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There are few things more likely
to stir passions than a top-ten list. Any compilation of great achievements
will please some with what it includes, and potentially offend others
with what it leaves off.
And when you’re talking athletics,
feelings run even deeper.
So it is with some trepidation
that Crimson & Gold unveils its highly subjective list of top-ten
Bulldog sports moments.
As editor, I have tried to be
inclusive of as many sports as possible only one team has more than
a single entry in the list. Also, team sports and individual achievements
compete against each other although that’s like comparing soccer
balls and track shoes.
As so often happens with memory
even institutional memory recent events are more heavily represented
than those further in the past. There’s only one listing here from
before 1970.
Please let us know what great
Bulldog moments we’ve missed. We’ll run a follow-up article with reader
responses. If you have copies of articles or photos you can share,
that’s even better. Until then, number 10 is…
#10 - Volleyball vs. Northern Michigan
University
Oct. 10, 1981, Ewigleben Sports Complex
There are plenty of ways a sports
event can be memorable great plays, close scores or unique venues;
for example, what team doesn’t want to inaugurate its new “house”
with a win?
The first-ever match held in
Ferris’ new sports complex mini-volleyball arena looked at first like
an easy win for the Bulldogs. They took the first two games 15-7 and
15-0. Then the momentum shifted to the Wildcats as they took the next
two games from the Bulldogs 15-12 and 16-14. In the final game the
Bulldogs found them down 14-8 before the tide turned again.
Junior Linda Mix served the game
back to 14-12, and sophomore Sue Kutko then served the rest of the
way to victory. Coach Kathy DeBoer cited freshman Michelle Patt for
clutch play off the bench late in the going.
#9 - Wrestling, 1989 NCAA Championships
California, Penn.
Under coach (and current Professor
of Optometry) James Miller, the Bulldog wrestling squad finished second
to Portland State at the 1989 NCAA Division-II championships. Kurt
Johnson placed 8th in the 158-pound class; Gary Hoopes finishes 7th
at 150-pounds; Doug Chapman placed 3rd at 190 pounds; Brad Morris
nailed down second place at 167-pounds; and Doug Mooney also finished
second at 177-pounds.
The Portland State squad who
bests the Bulldogs goes on to defend its title in 1990. Ferris, meanwhile,
has its best-ever dual-meet record in 1989-90 at 9-1.
#8 - Lynn Olson AAU Women’s Indoor National Championships
Feb. 23, 1973, New York City
“Ferris State College freshman
Lynn Olson, a member of the Bulldogs’ unbeaten cross country team
last fall, won the women’s one-mile walk of the huge national AAU
Indoor Track Championships here Friday.
“Miss Olson, a freshman from
Lincoln park who was second in an AAU sanctioned 1,500-meter walk
last summer, grabbed the blue ribbon this time with a 7:37 clocking
while bettering approximately 20 of the nation’s top female walkers.
“The nation-wide meet attracted
close to 2,000 of the nation’s premier track athletes to New York’s
famed Madison Square Garden.” (Big Rapids Pioneer, Saturday, Feb.
24, 1973).
The New York Times reports Olson’s
time as 7 minutes, 39 seconds, well ahead of second-place finisher
Ellen Minkow with a time of 8:06.6.
#7 - Men’s Basketball vs. Grand Valley State University
Feb. 7, 2005, Wink Arena
A great rivalry helps make for
a great sporting event. Through the years there have been many memorable
games played between Ferris and GVSU. Going to overtime doesn’t hurt,
either. Or when your team wins.
With just .1 second left in regulation,
Carlton Epps scored on a putback to tie the game at 69-69. Epps and
twin brother Cory combined for 23 points in regulation, while GVSU
went just 14-for-25 at the free throw line, including two misses with
less than 10 seconds left to set the stage for overtime.
At the end of that five-minute
overtime period, the Bulldogs’ 5-foot-6 point guard Dennis Springs
spun around the Lakers’ 6-10 center Calistus Eziukwu at the buzzer
to give Ferris the 76-75 win.
Springs’ heroics had two immediate
results. It caused the crowd of more than 1,100 to carry him off the
court on its shoulders, and it catapulted the Bulldogs into a tie
at the top of the North Division of the GLIAC.
#6 - Corey Bouyer 1970 NAIA National
Championship
When the Bulldogs placed 11th
nationally in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
championship in 1970, they did it on the strength of Corey Bouyer’s
18 points alone. That same year, Bouyer set an NAIA record with a
time of 50.74 in the 440-yard intermediate hurdles and was runner-up
in the 120-yard high hurdles a feat he repeated from his 1969 performance.
Bouyer, who was chosen as Ferris “Greatest Athlete” in 1970 and inducted
into the inaugural Bulldog Hall of Fame class of 2000, is the only
NAIA champion in school history.
#5 - Men’s Hockey Team def. Bowling
Green State University 3-2 in overtime
March 2, 1991, Big Rapids, Mich.
You could make up an entire top-ten
sports highlights moments from Bulldog hockey alone. Ferris’ single
NCAA Division-I sport has made for plenty of memorable match-ups.
One of the most memorable was when the 1990-91 team reached a new
level by skating its way to its first CCHA Championship tourney. The
Bulldogs’ first trip to the championships at Joe Louis Arena was made
possible by some overtime heroics. A headman pass from John DePourcq
and a crushing check by Rod Taylor sets up Daniel Chaput’s goal at
9:23 of overtime. The win capped a 2-0 series sweep over Bowling Green.
Taylor’s 41st goal of the season at 5:32 of the third period sent
the game into overtime. Pat Mazzoli kicked out 44 saves in goal and
defenseman Dan Rolfe scored his first goal of the season for rookie
coach Bob Mancini and the Bulldogs.
Needless to say, the crowd went
wild.
#4 - Ferris Institute vs. Central Teachers
College
Feb. 13, 1931, Ferris Alumni Gym
The 1930-31 Ferris basketball
team did not start out well, dropping the first five games after a
series of injuries to starting players. The team then began a huge
turnaround. With key players returning, the team won its next 13 games
by relying heavily upon defense.
The Feb. 13, 1931, contest became
important to Ferris athletic history before it was even played. Big
Rapids Pioneer columnist “Jap” Williams asked Coach William McElwain
what would happen when the “‘irresistible’, high-scoring Bearcat basketball
machine encountered McElwain’s ‘immovable’ strong-defensively Bulldog
quintet.” He went on: “...it is discovered that the name (Bulldogs)
has been applied to them because of demonstrated ability to hang on
to their men and never let go.” Until then, Ferris’ teams were called
the “Spartans” by student papers and the truly unfortunate “Ferrisites”
by the Pioneer.
The immovable object won, besting
the Bearcats 25-14. In reporting on the game Williams wrote, “For
21 minutes during the middle of the game, the easterners failed to
score a field goal the last 10 minutes of the first half and the
first 11 minutes in the second frame.” Despite living up to the Bulldog
nickname, it didn’t catch on at once, at least not with the Torch,
which continued to use the name “Spartans” into the next season, until
Oct. 7, 1931, when it finally adopted the new name. Ferris teams have
been the Bulldogs ever since.
(Adapted from R. Lawrence Martin’s
1982 Ferris Heritage article. Read the entire story at www.ferris.edu/htmls/alumni/Historical/bulldogs.)
#3 - Women’s Tennis vs. Northern Michigan
University
Sept. 29, 2001, Racquet and Fitness Center
One of greatest achievements
in sports is to establish a dynasty. The ability to put together a
winning team game in and game out takes dedication, focus, drive and,
of course, ability.
When the women’s tennis team
won three of six singles matches and all three doubles matches in
their contest against NMU on Sept. 29, 2001, it marked the squad’s
162nd consecutive GLAC dual match victory a streak reaching back
17 years to Sept. 14 of 1984.
The remarkable streak came to
an end on Oct. 12, 2001 when the Bulldogs lost to Northwood Institute
in a road match 3-6.
To put the Bulldogs’ achievement
in perspective, 2001 freshman team member Elena Blackman was less
then two years old when the team won its first contest in the streak
against Northwood Institute.
#2 - Women’s Golf Team, NCAA Division-II
Championships
May 10-13, 2006, The Meadows Golf Club, Allendale, Mich.
The Bulldogs finished second
to the four-time reigning champion in a hard-fought, rain-shorted
NCAA national tournament. After the 54th and final hole, Ferris finished
just six strokes behind Rollins College 925 to 919. In 2004 when the
Bulldogs also finished second to the Tars, the margin of victory was
68 strokes, and Rollins’ average margin of victory in the previous
three championships was 47 strokes.
In the closing holes Ferris pulled
within three strokes of Rollins, before the Tars’ Mariana De Biase
finished with two birdies to outpace the Bulldogs. Ferris junior Casey
McKinnon and senior Elena Robles tied for third individually.
Only the Bulldogs mounted a serious
challenge to the Tars, with third-place Lynn University finishing
32 strokes back.
“We gave mighty Rollins College
a run for their money,” said coach Brad Bedortha.
#1 - Football vs. Saginaw Valley State
University
Nov. 11, 1995, Top Taggart Field
The “Snow Bowl”
While the women’s tennis team
was in the middle of their dynasty, Ferris’ football team was setting
its own record for most games without a loss and not even a freak
early-season blizzard or a 28-0 first-quarter deficit could stop the
Bulldogs from finishing the 1995 regular season with its 39-game regular
season unbeaten streak intact.
Ranked third nationally, the
Bulldogs played SVSU in a blizzard that dumped six inches of snow
on the field and whipped the field with 40 mile-per-hour wind gusts
in the 29-degree afternoon.
Down 35-14 at half time, the
Bulldogs outscored their opponents 32-7, capping off their comeback
with 2:57 on the clock as tailback Chris Pulliams scored on a 97-yard
touchdown run. The touchdown was one of three Pulliams scored that
afternoon, as he rushed for 329 yards. Ferris and SVSU combined for
an astonishing 821 rushing yards in the contest. |
