December 15, 2024
A retrospective on the 40th anniversary of Carson-Newman football's second national championship
There had been a target on Carson-Newman’s back all season in 1984. As the defending NAIA National Champions, the Eagles only had one thing to prove — They could win it again. And, because of that, C-N would get every team’s best shot.
By Adam Greene, for Carson-Newman Athletics
There had been a target on Carson-Newman's back all season in 1984. As the defending NAIA National Champions, the Eagles only had one thing to prove — They could win it again. And, because of that, C-N would get every team's best shot.
Mike Turner, then the fifth-year offensive coach and eventual successor to head coach Ken Sparks, wouldn't have had it any other way.
"We always told our kids, it's better to be chased than be a chaser," Turner said. "It's a great honor for people to have respect for our program and our kids. When you win one national championship, you got to win No. 2. Anything less than that wouldn't have been a success."
Dynasty is a term used in sports for dominant teams, programs and organizations. Carson-Newman had already pocketed its first National Title in football, but that can only be the foundation of a dynasty. To claim that moniker, a team must stack up championships. And on December 15, 1984 in Conway, Arkansas, the Eagles did just that, battling the Central Arkansas Bears to a 19-19 tie to split the NAIA Championship. As the clock hit all zeros, All-SAC linebacker Lamar Brown only had one regret. As the Bears lined up to attempt a 70-yard field goal at the end of regulation, he wished he'd made an attempt to return the ball for a score.
"I couldn't have returned it the whole way, don't get me wrong," Brown said. "I was just a linebacker, but I can still see the ball bouncing down there. But I'll take a tie over a loss any day. We were national champions and when someone asks me, they don't ask if it was a tie."
The game and the championship run were a vindication for Brown, who missed nearly all the 1983 season with an injury. He opened the year strong, recording 22 tackles against Furman, but with his knee costing him the final eight weeks of the season, he watched his teammates win their first national title from the sidelines.
"It was bittersweet," Brown said. "You're thrilled that all the great things were happening and I'm so glad that we won, but you wanted to be out there at the same time."
Brown's return to the field directly landed the Eagles in the NAIA Championship Bowl. After crushing Concord in the opening round of the playoffs, 42-6, C-N found itself in a street fight with Saginaw Valley State in the semifinals.
Carson-Newman opened the contest with a 14-7 lead, but the Cardinals slowly surged ahead over the next two quarters, taking a 21-14 advantage into the fourth. With Saginaw Valley trying to put the game away, Tim Foutz picked off a pass to give the Eagles one more chance on offense. Facing a fourth-and-three, with the season on the line, Aaron Saffell pushed his way through tacklers to keep the chains moving. A one-yard rush to paydirt from Kenneth Tyson would send the game into overtime.
It was in the extra period that Brown would see his hard-fought return to the field pay off on the biggest stage. Reading a Cardinals pitch play that defensive coordinator Jim Deaton had prepared him for, Brown knocked the ball down before it could land in the Saginaw Valley running back's hands. He and the Cards quarterback battled for the ball, only for Brown to come up with it deep in enemy territory.
"It was a play we practiced against," Brown said. "They ran the counter option where the quarterback would step to the right, spin around and come back to the left. It was a common play back then. The (defensive) call was called 'glass' and the defense would come in hard. I had practiced working toward the quarterback's upfield shoulder and it happened, just like you'd dream of it. We scrambled over it for maybe 15 yards, but I beat him to the ball."
Already in field goal range, the Eagles ran three plays before sending Luis Reveiz out to split the uprights from 32 yards out and send the team to its second straight national championship game to face Central Arkansas.
The Bears were an NAIA power to rival the Eagles and this would not be their last NAIA National Championship game before leaving for NCAA Division II and eventually land in NCAA Division I FCS, where they play today. The Bears would share the title the very next season, another stalemate with a 10-10 tie with Hillsdale. Central Arkansas would claim their third national championship outright by beating Central State (OH) 19-16 in 1991. Looking back now, 40 years later, this game was unquestionably a battle of the two best NAIA football programs of the 1980s.
And the Bears brought the fight early to C-N on that December afternoon, taking a 10-0 lead into the second quarter.
It wasn't the first time the Eagles had faced adversity in the '84 season. They lost a nailbiter to Elon, now also Division I FCS, 31-29 in the third week of the season. They would bounce back with a 50-7 drubbing of Mars Hill the next week to get back on track and would not lose again until the final week of the regular season, falling 27-14 to Liberty, now a Division I FBS program.
"We played some close games too against the major headaches around here, Lenoir-Rhyne and Presbyterian," former defensive coordinator Jim Deaton said. "The players were used to being in tight games and I think that helped us. The attitude that those guys had was a driving force. They were player led and Coach Sparks provided the direction for them with the resources he put in place."
It was a team full of notable star power. In addition to Brown on defense, who would finish the campaign with 87 tackles, a sack, four pass break-ups four interceptions and a fumble recovery, the Eagles were led by NAIA All-American and All-SAC linebacker Pat Apke, who posted 147 tackles on the year to go with three sacks, five passes defended, a pick and two fumble recoveries.
Linebacker Emory Randolph was nearly as productive, with 121 tackles, seven sacks, five pass break ups, an interception and four fumble recoveries. Defensive tackle Allen Stevens led the team with eight sacks to go with 66 tackles, a pass defense and a fumble recovery and free safety Tim Foutz, who set up the game-tying drive in the semifinal game against Saginaw Valley State, picked off nine passes, recovered a fumble, broke up nine passes and added 43 tackles.
Defensive tackle Barry Mouser would take home an NAIA All-American nod to go with his All-SAC selection thanks to recording 38 tackles, three sacks and a fumble recovery.
On offense, quarterback Jeff Joslin combined for 2,115 yards rushing and passing, throwing for four touchdowns and rushing for nine. Wide receiver Patrick Johnson led the team in receiving with 36 catches for 481 yards and a touchdown. Kenneth Tyson was the workhorse in the backfield, carrying the ball 192 times for 1,472 yards and scoring 17 TDs. Tyson was a dangerous weapon in the passing game as well, catching just five passes for 106 yards and two scores, but averaging 21.2 yards per reception.
Tyson would fill his trophy case at season's end as an NAIA All-American, the NAIA Champion Bowl Offensive MVP, NAIA Quarterfinal Offensive MVP as well as an All-SAC selection as he earned the SAC Offensive Player of the Year Award.
Offensive tackle Rick Oler would land an NAIA All-American nod to go with his All-SAC selection.
Joslin would go onto join the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Canadian Football League. Running back Ted Marcus and offensive tackle Jimmie Covington would play in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys. Defensive End Charles Merritt would take the field for the Kansas City Chiefs.
"Winning games doesn't happen by accident," Deaton said. "You have to be intentional in your effort and they were a group that were prepared and paid attention to film study and scouting reports."
Falling behind 13-0 in the second quarter of the national title game, the Eagles offense came to life. Two scoring drives capped by a Joslin rushing touchdown, then a Tyson score, put C-N ahead by a single point. The Bears still had plenty of fight in them and put six more points on the board to take a 19-14 lead in the second half. Reveiz, who booted Carson-Newman into the championship game, put them within two points with a field goal.
Still, with under seven minutes to play, the Eagles trailed and needed someone to make a play. With Central Arkansas backed up near their own end zone, it was Allen Stevens who fired into the offensive backfield from his four-point stance to tackle the Bears' quarterback in the paint and put the tying two points up onto the scoreboard for the Eagles.
"We had them backed up they were in a passing situation," Brown said. "Allen Stevens was a great defensive lineman that we had, he was a good pass rusher. I can still see him making the tackle and running off the field. Man, it was thrilling."
It was an epic play, one that literally went down in Eagles history but Deaton, calling the defense, refuses to take credit for the call even 40 years later.
"We just relied on technique and being disciplined in your efforts," Deaton said. "Central Arkansas ran in inside dive with split backs, but Allen Stevens knifed into the end zone and just made a great effort. I don't know if it's anything that the coaches did. I think it was more of about players making plays."
After the safety, the Eagles would get the free kick, but the Bears kicker unleashed a howitzer shot and put the ball into the end zone for a touchback. Neither team could put another point on the board for the final 6:48 of the game.
"We got the free kick, but didn't get it in the right field position like we wanted to have had it with that much time left," Turner said. "We drove the ball and drove the ball and then stalled out. We went for it on fourth down with a play that we'd scored touchdowns and five or six first downs on. They (Central Arkansas) made the play. It was too long a field goal to try at that time in those conditions. When you go back and run the best play you've got in that offense, you put the ball in the hands of your guys who can make plays, that's the best you can do."
With a second NAIA National Championship, the Eagles could claim a dynasty. Over the rest of the decade, they would secure it emphatically. The Eagles would shutout Cameron,17-0, in the 1986 NAIA Championship Game. C-N would miss out on winning back-to-back titles for the second time, falling 30-2 to Cameron the following season, but would climb again to the top of the mountain in 1988, drubbing Adams State 56-21 for its fourth NAIA Championship. The next season they would hoist the trophy again, defeating Emporia State 34-20.
But it was that second title, the 1984 tie with Central Arkansas that would officially announce to the college football world that the Eagles were a dynasty. What Ken Sparks, Mike Turner, Jim Deaton and the rest of the C-N coaching staff had started five years earlier came to fruition then, building the foundation of what Carson-Newman would become.
But for Carson-Newman, football was about more than just winning championships.
"You want to win a national championship so you can get a ring," Mike Turner said. "Well, we won our first and we fly home and the next day I'm in the car going to Georgia to recruit. I'm driving down the interstate thinking, 'boy, that didn't last long.' There's more to it than that. It's about what happened in the lives of those kids. What a difference it made."
Brown was one of those kids, not so much a kid anymore. But the memories, the accomplishments, the hard work he put in and the lifelong friendships he made still resonate with him today.
"I'll always take great pride in that," Brown said. "We were part of getting all this (at Carson-Newman) started, winning all those games and first two championships. They were good football players and good men. Coach Sparks recruited me in his first recruiting class, I was in his office with my mom in dad in February of 1980 and he told me, 'if you come up here, we're going to go on a great adventure.' I don't know if he could have dreamed what all had happened after. It's incredible to walk into that weight room and that building. It's a great feeling to know you're still a part of it."
What was built back in the early 1980s in the mud and dirt in the old Burke-Tarr Stadium, in Conway, Arkansas, in Grand Junction, Colorado and Lawton, Oklahoma still resonates at Mossy Creek today.
"We had such a great run and such a great time," Turner said. "When you're done, you look back and can say, 'what a year that was' and what each of those guys do individually. But there was always the next one coming up. It keeps you on the edge. It keeps your kids hungry and working hard in the offseason. You have the expectation to win. That's what Carson-Newman University is all about."
