Lawrence athletics has a proud history. A history that at times is hard to better. The 1975 football team is one such proud memory. The team won the Midwest conference title. However, the varsity squad was not the only team to take the field. In 1976, the Lawrence football program had enough players to field two teams, varsity and junior varsity. This is a recap of one of the Lawrence JV squad’s games against St. Norbert. With a huge class of incoming players, could the football program again grow to field two teams in the near future?
Vike JV’s Slip Past St. Norberts
Published 9/18/1976
Author Anonymous
Freshman Jim Petran passed for three touchdowns and Gregg Jacobs kicked six points, including a 43-yard field goal, as the Viking jayvees downed St. Norbert 24-18 Monday at the Lawrence Bowl.
Petran connected on 6 of 13 passes for 113 yards and also rushed for 27 yards out of the Viking option offense. He had three other passes dropped two of which could have gone for long yardage.
Favorite target for Petran was 6’ 4” Paul Gebhardt, who caught three for 53 yards and two touchdowns. Freshman Brian Fero latched on to a nine-yard pass for the Vikes other TD.
St. Norbert was led by Dave Coopman who ran for 113 yards in 17 carries and scored one TD. Jack Baeten scored once and Mike Medows added the third TD for the Knights who failed on three two-point conversion attempts.
Mike Gostisha led Lawrence with 84 yards in 18 carries. Both teams used nearly all freshmen with a few newcomers also seeing limited action. The lone casualty of the game was Viking tackle Dan Watring, who injured a knee early in the game and will probably be lost for the season. The Vikes held a slim 266-263 edge in total yards and each team had 15 first downs.
