Concordia Sports - The First 100 Years by Finn Grinaker

"Concordia Men's Sports - The First One Hundred Years"
by Vernon Finn Grinaker
| Return to Index | Chapter 1 | 1903-1921 | 20's | 30's | 40's | 50's | 60' | 70's | 80's | 90's |
Chapter 8-- The 70's

| 1970-1971 | 1971-1972 | 1972-1973 | 1973-1974 | 1974-1975 | 1975-1976 | 1976-1977 | 1977-1978 | 1978-1979 | 1979-1980 |

1976 Football

Dr. Armin Pipho, a Luther graduate, replaced Irv Christenson as department chairman and Athletic Director in the fall of 1976. Previously he was at California State College at Stanislaus, California, as a coach and department chairman.

Concordia closed out a successful 1976 football season in a three-way tie for second place in the MIAC. St. Olaf, St. Thomas and Concordia each finished with 5 - 2 conference records behind leader St. John’s. The team, under Coach Jim Christopherson, compiled a 6 - 3 record overall. Concordia was well represented on the MIAC All-Conference team with six players earning the honor: Dave Grinaker, Doug Boese, Bob Beliveau, Dale Heffron, Barry Bennett, and Randy Frisk.

Others on the roster were Bob Quinn, Brad Atchison, Dave Brutlag, Mike Lien, Curt Christensen, Mike Rowlette, Steve Atchison, Larry Seljevold, Paul Ludtke, Baxter Jones, Bob Majeski, Jeff Huot, Bob Olson, Randy Ness, Mark Jensen, Mill Mudge, Bruce Senske, John Price, Kevin Shipley, Dan Rosenfeldt, Augie Garcia, James Bauck, Greg Hruby, Joe Raiche, Mike Lee, Randy Hansen, Greg Grant, Dave Martinson, Ross Seifert, Rick Haley, Steve Youso, Cam Einerson, Jeff Welker, Dave Mickelsen, Gregg Morlock, Jon Johnson, Steve Allen, Steve Wonderlich, Mark Hoppes, Tim Hodel, Roy Plankers, Brad Paulson, Erik Salveson, Larry Helmin, Bob Gullick, Mike Roach, Merlin Orvik, Dave Verley, Ron Fiemann, Paul Barrick, Marty Kumm, Dick Dissmore, Rich Westland, Tim Bye, Allen Holm, Jim Carter, Tim Stroebe, Dan Naumann, Mike Blum, Duane Bjelland, Randy Smith, David Ross, Tom Luttio, Mike Johnson, Lane Peterson, Scott Cottington, Darrell Olson, Dave Freeman, Dave Klug, and Brian Howland.

Results for the season were:
Concordia 7 Moorhead State 14
Concordia 16 UM - Morris 7
Concordia 30 Macalester 0
Concordia 34 Gustavus 13
Concordia 16 St. Olaf 7
Concordia 0 St. John’s 49
Concordia 54 Augsburg 20
Concordia 24 Hamline 2
Concordia 0 St. Thomas 6

Conference standings at the end of the season:
St. John’s 7 - 2
Concordia 5 - 2
St. Thomas 5 - 2
St. Olaf 5 - 2
Gustavus 3 - 4
Hamline 2 - 5
Augsburg 1 - 6
Macalester 0 - 7

1976 Cross Country

Don Larson, track champion and two-time All-American from South Dakota State University was hired as head track and cross-country coach to replace Ed Langsdorf who went on sabbatical leave to work towards his doctorate.

On the 1976 cross-country team were M. Ranum, J. Burkhardt, L. Schultz, B. McNeil, P. McDermott, and J. Mutschelknaus, and D. Bandy, with Scott VanOrsdel as assistant coach.
Playing soccer on the 1976 team were D. Gross, L. Fuglie, D. Danielson, D. Georgewill, J. Snustad, J. Holten, D. Peterson, M. Pittsenbarger, R. Stratton, K. Cole, D. Inwerogu, R. Hagen, D. Iverson, D. Drevlow, E. Nwanne, M. Mostul, and A. Ringvold. Results of neither the cross-country team nor the soccer team are available.

1976-77 Men's Basketball

The 1976 - 1977 Cobber basketball team ended its season with a 5 - 11 record in the MIAC and 7 - 17 record overall. Coach Sonny Gulsvig had two players earning All-Conference and All-District 13 NAIA honors — Kris Gulsvig (both basketball and baseball) and Doug Boese (both basketball and football.).
On the basketball roster were Mike Jones, Kris Gulsvig, Brad Atchison, Steve Johnson, Bruce Paulson, Paul Rykken, Dave Bale, Chuck Gulsvig, Dwight Jones, Brent Reichert, Craig Flaagen, Doug Boese, Mark Hagberg, and Tom Nystuen.

Partial results for the season were:
Concordia 69 St. Olaf 79
Concordia 96 NDSU 87
Concordia 63 Hamline 69
Concordia 69 Gustavus 67
Concordia 88 Moorhead State 105
Concordia 78 Augsburg 93
Concordia 68 Gustavus 62

Conference standings after the season were:
Augsburg 13 - 3
Hamline 11 - 5
St. John’s 10- 6
St. Mary’s 9 - 7
St. Thomas 9 - 7
St. Olaf 7 - 9
Concordia 5 - 11
Gustavus 5 - 11
Macalester 3 - 13

1976-77 Hockey

Coach Al Rice’s 1976 - 1977 hockey team finished their season with an outstading
13 - 10 - 1 overall record and an 8 - 5 - 1 record in the conference. The Cobbers gave up their bid in the NAIA by losing to Gustavus in final season action. Jeff Frider was named Most Valuable Player for the season.

Their roster included Jeff Frider, Ray Weisgarber, John Villalta, Randy Beck, Dave Perry, Gary Samson, Lew Erickson, Greg Simoneau, Jim Kallevig, Ed Monacelli, Jay Johnson, Jim Nelson, Gary Gangelhoff, Brad Nordberg, Joe Raiche, Bob Hilderman, Ray Lewis, Rod Winkler, Frank Bellanger, Al Griffith, Jim Dyrhaug, Bob Marvin, and Craig Branson.

Hockey captain Gary Samson was selected as a First Team All-American by the NAIA for the second straight year.

Scores for the season were:
Concordia 4 U of Winnipeg 3
Concordia 4 U of Winnipeg 2
Concordia 7 St. Scholastica 9
Concordia 5 UW - Stout 6
Concordia 2 Bemidji State 4
Concordia 4 St. Cloud State 2
Concordia 7 St. Cloud State 6
Concordia 5 UW - Superior 10
Concordia 6 UW - Superior 8
Concordia 5 Cambrose Lutheran 2
Concordia 6 St. Olaf 4
Concordia 14 St. Olaf 1
Concordia 3 St. John’s 4
Concordia 9 St. Mary’s 4
Concordia 11 St. Mary’s 4
Concordia 5 Hamline 2
Concordia 7 Hamline 5
Concordia 4 St. John’s 4
Concordia 7 St. Thomas 5
Concordia 7 St. Thomas 8
Concordia 2 Augsburg 8
Concordia 6 Augsburg 5
Concordia 5 Gustavus 8
Concordia 2 Gustavus 4

1976-77 Wrestling

The 1976 - 1977 Cobber matmen were led by heavyweight Barry Bennett, who successfully defended his national heavyweight wrestling championship by scoring a takedown in the last seven seconds in the championship match of the NAIA Division III tournament. Bennett was also voted MVP for the MIAC conference. For the season the Cobbers were 6 - 6 in dual meets, and will lose only three seniors to graduation in May.

On the roster were Mike Clark, Vic Galfano, Tom Gruhlke, Chuck Thompson, Tim Wittrock, Jeff Poliak, Mark Jensen, Dave Smith, Tom Sorbo, Kevin Lindberg, Jerry Howard, Barry Bennett, Jim McLeod, Doug Tweet, and Randy Hanson.

The results for the season were:
St. Cloud Tournament: 3rd place out of 16 teams
St. Thomas Tournament: 2nd place out of 9 teams
All-Lutheran Tournament: 4th place out of 10 teams
MIAC Conference Meet: 4th place out of 8 teams

Dual Meet Record:
Concordia 44 St. Olaf 3
Concordia 17 St. John’s 26
Concordia 19 Bemidji State 32
Concordia 12 UND 35
Concordia 23 Valley City State 18
Concordia 45 Gustavus 12
Concordia 34 Hamline 5
Concordia 45 Moorhead State 12
Concordia 4 NDSU 48
Concordia 16 Augsburg 26
Concordia 30 St. Thomas 10
Concordia 19 Waldorf 31

1977 Baseball

Concordia’s 1977 baseball team finished in fifth place to tie with St. Thomas and Gustavus at 8 - 8 in the final MIAC standings. Al Rice was the team’s coach. Shortstop Kris Gulsvig turned in an outstanding performance for the season, leading the Cobbers with a batting average of .411, and was named to the All-Conference team. Kris received outstanding distinctions this year including the honor of an All-District 13 NAIA selection in both basketball and baseball.

Some of the scores for the baseball season were: (the complete results were unavailable)
Concordia 8 Moorhead State 2
Concordia 11 Moorhead State 3
Concordia 1 St. Mary’s 0
Concordia 12 St. Mary’s 10

On the baseball roster were J. Poliak, R. Hanson, B. Majeski, K. Gulsvig, B. Jones, R. Smith, J. Hruby, J. Birch, B. Gullick, J. Fraley, R. Messerschmidt, D. Levinski, J. Wagner, B. Quinn, D. Baldri, S. Laurion, J. Johnson, S. Atchison, S. Holmquist, and A. Griffith.
Finn Grinaker had Tom Anderson, Bert Olson, Marshall Johnson, Jay Myhre, Erik Johnson, Mark Hopps, Steve Youso, Paul Unruh, Randy Stengel, Rick Stenson, and Jay Mattsfield on his 1977 golf team.

1976-77 Men's Golf

Results for the season were:
Cobber-Dragon Invitational: 3rd place out of 7 teams
Minnesota Invitational: 13th place out of 19 teams
Concordia 400 NDSU 386
UND Invitational: 4th place out of 5 teams
Honeywell Invitational: 17th place out of 20 teams
MIAC Conference Meet: 7th place out of 9 teams
All-City Meet: Moorhead State - 386, Concordia - 422, NDSU - 422

1977 Tennis

Concordia’s 1977 tennis team finished in a three-way tie for second place in the MIAC championship, with Brent Reichert as the Cobber team’s number one netman. Cobber coach Bob Nick felt the unfortunate loss of singles star Kent Stadum to injury, hurt the Cobber’s chances of finishing better. On the tennis team were C. Olson, B. Skarnes, M. Anderson, J. Snustad, R. Hagen, K. Stadum, B. Reichert, and Chuck Hawkins.

1977 Track

The 1977 track team was coached by Don Larson, who came from South Dakota State University to take over the duties of Ed Langsdorf for a one-year term. Trackman Steve Fox had a strong year led by a double win in the MIAC conference meet winning the 120-yard high hurdles and the 440-yard intermediate hurdles. He also earned NAIA All-American status by finishing in sixth place in the intermediate hurdles at the national meet.

Concordia placed fourth in the conference behind champion Hamline University..
On the roster were D. Brunsvold, T. Myrin, J. Mutschelknaus, T. Thompson, T. Reitan, T. Rasmusson, S. Graves, B. Shepley, G. Jerve, K. Mears. P. Brown, P. Ludkte, D. Freeman, S. Grill, R. Plankers, R Westlund, D. Mickelson, B. Beliveau, A. Benson, M. Ranum, S. Fox, B. Schrank, D. Bandy, K. Baldwin, M. Kohler, R. Lund, B. Senske, M. Paul, J. Monson, M. Eisert, L. Schultz, D. Grinaker, E. Isom, B. Westlund, L. Seljevold, N. Hanson, J. Burkhardt. P. Hadlund, and S. Clute.

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These pages are maintained by Jerry Pyle - pyle@cord.edu and Finn Grinaker - cgrinaker@juno.com. These pages are copyrighted © and may not be published or reproduced without the express permission of Finn Grinaker.