Historic Day Is Ho-Hum for Mount Union

Mount Union College made history Saturday with all the enthusiasm of two guys with a load of wash to do.

Maybe it’s because victory is expected here, as common as a sunrise, or because humility still has a place in sport.

Or, maybe it was because there was a load of wash to do.

“We got laundry tonight?” receiver Adam Marino asked quarterback Gary Smeck.

Yep.

Victory is sweet, but in Division III it also comes with a rinse cycle.

Mount Union stirred up some suds Saturday, defeating Otterbein College, 44-20, for its 48th consecutive victory, breaking the NCAA record of 47 held for 42 years by Bud Wilkinson’s legendary Oklahoma Sooners.

A representative of the College Football Hall of Fame was on hand to retrieve the game ball and Coach Larry Kehres’ game shirt.

Despite the huge physical and financial gulf between major college and Division III, the mark goes into the record book without an asterisk.

“We’re recording this as the record,” Shawn Robinson, the hall’s public relations coordinator, said in the Mount Union press box.

Postgame reaction to the shattering of one of college football’s most hallowed marks was surprisingly subdued. Kehres left the field dry and on his own two feet--what, no Gatorade shower and shoulder ride?--and no one from the record crowd of 7,132 dared to challenge the two police dogs sniffing around the goal posts.

There are explanations for the downplay.

One, Mount Union players and fans don’t get worked up about victories. The school hasn’t lost a game since December 1995.

Two, Kehres is genuinely embarrassed by the comparisons between eras and collegiate divisions. With a 14-year record of 144-16-3, Kehres is the winningest coach, by percentage, in college football history. The second and third names on this list?

Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy.

Kehres refused to have this tidbit included in this year’s media guide.

He is equally sensitive about breaking Oklahoma’s mark.

“I think some things in college football really are hallowed ground,” Kehres said. “I have great respect for Knute Rockne and Bud Wilkinson. I should be the primary spokesman for the fact that Division III is not the same as Division I. Those records should be treated by all of us with respect.”

And three, as we said, there was laundry to do.

Smeck and Marino are quite a team. In the game, Smeck completed 15 of 26 passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns. Marino had nine catches for 209 yards and a touchdown.

The pair set the tone early when they connected on a 39-yard pass-and-catch play on Mount Union’s first play from scrimmage. Looking to remove any possible drama from the day, the Purple Raiders built a 21-0 first-quarter lead en route to the easy win.

Afterward, as memorabilia from the game was being transported to the hall of fame, Smeck and Marino gathered 110 pairs of uniform pants and hauled them to the campus wash room.

This isn’t Oklahoma. There are no athletes on scholarship at Mount Union, a private school with about 2,000 students located in northeast Ohio, about a 90-minute drive from Cleveland.

Tuition is $18,000 per year at the school, founded in 1846 by the United Methodists.

As part of a work-study program, Smeck and Marino earn $5.15 an hour washing the team’s uniforms.

“It’s tough jamming those things into the washer,” Marino said. “We have to put on gloves. It gets dirty.”

You know how it goes with grass stains.

“We’ll get excited,” Marino said of the record. “But it’s almost like we’re in a daze.”

Marino said the team’s low-key reaction to victory is one reason the school has been able to keep this remarkable streak going. The Purple Raiders plod along, machine-like, week after week, year after year.

“It symbolizes what we’re all about,” he said.

The Purple Raiders are also motivated by the former players who started the streak.

“You have to respect what they’ve done,” senior defensive tackle Matt Domin said. “They molded us, showed us the ropes. We definitely appreciate that. We’ve always got to keep the past in mind.”

The streak began Sept. 14, 1996, with a 62-0 win over Defiance, and there have been few close calls since. In the first round of last year’s Division III playoffs, an Albion player missed a field-goal attempt in the final minute to allow Mount Union to escape with a 21-19 victory.

Two weeks ago, Mount Union needed three overtimes to defeat John Carroll College, 57-51.

Kehres said he first became aware of Oklahoma’s record when the streak reached 42 at the end of last season.

“This date has been looming,” he said.

Kehres said he was nervous before the game, but more concerned how history might treat his players.

“I’m really relieved that no player made the mistake that made them feel like, ‘I’m the player who made the mistake before we got to 48,’ ” he said.

“No one had to live with the mistake of preventing this.”

While it’s tough to say this victory was routine, Mount Union has higher expectations. Its 114 victories this decade are the most in college football. The Purple Raiders have won four Division III titles, and seek their fourth in a row.

Later, though, away from the formality of the news conference, the 49-year-old Kehres admitted breaking Oklahoma’s record was special.

“There’s a real sense of satisfaction,” he said. “Gee whiz. I feel really warm, really good.”

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Streaking On

College football’s longest winning streaks:

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Streak Years Mount Union 48 1996-99 Oklahoma 47 1953-57 Washington 39 1908-14 Augustana 37 1983-85 Yale 37 1890-93 Yale 37 1887-89 Toledo 35 1969-71 Hillsdale 34 1954-57 Pennsylvania 34 1894-96 Wilkes 32 1965-69 Missouri Valley 31 1946-48 Morgan State 31 1965-68 Oklahoma 31 1948-50 Pittsburgh 31 1914-18 Pennsylvania 31 1896-98 Bentley 30 1993-95 Texas 30 1968-70

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