This Victory Was Years in Making

WHITTIER —  Returning to action after 620 consecutive bye weeks, the Chapman University Panthers played their first intercollegiate football game since 1932 Saturday night and won, rather easily, 30-13.

Of course, they were well-rested.

The Panthers scored on their first offensive possession in 62 years, completed the first five forward passes they attempted since the Hoover Administration and rolled up 440 yards in total offense under the lights for the first time since . . . well, the Panthers had only one light the last time they played a football game. The one that rises in the east and sets in the west.

Some other 62-year firsts for Chapman football:

--First play on offense: Fullback Aaron Meschuk, up the middle for two yards and a sigh of relief.

“I was sort of nervous,” Meschuk confessed. “My hands got more sweaty than they already were. But I hit the hole, hung onto the ball and got a few yards. I felt like asking them to stop the game and take that ball out of play.”

--First touchdown: Precision 12-yard lob to wide receiver Dave Poltl deep in the left corner of the end zone, delivered by quarterback Curtis Robinson, whose right shoulder, the one he throws with, happened to be separated at the time.

“I hurt it the second play of the game,” said Robinson, sporting the telltale ice bag and shoulder wrap from beneath a gray flannel blanket. “The coaches asked me if I wanted to come out then. I told them I didn’t want to.”

Any particular reason why not?

“This is part of history,” Robinson said. “What else can you say?”

--First postgame victory speech: Panther Coach Ken Visser, who first saw this group of players only three weeks ago, ordered them to huddle up at midfield while the losing Whitter Poets straggled back to the showers, heads hanging.

“Congratulations, men,” Visser said, setting his jaw as he gestured toward the scoreboard.

“It’s forever,” he said. “Thirty-to-thirteen. That’s forever.”

It was a refrain Visser had prepared them for during the past few days, attempting to focus 86 players recruited from wildly varying backgrounds and circumstances on the moment at hand--a once-in-three-generations kind of opportunity.

“All week, he kept telling us, ’62 years! 62 years! This is going to be the first time in the record book!’ ” Meschuk said.

Visser wanted to make sure it would be worth reading 62 years down the line.

In terms of tradition, Visser was up against it. Whittier, which once suited up an offensive lineman named Richard Nixon, has been fielding football teams annually since 1907. Chapman didn’t have a football coach, player or trainer 10 months ago. Visser was hired last December, recruiting commenced soon after but the Panthers didn’t begin practicing in pads until Aug. 28.

Visser, however, did not flinch.

“Sure, we didn’t have a lot of time, but I’m at a school located in the middle of a rich football area,” Visser said. “Chapman’s the only four-year university playing football in Orange County right now. I had a lot of good kids to choose from locally.

“Our staff has worked real hard, but things just kind of fell into place. I’m just lucky.”

Sure, it all fell into place, just as soon as Visser and athletic director Dave Currey could find enough shoulder pads to complete a full practice. It can be a problem, having 113 hopefuls turn out for the first day of workouts and only 90 sets of shoulder pads to go around.

Don Andersen, former Chapman associate athletic director and longtime friend of Currey’s, laughed and shook his head at the thought of such a predicament.

“Dave did a great job,” Andersen said. “He really hustled to find those shoulder pads. I suggested he go to the Rams for some help. They haven’t been using their shoulder pads much this year. They had to have some available.”

These are the thrift-shop Chapman Panthers, all the way down to their plain black helmets, plain white jerseys and plain gray pants, with not a logo or a pant stripe in sight.

“Hey, each of those stripes cost $2.20,” said Currey, who was allotted just $200,000 to exhume Chapman football after six-plus decades--and keep it in the black, if you can.

“All we needed were numbers, pants, shoes and socks,” Currey said. “This is as vanilla as you’re going to get. But when I coached, I lost to Penn State often enough to know that fancy uniforms aren’t what it takes.”

To Currey’s eyes, an undefeated Panther football team with 500 roaring boosters waving red foam-rubber No. 1 fingers--these, too, arrived just minutes before kickoff--was a piece of art.

“This was kind of like a wedding,” Currey said, staring at the pretty numbers on the scoreboard. “You’re relieved. All the in-laws got along.”

And, Andersen, currently the executive director of the Orange County Sports Assn., smiled and quipped, “Now you know why I’m here. I’m scouting Chapman for the Freedom Bowl.”