New coach Dave McClain came to Wisconsin with a terrific resume. A
quarterback and safety at Bowling Green State, he coached in the
Ohio high school ranks before returning to BGS as a graduate
assistant, then rose through the ranks as an assistant coach
under Tom Harp at Cornell, with Bo Schembechler at Miami, at
Kansas with Pepper Rodgers, and at Ohio State under Woody Hayes.
As Ball State’s head coach from 1971 through ’77 he compiled a
solid 26-7 record. He was tough yet well-liked by his players at
every stop. McClain also came to
Wisconsin with
a new helmet design, adding three-quarter-inch scarlet flanking
stripes to the white shell, and making the white “W” logo within
the red oval on each side, more of a block letter style. He
improved the 1978 tally to 5-4-2 with the Badgers beating the
teams they were supposed to and losing to the better conference
teams. Quarterback Mike Kalasmiki put up 1319 passing yards and
the offensive line featured a bona fide star in tackle Ray
Snell. Ira Matthews again raised the excitement level with his
kickoff returns and then took his talent to the Raiders from
1979 through '81 as a running back and return man. 1979’s slip
to 4-7 could be chalked-up to a tough non-conference schedule
but the offense was a bit inconsistent with freshman running
back Chucky Davis teaming with All Big Ten fullback Dave Mohapp
who gained 603 yards. They still had All Conference and All
American tackle Ray Snell to run behind before Snell departed
for the Tampa Bay Bucs as their first-round pick, playing there
for four years and then another year and change with the
Steelers before finishing with a two game series with the Lions
in '85. Defensive end Dave Ahrens sparked the defense which
finished ninth in the Big Ten though freshman noseguard Tim
Krumrie who was a high school linebacker and had never before
played as a down lineman, and tackle Mark Shumate played like
veterans.
In 1980 Coach McClain had his second consecutive 4-7 year, and
this time the offense forgot to show up, sitting at the bottom
of conference stats in passing, total offense, scoring, and a
paltry 138 points scored, and only 87.2 yards passing per game!
Running back Davis, a '79 starter, was out of school and '79 All
Conference fullback Dave Mohapp never recovered well from an
off-season back operation, putting a damper on the rushing
attack. The defense was stout, especially against the rush.
Noseguard Krumrie made 105 tackles and was Conference
heavyweight wrestling champion and All Big Ten for his football
play. Linebacker Dave Ahrens was All Big Ten and moved onto a
ten year NFL career with a number of teams. Tackle Mark Shumate
had a solid season. Starting ’81 with a record of 3-0 within the
conference and upsetting Michigan should have paved the way for a
spectacular season. The 7-5 year wasn’t the great one it might
have been, but it did serve to break an eighteen-year bowl
drought and the Badgers were invited to the Garden State Bowl
where they were nipped 28-21 by Tennessee. The offense behind
sophomore quarterback Jess Cole and running back John Williams
was second in the conference and the defense was ranked as high.
Consensus All American Krumrie was the leader from his noseguard
position with sterling effort from linemate Shumate.
1982 was another 7-5 season, culminated with a 14-3 victory over Kansas State in the Independence Bowl and Head
Coach McClain had the Badgers rolling. Quarterback Randy Wright
led the Big Ten in passing with 2109 yards behind a great
offensive line that featured tackles Jeff Dellenbach and Kevin
Belcher. Receiver Al Toon was an obvious talent. The big guns on
the defense were tackle Mark Shumate who played briefly with the
Jets, All American Tim Krumire and defensive back David
Greenwood. Greenwood starred in the USFL with Michigan and the merged Michigan and Oakland franchise before moving to the NFL for
three seasons. Krumrie set long standing school records for
career tackles with 444 and solo stops with 276, had a
tremendous career for the Bengals and then earned a reputation
as a tough, expert defensive line coach in the NFL. Linebacker
Jim Melka led the squad with 118 tackles. The 7-4 season in ‘83
was highlighted by quarterback Wright throwing to triple-jump
champion Toon whose 252 yards in receptions vs. Purdue was the
national high for the season and he set school records by
pulling in forty-five catches for 861 yards. Wright graduated to
a five year career with the Packers, running back Gary
Ellerson’s 777 yards paced the squad and he added eleven
touchdowns as Wisconsin placed fifth in scoring nationally with
32.6 points per game. Wisconsin closed the ’84 season with a
4-0-1 mark and was considered one of the best teams in the
country. Only a slow start forced a 7-4-1 record that included a
20-19 loss to
Kentucky in
the Hall Of Fame Classic. The final four wins came with leading
rusher Larry Emery on the bench but with tackles Jeff Dellenbach
whose fourteen year pro career was spent primarily with the
Dolphins and finished with the championship teams of the
Packers, and Kevin Belcher, a future Raider and Bronco to run
behind, paving the way. All of the backs looked good. Running
back Ellerson had a few seasons with the Packers and Lions while
center Dan Turk who had transferred in from Drake, became a
pillar for the Raiders in a long NFL career. The big gun was end
Toon who was the Jets first draft pick and played spectacularly
from 1985 through ’92 until his career was cut short by
concussion injury. Two other first round picks were defensive
tackle Darryl Sims and cornerback Richard Johnson who headed an
excellent secondary. Sims went to the Steelers and Johnson to
the Oilers where he played well through 1992. Linebackers Jim
Melka and Rick Graf stood out. Graf was part of a very talented
group that McClain had assembled and he later played for the
Dolphins and two other teams in the NFL. As the Badgers went
past the suspension helmet era, they had mixed fortunes.
Tragically, on April 28, 1986, McClain suffered a fatal cardiac
arrest while using the sauna in the Wisconsin athletic facility. Extremely popular with his
peers and players, the university’s newly constructed athletic
facility was named in his honor as was the Big Ten Coach Of The
Year Award. Assistant Jim Hilles could not keep the staff or
talented squad focused and closed with a 3-9 record before being
replaced by Don Morton. Three years later, AD Pat Richter
brought in Barry Alvarez from Notre Dame and Wisconsin was once again, a consistent Rose
Bowl contender.
If interested in any of these Wisconsin helmets please click on the
photos below.