Known collectively as the “Bulldog Brotherhood of Champions” the Russ Sloan led 1969, 1970 and 1971 teams entered the Truman State University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024.
Compiling a 22-5-1 record with three Missouri Intercollegiate Athletics Association championships, Russ Sloan's football teams epitomized the term “Bulldog”. They were picked to finish no higher than fourth in each season, they were co-MIAA champions in Sloan's first two years of 1969 and 1970 before winning the title outright with a 6-0 record in 1971.
Five players went on to the professional ranks. They were Lenvil Elliott, Tom Geredine, Larry Jones, Craig O’Sadnick and Marvin Robinson. Elliott won a Super Bowl title with the San Francisco 49ers. Geredine won a national championship in the long and triple jumps and still holds the school record in the indoor long jump. Jones was a three-time national champion in the 440 and 400-meter dashes and still has the indoor record in that event.
During those three seasons, six Bulldogs were named all-Americans by the Associated Press. Geredine and O’Sadnick wer joined by Aubrey Johnson, Don Cummings, Mike Berentes and Ken Bebermeyer.
Berentes still holds the Bulldog single-game record for receiving yards with 248 yards on 10 catches and held the single-season receiving yards record for 16 seasons with 946 yards in 1970.
O’Sadnick is currently second and third on the single-season tackles list with 145 in 1972 and 159 a year later in 1973.
Quarterback Don Cummings held the single-season passing record for 12 seasons after throwing for 2,221 yards in 1970 and was the career passing leader until 1983 with 5,531 yards. He is eighth in touchdown passes thrown with 38.
Elliott finished second in career rushing yards with 2,770 and is now fifth all-time, he is ninth in career touchdown runs with 28.
Al Fulton still holds the single-season quarterback sack record with 12 in 1972. Mike Dahlberg and Harold James are third in single-season interceptions with six each.
Coach Russ Sloan was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 and his teams joined him in the prestigious hall in 2012.
Coach Sloan referred to this group as the “Bulldog Brotherhood of Champions” and that moniker has lived up to its name with a tight-knit group that regularly gets together to celebrate their accomplishments.
Several of these players and coaches have been inducted individually into the Truman State University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Echo Yearbook "Trip Down Memory Lane"
Gallery: (10-15-2024) 1969-71 Hall of Fame Football
