It is very fitting that the first team to be inducted into the Tribe of Vikings “Hall of Fame” is the 1983 football team. This unit became the first team in school history to win a national title when the Vikings nipped Union by a score of 21-17 on an overcast day in Kings Island, Ohio in December of 1983.
Head coach Bob Reade, who would eventually guide his charges to a total of four straight NCAA Division III titles, had this to say about his club.
“They were a great bunch of people,” he said. “They played together and they had a mission.”
They certainly had a mission. It was one that started one year earlier after a bitter 14-0 loss to West Georgia in Phenix City, Alabama. The goal all season long was to get back to the Stagg Bowl and “finish the job”. That is exactly what they did.
One thing about that first championship - it wasn’t easy.
It wasn’t easy when quarterback Jay Penney had to drive his team 54 yards with less than two minutes to play and the Vikings out of timeouts to win a hard-fought 23-16 regular season game against Elmhurst.
It wasn’t easy when Penney had to bring his team from behind in the first round of the playoffs on a mud-splattered Ericson Field. The Vikings beat Adrian 22-21 with Penney scoring the decisive two-point conversion with just 3:01 left in the game.
And it certainly wasn’t easy when Penney had to rally his team from a 17-7 deficit late in the fourth quarter of the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. Augustana scored two late touchdowns to secure the NCAA Division III title with a 21-17 win over Union College in Kings Island, Ohio.
While there are a multitude of factors why Augustana won the 1983 national championship, one of the biggest reasons was a passing combination that dated back to junior high school. Penney, the cool, hard-nosed veteran signal caller, hooked up with his former schoolboy teammate Norm Singbush every time things looked bleak.
It was Singbush who caught the seven-yard pass from Penney to pull out the Elmhurst game. It was Singbush who caught the seven-yard scoring toss from Penney to win the Adrian game. And yes, it was Singbush who hauled in the two-yard pass from Penney to win the Union game.
On a team that averaged 300 yards per game on the ground and boasted two 1,000 yard rushers (halfback Craig Allison and wingback George Velasquez), it was a quarterback who would pass for less than 600 yards and a tight end who would catch absolutely anything thrown his way that eventually made the 1983 Augustana Vikings the champions of NCAA Division III.
Reade’s team went 12-0 on the year and for the third straight season put together an undefeated regular season. Reade was chosen national Coach of the Year and tackle Kurt Kapischke, linebacker Pete Kasap, runningback Craig Allison and defensive back Doug McCoy all earned All-American honors.
