By Gaylon Krizak
They came from the West, meaning many of their exploits went unnoticed by a significant portion of the country – more specifically, the influential Eastern media. Some critics who did notice them dutifully labeled their schedule weak and dismissed their considerable accomplishments. And when it came time to hand out the major bowl bids, they were snubbed while a similar team from not far away received one.
All of that happened to the Boise State Broncos of 2004 … 55 years after it happened to the Pacific Tigers of 1949.
Of course, the ’04 Broncos had the Liberty Bowl as a consolation prize (losing 44-40 to once-beaten Louisville). In 1949, there were just 14 bowls (although only six truly could be considered major), and, as Joe Marvin put it in a 1990 article for the College Football Historical Society Newsletter: “None of the major college champions wanted to risk their reputation against this powerhouse aggregation from the small San Joaquin Valley town (of Stockton, Calif.).”
As a result, the groundbreaking achievements of this team from a Methodist school of just 1,137 students tend to be treated as a historical footnote, if they’re noticed at all.
Too bad, because the Pacific Tigers of 1949 were a team ahead of their time.
A ‘magnificent genius’ succeeds Stagg
Larry Siemering was a successful high school coach in California before joining the College of the Pacific staff in 1941 as an assistant under coaching legend Amos Alonzo Stagg. When Stagg, at age 84, retired in 1946 after the Tigers’ third consecutive losing season, Siemering took over and immediately began to reshape the Pacific program.
He installed an offense that (like variations of the spread in the 21st century) had worked in high school but, critics charged, would fail at the college level. It had elements of the T- and wing-T formations, but relied on hidden-ball elements such as belly-series and spinner fakes. It was complex and, in many ways, years ahead of its time. Roy Kirsten, a Pacific receiver in 1947-48, in a 2006 article in the Stockton Record called Siemering “a magnificent genius type of coach.”
Siemering’s first two Pacific teams went 10-1 and 7-1-2, but things truly came together – as they did for many college programs – in 1949.
The NCAA allowed players who had been in the service during World War II to retain their remaining eligibility once they returned to school. Consequently, teams in 1949 fielded some players who had first competed collegiately as far back as 1942. The result was a plethora of deep, loaded teams across the land.
That even applied to tiny Pacific, although the Tigers’ undisputed leader was neither a grizzled war veteran nor physically intimidating.
The ‘Little General’ takes control
Eddie LeBaron was a senior in 1949, even though he was just 19 years old. He was a 60-minute player despite being just 5-foot-7, 165 pounds. And although he was surrounded by talent – the Tigers’ top 12 rushers in 1949 averaged 6.2 yards per carry, for example – LeBaron was the focal point of a lethal offense.
It didn’t start out that way. Opening in Lodi, Calif., against a San Francisco team that included future Pro Football Hall of Fame members Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti and Dick Stanfel, the Tigers slugged out a 7-6 victory.
Pint-sized Eddie LeBaron and Pacific were unappreciated 1949 giants
That was Pacific’s final close shave of the season. Its average margin from then on was 56.8-6, with eye-popping numbers on both sides of the ball. The defense shut four opponents out and allowed just nine first-half points. But the national headlines that did include Pacific invariably focused on the LeBaron-led offense.
A 52-0 rout of Loyola (Calif.) was followed by a 34-7 victory over Cincinnati, coached by another “genius” on offense, Sid Gillman. After that came victories over Nevada (47-6), Portland (75-20) and San Diego State (62-14) before a rematch with San Jose State, which had handed the 1948 Tigers their only loss.
It was no contest. Pacific pummeled the Spartans on their home field, 45-7. The victory finally boosted the Tigers into the Associated Press Top 20, at No. 19.
From there, the Tigers coasted through the remainder of the season: 45-6 over Utah (after which they mysteriously vanished from the AP poll for a week), 45-0 over Fresno State, 88-0 at Cal Poly and 75-0 at Hawaii. The Associated Press dispatch from Honolulu summed it up thusly: “Eddie LeBaron and College of Pacific – a school ignored by bowl game promoters – closed an undefeated, untied season with a crushing 75-0 victory over the University of Hawaii last night. A record crowd of 28,000 in Honolulu saw the Rainbows take their worst defeat ever with the Tigers scoring fast and often.”
The final AP poll, for whatever reason, came out Nov. 28, with several teams’ seasons – including Pacific’s – still in progress. With the help of two No. 1 votes after the Fresno State win and four after the pounding of Cal Poly, the Tigers rose to No. 11 on Nov. 21, then No. 10 in the final poll.
LeBaron, though snubbed by the major All-America teams, finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting and was, for the third time in four years, a first-team “Little All-American.”
The offense he led averaged 502.9 yards per game, topping the 500-yard mark seven times. The Tigers scored 575 points, an average of 52.3 per game, and smashed the previous NCAA record for points in a season (504 by Army in 1944).
And yet …
Because, as the NCAA’s 2008 Division I Football Records Book phrases it, Pacific was an “undefeated, untied (team) in regular-season games not included with major colleges at the time” you won’t find its accomplishments where major 1949 leaders are listed. You have to go to the Division II book for mention of the ’49 Tigers.
Yet Pacific trounced San Jose State, which went on to beat Texas Tech in the Raisin Bowl in Fresno, Calif. And they never got a shot at Santa Clara, which was considered a West Coast power at the time and finished 8-2-1 by beating Bear Bryant-led Kentucky in the Orange Bowl. The Broncos and Tigers beat five common opponents – Santa Clara by an average score of 27-10.4, Pacific to the tune of 44.8-6.6.
A Nov. 23, 1949, AP story quoted California coach Lynn “Pappy” Waldorf as saying Pacific was being considered by at least one of the four major bowls of the time. Since Cal-Ohio State was set as the Rose Bowl matchup, and since Santa Clara days before had been selected by the Orange, that left the Cotton and Sugar.
Instead, thrice-beaten North Carolina got the spot in Dallas opposite Rice, and the Sugar went with an Oklahoma-LSU matchup. The Gator took 7-3 Missouri to meet Maryland, and the Sun opted for 5-4 Georgetown against host Texas Western.
Along with the Raisin, the minor bowls that snubbed Pacific were the Tangerine, Pineapple, Oleander, Sunshine, Salad, Harbor and, of course, the Cigar (a Havana, Cuba, game that pitted Wofford against a relative newcomer, Florida State). Reports that Pacific would be matched with Baylor in a special postseason game in San Francisco turned out to be just talk, especially after the Bears voted against the trip.
The NCAA records list Pacific among the major colleges from 1950 on, including Division I-A designation beginning in 1978. But even though players such as Dick Bass in the ’50s and Aaron Turner in the ’90s brought the Tigers distinction, the program’s 76-year history ended after the 1995 season when the school dropped football.
Oh, and to bring things full circle, a bowl game also awaited Boise in 1949, but omission from that game didn’t faze Pacific. Boise met Taft in the junior-college Shrine Potato Bowl in Bakersfield, Calif.