| Winning streaks | ||
| The NCCA-recognized top winning streaks in Division I college football | ||
| School | Years | Games |
| Oklahoma | 1953-57 | 47 |
| Washington | 1908-14 | 39 |
| Yale | 1887-89 | 37 |
| Yale | 1890-93 | 37 |
| Toledo | 1969-71 | 35 |
It was - and still is - the most glorious era of UT football.
The 35-game winning streak ranks as the second-longest in modern-day Division I-A, bettered only by the 47-game unbeaten string compiled by Oklahoma, from 1953-1957.
This season marks the 30th anniversary of the 1971 Toledo team, which capped a second straight 12-0 season and an incredible three-year run.
The UT athletic department plans to honor that team, as well as players and coaches from the 1969 and 1970 teams, in a special halftime ceremony during the Rockets' final regular-season home game against Eastern Michigan on Nov. 17.
Ealey and Mel Long Sr., three-year starters on the 35-0 teams and arguably the two best players to ever play football for UT, both said yesterday that they plan to attend the ceremony.
“I just heard about it this morning, but I think it's a great idea,” Ealey said from the Toronto suburb of Brampton, Ont., where he is regional director for Investor's Group. “Sign me up. I'll be there. It will be nice to see everybody, as it always is.”
“I'd love to get together with the guys from all those teams,” said Long, who played at Macomber High and still lives in Toledo. “It's been a long time.”
Ealey was named Mid-American Conference back of the year three consecutive seasons and made numerous All-American teams at UT. He was the first MAC player to receive votes for the Heisman Trophy, finishing a distant eighth to Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan.
“When you're playing you don't really think about winning streaks,” Ealey said. “You just come to expect it. It's kind of like, ‘Oh well, another day, another game.' You realize that some day you may lose, but until you do you take things as they come. That being said, it's still hard to believe we won 35 in a row.”
Ealey, now 51, never did lose - at least until he became a pro. The Portsmouth, Ohio, native was a combined 65-0 in his high school and college careers as a starting quarterback.
He spent seven years in the Canadian Football League, leading Hamilton to the Grey Cup championship as a rookie. He is a charter member of the MAC Hall of Fame, and his son Damon was a letterman for the Rockets in 1995.
“I was watching a college game on television a year ago and Keith Jackson was announcing and they put up a question: Who has the longest (college) winning streak as a quarterback?” Ealey said.
“(Florida State's) Chris Weinke was going for his 22nd in a row that day and he lost. And there were a lot of other teams that had two quarterbacks who went through long winning streaks. But mine was 35 and the next person was at 27. I didn't even know that.
“I feel really blessed to have had all of the success I had.”
Long, who works for Sun MidAmerica in Oregon, was a 6-1, 240-pound defensive tackle and was the first consensus All-American selection in MAC history. A two-time, first-team All-American, he helped lead UT to three straight national defense titles, and was named MVP of the Tangerine Bowl in 1971. The Rockets finished 12th in the final Associated Press poll in 1970 and 14th in 1971.
Long played for the Cleveland Browns and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1998. He also is a member of the MAC Hall of Fame.
“We had a great team for three years, as well as a confident team,” Long said. “When we ran onto the field, we expected to win.”
Long's son Mel Jr. is the leading receiver in UT history. The younger Long signed a free-agent contract with the Philadelphia Eagles this year but was waived in training camp.
“Having two of the most notable players in Rocket football history come back certainly will mean a lot to the school and the community,” said Dave Nottke, UT's assistant director for development who is helping organize the reunion. “I think it will be a real special treat for our fans to have those two in attendance.
“People around here still have a lot of memories of those players and those teams.”
Especially legendary coach Frank Lauterbur. Lauterbur, 76, still attends most of UT's home games and plans to be at the reunion ceremony. He led the Rockets to an 11-0 record in 1969 and a 12-0 mark in 1970 before accepting the head coaching job at Iowa. He was replaced by Jack Murphy, who led UT to a 12-0 record in 1971.
“Chuck Ealey was a great football player,” Lauterbur said yesterday. “I'm glad Chuck's going to be at the reunion. It wouldn't be much of a reunion without him. As for Mel Long, he was a destroyer. He was practically unblockable.”
Murphy, who also lives in Toledo, could not be reached yesterday, but Lauterbur said his contribution to UT's 35-game winning streak should not be overlooked.
“I don't think enough can be said for Jack and the job he did,” Lauterbur said. “He was the first guy I ever hired at Toledo and he came into a situation in 1971 where he had to do the right thing or he was wrong, and he did it.”
UT interim athletic director Mike Karabin said yesterday that the athletic department also plans to re-retire four jerseys - Ealey's No. 16, Long's No. 77, Mel Triplett's No. 66 and Gene Swick's No. 18 - during the Eastern Michigan game.
Triplett played from 1951 through '54, and Swick from '73 through '75.
“Those numbers have been retired for years, but we're going to showcase those jerseys in our football stadium in the Larimer Building so they're properly identified as being officially retired numbers for those four greats,” Karabin said.
Nottke said a committee will be formed early next week to start planning the reunion. He said he hopes to have invitations sent out to the players and coaches of the 1969, 1970 and 1971 teams by the end of next week.
“Those teams were special and so were the players, that's why they had a 35-game unbeaten streak,” said current UT coach Tom Amstutz, who attended many of those games with his father, George, and later played for Murphy. “That streak probably will never be matched in the history of our school.”
First Published October 4, 2001, 4:08 p.m.
