Indiana Football Coaches, The First Year: John Pont Plants Seeds Of Success

Each of the three coaching changes Indiana football made since Bo McMillin left in 1947 were made by a different Indiana athletic director.

That trend would continue in 1964 after Phil Dickens resigned as the Hoosiers’ head coach. The man hiring Dickens’ replacement is on a very short list of the best Indiana athletic directors of all-time.

Bill Orwig came to Bloomington as Indiana’s athletic boss in 1961. He had spent seven years at Nebraska in the same role and starred in the Big Ten at Michigan as an end from 1927-30.

Orwig’s hires at Indiana included track and field coach Sam Bell, swimming coach Doc Counsilman, soccer coach Jerry Yeagley, and oh yeah, a certain men’s basketball coach named Bob Knight.

Orwig hired two football coaches as athletic director from 1961-75, and both made a considerable impact for the Hoosiers.

The first coach Orwig hired? John Pont – still the only Indiana coach to lead the Hoosiers to the Rose Bowl.

WHY CHANGE?

Dickens started well with a 5-3-1 mark in his first season in 1958. However, he continued to get into recruiting trouble – and the ripple effect would have ramifications for Indiana well beyond the football program.

The bombshell came in April 1960.

After the Big Ten levied a suspension against Dickens in 1957, the NCAA had largely stayed out of that specific case, apart from putting Indiana on probation in 1958. But the NCAA kept its eye on Indiana.

It found that Indiana was allegedly giving recruits bonuses of up to $800. The NCAA was particularly incensed given that five of the violations came in 1958, when the Hoosiers were on probation.

On April 27, the NCAA lowered the boom. Indiana University was placed on a four-year probation,  the most severe penalty ever placed on a single school.

Note that it wasn’t “football” placed on probation, but “Indiana University” – the entire athletic department.

For a four-year period, no Indiana team could appear in NCAA postseason play – even though  the recruiting violations were solely from the football program.

The Hoosiers were barred from sharing in any Big Ten television revenue and fined $85,000.

This time the Big Ten – which conducted its own investigation and found no wrong-doing – appealed to the NCAA on Indiana’s behalf. Indiana lobbied for the league to pull out of the NCAA entirely.

“Let’s face it. We’re dead unless the Big Ten decides it’s had enough of the NCAA and their star chamber sessions,” said an unnamed Indiana recruiter to the Indianapolis Star.

Dickens was back on the hot seat. His continued employment was contingent on a Big Ten vote, which he didn’t get until July 31, 1960.

Once again, Indiana rallied to Dickens’ cause, but the ramifications of the probation were far-reaching.

It wrecked the final years of Branch McCracken’s time as basketball coach. Indiana’s planned new arena next to Memorial Stadium was put on-hold.

The Hoosiers played in the New Fieldhouse, supposed to be a temporary facility, for all of the 1960s and into the early 1970s before Assembly Hall was finally opened.

Football never recovered under Dickens. From 1960-64, Indiana never won more than three games and went 3-28 in Big Ten games. As the losing continued, fan and university support eroded. Dickens resigned in December 1964 with a 20-41-2 record at Indiana.

With just one winning season since 1947, the Hoosiers’ eternal quest to achieve consistent winning seemed more distant than ever.

ENTER PONT

According to reports at the time, Orwig intended to swing for the fences. Army coach Paul Dietzel and recently retired Oklahoma coaching legend Bud Wilkinson were widely reported as targets. However, it became clear that Orwig was going to a familiar place to seek out Dickens’ replacement. Orwig targeted Nebraska coach Bob Devaney.

Orwig had not hired Devaney – he started at Nebraska after Orwig had traded Lincoln for Bloomington – but Devaney rapidly made the Cornhuskers a national power. He was 28-4 all-time at Nebraska when Orwig made a formal approach to Nebraska to interview Devaney.

Speculation surrounding Devaney persisted into mid-January 1965. When Devaney went on an Acapulco vacation shortly after Nebraska lost 10-7 to Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl, the handwriting was on the wall for Indiana to make a big splash.

But then it seemed Bob Hicks, who was “coach-in-charge” in 1957 when Dickens was suspended, might get a second crack at being the boss.

However, Orwig looked east and identified Pont.

The Canton, Ohio, native had coached Miami of Ohio from 1956-62. It would be the first time Indiana tapped into the famed Cradle of Coaches at Miami, but wouldn’t be the last.

Pont, 37, was 43-22-2 at Miami before he departed for Yale, still considered to be a major college job in the 1960s. Pont was 12-5-1 in two seasons in charge of the Bulldogs.

Pont’s Indiana experience got off to an inauspicious start. When he came to Indiana to interview for the job, the Indianapolis airport parking lot was covered in snow. Orwig accidentally hit a log buried in a snow drift and Pont smashed into the windshield. He had a shiner around his eye and stitches on his face when introduced as the Hoosiers’ coach a week later.

Regardless, Pont was excited about the opportunity.

“I never would have taken the job if I couldn’t see a ray of hope and couldn’t be optimistic about IU’s chances,” Pont told the Indianapolis News shortly after he was hired.

YEAR ONE

What stands out more than the results about the 1965 Indiana season are some of the players who emerged as contributors.

Indiana was 2-8 in Pont’s first campaign. The Hoosiers earned a 19-7 win over Kansas State in Pont’s first game, promptly lost five in a row, won their lone Big Ten contest against Iowa on Oct. 30, and then lost three more to end the season.

The Hoosiers had impressive performances in losses – a respectable 27-12 defeat to No. 1 Texas in October and a 27-13 loss to top-ranked Michigan State in November among them.

All the while, some Indiana stars of the future cut their teeth. Sophomore fullback Terry Cole led Indiana in rushing. Fellow running back Mike Krivoshia got a few carries. Doug Crusan, a tackle, and then later a defensive tackle, caught three passes in 1965.

Other sophomores sprinkled on the roster included Ken Kaczmarek, Dave Kornowa, Brown Marks, Harold Mauro, Bob Russell, and Rick Spickard. They all would blossom for the Hoosiers two years later.

“Someday, I.U., yes, that’s right, I.U., will make a trip to Pasadena, California,” predicted the 1966 Arbutus yearbook.

It would prove to be a prescient observation.