1964 Best Year Yet for ECC's Stasavich
This article describes why 1964 was Stasavich's best year. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: McGrew, Mac. "1964 Best Year for ECC's stasavich," News and Observer, January 15, 1965.
Life has been good to Clarence Stasavich. He will be the first to acknowledge that.
Now 51, he can look backward and recall many good years. But perhaps none stand out more than 1964, and it is possible that none in the future will match or surpass it.
It was a particulary good year because of achievements by himself and by his East Carolina football team. The team's achievements carried him to the ultimate heights in his profession: Acclaim as Coach of the Year for 1964.
That honor came on a vote of his peers, his fellow coaches in the NCAA's college division ranks. In 1959, while at Lenoir Rhyne, Stasavich won NAIA Coach of the Year laurels.
But 1964 didn't start out as a signal year for Stasavich.
He was rcovering from a serious heart attack, suffered during the 1963 season. He was hospitilzed for seven weeks -- three on critical list and four on the concerned roster.
Soon Stasavich, who started his coaching career at Campbell College after graduating from Lenoir Rhyne in 1935, was "feeling better than before I was sick," and operating at full steam again.
Then came direct concern with personnel problems on the ECC football team, which suffered key losses after a 9-1 '63 season that included a victory over Northeastern (Mass) in the Eastern Bowl.
Changes had to be made, and, as it turned out, they all paid off . . . with another 9-1 season that included a bowl victory, ths one over Massachusettes for the NCAA Atlantic Coast College Division title.
The switches included moving Norman Swindell from center to blocking back, where he was the play-caller; shifting Dave Alexander to fullback from a defensive corner back; and entrusting the center duties to two sophomores, Johnny Crew on offense and Harold Glaettie on defense.
The only '64 loss for the Bucs was in a game they and their coach wanted to win most of all. It was 22-20 Richmond, ending a 14-game winning streak that stretched back to the '63 opener at Richmond.
However, the Bucs bounced back and won their last three regular season games. The wind-up was homecoming, and Greenville citizens underscored the day by presenting Stasavich with a new car, one equipped to do everything except drive itself.
Shortly afterward, ECC received the berth in that bowl game, the Tangerine at Orlando, Fla.
Again, things didn't augur well for Stasavich. time was getting short and the UMass team held the upper hand, 13-6. A daring pass gamble called by Stasavich paid off and the Bucs went on in to score, making it 13-12.
The decision was to go for an all-or-nothing two point conversion and victory, and Swindell, the erstwhile center, called for a pass. Little All-America Bill Cline threw it and soph end Pete Crane caught it. ECC 14, UMass 13.
The two-pointer was recalled by Stasavich during the presentation of his Coach of the Year plaque in Chicago Wednesday. "I could have been the lousiest coach in the country if we'd missed," he said.
Stasavich looked back over 1964 after returning to Raleigh-Durham airport, yesterday, where he was greeted by ECC president, Dr. Leo Jenkins.
One important item on the Stasavich memory chart had not been mentioned, but he wanted it recorded "because it was the very last thing in 1964" and it was a milestone in his life.
It was the installation as an elder in First Presbyterian Church at Greenville, on the last Sunday of 1964.
