The 1966 San Diego State football team didn’t set out to make history as the first undefeated team in program history.
The SDSU roster included a dozen future NFL draft picks and the Aztecs’ coaching staff included three future NFL head coaches who all would make the Hall of Fame — coach Don Coryell, defensive coordinator John Madden and offensive line coach Joe Gibbs.
But who knew? Who knew they were going to go 11-0 and win the first of three straight small college national championships?
That was the furthest thing from everyone’s minds at halftime of the second game of the season.
SDSU was in Ogden, Utah, trailing Weber State 20-0 after two quarters. The date was Sept. 24, 1966, and what people were about to witness is something they’re still talking about 60 years later.
The team’s 38-34 victory over Weber State is the moment longtime fans pinpoint as the watershed moment for the team and the program. It’s not an exaggeration to say it may have changed the course of football history.
SDSU quarterback Don Horn led the comeback with four second-half touchdown passes — two to halfback Don Shy and two more to flanker Craig Scoggins. The win was sealed in the final two minutes with an interception by SDSU defensive back John Williams.
Don Horn quarterbacked San Diego State during the 1966 season. (U-T archives)
It was hailed the next morning in the San Diego Union as “one of the greatest football victories in Aztec history.”
The game story noted that SDSU used “a new alignment with three receivers on a side, confusing the hitherto tight Wildcat secondary.”
Coryell completely changed the offense at halftime, ushering in the pass-happy attack that he and the Aztecs — and, later, the San Diego Chargers — became known for.
“He swore that they had spies and were listening in the locker room,” Horn said in a phone interview with the Union-Tribune four years ago when Coryell was elected to the Hall of Fame. “We went into a corner and he whispered what we were going to do.
“The message coming out of the locker room was for everybody to say it real loud so they can hear us outside, ‘OK, we’re doing the same thing in the second half as we did in the first half. No changes in the game plan.’ ”
According to Horn, Coryell told his players: “We’re going to fool them now.”
“And, of course, he did,” Horn said. “We changed the whole damn game plan. We went to the shotgun formation, which we never did before, and spread everybody out.”
The Aztecs put Shy and receivers Haven Moses and Bob Jones or Tom Nettles wide on one side and Scoggins out on the other side.
According to a Union story, they succeeded by “flooding the zones and forcing single coverage by Weber’s three-deep defense, an almost impossible situation since they were double-covering Moses most of the night.”
Said Horn: “A lot of people say that night at Weber State was the birth of ‘Air Coryell,’ the wide open, throw the ball at any and all costs.”
The Weber State game was SDSU’s greatest escape, but it was by no means the season’s only close call.
In fact, the next two games were even closer, a 14-13 win at Cal Poly and a 21-18 victory at Long Beach State.
Cal Poly limited SDSU’s offense to one touchdown, with the other coming on a blocked punt that was recovered by John Wittler for a touchdown. It was a deflected extra point by defensive back Bob Jones that made the difference in the game.
SDSU and Long Beach State both scored three touchdowns in their matchup, but the Aztecs made all three of their extra points while the 49ers missed all three of their PATs.
SDSU was 4-0 and ranked No. 3 in the nation, but the Aztecs were underdogs when they traveled to San Jose State, which had won 14 straight games between the teams. The losing streak ended in SDSU’s 25-0 victory.
After beating Fresno State and improving to No. 2 in the rankings, the Aztecs faced a showdown with No. 1-ranked defending national champion North Dakota State. A Balboa Stadium-record crowd of 35,342 watched SDSU crush North Dakota State 36-0, sealing the victory with a 98-yard interception return for a touchdown by Bobby Jones.
According to the book “100 Seasons of Aztec Football,” which provided some of the season details here, Aztecs fans rushed the field screaming, “We’re No. 1!”
They were the following week in the rankings.
SDSU maintained the top spot through the remainder of the regular season, despite backup Steve Taylor playing for Horn in two games after the quarterback suffered a knee injury.
Steve Duich (76) and his Aztecs teammates carry coach Don Coryell off field after capping 11-0 season in 1966.
The Aztecs capped the season with a 28-7 victory over Montana State in the Camellia Bowl, a win that was almost anticlimactic given the regular-season drama. Horn spread the ball among Nettles (eight catches, 99 yards), Scoggins (five catches, 99 yards) and Moses (five catches, 56 yards, 2 TDs) while the defense held Montana State scoreless until the game’s final 19 seconds.
Horn passed for 2,234 yards and 18 touchdowns, becoming the first quarterback in program history to surpass 2,000 passing yards in a season. Scoggins (81 catchaes, 1,212 yards, 8 TDs) led the team in receiving and running back Ted Washington (97 carries, 591 yards, 6 TDs) in rushing. Horn and defensive end Leo Carroll were named Little All-Americans.
The Aztecs were voted small college national champions in both the AP and UPI polls, the first of three straight national titles. SDSU lost only one game from 1966 through 1969, going 11-0, 10-1, 9-0-1 and 11-0.
The stretch started with a 1966 team that included eight players selected in the 1967 NFL/AFL draft — QB Don Horn (1st rd., Green Bay), DE Leo Carroll (2nd, Atlanta), RB Don Shy (2nd, Pittsburgh), WR Bob Jones (2nd, Chicago), DB Bob Howard (2nd, Chargers), WR Nate Johns (6th, Chargers), DB John Williams (7th, Philadelphia) and WR Craig Scoggins (15th, Chargers).
Four other players from that team went in the 1968 draft — WR Haven Moses (1st, Buffalo), T Steve Duich (5th, Green Bay), DB John Beck (12th, New Orleans) and RB Ted Washington (13th, Cincinnati) and another in the 1969 draft — WR Tom Nettles (7th, Kansas City).
1966 season results
Aztecs 45, Mexico Poly 0
Aztecs 38, Weber St. 34
Aztecs 14, Cal Poly 13*
Aztecs 21, Long Beach St. 18*
Aztecs 25, San Jose St. 0*
Aztecs 34, Fresno St. 13*
Aztecs 36, North Dakota St. 0
Aztecs 21, San Fernando Valley St. 0*
Aztecs 16, Northern Arizona 8
Aztecs 39, Los Angeles St. 12
*California Collegiate Athletic Association game
Camellia Bowl
Aztecs 28, Montana State 7