Remembering 1981 Vikings football
By Joe Vanden Acker
Lawrence
Today magazine, Fall 2006
On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the 1981 Vikings football team has
been selected
as the sole 2006 inductee into the Lawrence University Intercollegiate
Athletics Hall of Fame.
Name a year, and a sports fan can quickly tell you its significance.
1941: Ted Williams hits .406. 1961: Roger Maris belts 61 homers. 1967: Packers-Cowboys,
Ice Bowl.
For followers of the Lawrence University Vikings, 1981 is that
watershed year. In that dazzling autumn, the Vikings put together a 9-0 regular
season
and won the Midwest Conference football championship for the third consecutive
season.
Lawrence became the first team in conference history to earn a berth and
win a game in the NCAA Division III playoffs. Lawrence reached the semifinals
that year, and those Vikings remain the only team in school history to reach
a Final Four.
The dream season ended ugly, with a 38-0 loss at the University of Dayton — which
had been playing Division I-A football only four years earlier — in
the national semifinals. However, that loss to the Flyers quickly fades from
view when one looks at the stunning two-and-a-half month journey that started
in Mount Vernon, Iowa.
It’s rare to start a season with a make-or-break game, but that’s
what happened in 1981. The Vikings went to Cornell College for the season-opener,
and the Rams held the distinction of being the last team to beat Lawrence,
in the 1980 season-opener. Cornell held a 15-10 lead late in the game, but
the Vikings rallied. Quarterback Dean Walsh, ’82, completed nine passes
in the game-winning drive, the last one a five-yard touchdown pass to Jeff
Ropella, ’82, and the Vikings held on for an 18-15 victory.
“That was a wake-up call,” Walsh says. “We could have lost
that game. That would have ended everything. That was a key victory.”
With Cornell tabbed to be one of the favorites in the Midwest Conference,
the Vikings now knew they also were a team to be reckoned with. For the next
seven weeks, Lawrence showed just how good it was. The Vikings outscored
their opponents 277-49 in that stretch and moved up to fifth in the NCAA
Division III poll.
"I don’t think you ever consider that you’re on a roll,” says
head coach Ron Roberts, who coached the Vikings for 20 seasons and was a
1996 inductee into the Hall of Fame. “You’re constantly trying
to get the next one and trying to forget what came before.”
The regular-season finale at Ripon College was a winner-take-all game that
could give Lawrence the conference title and a spot in the NCAA playoffs.
Ripon was looking for a share of the conference title and a possible playoff
berth of its own. Rick Peterson, Lawrence’s sports information director
from 1979-93, spelled it out in a press release the week of the game: “It
could be the most important meeting ever between the two schools.”
“It was a damp, foggy day,” All-America running back Scott Reppert, ’83,
recalls. “It was a real medieval scene. Guys were gearing up to do
battle.”
Three plays later, Walsh completed one of the biggest passes of his career.
“I went back to pass and they were coming,” Walsh says. “I
ducked down. They had a blitz on, and they flew over me. The defensive backs
were
walking in, thinking the play was over. I rolled to the left and Jeff Ropella
put his arm up in the end zone. He was wide open.”
Walsh completed the touchdown pass to Ropella and then hit All-America tight
end Pat Schwanke, ’83, with a two-point conversion and the game was
tied at 20. The Lawrence defense again held Ripon, and this time the Vikings
took over at their own 42.
Seven plays later, the Vikings were at the Ripon 19 and Kraig Krueger, ’84,
came on to attempt a 35-yard field goal. The kick split the uprights with
only 25 seconds left, and the Vikings were headed to the playoffs.
“The players had a lot of confidence in themselves. We were having a rough
time, but I had a feeling we were going to win it,” Roberts says.
“That kick at the end was a beauty.”
The drama kept coming in the quarterfinals of the NCAA playoffs two weeks
later against the University of Minnesota-Morris in the Banta Bowl.
The game was deadlocked at 14-14 at the end of regulation, with Lawrence
getting a 41-yard touchdown catch from Schwanke and a career-long 78-yard
touchdown run from Reppert.
On a brisk, sunny November afternoon, it was time for Walsh and Schwanke
to hook up again in the overtime. The ball was placed at the 15-yard line,
as Lawrence went on offense. After two plays and two yards, the play call
was “right 40 bootleg.” Walsh faked right and went left where
he found Schwanke for a 13-yard touchdown pass.
The Vikings defense, coached by Rich Agness, ’67, as it had done all
year, came up big again. With the Cougars needing a touchdown for the game
to continue, Graham Satherlie, ’82, intercepted a fourth-down pass
in the end zone to end the contest.
While the season ended at Dayton in the semifinals, the Vikings left a lasting
legacy. The Vikings broke or tied 32 school records en route to the greatest
season in Lawrence football history.
Sidebar: Notable individuals from the 1981 football team
1981 season results
Sept. 12 Lawrence 18, Cornell 15
Sept. 19 Lawrence 48, Grinnell 0
Sept. 26 Lawrence 26, Concordia (Wis.) 6
Oct. 3 Lawrence 41, Coe 6
Oct. 10 Lawrence 34, Beloit 14
Oct. 17 Lawrence 67, Knox 13
Oct. 24 Lawrence 38, Monmouth 0
Oct. 31 Lawrence 23, Carleton 10
Nov. 7 Lawrence 23, Ripon 20
Nov. 21 Lawrence 21, Minnesota-
Morris 14 (OT) (NCAA Division III quarterfinals)
Nov. 28 Dayton 38, Lawrence 0 (NCAA Division III semifinals)
