From 'The Catch' to the Fiesta Bowl: 1975 football team to enter Sun Devil Hall of Fame

It is a Sunday afternoon in June, around 12:15 p.m.

Arizona State University Athletics Director Graham Rossini is on a Zoom call. Staring at him, awaiting his words, are about 30 men, all in their late 60s and early 70s.

A few of them know what Rossini is going to say. Many of them don’t.

“We have a really powerful story to tell with the 1975 football team that went undefeated, captured the Fiesta Bowl and took the nation by storm,” Rossini says. “This year is the 50th anniversary of the Sun Devil Hall of Fame. It would absolutely be a privilege and an honor for this university to induct the entire 1975 team. You guys are hall of famers.”

The reactions are instantaneous and powerful. Some of the men raise their fists over their head in celebration. Others stand and clap their hands. A few shed tears.

Fifty years ago, ASU went 12-0; beat Big Eight powerhouse Nebraska, 17-14, in the Fiesta Bowl; and finished the season ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll and the Coaches Poll.

It was one of the greatest seasons in program history — a season that, in many ways, put ASU on the college football map nationally.

A half-century later, the team will receive their flowers.

The 1975 team will be inducted into the Sun Devil Hall of Fame the weekend of Oct. 17–18, receive Fiesta Bowl rings and be reintroduced to ASU fans on the field before the Sun Devils’ game against Texas Tech at Mountain America Stadium.

“When they told us they were putting our team in the hall of fame, you could have knocked us over with a feather,” said Danny Kush, the son of legendary coach Frank Kush and the field goal kicker on that year’s team. “What an honor.”

Heading into the season, there was little reason to believe that the Sun Devils were about to do something extraordinary. They finished 7-5 the previous year and lost four of their last six games, including being shut out by archrival Arizona, 10-0.

But as they gathered for training camp that August, Frank Kush had a surprise for them that was seemingly at odds with his no-nonsense, disciplinarian style.

He brought in a sports psychologist to talk to the team.

“All of us were caught off guard,” said Fred Mortensen, who split time as quarterback with Dennis Sproul. “We were like, ‘That’s not who Frank is.’”

For three days, the psychologist walked the team through different visualization exercises. During gassers at the end of practices, the players would clap and chant, “Here we go, 12-0.”

The motivational tactics continued at Camp Tontozona. Early on during camp, Frank Kush gathered the players in the dining hall to watch the movie “Patton,” starring George C. Scott.

“That got everybody fired up,” Danny Kush said.

Of course, football games aren’t won on positive thinking alone. The Sun Devils had a supremely talented football team. Nine players were drafted by the NFL, including:

• Wide receiver John Jefferson, a member of the San Diego Chargers' 50th anniversary team.
• Cornerback Mike Haynes, selected to both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• Safety John Harris, who finished his 10-year NFL career with 50 interceptions.
• Linebacker Larry Gordon, who played seven seasons with the Miami Dolphins.
• Tight end Bruce Hardy, an 11-year veteran with the Dolphins.

That list doesn’t even include "Fast" Freddie Williams, who rushed for a team-high 1,427 rushing yards and nine touchdowns in 1975, or Sproul and Mortensen, who combined to throw for 2,126 yards and 14 touchdowns.

“We had some great players on that team,” Danny Kush said.

Chris Mott, a freshman center, recalled thinking he was ready for college football because he had memorized the playbook. But as he watched the starters participate in ASU’s first scrimmage from Camp Tontozona, he realized he wasn’t ready at all.

“They’re doing some seven-on-seven drills (passing-focused practices with no pads) and I’m watching Mike Haynes guarding John Jefferson,” Mott said. “Stuff happened so fast. I could not recognize a single play. I’m just going, ‘Oh my God, are these guys in overdrive?’

“Right then, I knew that this was not only a different level from high school, this was also pretty high-level university football. It was just amazing to watch those guys work.”

Beyond the talent, there was a connectedness among the players that still is talked about with reverence 50 years later. Mott recalled how leaders like Gordon and Haynes would walk through the locker room before games, shaking every player’s hand and offering encouragement, even if they were a lowly freshman who probably wouldn’t play a single snap.

“You felt like, ‘Wow, I’m willing to sell a kidney for these guys,’” Mott said.

The players also were united through the shared torment of playing for Kush. At Tontozona, for example, ASU practiced three times a day, two with full contact, and then ended the day running wind sprints. 

“It wasn’t necessarily us against him,” said wide receiver Glenn Crawford. “But it’s like we bonded together, brothers through the fire we went through.”

ASU had its share of close calls during the season. A 16-10 win at New Mexico on Oct. 11. A 21-20 victory over Wyoming on Nov. 8. But they were 10-0 when 9-1 Arizona came to Sun Devil Stadium on Nov. 29 for the annual Territorial Cup game.

Late in the first half, with ASU trailing 14-3, came a play that is revered in program history and to this day reviled by Arizona fans. It’s called, simply, "The Catch."

ASU had the ball on Arizona’s 8-yard line. Sproul dropped back and delivered a pass to Jefferson, who made a diving, full-extension reception near the back of the end zone. ASU went on to win the game, 24-21.

Arizona’s players and coaches argued that Jefferson landed out of the back of the end zone when he made the catch. The play is still a bone of contention between the two programs.

Danny Kush said that in the years following the game, he would catch up with Jefferson and ask him if he made the catch.

“He would just smile at me,” Kush said.

One Sun Devil wasn’t surprised at all that Jefferson came down with the ball.

“John would practice catches like that on his own after practice,” Mortensen said. “He wouldn’t have his pads on, and he would reach out and catch the ball as he landed on the ground. Somebody asked him, ‘Why are you doing that?’ He said, ‘Because if it comes to the game, I want to make sure that I keep focused on the ball and not worry about what’s going to happen when I hit the ground.’

“So there was a lot of preparation that went into that.”

The Sun Devils were 11-0, Western Athletic Conference champions and their defense, nicknamed the “Crunch Bunch,” allowed just 10.8 points per game.

“I’m going to arguably say that was the best defense ASU has ever had,” Harris said. “You couldn’t run or throw or do anything effectively against that defense.”

ASU’s reward for its undefeated season was a date to play Big Eight powerhouse Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl.

“When we found out we were playing Nebraska, it was like, ‘Holy crap, we’re playing Nebraska,’” Danny Kush said. “I remember the two teams would be at events in the week before the game, and at this barbecue we’d look at those guys and be like, ‘Those are some big boys.’

“I think we were probably a little bit intimidated, but we also had an attitude of, 'We can play with anybody.'”

The Sun Devils also had, as it turned out, a secret weapon.

A week after the Arizona game, offensive line coach Butch Metcalf was in Denver scouting a high school player. A coach from Oklahoma, Nebraska’s rival in the Big Eight, was at the school as well and invited Metcalf to a hotel where he and other Big Eight coaches were staying.

“Come spend a little time in the bar with us,” the coach said.

Metcalf brought along a pen and paper, and for two hours got the coaches’ scouting report on Nebraska.

“When I came home, Frank thought I was the most brilliant guy he had ever seen,” Metcalf said. “He said, ‘Where did you get that information?’ I said, ‘People in the Big Eight hate Nebraska.’”

Over the years, legend has it that Danny Kush’s 29-yard field goal won the game for ASU. Truth is, there were still four-plus minutes left in the game after the kick. The victory was secured only when Harris, with just over a minute remaining, forced a fumble that was recovered by junior lineman Rocky Mataali.

The team from the little-old WAC had beaten college football royalty.

"From the players' standpoint, this was probably the most important game since I have been here,” Frank Kush said at the time. “Not only was the game important for the recognition this team will receive, but it also helps gain recognition for the great teams and players we have had here in the past."

Fifty years have passed. But the moments and memories from that year will last forever.

“It was a great run,” Metcalf said. “Holy cow.”