The Scary Hens

Their official nickname is the Fightin' Blue Hens, but the University of Delaware's football teams are anything but chicken. Columbia found that out in 1955 when they invited the small-college team to Manhattan for a friendly scrimmage--and got clobbered 55-0. Two years later Colgate went to Delaware for another supposed tune-up, and the Hens scored the first eight times they had the ball.

The word on Delaware has been out ever since, but some teams have still had to learn the hard way. Last year, after being bludgeoned by the Hens for the third straight season, Rutgers announced that it would not play Delaware after the 1973 season. Admitted Rutgers Athletic Director Al Twitchell: "We haven't been trying too hard to get together with Delaware on scheduling because they're a small college and we're supposedly a major college." Other major Eastern teams such as Colgate and Holy Cross also refuse to play the Hens.

Undefeated in eight games this season, and heavily favored to cop their second straight national small-college championship, the Hens are obviously getting too good for their own good. Many of their rivals in the N.C.A.A.'s small-college division--a category determined by the caliber of competition --have also had enough. Boston University, beaten 49-12 by the Hens this season, and Lafayette, downed 27-0, have already banished Delaware from their future schedules. Gettysburg, a 64-7 victim, wants out after 1973. New Hampshire Coach Jim Root was so stung by a 40-7 loss to Delaware last year that he left his job rather than "subject my team to that again." Says he: "They're absolutely overwhelming. They should play teams like Ohio State, Notre Dame and Alabama."

Delaware Coach Harold ("Tubby") Raymond shudders at the thought. "It disturbs me," he says, "because we're not in that category. Success runs in cycles, and we've just happened to have good kids who played great football the last few years." Raymond insists that winning is secondary to "providing an academic interest for the kids and giving them a program where they can get the thrills and excitement of college football."

The pitch may sound like it comes from the back of a Wheaties box, but it is not without some supporting evidence. While Delaware's male undergraduate enrollment of 5,800 is larger than that at some schools competing in the major-college division, it has none of the trappings of the so-called "football factories"--big budgets, big stadiums, nationwide recruiting. Since the Delaware team has no trouble meeting its modest yearly budget of $150,000, Athletic Director Dave Nelson discourages alumni contributors. "Let them give to the philosophy department," he says. Each year Delaware metes out a mere twelve football scholarships--less than half the 25 allowed by N.C.A.A. rules--and draws more than 95% of its players from within a 150-mile radius of its Newark, Del., campus.

None of Raymond's players has ever made it in the pros; he prefers to point out that 60% of them go on to graduate school. Tackle Dennis Johnson, who at 6 ft. 5 in. and 262 Ibs. is a bona fide pro prospect, says that he turned down offers from Penn State and Maryland because Delaware "put less pressure on me. Football is like a course here. You just don't get credit for it."

Why, with all the emphasis on what Raymond calls the "amateur approach," are the Blue Hens the perennial scourge of the East? Notre Dame Coach Ara Parseghian suggests that it has to do with their high-powered winged-T offense. He should know. Last winter, looking to rev up the Irish offense, he studied the Hens' game films and was so impressed that he instituted "Plan Delaware." Now Parseghian and Tubby Raymond compare notes after every game. After one Notre Dame victory, Tubby told Ara: "If you don't get that man in motion going sooner and keep the quarterback up to the line better, you'll lose your franchise."

Now it is Raymond who stands (to lose his franchise in small-college football. Sometime within the next decade, Delaware has plans to phase its football team into the major-college division --if the Hens can find anyone who will play them.

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