Liberty Bowl Legends: 1978 Tigers had talent for the ages

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Missouri has had better football seasons than 1978. It might have had better teams than 1978. But perhaps never in the 129-year history of Mizzou football has more talent been on campus at one time.

Forty years ago, the Tigers assembled a roster that included 15 players who would go on to be NFL draft picks and a handful more that would play in the pros. It was a team that featured an All-American, four all-Big Eight first-team selections, four players who would be named all-conference at least twice in their careers, an NFL Hall of Famer and a quarterback who would hold the Big Eight record for total offense for a decade after he was done playing.

The 1978 Tigers finished 8-4. They played in the Liberty Bowl, Mizzou's first post-season bid in five years, where they beat an LSU team led by consensus all-American running back Charles Alexander. Mizzou finished the season ranked No. 15 in the country. It would be another 29 years before the Tigers had a team that finished the year ranked that high.

"That really was a special team," senior wide receiver Lamont Downer said.

But is that Tiger team overlooked when Missouri fans talk about the school’s best squads?

“Not (by) people who were there at the time,” three-time all-Big Eight quarterback Phil Bradley said.

With the Tigers headed back to the Liberty Bowl in 2018, we take a look back at one of Missouri’s most memorable seasons.

In 1977, Missouri finished 4-7. It was the fourth consecutive season Al Onofrio’s team had missed a bowl game. More importantly, the Tigers ended the year with a 24-22 loss to Kansas, the sixth time in seven seasons the Jayhawks had beaten Onofrio. Missouri fired him after the season.

"My first three years, we were supposed to beat KU every year, and we lost," Chris Garlich, a senior linebacker in 1978 and a product of Rockhurst High School in Kansas City, said. "It was like, how do you lose to KU? How do you lose to KU? We'd find a way. You kind of remember those."

To replace Onofrio, Missouri looked to one of the Big Eight powers of the 1970’s. Warren Powers had been a three-year letterman under Bob Devaney at Nebraska and an assistant for the Huskers under Devaney and Tom Osborne. He became a head coach for the first time at Washington State in 1977, where he went 7-4. Powers’ first game was a win over No. 15 Nebraska in Lincoln.

“Coach Powers came in and turned everything upside down, and you had that transition where a new coaching staff comes in,” two-time all-Big Eight cornerback Eric Wright, a sophomore in 1978, said. “That was a turning point in itself, I thought.”

“I tell you what, Warren Powers was the best coach I’ve ever had,” Downer said. “He took the talent that he had and we gelled together, and he did a great job of putting people in the right place and just being the right coach.”

"It was a whole kind of different feel," Garlich said, who had played three years for Onofrio, said. "The coaches were younger, more kind of go-getter coaches."

“It felt like to me that I was still auditioning and proving myself as a full time starter for all 11 games,” Howard Richards, a sophomore on the 1978 team who would be an all-Big Eight offensive lineman and play in the NFL for seven seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, said. “With a new coach, sort of a new attitude. We built the south end zone; that was the first year of existence for that thing. If all of those games weren’t sold out they were near capacity every game. It was a great experience, it was a great atmosphere. Listen, I got chills every time I ran out on the field to play at Faurot. Especially that year. I just felt we were going to do something special.”

The optimism was not necessarily shared across the roster.

“To think that we had anything other than an inexperienced team coming off of a bad season with a new coaching staff, that’s what we were,” Bradley said. “I defy anyone to think otherwise. It’s easy to say at the end of the year and the next three years, man that was the most talented team Missouri ever had or however you want to describe it. But on that (season-opening) day in South Bend, that’s not who we were.”

It was fair for Bradley to have his doubts. That relative inexperience started at quarterback.

As a true freshman, Bradley relieved Pete Woods in the season-opener against USC in 1977. (Yes, Missouri opened the season against one of the top two teams in the country from the previous year in consecutive seasons.) He played admirably, especially for an 18-year-old in his first college game.

“I don’t remember a lot about that game, but that was a big game,” Richards said. “You could see that he gave us a little bit more at the quarterback position even though he was raw and he was a rookie, but I think everybody saw the potential in him. That was really a precursor to what you got with him in 78 and going forward.”

Woods’ career was over after the 1977 season. Bradley got hurt early in spring football of 1978. And that summer, he went home to play baseball in Macomb, Ill.

“I definitely didn’t know going into camp,” Bradley said when asked if he was confident he would be the starting quarterback. “I didn’t hang around the university like kids do today going to summer school. It was basically win the position in the fall.”

Bradley had to beat out Jay Jeffrey, Monte Montgomery and Paul Miller that August. He did. He would go on to be the first-team all-Big Eight quarterback as a sophomore. He threw for 1,780 yards and 12 touchdowns. He ran for another 301 and six scores. He led the conference in completions, passing percentage and total offense. By the time he was done, Bradley had compiled more than 6,400 yards running and throwing. It was the most ever by a Big Eight player and the mark would stand for ten more years. Today, it ranks just seventh on the all-time list… at Missouri.

“We were a run-first offense. Twenty to 25 passes a game, that was about it. And that was probably on the high side. We were going to run the ball,” Bradley said. “I’m old and, look, I’m blessed to be able to play when I played. I was more than blessed the players who I played with. I was fortunate to accomplish what I did. At that time, I did a lot, but it’s the era in which you played, right?”

Bradley was also an all-conference outfielder for the Missouri baseball team. He hit .457 as a senior in 1981, had an on base percentage of .582 and scored 77 runs. All three marks are still in the top five for a single season in Tiger history. At that point, Bradley had a decision to make.

“I could have gone to Canada,” he said, noting that nobody was going to give him a chance to play quarterback in the NFL. “It became an either-or. The CFL season, they start earlier than the NFL, they were looking for a decision prior to the draft in baseball. It wasn’t like I could weigh one against the other. It was either or, so I chose baseball.”

Bradley would play eight seasons with the Mariners, Phillies, Orioles and White Sox. He retired after the 1990 season. His college teammates insist he could have been an NFL quarterback.

“Yes, sir,” Richards said. “Russell Wilson. To me, he was that type of player. He may not have had as strong an arm as Russell Wilson, but I guarantee he had the smarts and the physical ability. I don’t know how fast he was, but a lot of guys didn’t catch up with him. Elusive, had moves and he was a playmaker. He was a playmaker. There are a lot of guys that I saw even when I was with the Cowboys as backup quarterbacks, he was far better.”

But it wasn’t just what he did on the field.

“You talk about a great stand up guy,” Wright said. “One thing, Phil gonna make sure Phil will express his opinion. Phil’s not gonna take any BS from nobody. And Phil’s the most straightest honest guy, ethical guy, that you’re going to meet. There’s not going to be any BS with Phil. I can bet my life on that one.”

“Phil was very quiet, but he led in the huddle,” Richards added. “He led with a lot of confidence. To me, he was as smart as the coaches. He had, to me, that 'it' factor.”

Bradley may have been the best overall athlete. He may have owned the most records when he left Missouri. But he was far from alone in drawing checks as a professional athlete.

Fifteen players on that Missouri team were drafted by NFL teams over the next four seasons. Richards played seven seasons with the Cowboys. Wright played 10 with the San Francisco 49ers. In fact, the pair, along with fellow Tiger Kurt Peterson, were on the field for the 1982 NFC Championship game, which will forever be known for “The Catch,” Dwight Clark’s leaping grab from Joe Montana in the back of the end zone that put San Francisco in its first Super Bowl under legendary head coach Bill Walsh.

“Going in at halftime, I think we have the lead. I’m looking around before (Tom) Landry starts to talk,” Richards said. “I could see part of that black covering was kind of folded up. It wasn’t completely covering what it was supposed to be covering. You’ll never guess what was underneath that drape: Bottles of champagne. Cases of champagne. I thought to myself right then and there, that’s not a good sign. I wish I hadn’t seen it.

“Eric, I still tease him: You got four Super Bowl rings. That first one should have been mine.”

Richards was a first-round draft pick in 1981. Wright and James Wilder both went in the second round, part of a haul seven Tigers taken in a single NFL Draft. Only the 1943 team, with the NFL having many of its stars overseas fighting in World War II, saw more Tigers drafted.

Wilder would play eight seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before latching on with the Redskins and Lions in his final NFL season in 1990. He left the Bucs with a slew of team records and was a Pro Bowl selection in 1984. Known as “The Sikeston Train,” the bruising 6-foot-3, 225-pound back led the Bulldogs to an undefeated state championship in 1976. He took a one-year detour to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in 1977 before joining the Tigers as a sophomore for the 1978 season.

“I didn’t know who he was,” Bradley said. “I don’t know if any other players did. This guy shows up, we had no idea who he was.”

Who he was was perhaps the key to the 1978 Tigers. Missouri had Earl Gant, who had led the team with 769 rushing yards in 1977. It had Gerry Ellis, who would run for 1,068 yards over three seasons. Both would play in the NFL. But the Sikeston Train? He added a whole new dimension.

“He just came right in, ran like a bull,” Downer said. “He could run that ball. He was a great football player.”

“We ended up developing a three-headed monster of James Wilder, Earl Gant and Gerry Ellis. Turned out to be a pretty powerful backfield,” Bradley said. “We ended up having probably an offense that fit those skill players just a little bit better. If you look back, the year before we ran out of the I-formation. None of those running backs were going to be able to play fullback. Now we can get two of the three on the field at the same time. That turned out to work very well in our favor.”

Wilder led the way with more than 1,000 yards from scrimmage in 1978. He would run for 2,300 in his Tiger career before heading to Tampa.

In the passing game, Bradley had Leo Lewis, Ken Blair and Downer at wide receiver. Lewis would play a decade with the Vikings and Browns after starting his career in the Canadian Football League. He was Missouri’s leading wide receiver with 376 yards in 1978. Blair played for the St. Louis Cardinals and was a member of the Eagles’ Super Bowl team in 1981. He now coaches high school football in Oklahoma. Downer is a name many Missouri fans may not know as well as many of the others on the 1978 roster.

“Did not have a lot of speed, but had great hands,” Richards said of Downer. “He was a true leader, led by example. Was sort of the elder statesman. He was a guy, if you poll any other guy that you talk to, you say tell me about Lamont Downer, they’ll all tell you the same thing. He was cool, he was smooth, just a great person. I always looked up to him. He’s like a big brother to me.

“That’s the truth,” Downer said. “I really didn’t have very much speed. But I tell him all the time, it’s about getting open.”

Forty years after they last played together, Downer and Richards talk regularly.

“I missed him when he left after that year,” Richards said. “To this day we are still the best of friends.”

Missouri’s supporting cast was stout. It was filled with very good players. But none of these were the Tigers destined for super stardom. Everybody knew who that was.

Eric Wright is from East St. Louis. So is Kellen Winslow.

“I didn’t know who Kellen Winslow was until I got to Missouri,” Wright said. “Kellen wasn’t a big football guy in high school. Kellen played football his last two years at East St. Louis Senior High School.”

But Missouri saw enough in those two years. Winslow signed with the Tigers in 1975. He had one catch for 12 yards as a true freshman that season. He caught 16 passes for 240 yards as a sophomore. He grabbed 25 for 358 as a junior in 1977. Those numbers trailed barely behind Joe Stewart for the team lead. Winslow was putting up wide receiver numbers…as a tight end.

In 1978, Winslow caught 29 passes for 458 yards and a Big Eight leading six touchdowns. He was a first-team all-conference selection and a consensus all-American.

“I’m not going to sit here and tell you I made Kellen Winslow what he is today,” Bradley said. “Especially his junior year, I was more detrimental to Kellen Winslow than I was an assistance to him.”

That’s the thing: Nobody at Missouri made Kellen Winslow what he is. Because he really wasn’t that at Missouri. He was good. No question. But it wasn't until Winslow was drafted in the first round of the 1979 NFL Draft, with the 13th overall pick of the San Diego Chargers, that he started to show signs of what he could become.

“The biggest break I believe Kellen Winslow ever got in his life was getting drafted by the San Diego Chargers with the offense with Don Coryell and Dan Fouts and Charlie Joiner and Wes Chandler,” Bradley said. “That was his break. He might have done a little bit at Missouri and he was good at Missouri, but he was great in the NFL.”

Winslow led the NFL in receptions in 1980 and 1981, just the second tight end ever to do so in consecutive seasons. He set league records—by far—for both catches and yards by a tight end in 1980. In 1981, in one of the great individual performances in playoff history, he caught 13 passes for 166 yards against Miami and blocked a game-winning field goal attempt by the Dolphins, being helped off the field in what is now an iconic NFL Films moment.

Winslow redefined an entire position in professional football. Before Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates and Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham and Travis Kelce, there was Kellen Winslow.

“We knew what Coryell had done in his passing game before,” Richards said. “But I don’t think he had a big-bodied tight end, a guy with speed and size and hands, until Kellen came along. And how smart was he to realize that I’ve got a special tool that no one else has seen in a while in this offense and I’m going to maximize it? And that’s exactly what he did.”

It’s not like his Missouri teammates were caught completely off guard. When asked to single out one teammate they knew would be a star, every one said Kellen Winslow.

“Kellen was a man among boys as far as a football player,” Downer said. “I could see it. I really could. Tremendous ball player.”

“We would be over at Brewer and they would be playing pickup basketball,” Wright recalled. “Kellen used to always complain about fouls and getting touched. And Kellen was like that in the NFL too. He’s always complaining to the referees, guys are holding him. Everybody used to get on Kellen, he used to have his way, complain to the referee all the time. But you know what though? He’s one of the best tight ends to ever play the game. And you kind of knew. You knew that guy.”

Much is made of strength of schedule in college football today. The Missouri Tigers of the 1970’s could take on anyone in that regard. And take on anyone is exactly what they did.

“That’s what we did all the time,” Downer said. “We had no powder puff teams.”

"We were the giant killers," Garlich said.

The Tigers would face four teams in the top five of the national rankings that season, in addition to No. 20 Iowa State. They would play two teams that were ranked No. 1, one that was ranked No. 2. Oh, and defending national champion Notre Dame.

“That’s significant in any year, in any era,” Bradley said. “I would like someone to do some research and see who else had done that and then come out on the winning end of that.”

Missouri began the season unranked. But after a 3-0 win in South Bend, which earned Garlich Big Eight defensive player of the week honors, the Tigers entered the top 20 (before the polls were expanded to a top 25) at No. 11. Garlich recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass as the Tigers held Joe Montana to a 4-for-17 first half performance and thwarted two Notre Dame drives at the goal line.

"They just kept taking for granted that they were going to make these fourth-down plays," Garlich said. "I think we shut them down three or four times on fourth down where they didn't kick a field goal and we smoked them 3-0."

Garlich credits all-Big Eight safety Russ Calabrese for the win before the game even started. During the week, Calabrese had trash talked Irish wide receiver Chris Haynes in the media.

"He was from Chicago, and so he hated all those Notre Dame guys," Garlich said. "(Haynes) goes out of bounds on like the 5-yard line. As he's walking back on the field, Calabrese is there and he whaps Calabrese on the back of the head. Like, 'that's for your underrated comment.' They saw him and they threw a flag."

The penalty took away first and goal inside the five and Notre Dame's drive ended up stalling.

"Calabrese won that the week before in the newspaper," Garlich said.

Their reward? A visit from Bear Bryant and No. 1 Alabama, which would finish 11-1, win the SEC and be voted the best team in the country by the Associated Press.

Missouri led Alabama 20-17 at halftime, scoring 20 consecutive points including a Calabrese pick six. But the Crimson Tide scored the final 21 points to win 38-20. The Tigers beat Ole Miss 45-14 the following week, but then lost 45-23 to top-ranked Oklahoma in Norman to end September 2-2.

“Man, Oklahoma, it was like a track meet. They played all All-Americans on defense, they had all All-Americans on offense,” Wright said. “I remember at halftime, all their starters were off on the sidelines, had their shoulder pads off and then the second team was just as great as the first team. They didn’t skip a beat when they was beating us 45-10 or 16 or something. Shoot, those guys was having fun at halftime, and we were out there battling just to stay in the game.”

The Tigers then thumped Illinois 45-3, doubled up No. 20 Iowa State 26-13 and drilled hapless Kansas State 56-14. They were 5-2 and riding a three-game winning streak when Colorado came to Faurot Field for Homecoming on October 28th.

The Tigers were ranked No. 13 in the country for the matchup against the Buffaloes, and the game was on ABC. It was Mizzou’s only national television appearance of the 1978 regular season.

“Should have beat Colorado that year,” Richards said. “That would have been a difference-maker.”

Early in the game, Missouri appeared to be rolling. The Tigers led 27-7 in the third quarter and had their fourth straight win in the crosshairs.

“We just got conservative. We just shut down the offense and, you know, things happen,” Bradley said. "Then the play that still stands out, we run Earl Gant right down the middle of the field, he’s wide open. Wide open. I throw him the ball and he drops it. I’m not blaming Earl Gant for that. I always maintain there’s like five plays in any game that kind of can sway the outcome of a game. You never know when those plays are going to come.”

The Gant drop proved to be one of them. The Buffs scored the final 21 points of the game to win 28-27. It was their only win in the last six games of the season. Colorado finished 6-5, but it had just one other Big Eight win, over Kansas.

“We had a kick to win the game, 30-some yarder, we didn’t make it,” Bradley said. “After all that, we still had a chance to pull that game out and we didn’t.”

The next week, Mizzou went to Stillwater. The Tigers lost to Oklahoma State 35-20. They were 5-4 and out of any talk of a Big Eight championship.

“There was good teams in the Big Eight,” Wright said. “If you didn’t show up and play four quarters of football you could get upset. That’s what was going on. Not saying that we didn’t get up. Teams got up for us.

“Oklahoma State played great football. We would always go and they would always play us tooth and nail. Especially at their place where that close sideline was, where the fans were. That was unbelievable playing so close to those fans and those fans being right on the bench close to us.”

Missouri would rebound. The Tigers shut out Kansas 48-0 the following week. They beat No. 2 Nebraska 35-31, a game in which James Wilder scored the game-winning touchdown and gave the Tigers what would be their last win over the Cornhuskers for a quarter of a century.

As much as the losses to Colorado and Oklahoma State stung at the time, some players said they've spent more time reflecting on the season's highlights through the years.

"We started with a big win against Notre Dame and then we finished with a big win over Nebraska," Garlich said. "The bookends are what I remember the most."

“For me, Nebraska and Notre Dame were two of the best victories that I ever had a chance to be part of,” Wright said.

But ask Bradley what he remembers about the 1978 season and he doesn’t hesitate.

“When it’s all said and done the disappointment of not winning the Big Eight and it’s the Colorado game,” Bradley said. “That’s woulda, coulda, shouldas. But that’s the game."

Here, Bradley hesitates: "Yeah. That’s probably the 25 minutes of Missouri football I wish I could have gotten back.”

At the time, the Big Eight had a rule that would have helped the Tigers. If there was a three-way tie for the league title, the team that had gone the longest without an Orange Bowl appearance would be named the champion and be sent to Miami. Missouri hadn’t been since 1969. With wins over the Buffaloes and the Cowboys, the Tigers would have tied Oklahoma and Nebraska at 7-1 and played in the Orange Bowl. Bradley laughs. But he sighs, too. Forty years later, it stings.

“We should have been 10-2,” Downer said. “We shouldn’t have lost those two games. I still think about those games. I think about them all the time.”

“We probably underachieved,” Richards said. “If you talk to a lot of the players, which I did, that we played against, they all will say it is amazing with the talent that you guys had that you did not win the Big Eight.”

Missouri finished the regular season 7-4. (Yes, young ones, there was a time when teams only played 11 regular season games). But the Tigers were by no means a shoe-in for a bowl bid. See, there were only 15 bowl games back then.

“A bowl game like the Liberty Bowl was a marquee bowl at that time and it meant a lot,” Richards said. “For Missouri to not just go to a bowl, but to that bowl having not been to a bowl game since 1973, the Sun Bowl, that was the best bowl game Missouri had been to since the 1960s.”

“We were happy just to go to a bowl game,” Bradley added. “We had some nice wins, but we had a couple bad losses and I think we finished third in the conference.

“Going to a bowl game back then was a major accomplishment. I’m not trying to minimize bowls now, but it’s not as hard to get into a bowl as it was back then.”

"Having not gone to one in any of the previous years that I played, that was a whole new experience," Garlich said. "It was cool. It was fun. They made you really feel special."

The Tigers were matched up against LSU in Memphis. LSU's tailback, Alexander, dubbed “Alexander the Great” by LSU fans, ran for more than 4,000 yards in his career. He's now a college football Hall of Famer and held single-season records in Baton Rouge until Leonard Fournette came along. David Woodley and current LSU offensive coordinator Steve Entsminger split time at quarterback.

The Tigers from Louisiana were ranked in the top 20 all season until November losses to Alabama and Mississippi State.

"Alexander was one of the top running backs in the country," Garlich said. "That was the big focus for us was to try and control him."

None of the Missouri players remember a whole lot about that game 40 years later. Gant had a touchdown and so did Winslow. Kurt Peterson helped ice it with a fourth quarter interception. Mizzou won, 20-15, to finish off an eight-win season and assure a top 20 finish.

“I do remember that game because it was the last game,” Downer said. “We all wanted to go out as winners. And we did that.”

Four decades later, the Tigers are headed back to the Liberty Bowl, this time to face the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Several members of the 1978 team plan to make the return trip.

“I know we’re working with Mizzou now to have some of those ’78 players back and have them recognized at the game this year,” Harold Graeter, Associate Executive Director of the Liberty Bowl said. “We think that’s special and we relish our history and the history of our teams.”

Time has scattered the 1978 team across the country. Richards is back in the Show-Me State. He lives in St. Louis and works for Missouri. He's the color commentator on the football team’s radio broadcasts. Wright is in northern California, working as an alumni coordinator for the 49ers. Downer is a retired school teacher in Dallas. Garlich is retired and lives in St. Louis. Bradley—after time at both Westminster in Fulton and at Mizzou--is back in Florida.

But the University of Missouri is the thing that bonds them together all these years later.

“Every week during football season, that’s the first score I’m searching for,” Wright said.

“That’s my alma mater,” Downer said before bellowing out an M-I-Z. “When you spend four of five years there, you can’t do nothing but love it.”

“I have my eye out for them,” Bradley said. “My son’s a head high school football coach. I focus my time and energy on his program more than I do college football. I’m an old guy. I don’t necessarily get the same enjoyment out of college as I did when I played.”

Richards listed off a dozen or more teammates he’s spoken to in the last year. Wright talks to many of his old running mates and had just gotten a Christmas card from Bradley when we spoke. They’re now four decades removed from that team and it has been more than 25 years since any of them played in a professional game. But the memories and the lessons endure.

“You know the one thing that was really good? We had a lot of older guys that were the team leaders,” Wright said. “That’s the thing that we tried to give guys like Kevin Potter, Demetrious Johnson, Andy Hill, those guys that came after us. It’s just taught me a valuable lesson of what I even carry today. There’s younger guys that you are mentoring and you don’t even have the slightest idea of what’s being done.”

The friendships endure as well.

“I think about all the guys. Not one person. It’s all of them,” Downer said. “I know that if they could they’d put that uniform back on again. I know I would. But football, after it’s all said and done, it’s about relationships. I love all those guys.”

“I tell kids if you don’t get anything out of Missouri, you better try to build life long relationships,” Wright said. “You become like family.”