Head Coach:  Eddie Teague

Assistant Coaches: John Guiton, Jim Newsome, Pride Ratteree, Hank Whitt
Freshmen Coaches: Jack Hall – Bob Patton – Dick Cleveland – Tom Hemmingway

Captains: George Garrison ’61 –  Jerry Nettles ’61 – Harry Rakowski ‘61

Record: Overall  8-2-1  /  SoCon  4-2-0  |  Tangerine Bowl Champions

First Row: (left to right) Knox, Hitchcock, Gambrell, Rakowski, Garrison, Nettles, McRee, Spellman, Mayer  Second Row: Whelchel, Coury, Edwards, Clancy, Crouch, Whaley, Brines, Layton, Alexander  Third Row: Eastburn, Gilgo, Mura, Reiney, Allen, Cook, Dykes, Reeves, Harrington  Fourth Row: Joyce, Gould, Brendle, Ross, Brown, Delvecchio, Turbeville, Chapman  Fifth Row: Katz, Dice, Zaytoun, Mitchell, Thompson, Evans, Marsh, Johnson  Sixth Row: Brinson, Hill, Stoudemire, Bradburn, Taylor, Jackson

Tangerine Bowl Champions

By Andy Solomn

The offense clicked like a railroad engineer’s keepsake timepiece and the defense plugged holes so effectively that it completely frustrated the opposition.  When those two entities become unified, a football team is unbeatable.

On December 30, 1960, a night that resonated excitement from a record crowd of 13,000 fans in the yet-underdeveloped city of Orlando, Florida and under a dark sky that provided 75-degree temperatures, The Citadel Bulldogs played one of its best games in the school’s history.  The contest was the 15^th Annual Tangerine Bowl, and the Cadets came to play … and they left with the first – and only – bowl victory in our illustrious history.

Indeed, the offense that accumulated more than 400 yards and the famed “Head Hunter” defense that pitched the team’s fifth shutout out the season limited the opponents to only 101 yards combined to play a near perfect game.

It was a memorable contest, for certain; one for the ages.  It was an emotional game that when it was over, it was great to be a Bulldog.   And it was a game that propelled The Citadel to national prominence.

The Citadel’s 27-0 pounding of Ohio Valley Conference member Tennessee Tech in that 1960 Tangerine Bowl – now called the Capital One Florida Citrus Bowl – was a benchmark victory in Citadel Football Lore.  It proved that the boys from a small military college in Charleston, South Carolina, were for real.  It stated that we were an upstart program.  It put The Citadel squarely on America’s college football map.

Coach Eddie Teague.  Jerry Nettles and Sid Mitchell.  Earley Eastburn, Tommy Edwards and Bobby Crouch.  Belton Dykes and Marshall McRee.  George Garrison and Gene “Buzzy” Dice.  Bill “The Toe” Gilgo, Charlie Brendle, Jim Alexander and Ed Gould.  Dan Coury, Ron Hitchcock, Larry Ross and Harry Rakowski.  Aubrey Reeves, Britt Knox, Joe Turbeville and Ed Harrington.

These are among the many names that ring synonymous with that memorable 1960 team, a cohesive group that fashioned an 8-2-1 overall record, with losses at George Washington and to rival VMI, with the tie being a 0-0 stalemate against Florida State on this same emerald field here at historic Johnson Hagood Stadium.

That fused 1960 squad, captained by Garrison, Nettles and Rakowski, enjoyed heart-pounding victories over Newberry, Davidson, Richmond, Furman, Presbyterian, William & Mary and a one-point decision at Arkansas State.  The seven regular-season wins equaled the school’s best, the same that the 1937 and 1926 teams recorded.  The Tangerine Bowl victory – our eighth of the year — tied the school record for most wins in a season, a mark that was set the previous year.

This same interconnected 1960 team was the fourth for Coach Teague, who came aboard in 1957 and who replaced Coach John Sauer, a tremendous recruiter whose teams helped build the foundation for the 1960 team’s successes that culminated a year later with the college’s first Southern Conference championship.

Part of the Bulldogs’ trip to Orlando included a stop at the Harry-Anna Home for handicapped children, which was the beneficiary of profits from the Tangerine Bowl.  The team was reportedly in good health prior to the contest, except for a bruise on Brendle’s leg.

The game kicked off at 8 o’clock, finally, after 90-minutes of pregame festivities, and The Citadel – listed as a two-point favorite by some and a two-point underdog by others – was well-prepared for Tennessee Tech’s potent I-formation.  But the Bulldogs, with a sophomore dominated “Head Hunter” defense, showed its  muscle early and often as the Cadets’ depth was a deciding factor in the game’s outcome.

The Citadel scored in the first quarter when they faked a field goal attempt from the 6-yard line and Nettles found Bill Allen alone in the end zone for a 6-0 advantage and after Gilgo connected on the extra point, the Bulldogs led, 7-0.

There was no scoring in the second period as both squads battled between the end zones and the score remained 7-0 at intermission.

Fans hardly had time to return to their seats from halftime when Edward raced off left tackle 56 yards to score and later in the third quarter, Nettles fired a 16-yard touchdown pass to Gilgo to hand the Cadets a 20-0 advantage.

The Eagles’ only offensive threat came in the third quarter when they drove to The Citadel 10, but Tennessee Tech fumbled and Alexander recovered.  Crouch stood out on defense as he twice intercepted Eagles’ passes.

The final score came in the fourth quarter when Mitchell sneaked over the goal from 1-yard out.

The lone negative of the game came on penalties as the Bulldogs were sentenced to 99 yards as compared to 54 for Tennessee Tech.  The Citadel defense also forced Tech to punt four times.

In the next morning’s write-up in The News & Courier, sports writer Evan Bussey stated that The Citadel put on their “most awesome offensive display of the year” and that the defense “completely stifled all Tech offensive efforts.”

For the game, Nettles completed 8 of 14 passes for 137 yards and Eastburn rushed for 78 yards on 16 carries, gaining a bulk of his yardage on power plays outside the tackles.

“We just had more football players than they did,” Coach Teague told reporters.  “We weren’t in real good shape, but we wanted to play football – maybe a little bit more than they did.” What the 1960 team did by winning the Tangerine Bowl was unheard of a half-century ago, and it remains to serve as one of the highlights of the Military College of South Carolina since its doors opened in 1842.

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