1950 Football Team - Winningest team in school history

Inducted into Hall of Fame in 2006



The 1950 Football Team, the last to be coached at St. Ambrose by Moon Mullins, finished 12-1. This set a school record for most wins in a season. That’s a record that still stands today.

The 1950 team earned conference championships in both the Iowa Conference and the Midlands Conference. Playing in two conferences meant that the team had the toughest schedule in school history, one that was recognized by the national media as the most concentrated of any college in the country that year. The team won their first four games of the season in only 13 days. Several times during the season, the team had two games in the same weekend, with games on Friday and Sunday.

In the November 1, 1950 Chicago Herald-American, Mullins was asked about this team’s tough 13 game schedule. He replied, “That is entirely too many. I would not want to go through it as a regular stint. Obviously, it could not have worked out at all, if we didn’t have a fine bunch of boys on the squad who really like to play football.”

Tackling this schedule with such success shows the character of the people at the time. Art Michalik is a good example of the type of players on this team. He went on after graduation to play for the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL, earning rookie of the year honors in 1953.

Both of these football teams were coached by a legend, Larry “Moon” Mullins.

Mullins was a fullback on Knute Rockne’s undefeated national championship teams at Notre Dame in 1929 and 1930. After several coaching stints, Moon ended up at St Ambrose in 1940. He left to become an assistant coach at Florida State, then was a Navy preflight instructor during World War II. After that, he returned to take over the football program from 1947-1950. Mullins was a firm believer in ironman football, with players expected to play both offense and defense.

Mullins left St Ambrose a second time to become the Athletic Director at Kansas State University.


1950 Football Team Members

Joseph Aguado† `51
Donald Berg `51
Robert Bevenour `51
William Caffery `51
Wilbur Cant `53
Patrick Carroll `53
Richard Colson† `52
John Custer† `52
Joseph Dhondt† `51
Richard Forbes† `51
Paul Gebhardt `51
Paul Godesiabois `53
Thomas Greenan† `53
Joe Hendron `52
Lawrence Kellner† `53
John Kelly `52
Richard Kelnhofer `52
Lawrence Ketza `51
Leo Kilfoy `51
George Klanac† `53
John Lansford `52
Richard Les `53
Wallace Lessman† `51
Thomas Mack† `53
Timothy Madden `53
Lee Matera `52
Richard McKillip `52
Donald Melligan `53
John Melligan `51
Arthur Michalik `51
Bruno Mikrut `53
Herman Miskowicz† `51
William Newell `51
Michael Nicholetti `52
Arthur Nixon `52
Richard Ocar `53
Samuel Patrino `52
Donald Paulsen `53
Dominic Rauzi `52
Earl Riley `51
Edward Scheck `51
Jerry Scherer† `51
Donald Schnitzius `53
Norbert Schulz `52
William Schwarzbach `51
Raymond Shannon† `53
Raymond Tschopp `55
Edward Wollenberg `53
Eugene Zajdel `52
Richard Zielinski `52

† denotes deceased as of time of induction