College report: '48 football team gets into Canisius Hall
Published: November 09, 2009, 9:53 pm
Story tools:
Share this story:
More than a half century after playing in the only bowl game in Canisius history, the college's 1948 team will be inducted into the Canisius Sports Hall of Fame in ceremonies during halftime of the Golden Griffins' men's basketball game against Saint Peters on Sunday, Jan. 24 in the Koessler Center.
Keith Applegate (baseball, class of 1996) and current head softball coach and former women's basketball coach and athletic department administrator Mike Rappl (class of '77) also will be inducted.
The 1948 football team turned in a 7-1-1 record during the regular season under coach Jim Wilson and earned an invitation to face John Carroll in the Great Lakes Bowl at Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. John Carroll, led by sophomore backs Don Shula and Carl Taseff, edged the Griffs, 14-13, before 17,694.
Shula, of course, went on to a Pro Football Hall of Fame coaching career with the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins. Taseff, who played defensive back for the Buffalo Bills in the early 1960s, was a trusted assistant under Shula on those teams.
The signature win for the '48 Griffs was a 14-6 upset of St. Bonaventure in Civic (later War Memorial) Stadium. The favored Bonnies had played a 7-7 tie at Braves Field in Boston with a Boston College team that included future pros Ernie Stautner, Art Donovan, Art Spinney and Butch Songin. However, the loss to Canisius spoiled Bona's chances for a bowl bid.
Five members (end Al Chorny, tackle George Eberle, guard George Kuhrt and backs Howie Willis and Chet Kwasek) of the '48 Canisius team were first-team Buffalo Evening News All- Western New York selections. Six team members were past inductees as individuals into the Canisius Sports Hall of Fame.
Applegate was a three-time (1992-94) first-team All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference selection as a catcher. Rappl, the first active coach in Canisius history to be inducted, has guided Griffs softball teams to 12 MAAC regular-season and 12 MAAC Tournament championships and 11 NCAA Division I Tournament appearances among other achievements.
Men's soccer
Medaille (17-2-2) will head to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh on Saturday to face Denison University (12-4-3) at 11 a.m. in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The Mavs clinched the automatic berth with a 1-0 win over Penn State-Behrend in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference title game. Denison shocked the nation's top-ranked team, unbeaten Ohio Wesleyan, 2-1, in double overtime of the North Coast Athletic Conference championship match.
This is the fourth trip to the nationals for the Mavs in the last five seasons. In the first round last year, Medaille lost to eventual national champion Messiah College, 2-1, in overtime.
Men's swimming
Stephen Pochatko (Starpoint) won the 200 backstroke (2:00.96) and swam leadoff for the winning Canisius 400 freestyle relay in a triple dual meet against Cleveland State, Malone and Youngstown State on Saturday.
Freshman Tyler Carver (Canisius High) won the 200 breaststroke in 2:20.41 for the only other individual first place by the Griffs.
Reader comments
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Comments have been disabled.
Due to a high volume of submissions that violate The News’ guidelines, commenting is no longer available on this story. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, click here to get information on contributing to The News’ opinion pages.