1965 Football Team

• 1965 Tangerine Bowl team - only UMaine team to qualify for and participate in a Bowl game
• Yankee Conference champions
• Lambert Trophy winner for best college football team in the East
• 8-1 overall, 5-0 in Yankee Conference play

The 49 men who came to campus in the late summer of 1965 to play football couldn't have known their road would take them all the way to Florida to play in the Tangerine Bowl.

"We were all lucky to be there at the same time," says Dennis Doyle. "We were lucky to have great coaches like Harold Westerman and Walt Abbott and Jack Butterfield and Woody Carville. "It was a great bunch of ordinary, hard-working people who came together to accomplish something."

The accomplishment of winning every game but one on its regular schedule and earning a spot in the Tangerine Bowl was not expected. Only nine senior lettermen returned from the prior season. One of those seniors was quarterback Dick DeVarney, whose smart instincts and scrambling had some comparing him to Fran Tarkenton, the great mobile quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings in the 1960s.

Juniors filled many other key positions. John Huard, at linebacker, was one. Huard would later play for the Denver Broncos, become a highly successful college head coach in Canada and Maine and become the face of the 1965 team. In 2014, the National Football Foundation inducted Huard into its Hall of Fame.

In fact, many teammates contributed to the success of 1965.

"Westy and Walt always talked about family," says Jerry Perkins, a 192-pound tackle. "I know they said that every year, but this team took the message to heart. We really cared for each other. We fought for each other."

Doyle, a wide receiver, helped DeVarney set passing records. "I can't really remember which pass I caught or in what game that broke a record," says Doyle. "I will always remember the men I played with."

They were a team of Mainers, mostly. When they left Orono for Bangor and the flight to Orlando, some would be leaving Maine for the first time. Many had not been out of New England or flown on an airplane.

"Let's say there wasn't a lot of worldliness among us," says Perkins, who grew up on a farm in the Maine community of Orrington.

They are a group of proud men, knowing they played the game when the world of college football was very different from today's multi-million dollar budgets, ranked recruiting classes, and wide-spread television or streaming coverage.

"We weren't treated any differently than anyone else (on campus)," says Doyle.

They are proud of being the first – and only Maine football team – to be invited to a bowl game at a time when far fewer hosted such events. In 1965, all bowl games were special.

The Tangerine Bowl, played in Orlando before there was a Disney World, was the NCAA's Eastern Regional College Division Football Championship Game at the time. In 1964, East Carolina University beat Massachusetts, 14-13. Coincidentally, Maine opened its 1965 season by beating Massachusetts, 10-8 and rolling undefeated through the rest of its Yankee Conference schedule.

Maine prepared for its first bowl game by practicing in about four to five inches of snow in Orono. Ordinarily, scrimmaging or playing in snow at the end of the season was an advantage Black Bears teams had over teams visiting from southern New England.

But Maine was heading to the much warmer and humid weather conditions of Orlando. Both Doyle and Perkins remember their coaches "driving them unmercifully" to be shape that season and in the week or so before leaving for Florida. Still, the Florida heat took its toll during the game. Perkins remembers taking oxygen on the sideline.

DeVarney was hurt early in the first half and couldn't return. Injuries mounted. Maine committed six turnovers to Eastern Carolina's four and was outgained in total yardage, 355-152. The final score? Eastern Carolina 31, Maine 0.

Doyle and Perkins remember that they and their teammates took the loss very hard. Like other University of Maine teams, they believed they were playing for all of Maine. They had let down everyone.

Imagine their surprise when the team was met at the Bangor airport by a large number of fans welcoming their Black Bears home. The short trip back to Orono felt like a parade. More fans waited for their arrival on campus.

Many of the ordinary people, as Doyle characterized himself and his teammates when they first came together, have gone on to lead extraordinary lives. As individuals or as a team they have given back to the university.

Now, the University of Maine is giving back to them.

-Steve Solloway-

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The 2019 UMaine Sports Hall of Fame class will be honored at an induction banquet on Friday, Sept. 13 at Jeff's Catering in Brewer. For more details, click here.