Championship Football Teams Saluted at Homecoming
Beaver gridders from 1972, 1973 gather for brunch, Homecoming football game on Oct. 14
Beaver conference championship football teams from 1972 and 1973 will be among the alumni honored during Homecoming 2023 at Buena Vista University, Oct. 13 and 14.
The 1972 football team, the third season of Beaver football under Head Coach Jim Hershberger, tied for the Iowa Conference title with a 6-1 league record, thanks to a 26-24 victory over William Penn in the season finale. It marked the first conference crown in two decades for the Beavers.
Hershberger joined his team that fall 51 years ago in accepting congratulations from President Wendell Halverson at a special student-faculty dinner. Dave Dolan ’73, Jim Kennedy ’73, Steve McPherson ’74, Joe Kotval ’75, Mike Wiederin ’75, Tom McGrain ’74, Charles Mulligan ’74, Lyle Karsten ’74, John Fay ’73, Jerry Bisenius ’73, and Gary Debner ’74 were Beavers who earned all-league honors that season. Dolan was tabbed as the league’s most valuable player.
The Beavers then accomplished one of the toughest tasks in sports one year later: Defending a championship, as they won the IIAC outright with a 7-0 league record. Hershberger earned Conference Coach of the Year laurels following the season, the second of five times in which he would earn that distinction. That team, exactly 50 years ago this fall, had the following members receiving all-league recognition: Mulligan, McPherson, Karstens, Kotval, McGrain, Wiederin, Debner, Kent Livermore ’74, Tom Rouse ’75, and Mike Pertzborn ’74. Mulligan, the quarterback, was chosen as the league’s most valuable player. Kotval, a guard, earned Little All-American accolades.
The Beavers of today will salute those teams a half-century later by recognizing members of the teams between the first and second quarters of the Homecoming football contest against Luther College on Peterson Field. Additionally, members of those teams have been invited to partake in a special Cornerstone Guard brunch in Siebens Forum on Oct. 14. To learn more, call University Advancement and Alumni Relations at 712.749.2101.
“The teams from 1972 and 1973 helped set the bar for Beaver football,” said Head Coach Austin Dickinson, a 2010 BVU graduate who started for three years on the Beaver football team. “We welcome back many members of these teams during the ‘Hershberger Classic’ each July at BVU Lake Creek, some of whom helped establish the Jim & Floy Hershberger Football Endowment. Members of these teams are leaders among our alumni and we’re grateful to be able to honor them for the mark they made—and continue to make for BVU.”