By Carter Schum | December 9, 2024
John D. Bertuzzi (#15) handing the ball off to Thomas P. Deblois (#33) during a UAlbany football game in 1974.
Photo Credit: University at Albany Archive Collection
Football at UAlbany is one of the cornerstone events of campus life and one of the highlights of the athletic season.
Despite many recent successes - which included a 2023 season that featured a CAA championship and a trip to the national FCS semifinals - football at UAlbany initially had a tumultuous history on campus.
The first time a team was attempted to be put together was in 1917, but a polio outbreak quickly cancelled this attempt. A second attempt came in 1922 under Head Coach Francis Snavley who led UAlbany in their first ever game (as a club team) on Oct. 14. They lost to the freshman team of Union college 16-6. This would be an omen of the early history of football at UAlbany as the team amassed just one win in three seasons of play from 1922-24, with that win coming in 1923. At the end of the 1924 season, the club team ceased operations, leaving the school without a football team at any level until 1970.
The third attempt to start an official team at UAlbany proved to be much more successful than the previous attempts had been. The Great Danes Football Club won more games in their first season (2) than the previous iteration of the team had done in their entire three-year existence.
The team remained at club level until 1973, when the administration promoted the upstart program to varsity level, to compete at the Division III level.
Upon gaining varsity status, legendary head Coach Bob Ford led the upstart Great Danes to an impressive 7-2 record that featured a 71-8 drubbing of local rivals Siena. While this was highly impressive for just the first year of varsity football at UAlbany, Coach Ford and the Great Danes accomplished something that surpassed the highly impressive 1973 season the very next year in 1974.
The season began with a trip to Long Island as the Great Danes took on the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen (now widely known as the Hofstra Pride since 2001). Quarterback John Bertuzzi and Fullback Tom Deblois led the UAlbany offense in scoring 24 first half points. Other highlights in the week one win included an 80-yard punt return by Mike Marrin that helped the Great Danes to a 33-7 victory. The Hofstra defense had no answer to the triple option offense the Great Danes used to burn defenses all season. Coach Ford said the triple option was “all we have” as the confusing nature of the triple option helped the Great Danes overcome size and skill deficits against other teams.
Their next game was their home opener of the 1974 season as the Great Danes took on Alfred University. The decisive moment in the game occurred just 15 seconds into the first quarter as backup Dave Ahnonen connected with junior split-end Bob Baxter for a 21-yard touchdown. The game remained at 7-0 until late in the fourth quarter when a Great Dane fumble was returned for a touchdown. However, the Saxons missed the extra point and neither team found the end zone for the rest of the game, and UAlbany emerged victorious 7-6.
Their next four games saw the Great Danes outscore opponents 191-35. Highlights from this stretch of games included the UAlbany offense putting up 600 yards of total offense (530 of which were rushing) in a 75-6 drubbing of Massachusetts Maritime, and Sophomore fullback DeBlois rushing for 213 yards (including a 75-yard touchdown run) in a 35-14 victory over SUNY Brockport and a 49-7 victory over RIT on homecoming.
The final three games in the 1974 season saw the Great Danes continue to steamroll every opponent in their way.
The UAlbany offense put up 494 total yards, in a 50-23 win over the Curry College Colonels. A trip to the north country of New York state was of no issue to the Great Danes as they nearly scored 50 points for the second consecutive week as they trounced the Plattsburgh Cardinals 49-8.
Going into the final game of the season, the Great Danes stood at a perfect 8-0. However, a perfect season would be far from easy to achieve as UAlbany squared off against local rivals RPI.
The Engineers gave the Great Danes a run for their money, as they kept the game close at first, as the two teams played a tight game until the fourth quarter. Deblois once again led the Great Danes to victory, as his performance of 151 yards on 24 carries put the Great Danes over the top as they prevailed late to win 37-7 and cap off their perfect 9-0 season.
When talking about the 1974 Albany Great Danes football season, one word can accurately sum up the performance from a team and individual aspect, and that is dominance.
From the team aspect, this group was in all aspects a force to be reckoned with. Outside of the close one-point victory in their second game, The Great Danes won their other 8 games by no fewer than 21 points, and in all nine victories they scored an average of 40.7 points per game while allowing only 9.6 per game, giving up double digit points only twice.
Individually, no talk of this season would be adequate if it failed to mention the performance of Deblois. The sophomore from Utica, New York, finished with a total of 1009 yards, averaging just over 112 yards per game both season highs on the team on 135 carries which was also a team high. His season highlights included the 213-yard performance against Brockport and a three-touchdown performance against the RIT Tigers. It’s safe to confidently say that Deblois was the MVP of the Great Danes 1974 season.
Despite the perfect 9-0 record, the Great Danes were not selected to participate in the NCAA Division III football tournament as their strength of schedule was seen as weaker in comparison to the four teams that were selected to participate.
The 1974 football season will live forever in the history of both UAlbany Football and UAlbany Athletics. To date, it is the only season in which the Great Danes football team has had a perfect record. Whatever is next in the history of Great Dane football, the 1974 Great Danes will forever be known as perfect.