History runs deep for Trinity and Williams
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By MIKE ANTHONY, Courant Staff Writer
Trinity quarterback James Lane, seeing that running back Julian Craig had been stopped 5 yards short of the goal line, screamed for a timeout.
Still, the clock expired on what appeared to be Williams' 24th consecutive victory and chaos ensued at Weston Field in Williamstown, Mass. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of fans dressed in purple poured onto the field.
But the referee had spotted Lane's desperate call and ruled there was 1 second left. He cleared the field and gave Trinity a final play from the 5. Trailing 27-24, Trinity never considered a field goal. With fans now lining the sidelines, Lane rolled out and threw a touchdown pass to John Mullaney for a 30-27 victory.
"So many emotions," Lane said Friday. "Unbelievable."
That was 1991, the height of Williams' NESCAC dominance. Trinity had ended the streak, a New England Division III record. A little more than a decade later, the Bantams would start their own. And today at Jessee/Miller Field in Hartford, everything comes to a head in the 64th meeting between Trinity and Williams. Trinity, which defeated Bates in last week's opener, has won 23 in a row to tie Williams' record set in 1988-91.
The Bantams' rise to NESCAC prominence has come under sixth-year coach Chuck Priore, a steely man with little use for historical perspective, streaks and records. Still, he understands why so many with ties to both programs this week are reliving the final moments of the 1991 game. He understands why so many are pausing to consider one of the great New England rivalries and some of the great games that formed it. He understands this is a game fueled by memories and he understands what a unique twist this game presents.
"It's certainly crazy that it's happened this way - with the same number [of victories], the same team," Priore said. "I'm not sure you could write the script any better. This happened 14, 15 years ago, exactly the opposite way."
The importance of today's game depends on perspective. For alumni from both schools, many of whom will drive hundreds of miles to attend, the history is not to be overlooked. It also is a window to their youth. Conversely, the current players and students were in grade school in 1991 and might not grasp what this means to many.
In Williamstown, the quaint town of about 7,000, the Williams football team is the team, and this, right now, is the event. While Trinity has displaced Williams as the NESCAC pacesetter, this is Williams' chance to preserve their share of the record. The Ephs lost their season opener to Colby, 35-9. NESCAC teams play eight games and do not have playoffs. Williams also is trying to exact revenge for losses to Trinity the last two years.
A proud tradition accompanies any athlete at Williams, which for the last three years has been ranked the top liberal arts college by U.S. News & World Report and has won the NCAA directors cup as the nation's top college athletic program the last seven years. Williams, playing its 120th football season, is the first school to receive such recognition in the same year. But the pride is as much about the small town feel. When coach Mike Whalen walks up Spring Street, he is greeted by many. The Williams College Sideline Quarterback Club and many of its 80 members convene every Wednesday at The Log, a cozy downtown building. If the Ephs win their homecoming game, Spring Street traffic is halted so players can walk the quarter-mile or so to St. Pierre's barber shop, where they celebrate with cold drinks and shaved heads.
Dick Farley, who coached 17 years and retired before last season, molded the program that Whalen, his assistant for eight years, inherited. And while Whalen has tried to sustain a level of excellence, Priore's program has become the one many Division III schools now look up to.
"I don't envy his situation," Priore said of Whalen, his good friend. "Dick Farley was tremendously successful. Now you walk in and everybody thinks it's just going to continue. But what happens in the past and what happens tomorrow is different. Other teams have gotten better. Other programs are doing things as well as Williams, and not just Trinity. Recruiting is more competitive."
Trinity's athletic prowess never has been stronger and the Bantams are experiencing a football rebirth. But the landscape is different. While Priore said the emergence of UConn has helped drum up interest in his team, Trinity isn't the focal point of a town as Williams is. Still, the team is chugging along as perhaps the most talented in NESCAC history.
"Certainly when I got here, their program was the model we tried to emulate," Priore said. "Trinity-Williams has always been very close, but certainly they were visualized as the best team. We wanted to be that. We wanted to be able to compete with them on a week-to-week basis and dominate the league like they have done. It's one thing beating them. It's another to dominate everybody. We might have beaten them, but they were dominating everybody."
With one more victory, Trinity will tie Allegheny (Pa.), which won 24 in a row in 1990-91. Mount Union (Ohio) holds the Division III record with 55 victories in a row in 2000-03.
"Chuck obviously is a very bright coach," Whalen said. "It's very easy to say, `Yeah, I have a system.' It's another to make it work. He's got an amazing work ethic. Football is his life. I know that he's been involved at a higher level [assistant at Penn]. In my opinion, people have made a big mistake not hiring him. People look at him and say he's a Division III coach. The guy is not. The guy is a great football coach. I know he could win in the Ivy League. I know he could win in the Patriot League. I know he could win at an even higher level."
In Hartford, some Trinity students have been slow to understand the significance of the Bantams' run.
"They don't know exactly what's going on," defensive lineman Mike Blair said. "They just know we win."
Blair said it's just another game, although he knows it's not to many people. Williams wide receiver Jonathan Drenckhahn said the same. Williams, Drenckhahn said, is more concerned with payback for losses to Trinity each of the last two seasons than it is with the streak - no matter how much the Ephs have been reminded of it lately.
Alumni are eating it up. Trinity is expecting more than 8,000 fans. Lane will be there. So will Dan Dwyer of Glastonbury, the Williams quarterback who threw for 286 yards and three touchdowns in that 1991 game.
It was difficult to top the two previous games. In 1989 and 1990, Williams overcame late deficits, converting fourth-down plays in the final two minutes of each.
"So then in 1991, it was actually a pretty uneventful game until the last two minutes," said Trinity assistant coach Jeff Devanney, a safety on the 1991 team. "Then it got crazy."
With 2:47 left, Dwyer scored from 2 yards to give Williams a 20-17 lead. With 51 seconds left, Lane threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace. Assuming it was the winning score, Trinity went overboard with its celebration and was assessed a penalty. The Bantams kicked off from their 20 and Williams returned it past midfield. On the next play, Dwyer threw a 46-yard touchdown pass to Andre Burrell to give Williams back the lead with 40 seconds left. But then Lane hit Craig, called timeout with a second left and found Mullaney in the end zone.
"That referee had guts," Dwyer said.
Notes from around the region
Compiled by D3football.com staff
Things are looking good at Bowdoin in the early going. The Polar Bears are 2-0 for the first time since 1980 after beating Middlebury at home and Amherst on the road. Saturday's 16-13 win at Amherst was the program's first win there in more than 50 years.
Bowdoin went 6-42 the previous six seasons. The Polar Bears haven't been 3-0 since 1964 and hasn't started out 4-0 since 1938. They travel to Tufts on Saturday.
Not bad for a team that Williams refused to scrimmage in the preseason, according to a school news release, because it was a contest "that may or may not show them what they have." Williams is 0-2.
Game of the Week
Fitchburg State at Endicott, noon, Beverly, Mass.: Fitchburg, co-leader of the Bogan Division, has already knocked off one of Boyd Division co-leaders with a 28-13 win against Curry. It can finish the sweep on Saturday.