Today in ASU Athletics History - Oct. 10

Today is my son's 8 year old birthday, so I figured that I needed to check into what has happened on this date in ASU athletics history.  I reviewed the football games played on this date and came up with, well very little.  However there were some interesting things that happened on October 10th throughout the A-State football timeline.

First I found that Arkansas State has played 9 games on October 10th.   ASU has 2 wins, 4 losses and 3 ties on this date. In one of the wins the Indians (1981 - we were still the Indians) set a record for the best passing defense in a game.  A-State held the Southwestern Louisiana (now UL-Lafayette) Ragin' Cajuns to a total negative 3 yards passing!   The Tribe went on to defeat USL 14-3 under Larry Lacewell and finished the season 6-5.

The other win happened in 1970.  It was the second home game of the season, but the first in Jonesboro.  Yes in 1970 A-State opened the season with a home game in Little Rock.  But in this opening Conference game the Indians took on Trinity University out of San Antonio Texas.  The following is the summary of the October 10th game in 1970...

Tough Sleding Before The Home Folk

ASU 21 - TU 14

The Southland Conference opener was also ASU's first Jonesboro appearance of 1970  and a near capacity crowd was on hand to applaud the nation's No. 1 college division team.  An early injury to Calvin Harrell gave Johnnie Carr his initial opportunity and the DeWitt junior responded with a 74-yard toss and 122 yards rushing to pace the win over surprisingly tough Trinity.  Trinity tied it 14-14 late in the third, but Carr sparked his mates 76-yards in nine plays for the clincher early in the fourth period.

The 1970 Arkansas State team went on to finish 11-0 and won the College Division National Championship.  The team was the first ASU team to go undefeated and untied (I'll get to this later) and was named National Champions by the AP Writer's Poll, the UP Coaches' Poll and the Washington Touchdown Club.  Head Coach Bennie Ellender was named the National Coach of the Year.  The 1970 season had 5 All-Americans - Guard - Bill Phillips, Tailback - Calvin Harrell, Defensive Back - Dennis Meyer, Linebacker - Gary Cleve and Guard - Wayne Dorton.

Back to the undefeated and untied seasons.  In ASU history there have been 4 seasons where the football squad has gone undefeated.  Two of those seasons were undefeated and untied years - 1970 and 1975.  The other two seasons were years of zero losses but a couple of ties both seasons.  In 1953, head coach Forrest England took A-State to an 8-0-2 season.  In 1964, coach Ellender led the Indians to a 7-0-2 season.  What is so interesting to me is that 3 of those four seasons had a game on October 10th.  The aforementioned 1970 win over Trinity and then 2 ties.   In 1953, on October 10th, Arkansas State College tied Florence State (now North Alabama) 7-7 and in 1964 on the same date, the Indians tied Arlington State (now Texas-Arlington) 7-7.  

3 of the 4 undefeated seasons in A-State history had an October 10th game.  I have routinely been telling everyone that the 2014 season was going to be special at ASU because it would be Malzahn's 3rd year at ASU.  This amazing crop of freshmen that are playing right now will be juniors and Gus could have his first quarterback to ever be in his 2nd year in the Malzahn offense in 2014.  However, October 10, 2015 is a Saturday!  Maybe I need to move my prediction of an undefeated season from 2014 to 2015.