Area athletes entering NDSU Hall of Champions

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, October 3, 2008

This will be a special weekend for area residents John Lindquist, Al Fabricius and Bruce Grasamke, members of the 1968 NDSU national championship football team. The entire team will be inducted today (Friday) into the Bison Athletic Hall of Champions.

The event will mark the second national championship team going into the Bison Athletic Hall of Champions. Also this weekend, seven former NDSU athletes will be inducted into the Bison Athletic Hall of Fame.

Lindquist, a farmer, resides in rural Dalton. Fabricius, a former West Fargo football coach and coach in Wyoming, currently is a Thrivent Financial employee and lives at Jewett Lake. Grasamke, who works for Unicel, resides in Elbow Lake.

Lindquist was a defensive nose tackle for the Bison and was part of the front line. After 40 years, he still holds the one-year record (over 70) for assisted tackles.

Grasamke was starting offensive quarterback and Fabricius was a defensive end.

“It was a great time,” Grasamke said of the Bison era in the late 1960s. “Not only were we national champions, but it was great participating in bowl games. One of those games was in Texas, when we also had the opportunity to visit where the Dallas Cowboys practiced.”

The newest members of the Hall of Champions are the 1968 NDSU national championship football team represented by co-captain and fullback Jack Hagen. The group, in addition to recognition at today’s luncheon, will also be recognized at the homecoming football game Saturday when NDSU plays Southern Illinois at the FargoDome.

Here's a look at 1968 Bison national championship football team.

North Dakota State University capped off a perfect 10-0 season with a Pecan Bowl win over Arkansas State to claim the program's second national championship and first under the direction of head coach Ron Erhardt.

The Bison recorded their fifth straight North Central Conference championship with a 6-0 record — unprecedented in the history of the league. NDSU extended its home field winning streak to 24 games that season.

Sixteen members of the 1968 NDSU football team, 13 players, a pair of coaches and athletic trainer, have been inducted into the Bison Athletic Hall of Fame.

Paul Hatchett ran for 106 yards and a touchdown as NDSU's awesome offense rolled to 23 first-half points to stop Arkansas State in the fifth annual Pecan Bowl. The Bison, ranked number one in the nation, looked to make it a runaway in the opening two periods when Joe Roller, Hatchett, Ken Blazei and Bruce Grasamke combined for the three TDs and a field goal.

Roller caught an 11-yard pass from Grasamke and Hatchett traversed 18 yards for first-quarter TDs. Blazei then booted a 30-yard field goal and Grasamke ran in from four yards out before the halftime gun.

The Indians got two fourth-quarter TDs but had little other success against the Herd. Hatchett was voted the outstanding offensive player of the game.

Hatchett and defensive tackle Jim Ferge were named first-team Little All-Americans by the Associated Press, while safety Del Gehrett was honorable mention. For the 18 seniors on the Bison roster, it marked the end of three successful years where they charted a 26-2 regular season record.

Hatchett established a NCC rushing standard and became the first Bison player in 73 years to surpass 1,000 yards on the ground. Blazei booted 50 consecutive extra points to establish a then national intercollegiate single-season mark.

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