Throwback Thursday - 1985

Danny Hale was in just his second season as head coach of the Golden Rams, and the youth movement was on. The offense was led by freshman quarterback Al Nielmela and his top receiver that season was another freshman, Billy Hess. The other main receiving threat was Jim Sheehan who was only a sophomore and midway through the season, Hale went to sophomore Jason Sims at running back. Providing leadership were the team captains: linebacker John Mininno and offensive tackle Gray Schippang. In 1986, Schippang was drafted in the 8th round by the Minnesota Vikings. All six of these players have since been inducted into the Killinger Football Hall of Fame.

West Chester opened the season with a narrow 7-3 loss at Indiana, they then easily handled Division III Glassboro State, now Rowan University, at Farrell Stadium. After tipping Kutztown on the road and dropping the Delaware game, the Golden Rams ripped off four straight PSAC East wins. In its final non-league game of the season, West Chester then beat Lehigh 20-17 for the program's only win over that Division IAA team in school history. Ironically, Lehigh defeated both Indiana and Delaware, the two teams that topped the Golden Rams up to that point in the season. This set up the final week of the regular season.

Sitting at 7-2 overall and 5-0 in the PSAC East, West Chester traveled to long-time rival Bloomsburg which was 9-0 overall and 5-0 in the division. The winner would advance to the PSAC Championship Game and, for West Chester, a rematch with Indiana. Regardless of which three schools it was, the winner of the PSAC Championship game would most likely get its first ever NCAA Playoff berth.

As expected at Redman Stadium in November, it was bitterly cold. But this game had the added feature of a drenching rain. In 1985, there was no artificial turf, so the game was played in freezing cold mud. The Golden Rams held a 6-2 lead when the Huskies executed a play action fake that caught the West Chester defense off guard and resulted in the only offensive touchdown of the game and a 8-6 lead. West Chester had their chances after that. One sure touchdown pass was dropped in the end zone and a later pass into the end zone was picked off. But the score would stand and West Chester's season ended. Among the 11 fumbles in the game was a bobbled WCU snap that was recovered in the end zone for a Bloomsburg safety and the difference in the final score.

The Friars sponsored a live Golden Ram mascot

The scoreboard was behind North end zone

John Mininno
Joe Walsh
Gary Schippang

The Commodore 128 was all the rage, twice as good as the well-known Commodore 64. Complete with an external 5 1/4" floppy drive and it was expandable to 512K of RAM!!!