Cal Poly: The story of a survivor

This week's game at Wisconsin means a lot to a football program that has overcome hurdles throughout its existence

Jim Polzin  —  11/19/2008 7:54 pm

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Al Moriarty is a talker, and one of his favorite subjects is the Cal Poly football program.

Moriarty will go on and on about the Mustangs if you let him, pausing only to breathe. The septuagenarian turned five questions from a reporter into a 45-minute long phone conversation recently, with Moriarty's passion gaining momentum with each word he spoke.

It's hard to talk when you're choked up, though, and Moriarty admits he's been overcome by that emotion time and again over the last few months. It'll probably hit him again later this week when he's sitting on the team's charter flight en route to Madison for Saturday's game against the University of Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium.

The game might not mean much to Badger Nation -- in fact, fans have been moaning and groaning for months that UW is closing its regular season with a home game against a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) opponent -- but it means everything to a guy like Moriarty, a former Cal Poly player who's now one of the program's most loyal boosters.

"It kind of brings a twinkle to your eyes," he said. "A few tears, too."

Few give Cal Poly (8-1), ranked No. 3 and playoff-bound in FCS, a chance to beat the Badgers (6-5), but that's not the point. For the Mustangs, it's their first opportunity to measure themselves against an opponent from a Bowl Championship Series conference and perhaps place on the map a program that has overcome several obstacles in the last half-century.

Used bubble gum art, and no drive-throughs

San Luis Obispo is about 200 miles north of Los Angeles and 220 miles south of San Francisco on California's Central Coast. It's a short drive to the Pacific Ocean and an even shorter journey to find a good homegrown wine to taste.

The city -- locals refer to it as S-L-O or San Luis (san LEW-is) -- was built around the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, the fifth of California's 21 Spanish missions. Founded in 1772, the mission is the main tourist attraction in a buzzing downtown area that includes several restaurants, boutiques and galleries.

It also includes an alley featuring a unique form of art: used bubble gum. Since about 1960, people have been depositing their chewed gum on both walls of the alley. You have to see it to believe it, although you might want to plug your nose.

If you want somebody to thank -- or blame -- for the controversial decision to ban smoking in places where you once lit up, San Luis Obispo would be a good place to start. In 1990, it became the first municipality in the nation to ban smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants.

Fast food is available, but you can't pick it up at a drive-through. City ordinance prevents businesses from constructing them.

The locals will tell you they fell in love with the area and didn't want to leave. That's what happened to Moriarty, who arrived from Long Island in 1953 and liked it so much that he stayed after graduating from Cal Poly a few years later.

Cal Poly coach Rich Ellerson has no intentions of leaving anytime soon, either. After spending most of his coaching career as an assistant at the I-A level -- he spent a total of eight seasons at Arizona during two stints and nine seasons at Hawaii, his alma mater, during three stops -- Ellerson took over the Mustangs in 2001 and loves the job.

Ellerson can walk around town without being swarmed. And when his work day is complete, he can return to his home in nearby Avila Beach and relax.

"I've got a sailboat moored out there in Avila Bay," Ellerson said. "I've got my dive boat in my driveway. I've got a little vineyard in my front yard. I've completely bought into the culture of where I am.

"Knock on wood, I hope I get to keep doing this for a while."

Mustangs still going strong

The program Ellerson leads is a true survivor. While several other colleges in California have dropped football -- Cal-Fullerton, Cal-Long Beach, Pepperdine and Saint Mary's, to name a few -- Cal Poly is still going strong, although there have been some scares along the way.

The Mustangs won a Division II national title in 1980, yet just over a decade later the program was in danger of being dropped. But the Cal Poly student body stepped up and passed a referendum in 1991 to increase fees in support of a transition to Division I. Three years later, the students approved another referendum to increase financial support for athletic scholarships.

However, you have to go back nearly five decades to find the defining moment in the program's history.

On Oct. 29, 1960, an overweight charter plane carrying the team and its traveling party back from a 50-6 loss to Bowling Green crashed soon after takeoff at the Toledo Express Airport in northwest Ohio. Twenty-two people were killed, including 16 players.

Among the survivors was quarterback Ted Tollner, who went on to become a respected offensive mind in the college and professional coaching ranks.

Cal Poly had been a powerhouse in the 1950s -- Moriarty was a member of the 1953 team that went 9-0; broadcaster and former Oakland Raiders coach John Madden played on the 1957-58 teams that went a combined 17-2 -- but it canceled the final three games of the 1960 season and struggled to a 13-34 mark over the next five seasons.

"Everybody in the community got behind it," Moriarty said. "They wanted this program. They thought it would be a tribute to all the guys we lost. They thought all those kids would have been disappointed if we didn't keep our program going."

And the Mustangs slowly recovered. They flourished under coach Joe Harper in the 1970s and '80s -- including the national championship in 1980 -- and appear ready to become a powerhouse at the FCS level under Ellerson, who is 56-32 in eight seasons.

A stunning setting, an impressive pedigree

Ramses Barden has been at Cal Poly so long -- the record-breaking wide receiver is a fifth-year senior -- that he admits he takes for granted how stunning the 6,600-acre campus nestled in the foothills around San Luis Obispo is to the eye.

Barden says when his former teammates visit campus, they remind him to cherish the picture-perfect setting as much as he can during his remaining few months at Cal Poly. "They're all saying, 'We didn't know what we had until we left,'" Barden said.

While the weather -- the mercury usually hovers between 70 and 75 degrees in SLO -- and location are ideal, Ellerson said the No. 1 selling point when it comes to recruiting is the school's academic reputation.

"I don't think you should come to Cal Poly because you like to surf," he said. "There are some great reasons to be here and that's a nice tag, but that's a bad decision. You come here because you're passionate about the game and you're dead serious about your education."

How serious? At one point a few seasons ago, the Mustangs had seven starters on defense who were students in the school's prestigious engineering program, ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the best in the country among public institutions that do not grant doctoral degrees. In the same category's overall rankings, Cal Poly was rated the best public school in the West for the 16th consecutive year.

Like most teams, this one has a few players who will attend dental or medical school upon graduation.

Barden is a Dean's List honoree who passed up a chance to attend an Ivy League school (Penn) in order to attend Cal Poly.

"That's the kind of quality people we surround ourselves with," Ellerson said. "When we bring guys on campus, we hit them right between the eyes with that: 'This is what you're signing on for. Don't come here if this is not you. You'll make me crazy and yourself miserable until you punch out.'"

The Mustangs take their football seriously, too. They lead the FCS in total offense with more than 46 points per game and are outscoring their opponents by more than 23 points per game.

Cal Poly averages more than 300 rushing yards per game out of its triple-option attack, yet Barden has more than 1,000 receiving yards and broke Jerry Rice's FCS record with his 18th consecutive game with a touchdown reception in a victory over Cal Davis last weekend. Quarterback Jonathan Dally has accounted for 28 touchdowns, including 20 through the air with just one interception.

"We've got a number of athletes here that could play at bigger schools," Barden said.

That's exactly why Barden and his teammates are eager to see how they stack up against the Badgers, who will be the most high-profile opponent the Mustangs have ever played. Cal Poly is 4-17 vs. Football Bowl Subdivision opponents since 1980 (though the Mustangs have won three of their last seven, including a 29-27 victory over San Diego State on Aug. 30).

The Camp Randall crowd is also surely to be unlike anything Cal Poly has ever seen. The largest crowd the Mustangs have ever played in front of is the 32,536 fans at a 59-10 loss at Fresno State in 1985; Cal Poly's home attendance capacity is 11,075.

"I'm anxious to see what kind of national exposure we get by playing Wisconsin," Cal Poly athletic director Alison Cone said. "I know lots of people are really excited about this game. We haven't played on that kind of stage ever in football, and we think even more people will take a look at our program."

---

UP NEXT 

What: Cal Poly (8-1, No. 3 in FCS) at Wisconsin
(6-5) in a nonconference game

When: Saturday, 2:30 p.m.

Where: Camp Randall Stadium

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: WIBA-FM/101.5, AM/1310

Jim Polzin  —  11/19/2008 7:54 pm