Reusse: Unfamiliar opponent brings out plenty of familiar names at St. John’s football opener

COLLEGEVILLE, MINN. – St. John’s University was opening its football season on a glorious Saturday afternoon against Carthage, a Lutheran college that gave up its Illinois roots and dedicated in 1962 the current campus on the shoreline of Lake Michigan in Kenosha, Wis.

That comes right from the Carthage page on Wikipedia, which is about all Johnnies coach Gary Fasching could tell you about this opponent from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.

“We’ve never played Carthage, and it has a new coach, so we don’t know what to expect,” Fasching said before the game.

What he did know is that Carthage wanted to get out of its season-opener at Butler. So the Johnnies helped Carthage financially to do that. A Johnnies home opener was secured, and to add appeal to this unfamiliar attraction, they did this:

Sent out invitations to the 93 living football All-Americans that had starred through the decades for this legendary football program. More than 60 accepted the invitation and were introduced individually (and quickly) at halftime.

Felix Mannella won the seniority prize, having played for John Gagliardi from 1956-59, and then having his grandson Bobby Klint play for the same coach starting in 2006.

Yet, amid Saturday’s parade of All-Americas and the start of another autumn of high expectations, perhaps the strongest link to Gagliardi was Jerry Haugen, who on Saturday was not contributing to the Johnnies’ coaching effort for the first time in 48 years.

Haugen played four seasons (1972-75) as a defensive back for Gagliardi. He was heading into grad school at St. Cloud State for the fall of 1976 when Gagliardi called and said, “I need somebody to help with the defense. You want the job?”

A couple of early classes at State. Head out to Collegeville for afternoon practice. Make a few bucks. Easy decision for a Twin Cities kid who had painted houses and dug holes for spending money in the past.

“John needed some help on defense since he still was busy trying to refine the ‘quadruple option’ he had installed to take advantage of Jeff Norman as a great runner at quarterback,” Haugen said. “That started in ‘75, when I was a senior. We opened with an 8-6 loss at [Minnesota-] Morris. It was terrible. I was thinking, ‘I don’t know if this offense is going to work.’ ”

He didn’t say that to Gagliardi, of course, or Haugen might not have gotten that call a year later to help with the defense.

“We opened the ‘76 season with a 15-15 tie with Morris, then ran the table and beat Towson State to win the NCAA Division III championship,” Haugen said.

So, John was right about Norman (among Saturday’s All-Americas) and the quadruple option? “I’d say so,” Haugen said.

Haugen became a full-timer for the Johnnies and then some. He was John’s defensive coach. He also had played baseball for the Johnnies. When that job opened in 1978, he became St. John’s head baseball coach at age 23.

“I also was the hockey coach here for four years, and then was Jim Smith’s assistant in basketball for nine winters,” Haugen said. “The theory back then was, ‘OK, he’s coaching football in the fall and baseball in the spring, but what’s he doing in the winter?’ ”

Gagliardi retired in 2012 and died in 2018 at 91. Haugen stayed on as the defensive coordinator for Fasching, and then co-coordinator with Brandon Novak — while there were also more time demands as a Division III coach wanting to maintain a first-class baseball program.

“I’m closing in on 70, and this was just the right time to give up football,” Haugen said. “With what we’ve done with the facilities here, with this facility opening in the spring … recruiting, watching players in the summer, coaching, it was even more of a priority.”

Scott Becker, a football and baseball teammate of Haugen’s at St. John’s, largely funded the new ballpark that opened in 2013. Four years later, it became Haugen Field at Becker Park. And then last March, the doors opened for a baseball building that came in at $3 million-plus change — again fundraised.

I looked around that clubhouse and said: “I think the Gophers would trade you.”

Haugen said: “I don’t know what they have, but I don’t think we’d do that.”

And for the Haugen-less Johnnies defense, this didn’t turn into much of a test:

St. John’s 49, Carthage 0.

Next Saturday, though: powerful Wartburg comes for a visit.

“Jerry was at a couple of practices last week, watching,” Fasching said, smiling. “He’s more than welcome to share an observation. Anytime.”