“I told my folks I wanted to play for the Indiana Hoosiers because they had a chance to play in the Rose Bowl bowl. My folks laughed at me and told me if I was planning on playing in the Rose Bowl I better try to get on at Michigan or Ohio State.”
Dave Kornowa, defensive back and kicker for the 1967 Indiana University Football team. To date, they are the only IU team to ever play in The Rose Bowl.
As the Indiana University football team is gearing up to play the Ohio State Buckeyes this Saturday, I knew I had to stop and look around. How did we get here, I wondered? If you want to sit down and have a chat with me about it we can debate on my belief that former Athletic Director Fred Glass wanted football to be a priority like it had not been in some time at Indiana University if ever. Mr. Glass is a smart man. Have you seen Memorial Stadium lately? Those of us who remember the set of East and West stands and the scoreboard that sat on a knoll that many old folks couldn’t read prior to a newer scoreboard in 1989 know what has happened at 17th Street in Bloomington.
How did we get here? I asked myself. But more than that, I recently had the pleasure of holding forth with a guy I have thought about on and off for just more than two years now.
Those of you who read this stuff I muse about from time to time know I was fortunate enough to put a couple balls through the uprights in The Rose Bowl in Pasadena. While on the field at The Rose Bowl, I took a moment or two and wondered what it would be like to see the Indiana Hooisers running out of the same tunnel I just walked through on to the field myself.
Growing up a football fan in the Midwest, you know what The Rose Bowl means. In fact, it is the one Big Ten cultural universal that has not left us in the wake of Legends and Leaders and East and West and a Big 10 with fourteen teams. The Rose Bowl has been that constant in all the new-fangled mess we have been subjected to.
Walking on The Rose Bowl field with my dear wife, Carrie, I wondered what it must have been like for the Indiana Hoosier Football faithful during that January 1, 1968 day in the sun. Finding myself there doing what I was doing was enough to give anyone faith in getting there.
Into the North end zone of The Rose Bowl behind me and Carrie in this photo, is where Dave Kornowa kicked a 27 yard field for the Indiana Hoosiers against the Southern Cal Trojans in the 1968 Rose Bowl. The Trojans defeated the Hoosiers 14-3. The Indiana Hoosiers have yet to make it back to The Rose Bowl. The USC Trojans have been back nineteen times.
Dave Kornowa played defensive back and kicked for those Indiana Hoosiers.
Yesterday I had speaks with Mr. Kornowa. We covered a great deal of ground and I told him my Rose Bowl odyssey was complete. I got to kick there and I was talking to the only Indiana Hoosier to ever score a Hoosier point in the Rose Bowl with a field goal that made the score 7-3 at halftime.
Dave Kornowa is originally from Toledo and played high school football for Toledo Woodward High. As a senior, in 1963, Dave was named Honorable Mention All-State at quarterback. In addition to playing quarterback, Dave kicked a few extra points his senior year. “We usually went for two”, he told me. I asked if he had been recruited by the Toledo Rockets and their head coach, Frank Lauterbur? Dave said he did not talk to Coach Lauterbur. But someone connected to the program did talk to him about being a Toledo Rocket. The guy told Dave he better sign with the Rockets because his prospects weren’t too good elsewhere. Ironically, I did meet Coach Lauterbur. In 1990 Coach Lauterbur was an NFL scout and the coach and I piled into my 1966 Mustang along with a bag of balls and found the practice field at Louisville Manual high school. Coach Lauterbur, with a stopwatch in hand, watched me punt about 20 balls until he had seen enough. He complimented me and told me what I needed to improve on. Then we went back to his hotel room and he told story after story and I was grateful.
One man’s resolve can go a long way. Between his parents laughing at him when he mentioned The Rose Bowl as a possibility for him at Indiana and having a Toledo Rocket booster (I had to) tell him he wasn’t good enough for the big time, there was something to prove. Dave Kornowa proved it all. That is him in that picture kicking in the Rose Bowl when it mattered.
In 1967 there was a three way tie for first place in the Big Ten. Indiana, Minnesota, and Purdue were all 6-1 in conference play.
The Hoosiers lost one game in the regular season. It was a 33-7 lopsided defeat to the Minnesota Golden Gophers. With that being the only defeat, the last game of the season had everything on the line as the Purdue Boilermakers came to Bloomington for all the marbles. It was a close one. Purdue had handled the conference all season, including a 42-17 win over Minnesota and a 41-6 victory over Ohio State, not to mention a 28-21 win over the then # 1 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second game of the season.
The Hoosiers beat Purdue 19-14. “I missed the second extra point just a shade to the left and then we went for two after the third touchdown and we didn’t get,” Dave told me. He also said there was a tense moment when Purdue running back Leroy Keyes got behind Dave on a pass pattern. “Keyes beat me deep and he had a touchdown. But he had bruised ribs early in the game and he could barely raise his arms. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw that pass heading toward him. He dropped it and I patted him on the butt on his way back to the huddle.”
So a choice had to be made by The Big Ten. Which team do we send to Pasadena. Dave Kornowa told me he didn’t expect they would get the call after their defeat to Minnesota being so lopsided. But, Purdue did beat the number one team in the land earlier in the year and Purdue had their way with the rest of The Big Ten. Indiana earned it by beating the best on the biggest stage the conference had that year. They were both top ten teams going in. The Hoosiers won and they deserved that call.
“We were in a daze, surprised that we were picked to go being in a three-way tie with Minnesota and Purdue. We did our best which ended up being enough,” Dave said. There was still some relief in his voice this many years on. At least that is what I heard.
Dave Kornowa said walking into the Rose Bowl Stadium was a thrill and the best part of the trip was going to Disneyland. And then he had to bring up knocking O.J. Simpson out of the game. Why not? “Two guys had him held up and I had a fifteen yard run on him. I hit him with my helmet. Would have been a penalty today. I would have been thrown out of every game.”
At 5’11 and 185 pounds, Dave Kornowa was not a speed burner. He modestly told me ran a 5.2 forty yard dash. But as we spoke I heard a scrappy player. One who gave it his all with a determination that was a constant work in progress. From being ridiculed for wanting to be a Hoosier to having a Toledo man tell him he wasn’t good enough to working to keep up with the Big Ten talent. He did it. When he told me of his athletic hard-hitting nature, I told him it sounded to me like he was spring-loaded when he hit guys on the other team. He handled it all and came out a Big Ten Champion who played in The Rose Bowl.
Dave was complimentary of his teammates. Too many to mention cos I would certainly leave some out.
As for Coach John Pont? “He was a fiery little guy. He was a good coach. He gave a good pregame speech that would fire you up and you were ready to play.”
They did. They played in The Rose Bowl.
The Block I on the helmet and that square-toed kicking shoe. Be still my beating heart. To know that I had to chance to trod that same turf is an honor now more than ever, thank you, Dave.
And yes, we had to talk about today’s Hoosiers as they embark on the biggest game of the season against Ohio State Saturday. What did Dave say? “Ohio State puts on their pants one leg at a time just like Indiana does. The problem is Ohio State’s pants have been a couple sizes bigger.”
I know what Dave means. I was in Bloomington the last time the Hoosiers beat the Buckeyes in 1988. They beat them in Columbus the year before.
It’s time. I do BELIEVE it is time.
Speaking The Rose Bowl kicking rights…
Danny Johnson