Nov. 9, 2007

By Jim Sumner
theACC.com

Few high-profile college sports teams are more closely associated with one coach than Florida State football and Bobby Bowden. After all, Bowden took over the reins in Tallahassee in 1976. You remember 1976. Gerald Ford was president, Rocky was the No. 1 movie, and record albums went for $5.99. It's been a long time.

But the Seminoles had their moments prior to Bowden becoming head coach. The best of the pre-Bowden years was 1964, when Florida State erupted into the national spotlight with a high-octane passing attack and a rock-ribbed defense.

Florida State came into college football relatively late. A women's college until 1946, the school started its football program in 1947 and went 0-5 in its inaugural season. After some growing pains, it began to dominate the small-college ranks, defeating Wofford in the 1950 Cigar Bowl. (The Cigar Bowl was held in Tampa, in case you're wondering.) The Seminoles moved into the big time in 1952 and gradually upgraded the program.

The biggest upgrade came when 40-year-old LSU assistant Bill Peterson took over as head coach for the 1960 season. Peterson - who died in 1993 - summed up the difficulties facing his young program. "The fact is, when I came to Florida State, we had no male alumni over 40. Since Tallahassee was a small city of about 50,000, few alumni were still in the city. The school was independent and therefore had neither a winning tradition nor an identification with a conference."

Peterson became known for such malapropisms as instructing his team to "pair up in groups of threes and line up in a circle," or "line up alphabetically by height." Steve Tensi, his quarterback in 1964, says that Peterson "was so enthusiastic, so wrapped up in what he was doing, that sometimes his mouth would get ahead of his brain. But we always knew what he meant."

Peterson brought more than garbled syntax to Florida State. He also brought a pro style passing game to a college world still largely in the thralls of three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust. Tensi recalls Peterson bringing in San Diego Chargers coach Sid Gilman to Tallahassee for high-level instruction in the passing game. Peterson also had a knack for finding promising coaching talent. His assistants at Florida State included Bill Parcells, Joe Gibbs, and Bowden, who assisted at FSU from 1963 through 1965.

Florida State had its moments before 1964, including a win over Tennessee in 1958 under Tom Nugent, a 3-3 tie against Florida in 1961, and wins over Georgia in 1961 and 1962. But the losses equaled or surpassed the wins, as Florida State was unable to achieve sustained excellence.

Until 1964. Peterson had a talented group of seniors, including Tensi, a strong-armed quarterback from Cincinnati, his favorite targets Fred Biletnikoff and Don Floyd, and center Jack Edwards.

On the other side of the ball, Florida State featured a dominant defensive front known as the "Magnificent Seven", or sometimes the "Seven Magnificents." George D'Alessandro, Frank Pennie, Jack Shinholser, Avery Sumner, Max Wettstein, Bill McDowell, and Dick Herman comprised the seven. The defensive backs became known as the "Forgotten Four."

The Magnificent Seven and the Forgotten Four posted a trio of shutouts to open the season. Miami fell 14-0, TCU 10-0, and New Mexico State 36-0. The first two wins were on the road. Biletnikoff exploded out of the blocks, with nine catches and a pair of touchdowns against a Miami team quarterbacked by his younger brother Bob.

Fred Biletnikoff had been a solid player as a sophomore and junior, playing both offense and defense, as did everyone in 1962 and 1963. He even scored on a 99-yard interception return in a win over Miami in 1963. The NCAA relaxed substitution rules the following season, permitting unlimited substitutions as long as the clock was stopped. Since the clock always stopped on changes of possession, this allowed teams to have distinct offensive and defensive teams.

Free to be a specialist for the first time, Biletnikoff became a great receiver. The 6'5 Tensi was a prime beneficiary of Biletnikoff's skills. "He wasn't that big and he wasn't that fast," Tensi recalls, "but every time I looked down field, he was open and every time I threw him the ball, he caught it. He ran great routes, could jump, and caught the ball like he had glue on his hands."

Bobby Bowden was Biletnikoff's receivers coach but deflects credit for his development. Bowden said, "Well, I wish it was the coaching, but he was a natural. When I came down here, I coached the wide receivers. He was a defensive back but he could really catch the ball. Our offensive coordinator, Bill Crutchfield, made a receiver out of him and he was just a natural."

Florida State's first big test was October 10 against Kentucky. It was Homecoming. The undefeated Wildcats were coming off a big win over Auburn and were ranked fifth in the AP poll.

The result was an epic beat-down. Tensi hit Biletnikoff with 51- and 8-yard touchdown passes, while halfback Phil Hooper scored on a pair of short runs. It was 27-0 at the half, 48-0 when Kentucky scored with 30 seconds left, only after Florida State fumbled a punt inside its 10. It took Kentucky four plays to travel six yards. The final was 48-6.

Tensi feels "Kentucky wasn't prepared for the Tallahassee heat. October in Tallahassee is like July anywhere else. You could see Kentucky just wilt. By the time they had completed their warm-ups, they were finished."

The shocking upset propelled Florida State into the AP poll at No. 10 - the AP poll only went 10 deep in those days. It was the first time Florida State had been nationally ranked.

The Seminoles continued their winning ways with a come-from behind win at Georgia. The Bulldogs led 14-10 late when Tensi connected with Biletnikoff for a 20-yard touchdown. It was Biletnikoff's eighth catch of the day, his third on the winning drive, including a catch on fourth-and-five.

Florida State's winning streak came to an end in a perplexing visit to Blacksburg. Peterson's team out-gained Virginia Tech 423 yards to 191 but couldn't put the ball in the end zone. Tensi recalls, "We could move the ball all we wanted up to about their 20. It was easy. They couldn't stop us. But then something would go wrong."

The visitors turned the ball over three times and lost the ball on downs several other times. The Hokies flummoxed Florida State on a tackle-eligible play when Bob Schweikert hit Eric Johnson for a score in the second period. Schweikert finished off the `Noles with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown runs. Tensi passed for 288 yards and Biletnikoff caught a school-record 11 passes for 182 yards, but the scoreboard read Virginia Tech 20, Florida State 11.

Tensi says, "This one brought us back to reality. We were getting a little full of ourselves."

Florida State got back on track with a 34-0 win over Southern Mississippi but stumbled again on the road, being held to a tie against 2-4 Houston. Florida State led 13-0 but Houston put together a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives, missing the second PAT to preserve the 13-13 deadlock. Florida State had a chance to win late but place-kicker Les Murdock - who had connected earlier from 34 and 25 yards - missed from 24.

North Carolina State fell 28-6, putting FSU at 7-1-1 with only Florida remaining.

It would be a considerable understatement to say that Florida and Florida State had a tense relationship in those days. It took the state legislature and Governor LeRoy Collins to compel Florida to play its upstart siblings. The first six games were in Gainesville. Florida won them all, except for the 1961 tie. But Florida was coming to Tallahassee in 1964, bringing with them the nation's top-ranked pass defense, helmets with "Never FSU, Never" taped on the side, and a private plane that flew over the stadium dragging behind it a banner that read "Never."

The Gators were 5-2. A Gator Bowl bid waited for the winner.

Florida State dodged a bullet early. Florida recovered a fumble deep in FSU territory but lost the ball on downs at the one when Shinholser forced a fumble. Florida State came back, scoring on a spectacular 55-yard Tensi-to-Biletnikoff pass.

Two more FSU drives ended in Murdock field goals. Florida quarterback Tommy Shannon found the FSU defense to be as tough as advertised; the Gators would turn over the ball six times.

Florida switched to its backup, promising sophomore Steve Spurrier. The future Heisman Trophy winner hit Jack Harper with a 35-yard pass that set up a six-yard Harper touchdown run. The extra point made the score 13-7, with about nine minutes left.

Florida gambled on an on-side kick. They lost the gamble, giving Florida State the ball in good field position and setting up Murdock's third field goal. It ended 16-7.

Tensi thinks this is "still one of the biggest wins in school history. It was like a Super Bowl. It put us on the map."

Bowden agrees. "It was very big and something that has to happen if you're going to ever reach the heights you want to reach... to beat your big in-state rival."

In addition to the Cigar Bowl, Florida State had lost to Texas Western in the 1955 Sun Bowl and to Oklahoma State in the 1958 Bluegrass Bowl. The Gator Bowl was a big step up, as was Florida State's opponent, tradition-laden Oklahoma. The Sooners were operating under a major handicap. Four starters, including All-America lineman Ralph Neely and halfback Lance Rentzel, were ruled ineligible for the game for signing undated pro contracts.

Oklahoma needed all of its weapons. Defensive back Howard Ehler gave Florida State the early lead when he picked off an Oklahoma pass and returned it 69 yards for a score. Regular kicker Les Murdock was not eligible for the game and backup Phil Spooner missed the extra point.

Oklahoma came back behind a one-yard run by Joe Kennedy but that was about it for the Sooners. Tensi was intercepted on FSU's first two possessions and says, "I thought it was going to be a long day."

He couldn't have been more mistaken. He and Biletnikoff combined for 15-, 14- and 9-yard touchdown passes just in the second quarter. After Spooner's first PAT miss, the Seminoles elected to go for two-point conversions after all three scores and came up empty all three times. It was 24-7 at the half.

Oklahoma tried to fight back, cutting the lead to 24-13 in the third quarter, but they couldn't stop the passing game. The Associated Press account of the game maintained that Tensi "could have played in a tuxedo without danger of marring it." A 15-yard pass from Tensi to Floyd on the last play of the third quarter and another missed two-point conversion left the score 30-13.

Ironically, Oklahoma had the game's longest pass play, a 95-yard pass from Bernie Fletcher to Ben Hart early in the fourth quarter. At the time, it was the longest pass play in Gator Bowl history. Tensi finished the scoring with his fifth touchdown pass, six yards to Biletnikoff. FSU missed all of its extra points but ended up winning 36-19.

Tensi finished the game completing 23 of 36 passes for 303 yards - all Gator Bowl records at the time - with Biletnikoff hauling in 13 for 192 yards, also a record. Spooner provided balance, rushing for 125 yards. Oklahoma dented the proud Florida State defense for 418 yards, but Florida State piled up 29 first downs and 520 yards.

FSU ended its season 9-1-1. Biletnikoff caught 57 passes, plus 13 more in the Gator Bowl. He became Florida State's first consensus All-American, before going on to a sterling career in the pros. Tensi passed for 1,683 yards, Spooner rushed for 516, and Floyd caught 41 passes.

Peterson never quite duplicated his 1964 success. Florida State dropped to 4-5-1 in 1965 but had winning records the next five seasons, including appearances in the Sun, Gator, and Peach bowls. Peterson left for Rice after the 1970 season when that school offered him the chance to be both head football coach and athletic director.

And of course, Bowden - seasoned by a decade at West Virginia - came back to lead Florida State to its greatest successes. Bowden says, "Coach Peterson was one of the first college coaches to put in the pro offense in college. I think there were about three coaches back in the '60s that started throwing the ball around with two wideouts and he was one of them, so I learned a lot about the passing game" - lessons that were taught and learned in the 1960s and have helped Florida State ever since.

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Jim Sumner's articles on southern sports history have appeared in the ACC Handbook, the ACC Area Sports Journal, Blue Devil Weekly, Inside Carolina, the Wolfpacker, Baseball America, Basketball America, and other publications. His latest book, Tales From the Duke Blue Devils Hardwood, was published in 2005. In his bimonthly column "Looking Back... by Jim Sumner", he will examine the rich history of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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