Throwback Thursday - 1966

Bob Mitten's first full season at the helm of the Golden Rams was a successful one. In its history, West Chester had been to five bowl games and three conference championship games, but it had never done both in the same season. Until 1966.

The campaign opened at Ithaca which was coming off an 8-0 season the year prior. The Golden Rams came home from the Finger Lakes with a 13-3 victory. West Chester then picked up a home win over Shippensburg which was then in the western division. Three straight wins over division rivals East Stroudsburg, Millersville and Bloomsburg had the Golden Rams sitting at 5-0. A trip to nearby Villanova (1-3) resulted in a 15-0 loss. Despite being significantly undersized on the lines, West Chester held Villanova to -20 yards rushing and just two first downs in the first half and held the Wildcats scoreless until the final five minutes of the game. Then after an interception got returned to the Golden Ram 15-yard line, Villanova got their final score with less than a minute left. The Wildcats would go on to finish the season 6-3.

West Chester would then romp over division foes Kutztown, Mansfield and Cheyney by a combined score of 122-7, sending them to the Pennsylvania State College Athletic Conference Championship Game against Clarion. On a frigid November afternoon in West Chester, despite dominating the game statistically, the Golden Rams found themselves trailing 21-6 midway through the third quarter. But a one-yard touchdown run by Bert Nye, a 25-yard touchdown pass from Jim Haynie to Don Wilkinson and another touchdown run by Nye, this time from 12 yards out, put West Chester up 26-21 with 2:25 to play. However Clarion went 68 yards in 71 seconds for the game-winning score and the PSCAC crown.

Jim Haynie hands off to Herb Landis

But the 1966 season was not over as West Chester was invited to Orlando, FL to play in the Tangerine Bowl, now known as the Citrus Bowl. Their opponent would be Morgan State which went undefeated in both 1965 and 1966 and was riding a 17-game winning streak. The Bears won their eight games in 1966 by an average score of 43-3, and five of their opponents failed to score against them. As expected, it was a defensive battle with West Chester outgaining Morgan State 226-206 for the game, but the Bears held only a 7-0 lead into the fourth quarter. However, Morgan State got a pick-six with three and a half minutes left to secure the win. The Golden Rams tacked on a Haynie to Wilkinson touchdown with 31 seconds left, but the two-point conversion attempt failed for a final score of 14-6. Morgan State's Willie Lanier, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame 20 years later, was named MVP for the game.

West Chester claimed seven (Don Wilkinson, Mutt Hyatt, Bruce Heller, Frank Mellor, Ron Smeltzer, Greg Hilnes, Bert Nye) of the 13 spots on the All-PSAC offense and four (Brian Mulhern, Ray Kurowski, Fred McKonley, Dennis Shank) of the 15 on the defense.