A Transformative Journey

Memories fade with time.
Feelings? Not so much. In some cases, never.

Back in the fall of 1963, Collegiate’s fledgling football program (and, indeed, the grand experiment called the Boys School) was a mere four years old.

The first two years, the Cougars played only a JV schedule. The third, 1962, they finished 2-6 against varsity competition with victories over Lee-Davis and Hampton Roads Academy and losses to St. Christopher’s, Norfolk Academy, Christchurch, Virginia Episcopal, Huguenot, and Benedictine, the latter a 41-0 trip-to-the-woodshed thumping in the season finale.

Undaunted and inspired, fearless and hungry for success, confident yet humble, the Cougars entered the ensuing season as upstarts with much to prove.

Though still relatively inexperienced at the varsity level, they had played together for three years, they knew each other well both on and off the field, they appreciated the camaraderie that football provided, and they knew their best was ahead.

They just weren’t sure what “best” would look like.

Little could they have imagined when they reported for practice that summer morning 57-plus years ago that their performances during the magical season ahead would in no small measure set the tone for Collegiate School athletics for generations to come.

“There was a lot of unknown,” said Alex Smith, a junior running back on that squad who would serve his alma mater from 1969-2016, mostly as vice-president for development. “In athletics, we didn’t know if we were any good. We were unproven and untested in many ways.”

A test came quickly. Before the regular season began, the Cougars bused to Hermitage High School, then located on Woodman Road, to scrimmage the Panthers, perennially one of the top teams in Virginia.

Collegiate’s head coach, Grover Jones, had been a teammate of his Hermitage counterpart Chester “Chief” Fritz on the semi-pro Richmond Rebels, so the matchup, even in a controlled setting, was as much a natural as it was a leap of faith for a nascent football program.

“I’ll never forget that scrimmage,” said Jon Moss, an offensive guard and nose guard in the Cougars’ 5-3 defensive alignment. “Hermitage was a powerhouse. We beat the heck out of them. We beat them so bad that after it was over, Fritz had them doing wind sprints because he was so mad at them. That showed us that we were pretty good, that we could play with anybody.”

Next up for Collegiate was another stern test, its opening game with Woodberry Forest, the crème-de-la-crème among state independent school football programs.

“The good news was that Woodberry was coming to us,” Smith said. “Everybody was saying, ‘You guys are going to get killed.’ They’d been undefeated the year before. They were undefeated coming to us.”

The first half ended in a scoreless tie.

Early in the third quarter, Hal Tyler, a running back in Collegiate’s Straight-T power attack, followed his blocking, found a seam in the Tigers’ defense, and raced 75 yards for a touchdown.

The Cougars’ 6-0 lead would be short-lived, though, and midway through the fourth quarter, they trailed 13-6.

As time ticked away, quarterback Rick Wiltshire led a last-ditch, irresistible-force-meets-immovable-object drive made all that more memorable when he rolled left, pulled up at the left hashmark, and drilled a perfect pass to Smith on the opposite side of the field.

Covered tightly, Smith hauled in the spiral over his right shoulder before being tackled on the five-yard-line.

 “Rick was maybe 130 pounds soaking wet,” Smith said, “but he had more grit than anybody you’ve ever seen. Their defensive back was one of the best in the league. Rick beat him that day. When I caught the ball, I could hear the crowd (cheering). You usually don’t hear the crowd.”

Wiltshire then scored from the five on a quarterback keeper to cut Collegiate’s deficit to 13-12.  A moment later, Tyler crashed off right tackle for the point-after, giving the Cougars what they thought was a 14-13 lead that assured victory, so they thought, after they forced a fumble to end Woodberry’s ensuing drive, then ran out the clock.

When the final horn sounded, the Cougars and their ecstatic supporters celebrated the stunning accomplishment.  The Woodberry players and the contingent that traveled to a school some knew only as a girls school (which it had been from 1915 until 1960) appeared chagrined by this totally unexpected and shocking turn of events.

“We ran the extra point because we didn’t have anybody who could kick,” recalled Bryce Jewett, a two-way interior lineman who also saw duty at linebacker. “We were whooping it up in the locker room like we’d won the national championship. Maybe 45 minutes after we won, we found out we’d tied.”

The final score was actually 13-13.

At the time, you see, two points for a successful conversion attempt by run or pass wasn’t a universal rule in high school football. It was in the Prep League, though, but Collegiate was not yet a member. It was Petey Jacobs, Collegiate’s athletic director well known for his decency, sense of fair play, and sportsmanship, who set the record straight.

If the game had been contested at Woodberry, he reasoned, Prep League rules would have applied. Because the Cougars were the home team, Virginia High School League rules, to which Collegiate subscribed, were in effect.

The conversion counted one point.

There’d apparently been no prior discussion between Coach Jacobs and Red Caughran, Woodberry’s athletic director and football coach, about rules differences. The decision was simply Coach Jacobs’ conscience saying, as always, Do the right thing.

“It was probably something that wasn’t rehearsed before we went out on the field,” Smith said. “It was a revelation after the game. I imagine most people thought it wouldn’t be necessary because they’d beat us 28-0 anyway. I’m sure Woodberry was very grateful. To us, it was just Petey being Petey.”

The tie hardly diminished the Cougars’ elation.

“We still felt like a million bucks,” Smith recalled. “The good news was we finished our season undefeated. Woodberry finished their season undefeated. It wasn’t a bad day for Woodberry or a fluke. Two very good teams met that day.”

Teammates shared his sentiment.

“The tie was a victory for us,” Moss said. “From then on, we became very self-assured to the point that we wanted to take on everybody. The year before, we couldn’t play our way out of a wet paper bag. That (the WF game) set the stage.”

“It was like an epiphany for us,” Jewett added. “We didn’t realize how good we were.”

Over the next seven weeks, the Cougars ran the table, defeating Lee-Davis (13-6), St. Christopher’s (13-6), Norfolk Academy (41-0), Christchurch (26-6), Hampton Roads Academy (46-6), Virginia Episcopal (27-7), and Rock Hill Academy from Charlottesville (31-18).

Through their 7-0-1 storybook season, they outscored their opponents 210-62.

Moss and Mike Jarvis, a two-way tackle who transferred that year from Benedictine, earned second-team Richmond News Leader All-Metro honors. Smith, who scored three touchdowns each against NA and Christchurch and was a mid-season News Leader Back of the Week selection, was voted to the third team. Jeff Dortch (offensive and defensive back) and Bob Easterling (two-way end) were named honorable mention.

In 2002, the ’63 football team was selected as a charter inductee in Collegiate’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

The true impact of that memorable season goes far beyond win-loss record and public acclaim, however. They were the right players with the right head coach at the right moment in the history of a Boys School striving mightily to establish an identity.  They were the new kids on the block who used challenges, disappointments, doubters, and naysayers as fuel for an incredible and transformative journey.

“It was more than a great season for us,” Smith said. “We realized we could play with others, that we could win, that we had the right to win, and that the expectation was to win every time we stepped on the field. That’s an attitude Collegiate has always had. I think it came from that era.

“More than one game, more than the record, there’s the understanding that we might not always have the beef or the horsepower, but we’re smart and gritty and can win even when we’re not expected to win.”

That one game, though, the Woodberry game that long-ago Saturday afternoon, sparked the flame.

“It was a rite of passage,” Smith said. “It was a validation that we’d arrived.”
    ~Weldon Bradshaw
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