Battle of the Bluegrass Giants: The 1976 Troy-WKU Game
A man in a checkered trilby watches as 11 men in white football uniforms and red helmets jog away. It’s a cold and windy day in Sacramento, California, and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers are about to take their second shot at a national title.
Nearly two years ago to the day, in this same spot, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs shut down the Toppers 34-0. That was 1973, and this is 1975: new year, and a newer team, but the same man at the helm.
Jimmy Feix spent almost his entire adult life at Western Kentucky. He played quarterback from 1949-1952 before an injury ended his pro career. He spent four years in the Air Force, coaching teams on base before returning to work at his alma mater.
Ten years later, he got the head coaching gig. Eight years later, he brought his beloved Tops back to the NCAA Division II title game.
The Hilltoppers ultimately came up short, this time due to magic on the other sideline. Northern Michigan, a year removed from a winless season, shut down WKU 16-14 to win the 1975 title.
The Tops lost the title once again.
Three days later, a Kentucky graduate and former coach was named Troy’s head coach.
Charlie Bradshaw took over a Trojan team that wasn’t terrible. It went 6-4 the last two years, but the previous coach Byrd Whigham inherited a defending conference champion team.
Regardless, it was a major changing of the guard. Bradshaw was known for his strict coaching style, as evidenced by the infamous “Thin Thirty” Kentucky team, which whittled 80 players down to 30.
In 1967, his methods caused Greg Page, one of Kentucky’s first two Black players, to suffer a spinal cord injury in practice. Page died three days later.
Page’s best friend and roommate Nate Northington, the other Black player, was the only UK player allowed at his funeral. The next day, Northington became the first Black scholarship athlete to start against another SEC team, Ole Miss.
Northington became depressed, missing classes. Coaches pulled his meal ticket, so he transferred… to Western Kentucky.
Bradshaw’s Wildcats lost that Ole Miss game, went 2-8 that season and started the next season 2-4. Bradshaw turned in his resignation November 1, with four games still on the schedule.
According to the Lexington Herald, Bradshaw held a conference with his players and media. His wife repeatedly asked “are you sure?” and players cried.
Years later, Bradshaw returned to the game, an hour south of his hometown of Montgomery.
His first game as head coach wasn’t against the Toppers, though. The Trojans instead hosted Angelo State, an NAIA team coming off an 8-2-1 season where they averaged 30 points a game and gave up fewer than eight.
In the stands, among the cardinal-clad fans, stood a man in a checkered trilby… or large, double-bridge glasses… Jimmy Feix. He flew down to see the game.
“It was supposed to be a good game,” wrote Clark Hanes in the Park City Daily News. “Had Feix thought otherwise, he might’ve considered staying home to watch Mary Tyler Moore.”
It was in fact not a good game for Angelo State. Troy took a 28-3 lead into halftime, and unlike App State or the Falcons… the Trojans held on to win 38-9.
The Trojans lost four of their eight fumbles, but they picked off five passes, including one return for touchdown.
Just like that, Western Kentucky, the defending runners-up, took Troy more seriously. It was clear the Trojan defense was going to be a major factor.
The Hilltoppers expected to win, of course, but they weren’t overlooking the upstart Trojans.
The weather wasn’t. Unlike the dreary day in Sacramento, Bowling Green, Kentucky, provided a gorgeous afternoon for the Tops’ first matchup with the Trojans.
Six plays into the game, Troy quarterback Gerald Collins fumbled a pitch to the running back, and Western’s Biff Madon fell on the loose ball.
The Tops drove 44 yards, drew first blood on a three-yard run by Jimmy Woods, and led 7-0.
Troy’s response? A missed field goal.
The Trojans got on the board early in the second quarter, though. Collins connected with Perry Griggs for a 70-yard touchdown, tying the game at 7.
On the next drive, Western dropped a dime of a punt onto Troy’s 1-yard line, and the Hilltoppers stood tall.
The Montgomery Advertiser says Troy tried at least three straight quarterback sneaks to pick up the first. They didn’t work, and worse yet, Western’s Carl Estelle blocked a Troy punt to take over at the Troy 26.
Then the Trojans stepped up, forcing a three-and-out. Western took the points and a 10-7 lead.
That was the score through halftime and the end of the third quarter. The defenses took over the game.
Something had to give, though, and luckily for Troy it did.
Early in the fourth, Troy punted with the goal of preventing a return. “A host of Trojan tacklers greeted Hilltopper Eddie Preston on the return attempt to jar the ball loose,” according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
Troy knocked the ball loose and sophomore Trojan Steve Boyles fell on the loose ball at the WKU 9-yard line.
Sullivan Walker picked up four yards on two carries, but Collins was stopped for a loss and worse, a sprained ankle
Troy also took the points, tying the game 10-10. The opposing defenses prevented any more scoring, and the game ended with the tie.
The Trojans may as well have pulled off an upset, but hindsight shows Western may have been the underdog.
Troy went 7-1 the rest of the year, finishing 8-1-1 with its first conference title in three years. Bradshaw kept Troy’s winning ways alive into the 1980 season, before burning out and retiring from football for good in 1982.
The Trojans hired a man named Chan Gailey after that.
The Toppers went 4-5-1 in 1976, before dropping to 1-8-1 the following year. Western stuck with their man though, and it paid off.
Feix managed his own worst-to-first story, bringing WKU an 8-2 record and another conference title in its first year of Division I-AA play. Two years later, the Tops went 9-1 and took the conference again.
Feix, the Tops’ winningest coach, stayed in Bowling Green the rest of his life.
A man in large, rounded-square double-bridge glasses watches as 11 men run off the field, full sprint to the sideline. It’s a cold, windy day in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Almost 20 years after he gave up the clipboard, Feix watched Jack Harbaugh (the father) accomplish what he failed to do, twice.
The Tops finally won a national title.