Published: October 10, 2009 11:41 pm      

WOLCOTT: Pluck kept club football alive for Purple Eagles

It was a tumultuous time, the late 1960s. There was a war in Vietnam, race riots in the cities and assassinations of loved leaders. College students either buckled down in class or faced the draft. ROTC was mandatory.

Somehow a group of students thought they could bring football back to Niagara University.

The Purple Eagles’ varsity football program folded in 1950. How could a club team get off the ground? There was no support from the school. There was no field to play in that had stands for fans. There was no meal money, no travel expenses, no special class schedules for the players.

I don’t know how they pulled it off, but they kept the program alive for 19 years, give or take.

On the plus side, there was a strong intramural program which caught the students’ interest, there were student-athletes who loved football and there were some dedicated guys who learned organizational skills that serve them to this day.

They had more pluck than luck and they kept at it.

On Saturday, the Club Football Reunion Luncheon was the biggest activity at the 2009 Alumni Weekend, with about 150 people attending. Players, families, fans and even cheerleaders came back to meet old friends and teammates.

While many of the players came from downstate, Mike Scalzo of DeSales High School was a local kid who wanted to play. Listed at 5-foot-8, 162 pounds, he is regarded as the best halfback in the history of the program.

Scalzo, who played football, basketball and baseball for the Knights, played in a touch football game against Canisius as a sophomore in 1966. That game drew so much interest, organizers Tony Caccamo and James Duquin decided to step up to tackle football in 1967 — my first year at the Niagara Falls Gazette — and play at Hyde Park Stadium in Niagara Falls.

Meanwhile, the likes of Jack Kemp and O.J. Simpson trained with the Buffalo Bills on Monteagle Ridge. Johnny Bench was catching for the Baseball Bisons at Hyde Park and Gil Perreault was about to emerge with the Buffalo Sabres. The Bills, Bisons, Braves and Sabres were on my beat, but so were the Eagle upstarts.

I don’t remember a game that wasn’t raw and muddy. Still, the community and the students were behind the clubbers. Armand Castellani of Tops Friendly Markets donated money for uniforms. The Plant Managers Association of Niagara Falls became sponsors. The Niagara Falls Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) sponsored the Power City Bowl in 1968. It was a mud bowl.

Roy Crysler became the coach and became the cornerstone of the program, according to Scalzo. “I thought football days were over. I just loved playing. It was a contact sport, a lot of fun.”

Students got into the games free with an ID card and there were Friday night dances after the games. “It was a close-knit campus, an activity that everybody could get involved in,” Scalzo said.

Niagara was ranked in the top 10 of the National Club Football Association and boasted a few All-Americans, but the sport skidded into the 1980s. In 1982, Niagara had to forfeit three games because it used three students who were ineligible.

During a game, chemicals from a plant wafted over Hyde Park Stadium. Some students got sick, but while there were no serious injuries, the game was halted. The “Chlorine Bowl” signaled the end to club football.

Until Saturday. Memories were rekindled.

Caccamo, who tried to work with Niagara officials for several years, found a sympathetic listener in Athletic Director Ed McLaughlin. They worked for about 18 months putting the reunion together.

“It’s an interesting group,” McLaughlin said. “It’s a tight-knit group and they’ve gone on in life to be a very successful group. This event helped us recognize a group that had not been recognized before. They earned varsity letters while they were here.”

Club football will be alive in the Niagara University Athletics Hall of Fame and the club team gathered enough money to donate to electronic kiosks to be placed in the Gallagher Center and Dwyer Arena.

“Tony did all the work,” McLaughlin said. “He reached out to people and formed a committee of players. We had a lot of club football players come back for this. It’s great.”

McLaughlin added, “I can’t imagine the work that must have gone into it. It’s truly remarkable. To get any club or student group off the ground, it’s hard. I think that’s what made them more tighter knit than other clubs here.”

Contact reporter Bill Wolcott

at 439-9222, ext. 6246.