Lambert Cup Football Team

Every once in a while a truly outstanding athletic team surfaces and leaves an indelible mark - that performance which is talked about for decades to come. Exactly 40 years ago this fall, one such team did perform beyond all expectations - the football team of 1966.

That particular team won seven games and lost two, but most important it was regarded as the finest small college football team in the East. Such recognition brought with it the Lambert Cup, symbolic of small college supremacy. It is the only time in the history of Gettysburg College that a football team has won such an honor, although some have come close.

It all started in August with the first meeting of the coaching staff which included head coach Gene Haas and his assistants Howard Shoemaker, Geno Hummel and Ray Reider. The captains elected that year were guard Brian Tierney, fullback Rod Albright and quarterback Dick Shirk. The season opened with a 17-16 win over Hofstra. With Bob Kinsey standing at an angle to the right, the big tackle booted a 33-yard field goal with 5:17 left in the third period for a 17-14 edge.

The next two games were exciting and went right down to the wire before the Bullets lost. The first was a 16-10 setback at the hands of Bucknell and the second a 3-0 loss to Delaware on Jeff Lippincott's 43-yard field goal in the wind and rain with three seconds left in the first half. That was the game in which minutes earlier Joe Ergresitz, on a reverse, streaked 26 yards for a TD, but it was called back because of penalty.

Following the second defeat, Gettysburg settled down and romped over its next six opponents: Albright, 34-7; Lehigh, 31-13; Kings Point, 20-16; Lafayette, 19-18; Juniata 33-21; and finally Temple, 21-19.

Offensive guard Bill Brooks scored the last TD of the Albright win when he took a lateral from Craig Markel and galloped 45 yards. Shirk hit 11 of 19 passes for 175 yards and two TDs in the Lehigh win. With just seconds left in the Kings Point game, Ken Fortier pounced on an onsides kick which was followed by a 15-yard Mariner penalty. On the next play, Egresitz turned on the engines for a 41-yard end-around touchdown jaunt.

Gettysburg scored 12 points in the final period to beat Lafayette. Shirk fired a four-yard pass to Albright for one score and the clincher came six minutes later when little Craig Markel opened all burners and returned a punt 95-yards for the winning score.

Again it was the passing combination of Shirk to Albright which twice produced touchdowns in the Juniata victory. Then it was the finale - the showdown with Temple's Owls.

A 68-yard pass from Shirk to Markel produced the game's first score and Paul Lukis kicked the extra point. By halftime the game was tied 7-7. The two teams exchanged early third period touchdowns and Gettysburg led 14-13. The 6,200 fans who jammed Musselman Stadium then watched Albright ramble 50 yards late in the period to give Gettysburg its winning touchdown.

A fitting end to a season long remembered in the history of Gettysburg football.