Oct. 20, 2005

by CARROLL FADAL

Ask any longtime Baylor fan which team was the best in school history, and, depending on the fan's age, you likely will get one of four answers.

Many senior fans will be quick to tout the 1956 team that went 9-2 and won its last five games, including a 13-7 triumph over Johnny Majors and second-ranked Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl.

Fans across the age spectrum might point to the 1963 team that, behind the lethal passing duo of Don Trull and Lawrence Elkins, came within a Duke Carlile interception of an undefeated conference campaign that would have included a win over eventual national champion Texas. That John Bridgers-coached squad wound up 8-3, including a 14-7 win over LSU in the Bluebonnet Bowl.

Middle-aged Bear-backers surely will name the 1974 team as best of all time. Led by Neal Jeffrey, Derrel Luce, Steve Beaird, Ron Burns, Gary Green and a host of others, that squad won the school's first conference championship in 50 years, went to the Cotton Bowl for the first time ever and turned head coach Grant Teaff into a national icon.

But when it comes to talent, statistics; and, most importantly, the scoreboard, it's the 1980 team that stands above the rest. All that group of Bears did was go 10-2, win the SWC by a whopping three full games, lead the conference in total offense and total defense and send a slew of Bears to the NFL, where they brought even more fame to Baylor.

"We had such a good, balanced team," said Teaff, now executive director of the American Football Coaches Association. "I've looked at a lot of games prior to that team and after that team, and that was as good a team as anyone would want to put on the field. They had good leadership, cohesiveness and a chemistry that bound them all together."

Win they did. Starting with a 42-7 thrashing of Lamar in Beaumont and including a 46-7 win over Texas A&M at College Station and a thrilling come-from-behind 32-28 triumph over then-No. 20 SMU, the 1980 Bears raced out to a 7-0 start and a No. 5 national ranking before losing, unbelievably, to unranked and unheralded San Jose State 30-22 in Waco.

A lesser Baylor team might have caved in at that point but not the 1980 Bears. Led by such stalwarts as linebacker Mike Singletary, running backs Walter Abercrombie and Dennis Gentry, quarterback Jay Jeffrey and guard Frank Ditta, the Bears followed the lead of a beloved former teammate and found themselves a purpose and a motto.

"The moment I think anyone would say was a defining moment, not only for a football team; but for their lives, was in the dressing room before the Arkansas game," Teaff said. "We had lost to San Jose State the week before when we were No. 5 in the nation, and there was that cloud of doubt hanging over our team. I could tell the lights were on but nobody was home. I brought Kyle Woods down from Dallas; it was the first time he'd been on campus, the first time he'd been in the dressing room since he got hurt."

Woods, a defensive back, was paralyzed from the neck down when he hit a teammate in a 1978 practice and remains in a wheelchair.

"I asked him if he wanted to say something," Teaff said. "He was in his wheelchair, and he said, 'Guys, you've got to take a setback and turn it into a comeback;' and, to top it all off, and I think this is the moment that is etched in everyone's mind, he stood up. We don't know how he did it and hasn't done it since to my knowledge. I remember Mike Fisher, one of our tight ends, reached over to steady him. That was the exclamation point for what he said. Poor Lou Holtz and Arkansas didn't have a prayer that day."

Indeed, the Bears thrashed the perennially powerful Razorbacks, 42-15, on ABC regional television and wrapped up the season with a 16-6 win at Rice and a dominating, 16-0 shutout of No. 20 Texas on a drizzly day in Waco to finish the regular season at 10-1. Those 10 wins still rank as the most in school history. A 30-2 loss to Alabama in the Cotton Bowl did nothing to tarnish the team's reputation.

The Arkansas win after the heartbreak of San Jose State also ranked high for Abercrombie, the school's all-time leading rusher with 3,665 yards and now an Associate Athletics Director at Baylor in charge of the "B" Association for Baylor letter-winners. That season, Abercrombie, the Waco University High School graduate, rushed for an SWC-best 1,187 yards, still the single-season school record.

"My favorite memory would probably be playing Arkansas here, on television, and beating them pretty handily," Abercrombie said. "That probably was my best memory of the 1980 season. Obviously, beating Texas A&M up there was another good memory. And beating Texas at home; that was the only shutout that we had that season, and we were able to score 16 points on them. It was a tough game. But we could have played all day and all night, and I don't think they would have scored on us."

To be sure, the 1980 Bears were salty on defense, led by the intrepid Singletary and his linebacking cohorts Lester Ward and Doak Field, head-hunting safety Vann McElroy and defensive end Charles Benson. Singletary, named Southwest Conference Player of the Decade for the 1980's and SWC Most Valuable Player in 1979 and 1980, has the Baylor career record with 662 tackles. To understand the significance of that number, consider that the man in the No. 2 position, Ray Berry, had 380 tackles. In 1980, Singletary led the team with 145 tackles. He was named to All-America teams in 1978, 1979 and 1980 before having a Hall-of-Fame NFL career with the Chicago Bears.

McElroy, along with fellow free safety Mike Welch (1986-1990), is Baylor's all-time interceptions leader with 16; an NCAA-best eight of those came in 1980. McElroy went on to a pro-bowl career with the NFL's Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. Benson is the school's all-time leaders in tackles for loss with 49. As a team, Baylor led the SWC in rushing defense (105.5 yards per game), scoring defense (11.7 points per game) and total defense (266.5 yards per game) and registered a school-record five safeties.

As good as they were on defense, the Bears were equally effective on offense. Abercrombie and Gentry combined for nearly 2,000 yards (Gentry had 883 on only 147 carries, a 6.01-yards-per carry average) running the Jeffrey-piloted veer offense.

"A lot of people considered Dennis and me the best one-two punch in the league at the time," Abercrombie said. "I keep thinking about how talented Dennis was; teams would try to key on me and that's when Dennis would just go nuts. You couldn't really key on me because he was so dangerous. It's rare when you have two backs in the same backfield who are both capable of taking it the distance and both are equally good blockers."

He could have added that they were good pass receivers as well. Both used the skills they learned at Baylor to have solid pro careers, Abercrombie with the Steelers and Eagles after being Pittsburgh's first-round draft choice in 1982 and Gentry, now a scout with the Detroit Lions, as a wide receiver and kick-returner with the 1985 world champion Bears. Abercrombie led the SWC in rushing with 1,187 yards in 1980 and the team also led the league with 296.9 rushing yards a game, 440.7 total yards a game and 28.6 points a game.

A whopping 12 players from the 1980 team were named all-conference: Abercrombie, Benson, defensive tackle Joe Campbell, Ditta, Field, Fisher, Gentry, Jeffrey, McElroy, defensive end Max McGeary, Singletary and defensive tackle Tommy Tabor.

"I think we were probably a bunch of overachievers," Abercrombie said. "I think Coach Teaff did a great job of recruiting players that he then developed into a very good football team."

You won't get any argument about that from any age group of Baylor fans.