A look back at the 1970 championship Pioneer football team

Platteville, Wis.- The 1970 University of Wisconsin-Platteville football team was coming off back-to-back conference championships and identical 8-1 records.  Head Coach Gil Krueger in his second season came into the season with one goal in mind, 10-0 and go to a bowl. 

Under Coach Krueger, the Pioneers accomplished the goal they set at the beginning of the year and finished the regular season 10-0 and earned a trip to Texas for the NAIA playoffs, the school's first-ever playoff game.  The Wisconsin State University Conference (WSUC) Champions lost 16-0 to the scholarship Texas A & I, but that loss could not dampen the spirits of the best team in school history.  Fifty years later, Tom Knoble, Bill Vander Velden, Jim Lawinger, Tom Barth, Pete Drone, Chris Charnish and Carol Kreuger share their memories of the historic 1970 season.

How did the theme 10-0 and go to a bowl start?

Tom Knoble: Coach Krueger was the one who came up with 10-0 and started to talk about it during practice, our team took it on and worked with it, we thought it was a great idea.

Bill Vander Velden: Coach understood what he had and knew this was the team that could challenge to go undefeated and he laid that on us and we just went out and played and preformed every game.

Chris Charnish: It was all Coach Krueger, he came up with 10-0 and go to a bowl.

Jim Lawinger: Coach Krueger was pretty blunt in his expectations, he expected you to only do your best. 

What where your thoughts leading into the 1970 season as a team?

Tom Barth: We knew we had talent during the 1968 season, and then we had a coaching change and Coach Krueger comes in.  It was ok; who is this Krueger guy?  How is he going to push us? Then we went and finished 8-1 in 1969 and at the end of the season we thought if we just stick together and work hard this thing is going to happen.  And I think everybody took it upon themselves to make sure it did. I don't think there was a player on the team that felt we weren't going to go undefeated.  There was a lot of confidence in the players and in the coaches.  The foundation started in 1968 and continued to build up to the 1970 season.  We developed through the four years into that undefeated squad, it just didn't happen.  We were looking forward to that senior year and we had a lot of returning starters and we thought we were going to be pretty good and it turned out to be the truth.  

Pete Drone: We weren't thinking about the pressure of going undefeated, we were looking forward to having a good year.  Every year they brought people in that fit in place really well.  The stretch of success we had was put together, it seemed we always lost good players, but they were always replaced by good players, so we knew we had a solid squad.

Charnish: We felt tremendous coming into the season, 26 of us were together for four years and we were confident, but were never cocky about our talent.

Knoble: We were confident due to what we did the prior years.  We knew there were good teams in the conference, but felt we could beat them all and thought it would be cool to do.  We worked hard at it and we had a real positive attitude and thought it would be great to move on to the playoffs.

Lawinger: We knew we couldn't slip up, only four teams made the playoffs so if you slipped up or played a close game you may not make the playoffs.  We were focused and engaged the whole year knowing that.

If somebody looked at the schedule and scores, it would look like it was a pretty easy season up to the Texas A & I playoff game, but was there a play or game that you look back on and say that saved 10-0?

Barth: First game of the year, we were up at Bemidji State, a very good Division 2 school and we went up there with these great aspirations that we were going to take care of the world and we were trailing at halftime 14-6, which was a shocker to us.  We went into the locker room at halftime, it was pretty silent and I look to my left and Charnish is sitting there by himself.  All of a sudden Coach Krueger came over to Charnish carrying his brief case and I am thinking what the heck?  Coach Krueger opens his brief case and to this day I don't know what was in there, I was just thinking during half-time somebody get upset, chew somebody out, let's do this.  But apparently, they were discussing all offensive strategies and it certainly worked in the second half as we scored 27 straight and went on for an easy victory.

Lawinger:  For me it was the UW-Whitewater game at Hill field, I think it was 0-0 or we were up 7-0 during the third quarter.  The wind was so bad that day, we were going into the wind for the third so we were waiting for the fourth quarter and the wind.  Then we ended up scoring 27 points and shut them out, for us we just had to wait out the clock and the when the opportunity was there, we just jumped on it and got the job done.

When did you feel 10-0 was within your grasp?

Knoble: For me it was the UW Oshkosh game, it was in October and we had to travel to Oshkosh and they just built their new stadium.  It was their homecoming and we beat them pretty handily.  There were 9,700 fans at the game which was big back in 1970 and a lot of Platteville fans made the trip as well.  After that and having already beaten Whitewater, we were pretty confident we were going to run the table.

Vander Velden: The Ferris State game really sealed the deal for me.  They had a long home winning streak and we made the long trip to Michigan to play them on their homecoming and took it to them; it really sealed the deal in our confidence that we were going to run the season and finish 10-0.

Drone:  I remember the UW-La Crosse game, Jimmy Bunch, and I am sure a few others told you this, but before the game he was so fired up and going nuts and he punched a wooden wall and put his hand through it while yelling "WE ARE WINNING THIS GAME!"  That was it, we were all fired up and ready to run the table.

Like I said, if people look at the schedule, the closest game was a 19-point victory over Bemidji State, but was there any advisory you had to overcome during the year?

Drone: The travel was really the only thing we had to overcome, the trips were a bit longer back then, we weren't traveling on nice four lane highways like today, but we weren't traveling on gravel roads like some people thought.

Barth:  Charnish was a great quarterback, and he gets hurt prior to the Superior game, he was hurt at Oshkosh and everyone thought that would be our downfall.  Our former coach was the head coach at Superior and we were excited and we go into the game without our best player.  But like any great team we had some depth and Bob Roloff started the game and played great and we ended up winning 28-6. 

Charnish: I can remember the UW-La Crosse game, Jimmy Bunch puts his hand through a locker or wall and they were our rivals back then.  We had to walk from our locker room under the stands by the student-section and they would be throwing stuff at us and yelling.  Coach Krueger gave a big speech, the captains did and then Jimmy put his hand through the wall and we went out and kicked their butts, but we could have let the fans get to us and we didn't.

What was the community and campus support like during the season?

Knoble: The support was unbelievable, from the students, the Platteville area itself, and the families it was unbelievable.  Our biggest fans though were the Veterans group that came to the game, they would make a ruckus.  Of course, once we continued to win the support grew and we became more recognizable. 

Vander Velden: If I had four years to do over, I would be right back in Platteville.  It was a great place to grow and mature over four years.  The community was great, the college, faculty, coaches and you could go on and on.  It was a great community-based college, just not football but all sports, it was a great time.  My life after Platteville was great and I have a lot of thanks to give to the people of Platteville.

Charnish: We had people laying and kneeling in the endzone, the bleachers were full.  The support was amazing.  We would go to the dorms before home games on Friday nights and invite the students to the game and the town people were outstanding backers.  They stood behind us the whole season.

Drone: My freshman year the crowds were sparse, but by my junior year it was packed and it stayed packed throughout our run to Texas.

Barth: The support was excellent, the student-body, city of Platteville.  We had a great administrative support as well.  Our Chancellor didn't miss very many road games, as the train kept going more people got on. 

Carol Krueger: Everyone was great to work with, the people of Platteville were really nice and came to the game, but it was much easier when you were winning.

What are a few of your memories with the trip to Texas to play in the Semi-Finals?

Krueger: They wanted the cheerleaders and their families there along with the coach's families so we got a bus to take them from Platteville to Texas.  I believe the funds were actually provided by the conference, but we left Thanksgiving weekend with two drivers on the bus and drove straight through.  I brought a large bag of sandwiches because we didn't stop often for food, but when we did everyone ran off the bus to go to the bathroom and freshen up, and the night before the team left, we had the team out for dinner because campus was closed and there was no place for them to eat before they left.

Knoble: We flew out on Thanksgiving Day out of Dubuque on a charter flight and ended up making five stops on the way to Texas.

Barth: We flew out of Dubuque and the charter company allotted 200 pounds per person in theory including our equipment.  Well we were some big boys back than and had all our equipment so they couldn't put enough fuel on the plane so we had to make numerous stops on the way.

Lawinger:  The plane was defiantly overloaded.

Drone: The trip is kind of a blur.  I could not believe the people from Platteville that ended up in Texas, we had just as many fans as Texas A & I even though it was a home game for them.

Charnish: I remember some of my friends left a little earlier than we did and drove and they about beat us there due to all the stops we made on the flight to re-fuel.

Vander Velden: I was excited to go because my brother Tim was going to school there and was on the football team, but by the time we got there he had left for home.  But the flight down was a kangaroo flight, up and down, up and down.  The older guys messed with us younger guys saying that we had a gas leak and we were going to crash.  For most of us, this was our first time on a plane.

Knoble: One thing I will never forget and think it was one of the coolest things I saw in my life, when we were flying into Dallas to re-fuel, the pilot came over the loud speaker and told us we were going to fly over the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.  That Thanksgiving the Packers were playing at Dallas and we got to look out the window of the plane and see the shadow of plane fly right across the field.

Krueger: A lot of fans made the trip down and they didn't have hotel rooms, so a lot of them ended up camping on the grass outside the hotel.  The Chancellor or President, I don't remember which one, threatened to have them removed if they made to much noise.  I told him that I barley heard a word from them the night before, but didn't tell him I was also hard of hearing.

Barth: Our season was over three weeks earlier and we didn't get to practice outside much due to the cold, and when we got to Texas it was hot and humid and sucked some juice out of us.

Lawinger: I remember having dinner with Texas A & I, maybe before the game or after, but they couldn't believe we didn't have scholarships like them, but that was the way it was.

Barth: Texas A & I was a solid team, they had eight or nine guys go to the NFL off their team.  They had a wide out that went on to a good NFL career and Lawinger shut him down.

Vander Velden: Texas A & I players couldn't believe we played for free, those guys were on scholarship.  I remember we lost a few players in the second half due to the heat and humidity.

Knoble: They were a different breed down there, they were fast, quick and strong.  We had dinner after with the two teams and they had a lot of respect for us, they beat us up a little.  They were good, no question about it and they went on and blew out the next team pretty good.  It was an honor to play them.

Charnish: We ended up losing 16-0, but we did have two touchdowns called back.

Knoble: It was hot and humid and we did not pack any short sleeve jerseys.  They wouldn't allow us to use our practice jerseys.  We had to wear our fully sleeved cotton jerseys and by the second half we were running out of gas.  Respect to them, they were in much better shape for that weather than we were.

Thoughts on Coach Krueger?

Barth: A good leader, he knew what buttons to push and how to get each player to do his best job or to get more out of each player.  He was also very competitive.

Lawinger: He was definitely a winner, he would do whatever he had to do to win, that was the bluntness of him.

Drone: He was a really nice guy, you couldn't ask for a better coach or person, he took care of us.

Charnish: He was so competitive.

Kreuger: I can't tell you how much he treasured his players.  He wanted them to grow up to be great men, he worked hard at his job and because he wanted them to grow up and be better people.  He was very competitive, he went on to run in the Senior Olympics where he won 22 medals and played softball for a long time.  He was also loyal, when he got to Northern Michigan after Platteville, his first team didn't win a game, but he played the returners because they worked hard even though he had better players behind them, he felt they deserved to play.  It payed off in the end because the next year they won the National Title because everyone worked so hard.

Brief recap of the 1970 season

The Pioneers had a high-power offense that averaged 39.9 points per game and a lock down defense that held opponents to 7.1 points per a game.  For conference only games, the offense averaged 42.25 points a game and the defense held opponents to 5.5 points per contest.  The 338 points scored in conference games is still the highest season average in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).  The 44 points allowed was also a WIAC record up to 1974 before UW-La Crosse allowed only 42 points on the season.

The Pioneers were led offensively by quarterback Chris Charnish, running backs Rich Smith and Tom Knoble.  Charnish accounted for 25 touchdowns, passing for 22 and running in three more.  Knoble and Smith split time in the backfield, Smith averaged 5.4 yards a carry and scored six times while Knoble averaged 5.0 per carry with 10 scores.   Knoble lead the Pioneers in total scoring with 74, scoring 12 touchdowns (10 runs, 2 catches) and scored a two-point conversion.

Defensively the Pioneers were led by defensive back Jim Lawinger and linebacker Tom Barth.  Lawinger recorded a team best 7 interceptions.  Defensive back Don Williams had six interceptions and Guy Nelson had four.  Nelson is tied for the school record and held the WIAC record with 11 interceptions in 1973.

In 1970 the Pioneers and the conference were members of NAIA.  The top four teams in the rankings were invited to the playoffs with the winners playing for the championship.

Coach Krueger passed away in October of 2016 after a short battle with cancer.  After Platteville, Krueger went to Northern Michigan where he coached Steve Mariucci and won the NCAA Division II National Title.  After Northern Michigan, Krueger went on to be head coach at New Mexico State before finishing his career at UW-Superior.

Tom Barth (Platteville, Wisconsin)

Barth was a senior captain and was a 2nd team All-American linebacker for 1970.  Barth graduated in 1971 with a degree in History and minor in Physical Education. He earned a masters at Winona State before beginning his teaching career.  He became an administrator and spent the final 19 years at La Crosse Central as principal retiring in 2010.

Chris Charnish (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)

Charnish was a senior Captain and 2nd team All-American quarterback in 1970.  After completing his eligibility, he signed with the Boston Red Sox for baseball.  He was drafted by the Minnesota Twins but turned down a signing bonus to continue playing football at UW-Platteville following his sophomore year.  A knee injury ended his baseball career and he returned to finish his degree in safety education.  He moved to Stevens Point and was a jewelry salesman for 30 years and help coach football before moving back to his hometown of Milwaukee where he bartends part time.

Tom Knoble (Gays Mills, Wisconsin)

Knoble was a sophomore 2nd team All-Conference running back.  Knoble graduated in 1973 with a degree in comprehensive business and minor in economics.  He spent the next 40 years in the banking and lending business spending the last 23 years managing Associated Banks in Janesville, Wisconsin.

Bill Vander Velden (Kimberly, Wisconsin)

Vander Velden was a freshman Defensive Tackle and went on to be a 1973 1st team All-American for the Pioneers.  Vander Velden graduated in 1975 with a degree in industrial technology and moved to Winneconne, Wisconsin where he was the head football coach for 23 years and taught for 44.  He has three children and four grandkids.

Jim Lawinger (Platteville, Wisconsin)

Lawinger was a senior and 1st team All-American defensive back. Lawinger graduated in 1972 with a major in industrial technology and a minor in physical education.  He started his teaching career in 1973 and retired in 2011.  He coached, football, basketball, track and softball.  Lawinger is currently retired from teaching and currently is a volunteer men's basketball coach for the Pioneers.

Pete Drone (Muscoda, Wisconsin)

Drone was a senior and 2nd team All-Conference offensive tackle.  He graduated with a degree in agriculture education in 1971.  Following graduation, Drone played two years of semi-professional football with the Madison Mustangs. He started teaching in 1976 at Bloomington, Wisconsin where he coached football until he retired.

Carol Kreuger (Head Coach Gil Krueger's Wife)

Mrs. Kreuger currently lives in Walnut Creek, California where Gil and her moved after Gil's retirement from coaching.