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Then
Legend of the Fall: Wildcat kicker Bernt Rognstad
by Eric Hammerstrom
Each fall brings homecoming to Northern Michigan University, but this year is special—the thirty-fifth anniversary of NMU’s 1975 Division II National Football Championship. Almost all of the players and coaches from that glorious fall will return to campus to reunite and celebrate. Almost all.
Steve Mariucci, the team’s quarterback, will be there between television appearances, Hall of Fame inductions and football broadcasts.
Randy Awrey, the running back and MVP of the championship win over Western Kentucky, will be there, joining former teammates while preparing this year’s Wildcats for their September 25 game against Ashland University, where he will call plays as NMU’s defensive coordinator.
Bill Rademacher, the offensive coordinator in 1975, will be there, returning to Marquette from East Lansing, where he coached the Michigan State Spartans before retiring.
They wouldn’t miss it for the world.
“Those were great teams,” Rademacher said. “We had Mariucci and Awrey from Iron Mountain and Stu Betts. We had Zach Fowler and Maurice Mitchell, who both had pro-football potential. And we had two small guards from the U.P. who were the toughest guys you’d ever seen. It was amazing. We went out and beat Division I-AA teams.”
Amazing is an understatement. During the 1974 season, the Wildcats went winless at 0-10, then (through hard work, determination and what must have been magic) the 1975 Wildcats became legends.
“With Mariucci, we ran an option with a pro passing attack and we were different,” Rademacher said. “Going from 0-10 to 13-1 was incredible...It was an unbelievable year.”
With time, legends grow or fade, but some things never can be forgotten, even decades after they are gone.
In those days, as many as 15,000 fans packed the Memorial Field bleachers, filled the end zones behind the goalposts and lined the sidelines. Nothing is left of the stadium but two sections of wrought-iron fence and twelve-foot cedars that mark midfield.
“Some stadiums are just stadiums, but Memorial Field was named properly,” Awrey said. “The Green Bay Packers have Lambeau Field; we had Memorial.”
The Wildcats moved into the Superior Dome in 1991 and the stadium went the way of the wrecking ball, as did other neighborhood landmarks—the Palestra, Pizzarena, Whiskers, which was then the North End Tavern. The Berry Events Center stands in Memorial Field’s place, but to football fans from those days the street seems empty. When Sten Fjeldheim and Don Hurst visit the site, they remember more than football.
Hurst created NMU’s Nordic Ski Team from scratch in 1969, recruiting many skiers and jumpers from Scandinavia. In 1972, he and his wife drove through Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway, where Hurst met a group of jumpers who had competed at Suicide Hill in Ishpeming.
“I asked if there were kids interested in studying in the U.S., and they said there was one named Bernt Rognstad, who was a jumper and a fantastic soccer player,” said Hurst, a retired dentist who lives in Marquette.
Rognstad competed in the 1973 NCAA Championships, placing third in the Nordic Combined events. In 1974, he was the national runner-up in Nordic Combined, earning All-American honors. He finished fifth in Nordic Combined in 1975.
“In the fall of 1973, I took Bernt to Memorial Field and asked if we could borrow a football,” Hurst said. “I told him I’d hold the ball and he should try to kick it between the uprights. We started at the twenty-yard line (a thirty-yard field goal attempt), and the ball was still going up when it reached the cross bar. So, we kept moving back until he was kicking fifty-yard field goals. He was a natural.”
Fjeldheim arrived from Norway in 1975 to ski at NMU. He and other skiers were kicking a soccer ball when Rognstad’s destiny changed.
“We were cooling down by playing soccer, but weren’t sure if we were allowed to play on Memorial Field,” Fjeldheim said. “We were screwing around when one of the football coaches came out. He didn’t look happy. He told us to get off the bleepin’-bleepin’ field because they were going to have practice.
“Bernt said, ‘Just one more kick,’ then booted the ball at the coach from the forty-yard line,” said Fjeldheim, who has been NMU’s head ski coach since 1985. “The ball curved, went past the coach and banged off the side of the P.E.I.F. We thought Bernt was really in trouble.
“The coach came storming onto the field dragging a guy by the facemask and carrying a bag of footballs, yelling, ‘Hey, you!’ and screaming, ‘Wait! Stop!’ When that ball ricocheted off the building, that coach was smart enough to recognize what he’d just seen.”
When the coach asked Rognstad’s name, Bernt replied, “Elvis.” When the coach asked him to kick the ball through the uprights, Bernt asked, “Which foot?” Then, he kicked the ball on top of the P.E.I.F. The coach had them back up, and Bernt made long field goals with both feet.
The next day, the ski team learned Bernt would not practice with them every day, because he would kick for the football team.
Rognstad told his friends he would be wearing his favorite number, double-zero, and would have a surprise for them on the opening kickoff.
“I’ll never forget it, because the other team’s receivers froze and watched the ball sail over their heads, across the trees that lined Fair Avenue and bounce into the parking lot of the First National Bank,” Fjeldheim said.
Mariucci called Rognstad a phenomenal athlete.
“When he decided to come out for football, he didn’t know much about the game, but he had seen it on T.V.,” Mariucci said. “He could kick left- or right-footed. He could have been the punter, too, if we had asked him.
“He was very fast, and was a heck of an athlete,” Mariucci said. “When we raced, it would be me, Randy Awrey, Maurice Mitchell, Stu Betts and Bernt, which is extremely unusual for a kicker. Bernt would be right up there with the fastest players on the team.”
Rademacher said Rognstad was a joy to work with and the first soccer kicker he ever coached.
“I didn’t know anything about soccer kickers at all, but because of his natural ability, I didn’t have to do any coaching,” he said. “I just had to let him kick. He was a real weapon and got along with everybody on the team.”
According to Awrey, Rognstad’s kickoffs demoralized opponents before their first play.
“I actually wanted us to lose the coin toss and kick off at the start of the game, because it was awesome to see him kick it through the uprights and to watch the other team’s reaction—they would deflate,” said Awrey, who held the ball for NMU place kickers.
Mariucci and Awrey, both from Iron Mountain, developed deep friendships with Rognstad, who dated and then became engaged to a lifelong friend of theirs, Paula Constantini. Constantini grew up around the corner from Mariucci and their mothers were best friends. Constantini became like a sister to Mariucci.
As the season went on, the Wildcats became nearly unstoppable, with their only loss coming at the hands of Akron. Newspaper articles about the team read like the plot of a Disney movie with an ending too good to be believed. The Wildcats averaged more than 450 yards of offense per game and finished the year with a 13-1 record. They beat Boise State, 24-21, in the quarterfinals, topped Livingston University, 28-26, in the semifinal game, then defeated Western Kentucky, 16-14, to claim the NCAA Championship. Rognstad put two kickoffs out of the end zone in the championship game.
Rognstad rarely was mentioned in the press. His only extra-point attempt of the year gave the Wildcats a 42-7 lead over St. Norbert. His individual photo wasn’t in the programs from that season, nor did he appear on the NCAA Championship plaque in Awrey’s football office. But no one who saw Rognstad kick could forget it.
The Atlanta Falcons signed Rognstad as a free agent following the 1975 season, but NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle voided the contract, ruling Rognstad still had one year of football eligibility.
“Kickers don’t get drafted very often; it’s rare, especially in Division II,” Mariucci said. “He had to stay behind and play another season. He would have been drafted or signed, and he had so much talent he would have been the best kicker available in the National Football League in those years.”
Bernt’s roommate, Pertti Reijula of Lahti (Finland), said the idea of playing professional football amazed Rognstad.
“He was fascinated by the idea that you could make money by kicking a football,” Reijula said. “He would get calls from NFL teams and didn’t know who they were. I remember him saying, ‘What the heck is a Packer?’ He told them they’d have to pay him a lot of money to play for a team with such a funny name.”
The Wildcats continued their win streak in 1976, building a 10-0 record before losing, 31-14, to Grand Valley. On November 28, the Wildcats opened the playoffs with a 28-17 road win over University of Delaware. In that game, they suffered the loss of Mariucci, who broke his wrist.
On December 5, their season ended in Akron. The Zips tied the game with no time left and beat the ’Cats in overtime, 29-26. The team flew back to Marquette immediately following the game. Mariucci and Awrey returned to their dorm rooms. Other players went out, and Rognstad was with them.
At 2:01 a.m., Rognstad stepped between two parked cars in front of the North End Tavern into Presque Isle Avenue. He was struck by a car instantly. Hurst said there was nothing the driver could do to avoid him . . .
—Eric Hammerstrom
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