Widener University Athletics

The 1981 football team built its legacy because it had a group of players who were all motivated to right a couple of wrongs that happened in the 1979 and 1980 seasons. The Pioneers had advanced through perfect regular seasons and won their quarterfinal games in the national tournament, only to see their ultimate goal dashed with losses in the semifinals. The Pioneers lost to Wittenberg, 17-14, in 1979 and fell to Dayton, 28-24, in 1980, with both teams going on to win the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl and claim the national title in those respective years. With this inspiration in mind, the 1981 team rolled to a third straight MAC Championship and a third consecutive 10-0 start. Widener steamrolled its opposition during the regular season, winning by an average of 18 points per game. Led by its defense, the Pioneers allowed just 8.1 points per contest throughout the course of the year, highlighted by back-to-back shutouts of Dickinson and Moravian. In the playoffs, Widener downed West Georgia, 10-3, on the road in its opening game to advance to a third straight national semifinal. Playing in front of an excited home crowd, the Pioneers rallied from 6-0 down in the third quarter to beat Montclair State, 23-12, and advance to the national title game, setting up a revenge game with the Dayton Flyers.  Much like its previous appearance in the Stagg Bowl in 1977, Widener had to dig itself out of a halftime hole, trailing 10-0 at intermission. Starting with three-time All-American Tom Deery's 76-yard punt return for a touchdown, the Pioneers completed the rally, taking advantage of six Dayton turnovers in the game and holding the Flyers to just 72 yards of offense in the second half to come away with a 17-10 victory. The win gave Widener its second national title, joining Wittenberg as the only other Division III program at the time with two NCAA football championships. The team also featured three All-Americans in Deery, Tom Kincade, and Mark Stephan, legendary coach Bill Manlove, and team captains Jim Hirschmann, Tony Britton and Tim Keyser and Robert Cole.