When Dr. Leo Jenkins became president in 1960, he envisioned East Carolina joining the Southern Conference. The college had outgrown North State Conference competition, but did not have facilities suitable for entry into the Southern Conference. Completion of Ficklen Stadium in 1963 addressed that matter, and shortly after East Carolina was welcomed into the conference. In their first year of eligibility, the Pirates tied William and Mary for the championship. The Pirates proceeded to dominate the conference, winning back-to-back championships in 1972 and 1973. Even before its final conference year, 1976, ECU, the preseason championship favorite, announced its upcoming departure in search of grander competition.
The 1976 championship victory – a 35-7 route of the Appalachian State Mountaineers – was a memorable one for the team and for Dr. Jenkins. University status had been achieved and he was now chancellor of a university with an emerging medical school. Yet another Southern Conference football championship demonstrated that his ambitions for the school had not exceeded its potential. The championship was most meaningful for Jenkins, however, because he faced mandatory retirement in the summer of 1978, two years later. The 1976 championship was his last as East Carolina’s chancellor.
The 1976 victory brought elation, most evident in Jenkins’ body language as he and head coach Pat Dye led the Pirate team in a postgame locker room celebration. Anticipating the victory, Jenkins was wearing a tee-shirt that read, “ECU S.C. Football Champs 1976.” He had it printed in advance, certain that his school would win. Jenkins’ gamble on the tee-shirt was not unwarranted: even if Appalachian State had won, they would have been tied with ECU for the championship. But Jenkins did not want a tie: he wanted to be number one.
Pregame predictions cast the game as a toss-up. Appalachian State had won, incidentally, the previous contest between the two schools the year before. Making things more interesting, Appalachian State coach Jim Brakefield had “just plumb forgot” to inform Pat Dye that he was scouting ECU team play by attending its game against Furman in early November. Dye and Brakefield had, as Brakefield later acknowledged, “a gentleman’s agreement,” not to scout each other’s teams. Brakefield publicly apologized to Dye for his breach. Dye later remarked, cognizant of the high drama surrounding the upcoming televised contest, that it would be “an emotional game.”
The Pirate celebration was shared by admiring fans in Greenville where the championship game had been played Thanksgiving night, November 25, before a Ficklen Stadium home crowd of 15,335. ABC-TV broadcast the game regionally, giving the Pirates and their proud chancellor considerable publicity and commentary. The game had been scheduled for the previous Saturday but was switched to prime time, Thanksgiving evening, when ABC-TV picked it for regional television broadcast. With the championship victory, East Carolina concluded its season with a 9-2 record, more than fulfilling Jenkins’ goal of joining the Southern Conference by repeatedly dominating it. Moreover, the victory closed the season for the Pirates undefeated at home, and with an astounding 23-1 home record over previous five years. The 1976 victory was thus a pinnacle in Pirate football history.
Sources
- “Apps, ECU play for Southern title.” Greenville News (Greenville, S.C.). November 25, 1976. P. 105.
- “ECU Expects a Battle. Rocky Mount Telegram. November 19, 1976. P. 13.
- “ECU, ASU Battling for Title.” The Index-Journal (Greenwood, South Carolina). November 25, 1976. P. 26.
- “E. Carolina Rolls Past Appalachian.” Santa Cruz Sentinel. November 26, 1976.
- “E. Carolina Romps, 35-7.” Arizona Daily Star. November 26, 1976. P. 3.
- “E. Carolina Stops Appalachian State.” The Indianapolis Star. November 26, 1976. P. 62.
- “Interested Spectator Forgot to Tell Dye He Would Be There.” The Danville Register (Danville, Virginia). November 16, 1976. P. 7.
- “Pirates to Play Mounties.” Statesville Record and Landmark. November 24, 1976. P. 41.
Title: Southern Conference Champions, 1976
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 7/30/2019