthers' 1936 national championship season by a 7-0 score) completed the year ranked No. 10 in the final AP poll at 8-0-1. The lone blemish on the Dukes' record was a 10-10 tie at Detroit in the season finale. Pitt finished the year 5-4.
DUQUESNE IN THE FINAL AP POLL
first poll was in 1936
Duquesne finished ranked among the Top 10 teams in the nation twice in a span of three years prior to World War II. The 1936 Dukes defeated Mississippi State in the Orange Bowl, the `39 Duquesne team's tie came in the final game of the season and the 1941 DU team was one of three undefeated, untied teams at the end of the regular season:
1936 8-2-0 No. 14 1939 8-0-1 No. 10 1941 8-0-0 No. 8
PITTSBURGH STEELERS' FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN PLAYER
by Mike Macklin, Senator John Heinz History Center, Feb. 7, 2008 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Fourteen years before Jackie Robinson broke professional baseball's color barrier, Ray Kemp became the first African-American player for the Pittsburgh Steelers - then known as the Pirates. Kemp, a graduate of Cecil High School, planned to go to law school following his graduation from Duquesne University in 1931. But Art Rooney asked Kemp to play for his semipro team, the J.P. Rooneys, while attending law school. When Rooney got the charter for a pro franchise in 1933, Kemp was invited to play, becoming one of just two African Americans in the NFL. Kemp's brief career lasted just four games during the franchise's inaugural season. The following year, Kemp was hired as the head football coach at Bluefield State College in West Virginia, where he led the Blues to an 8-0-1 record in the first of a 39-year coaching career. After Kemp left Pittsburgh in 1934, there were no African-American players in the NFL until 1946.
DUQUESNE AND THE NFL
Duquesne University, which competed at the NCAA's highest level for 31 seasons between 1902 and 1950, has had a total of 22 players drafted by the National Football League. Of the 22 draftees, eight never played in an NFL game. Mike Basrak, the fifth overall pick in the 1937 draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers, was the first DU player drafted. The last time a Duquesne player was drafted was in the 19th round of the 1951 draft when Ralph Longmore was taken by the New York Yanks. In 2003, Duquesne saw two former players make NFL rosters when free agents Leigh Bodden and Josh Rue earned spots on the Cleveland Browns and Arizona Cardinals respectively. Bodden, who was traded to the Detroit Lions in February of 2008, will be entering his sixth season.
Forty-five Dukes have played in the NFL, with a total of 35 suiting up for the Pittsburgh Steelers between 1937 and 1951. Bodden - who has played in 59 games with 38 starts in his first five seasons - became the first Duquesne player to take the field for an NFL game since Al Demao played for the Washington Redskins from 1945-53. Demao was named one of the 70 greatest Redskins of all-time in the fall of 2002.
DU AND THE NFL FAST FACTS
Number of Dukes who have played in the NFL: 45 total
First players to play: Nick DeCarbo and Ray Kemp played for Pittsburgh in 1933. DeCarbo played in 11 games, Kemp in five.
Last to see action in an NFL game: Leigh Bodden (16 games for the Cleveland Browns) in 2007.
Organizations Dukes have played for (last player in parentheses): Arizona (Josh Rue in 2003), Boston (Steve Sinko in 1936), Brooklyn (Joe Setcavage in 1943), Buffalo (George Kisiday in 1948), Chicago (John Rokisky in 1947), Cleveland (Leigh Bodden in 2007), Detroit (George Sirochman in 1944/Leigh Bodden in 2008), Miami (Al Wukits in 1946), New York Yanks (John Rokisky in 1948), Philadelphia (John Binotto in 1942), Pittsburgh (Chuck Mehelich in 1951), Washington (Al Demao in 1953).
DU AND THE DRAFT FAST FACTS
First player drafted: Mike Basrak, 1937- 1st round (5th overall) by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Most recent draftee: Ralph Longmore, 1951 - 19th round (227th overall) by the New York Yanks - DNP.
Most Dukes drafted in one year: Six in 1943.
First round picks (2): Mike Basrak (1937, 5th overall by Pittsburgh) and Boyd Brumbaugh (1938, 3rd overall by Brooklyn).
Longest stretch without a pick: 57 years (1951 to current).
Draft picks by team (22 total): Pittsburgh (13), Brooklyn (2), Cleveland (2), New York Yanks (2), Washington (2), Chicago (1).
|
|
 |
