Statesmen to the 2000 Gulf South Conference and

2005 STATESMEN FOOTBALL
58
1954...Simply Perfect
Coach E.B. Chadwick knew he had a special group of
players coming in for the 1954 season. Little did he know they
would be perfect! Coach Chadwick would say, “Those boys
always gave their all and left it all on the field.” Leaving it on
the field is an understatement. The 1954 edition of the Green
and White remains the only undfeated team in Delta State
University football history. The 2004 season was the 50th
anniversary of the miraculous season and many of the
members of that squad returned for a reunion at Parker Field.
In 1954, the Statesmen began their march to perfection with
a 35-6 thumping of Millsaps College. Coach Chad’s boys
would continue the streak with a 35-12 drilling of Louisiana
Monroe the following week. The third game of the year brought
the first road game of the year at Troy State. The Statesmen
dispatched the Trojans 26-12 in Troy, Ala.
Over the next five weeks the Statesmen would allow only six
points over that span to finish 8-0. Game four pit the Statesmen
versus the UAM Boll Weevils and the Weevils felt the
spray of a 32-0 defeat. The Statesmen shut-out Mississippi
College the next week 25-0 and followed that up with a 40-0
thrashing of West Alabama. Against Southern Arkansas, the
Statesmen wowed a capacity Homecoming crown to a 53-0
win over the Muleriders.
DSU would wrap up the only perfect season in school
history with a 20-6 win over Southeast Missouri State.
Aubrey Rozzell and Jimmy Sanders would earn Honorable
Mention All-American status that year and forever write their
names into the Delta State football recordbook.
Members of the 1954 senior class.
1954 Undefeated Team - 1959 Christmas Bowl
1959 Christmas Bowl
Perhaps no other football team in Delta State school history
charmed and excited fans the way the 1959 Statesmen did.
Under the direction of legendary head coach E.B. Chadwick
-- who had led the school to its only undefeated season just five
years before -- the 1959 club went 9-1 during the regular season
and received a bid to play in the Christmas Festival Bowl at Demon
Stadium in Natchitoches, La., against East Central Oklahoma
State, a team that was 8-3.
To say DSU had speed and depth that year would be an
understatement. The Deltans averaged a school record 330.0
rushing yards per game -- best in the nation among NAIA schools
-- and 388.9 yards of total offense, which ranked them fifth in the
nation. The team had 11 regular running backs and three capable
quarterbacks.
With that it was no major crisis, when starting quarterback
Don Ward went down with a dislocated shoulder and had to
miss the game, leaving Frank Greenlee to anchor the attack in
the first half of the contest, and Bob Brumfield to lead the team to
victory in the second half.
After one half, the two teams were scoreless, with DSU and
East Central Oklahoma both serious scoring threats before coming
up empty.
James Hubbert changed things on the opening kickoff of
the second half, as he scampered 95 yards for the game’s first
score at the 14:38 mark of the third quarter. Despite Willie Stokes’
wide PAT attempt that followed, DSU scored again moments
later after a bobbled Tiger punt attempt gave the Statesmen possession
at the East Central Oklahoma 20-yard line.
Billy Pat Thomas went in from seven yards out three plays
later, but Brumfield’s kick was blocked, to make the score 12-0
Statesmen.
Ironically, most of the Delta State faithful who made the trip
never saw DSU score the two quick touchdowns to start the
second half, as a steady rain sent most in attendance under the
grandstand for cover.
Later in the third period, Brumfield, scored on a three-yard
bootleg, followed by a Stokes kick, to give DSU not only a 19-0
win, but also its only 10-win season and bowl victory ever.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
1 2 3 4 Final
Delta State 0 0 19 0 19
E. Central Oklahoma 0 0 0 0 0
1954 Undfeated Statesmen Football Team (8-0)
5 0 4 0
3 0
2 0 1 0 G