North Park University - Cupola Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 182 text:

football 195 row 1 row 2 row 3 row 4 d. cowen, d. Johnson, b. hunter, r. norene, f. peterson, b. muir, r. berg. a. olsson, w. maugarite, a. vasilatos, a. Stevens, p. knott, b. hanson, b. seawall. b. linden, j. swanson, b. matson, d. witt, d. Wilms, t. nordling, b. nelson, d. wells, coach hedstrand. j. millington, b. hoist, b. nelson, r. dundon, k. bergstrom, b. enstrom, b. milligan, d. erickson. all the boys began thinking about the football season very early and earnestly last summer, led by the two co-captains, ron norene and frank peterson, a few had started working out as early as august 14; and by September 1, when coach ted hedstrand offi- cially began practice, the potential all-ameri- cans had reported for the two-a-day sessions. the entire team delved into the practices with great gusto and eagerly awaited the first game which was against glenwood. everyone wanted to win our 3rd straight league cham- pionship and continue our winning streak which now totaled 16 games, the longest in the city at that time. the 1951 season opened on a mild, sunny afternoon with the mighty vikings facing a stout glenwood eleven, in the 4th quarter our hard running full-back, bob enstrom, roared around end for a touch down, the point after the touchdown was good and we led 7-0. glen- wood made one last desperate scoring attempt, but our stout defense held and we won by the score of 7-0. everyone thought this was a close game, but the next one really took the cake! it was 178

Page 181 text:

I thleti cs

Page 183 text:

viking style our first conference game, and our foe was the highly touted wheaton team, early in the 2nd quarter, wheaton intercepted a pass deep in our territory and, four plays later, scored on a 1-yard plunge, fortunately, the try for the p.a.t. failed, but nevertheless we were trail- ing 6-0. we had many opportunities to score after that but failed to capitalize, primarily due to costly fumbles, however, in the 4th quarter, with only 35 seconds remaining, enstrom hurled a long pass to knott who made a great catch and with two tacklers hanging on, liter- ally fell over the goal line for the tieing t. d. (touchdown), peterson ' s pass to norene was good for the extra point, and we edged wheaton 7-6 in truly a story book finish! the viking victory string had now reached 18 straight and we hoped to make it 19 against our sister school — minnehaha. the red plague , as we affectionately called them af- terwards, failed to return the hospitality we showed them in our fair city because, for the first time since our rivalry started, the indians convincingly trounced us by a score of 8-0. the game was played in a cold, driving rain, and the greatest part of the field was thor- oughly churned into a deep, oozing mud — which made a wide open game impossible. our string had now been broken, so the only thing to do was to start another one, which we promptly did. in an attempt to im- prove the team, coach hedstrand tried some changes in the line-up. bergstrom switched from guard to half, and norene dropped back to half — a move which added speed and power to the backfield and bolstered our sag- ging line, this bit of strategy paid rich divi- dends in our next game against parker. with both men fitting into their new positions like experts, the viking team exploded to a 25-0 half time lead and from there coasted to a 25-12 victory. this now brought us to the crucial game with luther, who were the real favorites to cap- ture the private league crown, north park had another off day, and, coupled with luther ' s homecoming, we were defeated 13-0. the vik- ings were now tied for 2nd place with luther with a 2-1 record, parker was in the 1st place with a 3-1 record. our last three games loomed bigger than ever, for we had to win all of them in order to have any part of the coveted championship, the players realized this and valiantly strove to attain the goal which had slipped a notch further away. the first of the three must games found us pitted against latin, which proved to be one of the most exciting of the season, with a bril- liant kick-off by enstrom and some expert pass snagging by knott, we triumphed with a score of 19-15. one down — two to go! the second of the three must games was won handily over todd by a tally of 24-9. two down — big one coming up! with six to eight inches of snow and freez- ing temperatures outside, we were approach- ing our final game of the year, and for some their final game at north park. the team worked diligently, and with homecoming only a few days off, the tempo of school spirit mounted to a frenzied height, by Saturday morning everyone agreed that there was more enthusiasm this year than ever before. this spirit was transmitted to the team as well, and each player performed at his peak. such a combination was hard to beat, bob enstrom ' s 78-yard punt run back, aided by a couple of perfectly timed bone-crushing blocks, provided the margin of victory over a hard, charging and spirited harvard eleven, yes, homecoming was indeed a memorable event. by beating harvard we were assured of at least a tie for the league championship. luther, who had fallen apart late in the season, was easily beaten by parker. thus, we share the crown with parker — even though we did beat them in league play, by sharing this 1951 championship, north park becomes the first team in the private school league history to capture the conference crown three times — not to mention that we did it three times in a row. it was a great season, not without spills, thrills, and plenty of excitement, the players and the students only hope that the future will be better and, that in retrospect, one might say - well done, team of ' 51 . 179