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Starting from its own 10-yard line, Troy eventually reached the NDSU 32. With the clock running and the Trojans out of time-outs, freshman kicker Ted Clem and the rest of the field goal unit stampeded onto the field.
I’ll let Buck Hanson take you through the final play.
“We actually didn't have time to think it happened so fast. We snapped the ball as the horn was literally sounding,” Hanson recalls.
“Ted Clem actually marked off the yards for the tee as he and the holder were running onto the field. I believe our kicking team ran on the field with 8 seconds and dropping. After it was over we remembered doing that exact drill every week.”
“ Ironic, huh?”
Ironic indeed.
When all was said and done Clem’s kick was true, and the Troy State Trojans were the 1984 Division II National Champions, winning by a score of 18-17.
Mike Turk cited Troy’s post-game locker room as his favorite memory of the title game.
“ I was so proud of our seniors, they had been through so much, and the fact that they were there, I just remember that championship being for those guys,” said Turk.
Mike Turk went on to win another championship at Troy State, in 1987, capping off a stellar collegiate career.
He is now the head coach at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama.
Turk was elected to the Division II Football Hall of Fame, and was inducted on December 14, 2007 .
The 1984 title game and the events surrounding it held some strange coincidences for Buck Hanson.
“After winning a state championship in high school [at Enterprise High School in 1979] and a National championship in college I recall the similarities were bizarre. I injured my knee in high school in last regular season game, but continued to play, we won 15-14 over Vestavia. I separated my shoulder in the last regular season game but continued to play, we beat North Dakota State 18-17.”
Hanson graduated from Troy State and has now returned to Enterprise High where he serves as an assistant coach for the Wildcat football team.
The 1984 Troy Trojans didn’t need style points or polls to win a championship.
Troy didn’t have to worry about what other teams did, as long as they kept winning.
But that was a simpler time, and now the Trojans have moved on to play with the “big boys”.
With great power comes great responsibility, and the Trojans must continue to win -and win big-if they want any respect from the computers and/or the pollsters.
But, when the time comes to sit up in the recliner and return to the Age of the Polls, at least Troy fans can remember what it was like before the cloud of controversy rolled in.
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