Alex Agase had only two winning seasons during his time at
Northwestern, but he was still lauded as one of the best coaches
in Northwestern history, and one of the best in the Big Ten
during his time. Agase's career was filled with honors and achievements,
culminating in a "Coach of the Year" award in 1970. From a football
program publication:
Northwestern head coach Alex Agase, whose athletic
career has been replete with honors, achieved the greatest yet
in 1970 when the Football Writers of America named him national "Coach of the Year."
This was one of the rare occasions when the award went to
a coach for achievements other than producing a national or
conference champion. In developing a Big Ten title contender,
one of the surprise teams of the country, Agase proved that
the Big Ten's smallest school could challenge for league and
national honors. He took a team that had been picked to go
nowhere, and led it to second place with a 6-1 record, just
one game behind undefeated Ohio State.
Agase, a native of Evanston, started his football history at
Illinois, where he gained all-American honors as a guard twice,
despite the fact that his career was interrupted by service
in World War II. He became an all-American once again while
training with the Marine unit at Purdue.
Even in service, Agase took honors: he earned a Bronze Star
and a Purple Heart on Okinawa. When he returned to Illinois,
he led the team to the 1947 Rose Bowl and beat UCLA in a 45-14
blowout. Agase became the only Big Ten player to be placed on
the all-time teams of two schools (Illinois and Purdue). In
1963, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame,
and seven years later he was named to the Diamond Anniversary
All Big Ten Team.
After playing pro football with the Cleveland Browns and the
Baltimore Colts, he turned to college coaching, working as an
assistant at Iowa State until 1956, when Ara Parseghian brought
him on as his chief assistant at Northwestern. When Parseghian
moved on, he was promoted to head coach.
Agase's first six seasons were poor in terms of wins, but he
kept each year's squad fairly respectable, beating a few conference
foes and keeping the scores even:
|
Year
|
Overall
|
Conference
|
|
1964
|
3-6
|
2-5
|
|
1965
|
4-6
|
4-6
|
|
1966
|
3-6-1
|
2-4-1
|
|
1967
|
3-7
|
2-5
|
|
1968
|
1-9
|
1-6
|
|
1969
|
3-7
|
3-4
|
Going into the 1970 season, very little was expected of Northwestern.
When the team's first three games -- against Notre Dame, UCLA,
and Southern Methodist -- were all lost, expectations were probably
lowered even more. But on October 10, 1970, the Wildcats tore
apart Illinois with a 48-point shutout in Dyche Stadium. They
went on to win all but one of their remaining games (against
Ohio State, who would end the season undefeated.) His young
team ran through their conference opponents, led by co-captains
Mike Adamle and Joel Hall.
The 1971 team saw the return of several key players, including
quarterback Maurice Daigneau (1970's Most Valuable Junior.)
The season went just as well as the previous year's: the team
ended with a 7-4 record overall (6-3 in the Big Ten.)
1972, Agase's last season, ended in a dismal 2-9 record. The
Wildcats were held scoreless by Michigan, Notre Dame, and Purdue
-- the only wins were narrow victories over Pittsburgh and Indiana.
Agase left for Purdue at the end of the year, and Northwestern
entered one of the most frustrating and unsuccessful periods
of football in its history...
...next...
