Friday, December 21, 2007 12:28 AM CST
Tate lived the Rose Bowl fantasy decades ago
By RICK DAWSON Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com
OMAHA, Neb. – If Illinois’ football glory days were celebrated in the first half of the 20th century and only slightly beyond, Bill Tate has a viable claim to that era.
Perhaps the best feel-good story in Mattoon athletics history – he was named the community’s football player of the century by the JG/T-C in 1999 – Tate doesn’t need to wonder what current Illinois football players are experiencing as they prepare for the Rose Bowl. Maybe it’s neither the same Rose Bowl nor the same culture – the 1952 Illinois team wasn’t whisked to Pasadena by a team plane and major college events weren’t besieged by corporate advertisements – but it carries much of the same legacy.
Flip through the record books and find Tate for yourself. He was the one, though not the star of the Illini backfield, rumbling through Stanford’s defense for 150 rushing yards, an MVP-worthy performance. It may not have been the best game of his career. After all, he’d run for just as much yardage one game before in a 3-0 win against Northwestern that propelled Illinois to the Big Ten title.
But the atmosphere, the pomp, the circumstance – it all added up to an unrivaled experience.
“I’d have to say so,” said Tate, an Omaha resident since 1979. “There was so much there. It was the first (college) game ever televised on TV before 100,000 fans there in the stadium. Everybody was healthy. The weather was great. The community was really nice. Mattoon gave me a Bill Tate Day when I got back. They were going to give me a car but it was against the NCAA rules.”
Tate settled for making the most of his opportunity on what was college football’s biggest stage at the time. He later became an assistant coach for Illinois’ 1964 Rose Bowl champion, led by Dick Butkus, and still later took the lead role at Wake Forest (1964-69). A former prep teammate, Keith Branson, referred to him as the most “well-rounded” running back in Mattoon history.
But he never stood out more than he did on that winter day in Pasadena nearly 56 years ago. Johnny Karras, a career 2,000-yard rusher, and quarterback Tommy O’Connell, a Notre Dame transfer who later played in the NFL, were the team’s stars. Tate, errantly listed as a halfback in some Rose Bowl historical accounts, played fullback.
It was a group consisting almost exclusively of Illinois natives. Four team members were from Chicago’s South Shore High School. The lone exception was a defensive starter, Eli Popa, who came from Ohio only because he couldn’t find room on a college roster within his home state.
“That’s the way it was years ago,” Tate said. “There wasn’t enough money to go out and recruit too far outside the state. Of course you tried to get your best kids from the state of Illinois. Except Notre Dame.”
The team chartered five train cars for the trip, making its way from Chicago through Santa Fe to Pasadena in two nights, with a layover in Denver. Tate, who had flown to UCLA for a game as a sophomore, had been to California before, but he wasn’t prepared for the reception. Convertibles were leased to the players and they were taken to Universal Studios, luxuriating in the company of Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.
“You talk about a kid from Mattoon being pretty excited,” Tate said.
Stanford entered the game with one loss and a bundle of individual stars. Future Olympic track and field gold medalist Bob Mathias was the top running back, wide receiver Bill McColl a Heisman Trophy candidate and quarterback Gary Kerkorian had shattered virtually all of the school’s passing records.
“I’m almost sure they were favored by five or six points,” Tate said. “And we had a mar on our record. We had a tie with Ohio State. We kind of stumbled into the (Big Ten) championship because we had a tough game at Northwestern.”
Stanford took the first shot, leading 7-6 at halftime. But Stan Wallace, a Hillsboro native, intercepted a pass early in the second half and the Illini capitalized. In short sequence, Kerkorian took a hit that knocked him out of the game and Tate took over.
He rushed for both of his touchdowns in the second half and amassed his 150 yards on 20 carries, doing the bulk of his work up the middle.
“I think they were looking for Johnny on the outside,” Tate said. “I didn’t even play, I’d say, the last eight or nine or 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. We took all of the first and second team out.”
Tate is now often commissioned to develop and design golf courses. One that he’s working on in South Texas is to contain 3,000 home sites. He’s also drafting the plans for six casinos near Memphis. The travel, he says, keeps him feeling young.
He also returned to Champaign this season for two football games, Illinois’ opener vs. Missouri and its home finale vs. Northwestern. Over the course of the year he followed the Illini on TV, reacting jubilantly when they cut down Ohio State.
“I wanted to see how much improvement we had made,” he said. “And I thought we made some great strides. I thought the coaching staff did a great job of developing (Juice) Williams. I thought they were using him right. I never thought that he was the type of kid that would be a drop-back passer and I still don’t. He’s a play-action quarterback.
“I think they’re going to surprise Southern California.”
Something he would still like to do is greet current Illinois junior Kyle Hudson, another renowned two-sport athlete from Mattoon. Tate played a year of basketball at Illinois before deciding he needed to focus on football. Hudson is in his third season tackling both football and baseball.
“I’ve wanted to meet him some time and I hope that I will before he graduates,” Tate said. “I thought about writing him after he fumbled that punt and encourage him because I went through something similar in my career. Once in a while it will happen and you can’t get down on yourself. He’s a fine athlete.”
Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.
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