That '68 squad was an impressive one for the Goshawks as they rolled up a 6-0 record with wins over teams like Troy, Middle Tennessee, Youngstown State, Southeastern Louisiana and ULL (USL at the time).īut then the visit to Cowboy Stadium happened and the perfect season for Staubach and the military squad hit a brick wall, and the fact that a Heisman Trophy winner playing in the contest helped fuel the excitement. The Goshawk team was mostly made up of players who played college football prior to joining the military, players from schools such as Oklahoma, Virginia, UCLA, Illinois, Iowa and Clemson, to name a few.Īfter the 1967 season, Staubach attended the Dallas Cowboys' rookie training camp and returned to Pensacola for the 1968 season with the Cowboys' playbook. The NAS Pensacola had one of the last military installation tackle football teams and played a regular schedule against mid-major teams like McNeese. Naval Academy, the Dallas Cowboys still took a risk and drafted Staubach in the 10 th round of the 1964 NFL Draft as well as the 16 th round by the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFL Draft.įollowing a year tour of duty in Vietnam, Staubach returned to the states and was stationed at the Naval Air Station Pensacola. Navy lost the national championship to Texas in that season's Cotton Bowl.ĭespite having a five-year obligation to the U.S. Staubach attended the Naval Academy from 1962-64 and won the 1963 Heisman Trophy along with the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Memorial Trophy while leading the Midshipmen to a 9-1 regular season record and a final ranking of No. I felt like I ran for miles chasing him around the field." "The '67 game was played in Pensacola and they beat us (14-7 in what was Staubach's first season with the Goshawks). "We played against him in 1967 and in '68," said Bob Fuhrer who played on both the offensive and defensive line for the Pokes throughout his McNeese Hall of Fame career. "It was the worst I'd been beaten in my football career." "It was like a nightmare," said Staubach about the manhandling by the Cowboy squad. The result was the worst beating the NFL Hall of Famer received in his playing career at any level, something he admitted as recent as two years ago in an interview he conducted, as the Cowboys plastered the previously unbeaten Naval Base team 54-13 on Oct. LAKE CHARLES – McNeese's Cowboy Stadium has hosted its fair share of prominent football players since opening its gates for the first time in 1965, players like Terry Bradshaw, Kurt Warner, Daunte Culpepper, Chad Pennington and Mike Tomlin, and not mention all the superstars that played for McNeese.īut only once has player that has won college football's highest honor – the Heisman Trophy – stepped foot in 'The Hole.' That being Roger Staubach in the 1968 season when he quarterbacked the Pensacola Navy Goshawks with his shotgun formation style.
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