The Texas Longhorns and Penn State Nittany Lions went unbeaten in 1969. Nebraska and Arizona State finished unbeaten in 1970 and Nebraska repeated as an undefeated team in 1971.
Nobody was talking about another unbeaten team. Toledo finished with zero losses in 1969, 1970 and 1971.
A large part of that success came because of quarterback Chuck Ealey. Ealey never lost a game in high school and never lost a game in college, either. The guy was obviously a winner and he never got the chance to play in the NFL. I’m sure in the Canadian Football League Chuck Ealey finally tasted that elusive defeat. Read more about Chuck Ealey here: unbeatable
Chuck Ealey was not the only great player on that team. Ealey made some All American teams, but he was not a consensus All American like another player on the team.
A little problem happened along the way for Mel Long. He was drafted into the military out of high school. Mel Long became a Marine and he served in Vietnam from 1966 until 1967.
Long didn’t serve as a desk jockey, or a behind the scenes kind of soldier. He was in combat for 13 months and won a Bronze Star and the Navy Cross. Others were going down around him and Long was wounded and continued fighting.
I’m not really concerned with what anyone says, but you never really know how you will do in combat until you’ve actually been in combat. I’ve never been there and freely admit that, but I’d like to think I would hold up well and do my job. Mel Long more than did his job and saved other’s lives that day in Vietnam. From everything I have read and seen, it takes a lot to win a Navy Cross and Mel Long more than earned his.
Mel Long was an accomplished soldier, but when he returned home from Vietnam he had no intention of playing college football. He wanted to get a college degree and move on with his life.
Supposedly, some guys dared him to come out for the team and he did. He didn’t want to stay on the team, but the coach saw some great potential in him and suddenly Mel Long was a college football player.
Long would wind up starting on the defensive line in 1969 as a sophomore in eligibility. It’s impossible to find defensive statistics for this time period, but it’s said that Toledo’s defense led the
nation all three years that Long started.
In 1969, the Ohio State Buckeyes were running all over everybody, but they weren’t the only ones in the state of Ohio leaving a mark on their opponents. The Toledo Rockets were blowing past a lot of teams, as well.
With quarterback Chuck Ealey leading the offense, and Mel Long taking charge on defense, the Rockets were suddenly unbeatable.
The competition may have been light, but you just play the teams that are on your schedule and there’s nothing that Ealey, or Long can do about that. They were dominating.
But, the 1969 season did not go without a little competition.
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Toledo pulled it out with a 27-26 win over Bowling Green. The other tough game came against Miami of Ohio when the Rockets won it by just 4 points at 14-10. Miami of Ohio has always been called the cradle of coaches for producing guys like Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler and the list goes on forever. Bill Mallory was the coach in 1969 and in the first year of a 5 year stint at Miami of Ohio and his unbeaten team of 1973 landed him the Colorado job.
The Rockets finished their season with an unbeaten record climaxed by the Tangerine Bowl win over Davidson, 56-33.
If you think that the Mid American Conference does not get much respect today, the Rockets didn’t enter to top 20 of the polls until at 8-0, they beat Dayton, 20-0. They finished their season with a 35-0 win over Xavier.
The 1970 season brought our guy Mel Long some deserved attention as he made some All American teams. Dick Bumpas from Arkansas and Rock Perdoni from Georgia Tech were consensus All Americans that season, but Long was receiving some attention for his talent.
The Rockets were not even challenged in the first 7 games until Miami of Ohio came to town. Toledo survived, but just barely with a 1 point win, 14-13.
Otherwise, Toledo was not challenged the entire season. They finished up their season with an
impressive 12-0 win in a convincing win in the Tangerine Bowl.
Toledo was in the middle of a 23 game win streak, but outside of Toledo, very few people were probably talking about it.
The Rockets had few problems in their opener, but then barely survived their second game against Villanova. The Villanova program is dominating, wait, that’s in basketball. They are FCS level in football now.
In their fourth game, Toledo survived MAC opponent Ohio, 31-28. The Rockets blew out most everyone else they played as they surged to another perfect record. That included another Tangerine Bowl victory and this time over Richmond, 28-3.
Former Marine, Mel Long was a consensus All American along with other defensive tackles, Larry Jacobson of national champion Nebraska and Sherman White from California Berkeley.
Three years as a starter at Toledo after coming back from Vietnam and not even interested in playing football and he helps his team to a sizzling 35-0 record.
Mel Long was not a huge guy, so the NFL wasn’t that interested in him. The Cleveland Browns did draft Long in the 11th round and he played 3 seasons in the NFL.
Long used great quickness to dominate at the smaller college level for three seasons. That didn’t work quite so well in the NFL, but he was able to play a few seasons even at that level.