What was the most memorable sports team during your time on campus?

As part of his research for the S&T 150th history book, Larry Gragg, Curators’ Distinguished Teaching Professor emeritus of history and political science, asked you to share your memories. Here are a few of your answers:

“No question: the 1959, ’60, ’61 rifle team. We fired against the best and won almost every time. Our equipment was worn out, the ammo was not the best, but we still hit Xs. I know of no other Rolla team with a better record.”

Chuck Dohogne, MetE’61
Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

“The Miner football teams of the two seasons described in the 1950 and 1951 Rollamo were the most memorable for me. Playing in the ROTC band on the sidelines, it seemed perfectly natural to have a championship team under the leadership of coach Gale Bullman. Quoting from the Rollamo, ‘The conference record of the 1949 Miners is the record of a true champion. Meeting and decisively defeating every other team in the Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the Miners are undisputed titleholders.’ The next year, the Rollamo reported: ‘This year in Miner gridiron history may be proclaimed the most successful one since 1914. The Miners broke a 35-year jinx by defeating the Washington University Bears. This is the second straight year that Rolla has taken the MIAA conference crown. It is also the first time a Miner eleven has participated in a Bowl game, this year playing in the Corn Bowl against Illinois Normal in Bloomington, Ill., on Thanksgiving Day of 1950. The Miners won, 7-6.’”

Bill Patterson, PetE’53
San Antonio, Texas

“The basketball team traveled to Springfield, Mo., to play a game in March 1971. I went as the color announcer for radio station KMSM 88.5 as we broadcast the game that night. And for the first time in many years we won! As a celebration of major proportion, the team was taken to a steakhouse for a great meal — and we were invited since we also were on the team bus.

Coach (Billy) Key was a class act.”

David G. Sizemore, EE’71
San Diego, Calif.

“To me the swim team was the most memorable team — a bunch of rank amateurs with no scholarships who nonetheless did very well in MIAA swim competitions. I knew the 1973–74 team the best. Swimmer Allen Fails (ME’74) was a friend of mine, a fellow ME, and a guy who shared my cynical, sarcastic sense of humor. I also knew James Entwistle, (PetE’74) known as ‘Twit.’ Some of them lived together in an old white house southeast of campus. One night in October 1973, nine of us piled into Entwistle’s metallic green 1964 Chevy Impala station wagon to see The Grateful Dead at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, my first big name rock concert and a night I will never forget, both for the music and the crowd. We made it back OK. The football and basketball teams got all the press. But the swim team members were the best guys to know.”

Ron Corradin, ME’74
St. Paul, Minn.

“UMR wrestling.”

Doug Eden, PetE’88
Chatham, Ill.

“1956 Miner football team.”

Ken Jobe, GGph’60, CE’66
Virginia Beach, Va.