CHAPTER 1Franklin CollegeSept. 26, 2009

Franklin 30, Trine 29

In the last full week of September 2009, it had rained almost every day in central Indiana.

But on Saturday Sept. 26, the clouds disappeared and made way for the sun to shine all day. Temperatures were perfect for an afternoon of college football. And that very thought of how it seemed like a perfect day for college football went through my head as I drove the 30 or so miles south from Indianapolis to Franklin, the seat of Johnson County, to photograph the game between the Franklin College Grizzlies (1-1) and the 22nd ranked Trine University Thunder (2-0).

At Stewart “Red” Faught Stadium at Franklin College, football fans tailgated outside the stadium just before the game.

In 2009, the Grizzlies were striving to win their third consecutive Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship. They had defeated non-conference foe Baldwin-Wallace College, 38-31, in Berea, Ohio, in their season opener three week earlier. But they lost to Butler University at home, 49-19, the following week in another non-conference matchup. They’d had a week off coming into the game against Trine, their last non-conference game of the regular season.

Defeating Trine – like Franklin, an ascending NCAA Division III power – would be a tall order. In 2008, the two teams met at Trine in Angola, Ind., and roles were reversed: Franklin came into the game ranked 21st in NCAA Division III, while Trine was looking to beat its first ranked team as an NCAA D3 program. Trine rose to the challenge, slipping past Franklin 30-27 on its way to an undefeated regular season before losing in the first game of the NCAA Division III postseason tournament. 

The Thunder had an uneven start to 2009, escaping with a 16-14 win at Manchester University, whose team would finish the year only 5-5. Then they enjoyed a 40-9 romp over HCAC member Defiance (Ohio) College at home. Despite the struggle versus Manchester, Trine nevertheless had a place in the Top 25 rankings of NCAA Division III schools.

The pass rush of Franklin defensive lineman Joshua Bales (52) is delayed at the line of scrimmage (above) by a fallen blocker for Trine quarterback Eric Watt, who will get this pass off uncontested. Below, on a separate down, Watt begins a hand-off to running back George Outlaw.

Franklin had another factor in its favor; it was coached by Mike Leonard, who had extensive college and pro experience when he took over the job in 2003.

After a rough few seasons, Leonard led the Grizzlies to conference championships and postseason games in 2007 and 2008, and in the latter, the team made it to the tournament quarterfinals, the school's postseason high mark during his tenure as head coach from 2003 to 2019. His Franklin teams would eventually win or share 11 HCAC titles and qualify for the postseason playoffs nine times before Leonard stepped down.

Franklin was the first to score in the 2009 game. Machy Magdalinos kicked a 27-yard field goal, giving the Grizzlies a 3-0 lead in the first quarter. Trine then scored 13 unanswered points before Franklin’s Nick Mongan ran the ball into the end zone from 1 yard out with 20 seconds left in the first half, enabling the host team to go to the locker rooms down only 13-10.

Trine increased the lead to 23-10 late in the third quarter on a Jeremy Howard field goal and a 24-yard Eric Watt pass to Cody Nash-Kniffen (see picture above). But Franklin came right back. 

With 40 seconds left in the quarter, Grizzlies’ quarterback Nick Purichia, spelling Kyle Ray (shown in the lead-off photo), connected with Ryan Momberger for a 15-yard touchdown pass, and after the extra-point kick, the home team was within 23-17. That's Momberger below on his scamper to the end zone. 

Above: Franklin defenders Jesse Mercer (33) and Joe Rush (47) combine to bring down Trine’s JaVontae Hence after a 6-yard pass reception in the third quarter. 

At 9:43 in the fourth quarter, Purichia (pictured above making a short gain on a quarterback keeper) scored on a 9-yard run, capping an eight-play 82-yard drive, and after the conversion kick, Franklin inched ahead, 24-23, its first lead since 3-0 in the first quarter.

In just two and a half minutes, Trine responded by going 79 yards on seven plays.

Quarterback Watt (#13 in photo below) scored on a 24-yard run, putting the Thunder up 29-24 with 7:13 left in the game. But a failed two-point conversion pass play after the touchdown proved to be critical.

 

The Franklin offense took the field after the ensuing kickoff, and after a 13-play drive, the Grizzlies finished the day’s scoring with 2:43 left on the clock when Purichia tossed a 13-yard pass to Adam Mellencamp in the end zone. The Grizzlies also tried a two-point conversion to hopefully create a three-point advantage. But it, too, failed. Fortunately, the 30-29 lead held up in the end. The Grizzlies' defense stopped Trine on a fourth-down play on the Thunder's next offensive possession, and the Franklin offense then ran out the clock. 

Both teams created a lot of offense in the game. Trine relied heavily on quarterback Watt, who led the Thunder in rushing, gaining 120 yards in 17 attempts and one touchdown. He completed 27 of 39 passes for 233 yards and three touchdowns. He'd given the Grizzlies' defense fits all game long.

Franklin’s quarterback tandem of Kyle Ray and Nick Purichia completed a combined 33 passes out of 56 attempts for 335 yards and two touchdowns. Where Franklin came up short was in the rushing game. Four rushers had a combined total of 96 yards – 24 yards less than Watt gained by himself – with Mitch Downs leading the way with 44 yards on 10 carries.

Safety Jesse Mercer (#33 in photo above) led the Grizzlies’ defense with 10 tackles – nine solo – and had Franklin’s only interception, which snuffed out a Trine scoring drive in the second quarter. Mercer was named the HCAC Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts.

The following week, the Grizzlies were rewarded by entering the D3 rankings at No. 22. Trine, on the other hand, dropped out of the rankings, but that wouldn't last long.

The Grizzlies started October enjoying three more victories before falling in consecutive weeks to Mount St. Joseph’s (the eventual 2009 HCAC champion and postseason NCAA D3 tournament representative) and Rose-Hulman. They also fell out of the rankings, finishing the regular season with two wins and a 7-3 overall record (5-2 in the conference).

After dropping its game to Franklin, the Thunder won the rest of their regular season games, eventually return to the rankings, claim another undefeated Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship and defeat Case Western Reserve 51-28 in the first round of the D3 postseason playoffs. They lost to North Coast Atlantic Conference champion Wittenberg in the second round and finished the year ranked 17th in D3.

As for Eric Watt ... well, his accomplishments at Trine were staggering. By the time he graduated in December 2010, he would lead the Thunder to 20 straight MIAA wins; three consecutive MIAA football titles; two consecutive postseason D3 Sweet 16 appearances; and a three-year regular season record of 29-1 (the 2009 loss to Franklin being the only blemish).

Furthermore, Watt would be named:

* MIAA player of the week seven times in his career;

* MIAA offensive most valuable player in 2009 and 2010;

* All-conference quarterback in 2008, 2009 and 2010;

* To the MIAA all-academic honor roll in 2009 and 2010.

* Winner of the 2010 Gagliardi Trophy, NCAA Division III’s most prestigious individual football award (D3’s equivalent to the well-known Division I Heisman Trophy). Franklin quarterback Kyle Ray, who had started the 2009 game against Trine for the Grizzlies, would enjoy a stellar 2010 season and join Watt among the four finalists for the Gagliardi Trophy. 

In 2016, Watt was inducted into his school’s athletics hall of fame, and in 2019 he was named to the school’s All-Quarter-Century Football Team.

Franklin Coach Mike Leonard would complete his career with a record of 129-44. The wins total was the second most as a Franklin College football coach, behind only the legendary Red Faught's 159. Leonard was named HCAC football coach of the year seven times in his 17 seasons at Franklin.

To read a more detailed account of this game, follow the link in this sentence. The link takes you to a chapter from my recent On Hoosier Gridirons multi-part blog series, a chapter that focuses entirely on this game. To view a full gallery of images from this game, follow the link in this sentence. 

Above:  Franklin ball carrier Mitch Downs (22) runs for a short gain early in the first quarter. 

Above: Franklin's Joshua Bales (52) notched the Grizzlies' only sack of Watt, costing the Thunder offense 7 yards. It came at 9:17 of the first quarter. 
 

Above: Machy Magdalinos (14) attempts one of his three field goal tries (below).

Franklin running back Nick Mongan (above) runs for yards along the right sideline after a first-half pass reception. Below, cornerback Ross Tierney (8) wrestles Trine's Paul Curtis (5) to the ground after the Thunder wide receiver caught a first-half pass from Eric Watt. 

 

Trine quarterback Eric Watt (above) kept the Franklin defense on its toes throughout the game. Below, in the second play of the second quarter, he looked for an open receiver, which would turn out to be Paul Curtis (#5 in second photo below). Curtis made the catch across his body at the 50-yard line and fought his way to the Franklin 43 for a 20-yard gain. It was Curtis’ 50th career reception at Trine. 

Above: Later in the second quarter, Franklin's Jesse Mercer intercepted a Watt pass in the end zone to thwart a Thunder drive. 

Franklin quarterback Kyle Ray (above) is off on a run in the first half. Below, as Ray is back to pass, offensive tackle John Werbe (70) has his jersey stretched by Trine defensive lineman Chris Eichman (obscured by Ray).

Above: Trine's Mario Brown takes off running after receiving Franklin's kick-off following Machy Magdalinos's 27-yard field goal with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. Brown returned the kick nine yards before being tackled by Franklin special teams member Isaac Davis.

In this game, Franklin quarterbacks Nick Purichia (13, above) and Kyle Ray completed a combined 33 out of 56 passes for 335 yards and two touchdowns, both by Purichia.  

Next up: Chapter 2, Franklin College campus

Previously in Game Day Revisited:

Introduction

The story behind the story

Several of the people I contacted and interviewed through the course of my work on this series asked me up front or at the conclusion of our conversations what the project entailed and/or how or why I decided to pursue it. 

For those of you who inquired early in the process, it was hard to explain, because I wasn’t absolutely certain of the end game myself. I simply sensed I had something significant to explore, and explore is what I did.

I attribute the seed for the project to my attendance at the Sept. 26, 2009, football game between Trine University and Franklin College, the game covered intently in Chapter 12 of the series. Four months before that game, I had purchased my first Canon L series (top-of-the-line) camera lens – an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS – and I was eager to put it to the test at an action sports competition.

I was living in Indianapolis at the time, so in early autumn, I hunted around to find a nearby small-college football game for which I would have a good chance of getting permission to shoot pictures from the sidelines. 

Franklin College was a modest drive from Indianapolis, so I contacted the school’s sports information director, Kevin Elixman, and asked if I needed a sideline credential to photograph the Sept. 26 game. I told him I was employed by The Indianapolis Star and would submit some of my photos to the newspaper to use in its suburban news section circulated in Franklin and the Johnson County area. Both statements were true, by the way. He welcomed me to the game, and the newspaper did use a few of my pictures the following week in the targeted zoned news section for Franklin, Johnson County and vicinity.

A year and a half later, in February 2011, when The Star’s corporate owner, Gannett Corp., required employees to take a mandatory week’s furlough, I decided to spend some of my week off perusing the campus of Hanover College in southern Indiana, where my then-new son-in-law, David, had done his undergraduate work. Knowing that I was a photography enthusiast, David mentioned to me how picturesque the campus was, and how it had a scenic bluff overlooking the Ohio River. 

While there, I figured I’d try to photograph another sporting event, this time basketball. I contacted Carter Cloyd, then-sports information director at Hanover, ahead of time to see if I could be on the arena floor and take pictures of a men’s basketball game. He said sure. I got there a couple hours before the game, took some campus photos, including several along the bluff that David had told me about, then shot the men’s basketball team victory over Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

I enjoyed that experience so much, that on the drive home I decided to try and go back to the campus to photograph it in its fall-colors splendor. Then an idea hit me to see if I could shoot a football game there in October 2011, too. Months later, when I asked Carter Cloyd about doing that, he again said yes, and I shot Hanover’s football victory over Manchester University on Oct. 22. 

On the drive home, another idea occurred to me — embarking on a personal project to visit every Indiana small college or university that fielded a football team, shoot a game there and take landscape shots of the campus. I’d use my photos as posts at this photography blog, which I’d been maintaining for about three years at the time.

Howard Hewitt, a former IndyStar newsroom colleague, was working at Wabash College at the time, so not long after I got back from Hanover, I asked Howard if it would be possible to get a sideline credential to shoot the next home football game at Wabash, which was Nov. 5. He said no problem, and he invited me to the campus for the Little Giants’ game against Wittenberg. The contest was a key one — it would decide that season’s champion of the North Coast Athletic Conference (Wabash won). 

I knew that the following week, Nov. 12, Wabash would travel to DePauw for the annual renewal of the Monon Bell Classic, a pretty important annual football game in all of Indiana, if not in the whole country. So I called DePauw to see if I could shoot that game, and they said yes.

I enjoyed both shoots, so I checked the schedules of other small colleges in the state, hoping at least one other one had made it to the postseason before the curtain fell on the 2011 football campaign. Indeed, Marian University in Indianapolis was to have an NAIA postseason tournament game at its home stadium in two weeks, on Nov. 26. I ran the usual traps, got into the game versus the University of St. Francis (Joliet, Ill.) and took photos (Marian won). By the end of 2011, I already had checked Franklin, Hanover, Wabash, DePauw and Marian off my list.

At the time, there were 14 Indiana colleges and universities that fell within my target pool of small Indiana schools of higher education that had football programs, so I had just nine more to go. I completed the project in 2016, adding Taylor University, the University of Indianapolis and the University of St. Francis (Fort Wayne) the following year (2012); St. Joseph’s College and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in ’13; Manchester University in ’14; Trine in ’15; and Earlham College and Anderson University in ’16. 

You can find galleries of each of the football games I shot during my “tour” by following the link in this sentence. 

Photos from my campus landscapes are in galleries accessible with the link in this sentence, although there also are galleries there of several other Indiana college campuses that were not part of the tour project.

Right around 2013, two years into the football/campus project, which I had branded (thanks Kyle Ray!) “Game Day,” I started asking myself if I should consider doing something with the photos beyond just using them in posts at Photo Potpourri.

The first idea I came up with to market the photos was to find the best “game day” project pictures and meld them with the respective blog post texts into a dual-focus picture compilation – a type of coffee-table size book about football at Indiana small colleges and those schools’ corresponding campuses – and somehow make it saleable. But I dragged my feet and didn’t get started on that until 2019. At that point, I began to work on the idea in earnest. 

But while putting it together, I wasn’t happy with the text portions of the original blog posts that I had planned to carry over into the manuscript. Many of the narratives were thin and needed substantial elaboration. So I began doing more research on all the games and campuses to address that shortcoming. In the process, I found that the stuff I’d been learning about the very first stop on the project “tour” – the 2009 Franklin vs. Trine game – was getting more and more interesting.

I had learned that Trine quarterback Eric Watt, with whom I had been impressed after shooting the game in 2009, had won the Gagliardi Trophy in 2010, the year after I attended the school’s game at Franklin. Then I found out that Kyle Ray, the opposing starting quarterback from that game, had been a top-four finalist for the same year’s Gagliardi. I thought to myself, “Two Indiana players among the top four Gagliardi finalists in the same year? How rare is that?”

It turns out ... that specific situation IS unique. It had never happened before, nor has it happened since. I explored that aspect some more and learned that it was pretty rare for Gagliardi finalists (or future finalists) from Indiana schools to compete on the gridiron against other Indiana finalists. It’s happened in only four seasons, although in two of those seasons it happened more than once.  

Then the more I looked at the statistics for all of Franklin College’s games in 2009, and saw how quarterbacks Kyle Ray and Nick Purichia went back and forth as the starter in those games, the more I scratched my head, figuring there had to be a story here. And there was a story there, as it turned out, but it was more involved – at least to me – than what I had imagined.

Then I learned that Eric Watt had played a season of pro ball in the Italian Football League in 2012. After that, I learned a few fascinating back stories. For example, I learned that Kyle Ray’s father, Rob, had been a quarterback at Indian Creek High School a generation before Kyle went there. And that Rob Ray also had played at Franklin College and that he did so under legendary coach Stewart “Red” Faught. And that Rob was a highly respected athlete and individual in high school and college. I also learned that he was a member of the Franklin College Athletics Hall of Fame, that he had been diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and that he died halfway through Kyle’s time at Franklin.

And I learned that Nick Purichia’s father had played in an Indiana high school state high school championship game as a quarterback for Ritter High School, the same Catholic school in Indianapolis that Nick had attended. I already knew that Nick’s younger brother, Jake, had played quarterback in a couple state championship games for Ritter as well, so I thought that delineating the family’s incredible football legacy, not to mention spotlighting Nick’s growing up years, would be a great back story in the project. But that was just scratching the surface; there had been many other quarterback-playing Purichias in the Indianapolis metropolitan area dating to the 1940s. 

And as for Eric Watt, well, the story about how he grew and developed into the athlete he became in high school and college is a story the South Newton and Trine communities like to talk about. It is one that all Hoosiers can admire, appreciate and salute, too. Plus, he played with some teammates who I learned, as I was conducting my interviews, had the ability to share and articulate a fascinating anecdote or two, or three. 

Their insights picked up the slack I experienced initially when talking to Eric, a reticent sort, something his coaches and teammates had warned me about. After doing two telephone interviews with Eric that produced less than ideal material to work with, I turned to emails to ask him follow-up questions. To my surprise and delight, I found him to be pretty articulate — and thoughtful — in his responses. I concluded that that he felt more comfortable and able to compose his thoughts better when he had time to consider questions carefully. Or perhaps he and I had reached a more comfortable place in this still new writer-athlete relationship. Or both.

Kyle Ray was just the opposite. He enthusiastically welcomed my interest in his story. I had some great interviews with Kyle, who treated his life story as an open book, a trait I admired. The sections of the series when he was struggling at Franklin College, contemplating not returning to the school his senior season and all but oblivious to how his relationship with the girl of his dreams was deteriorating — well, it took a lot for him to put all that out there publicly, but he never flinched at any of my questions. To her credit, neither did Claire Freeman, who is now his wife. Interestingly, contrary to Eric, Kyle was not an email person, and I handled that by appreciating his busy school schedule and the fact that he and Claire had three very young ones at home to parent. But fortunately, he gave it his all in our interviews, and for that I was very grateful. His mother, brother and sister were wonderful interviews as well.

And so was Kolby Harrell, the longtime friend of Kyle Ray. He and I talked for a good hour and a half on Friday, July 22, 2022, on his drive from his current home in the Raleigh area of North Carolina to the National Guard Armory in Wilmington, where he had an upcoming National Guard service stint scheduled. It was evident that he appreciated the trip down memory lane with his experiences and anecdotes about growing up with Kyle and Caleb Raley, none better than the one told in Chapter 6’s “A Moonlight Graham Moment.” That story was so compelling that I asked Kyle for another interview to go over his recollections of Kolby in that final high school game (and to review a few other things), and Kyle delivered wonderfully. 

At this point, I decided to put the coffee table book idea on the back burner and flesh out a story putting a spotlight on Indiana small-high school and small-college football by using the early-life stories of Watt and Ray – played out along a parallel timeline – as my primary vehicle. It would present a narrative that showed the two quarterbacks’ divergent football paths on the way to going opposite each other in the Sept. 26, 2009, game at Franklin College. And the story would end with triumphant senior seasons for both men, including appearances together at the Gagliardi Trophy award presentation in Salem, Va. 

Nick Purichia’s story was a key secondary plot in the series, although in the beginning, I had hoped to make him an equal third primary storyline. In fact, he was my first interview, on Jan. 25, 2022, when I was still looking at this as a three-pronged storyline venture. He did his best to answer my questions, but I wasn’t convinced he was comfortable with the idea, plus his memory of the Sept. 26 game and a lot of the 2009 season at Franklin College was sketchy. So I didn’t bother trying to explore his Ritter High School years in detail at that time. The next day or so, I sent him a follow-up email containing a link to a web page containing the play-by-play of the 2009 Franklin-Trine game and suggested that reviewing that could help jog his memory for a future interview. 

Then, in the next few weeks, I encountered obstacles with other aspects of the Purichia portion of the project. The obstacles were serious and formidable enough to give me pause about whether to proceed with the whole project altogether. 

After taking a week to ponder the dilemma, I regrouped and continued to pursue the Watt and Ray storylines. From late February to July 2022, I conducted a lot of research and interviews about those two (plus, I talked to Matt Hollowell and Luke Floyd to buttress the Purichia storyline), so I decided not to abandon the project or the Purichia storyline. 

Instead, I devised a plan to reduce the Purichia portion to a secondary plot and make the main focus the Watt and Ray stories laid out along a parallel timeline. In fact, I didn't get back to Purichia until late October, when I called him again to try one more time. He seemed more interested in participating at that point, perhaps because after 10 months he knew the project had not been shelved, and that it indicated to him I was serious all along. 

We set up a time for a second interview, and it went splendidly. Better than I had expected, in fact. I wondered if visiting the play-by-play account of the 2009 Trine-Franklin game with the link I’d sent him had been helpful. Or perhaps, like Eric Watt, he had gotten access to game tapes to review. 

Whichever or whatever, in that October interview he shared extraordinary detail of his role in the Sept. 26, 2009, game and offered some great insights, both while with Franklin College and at Ritter. It revived my hope that his storyline would remain the important element that I had envisioned. I crunched Nick’s early years story into one post, Chapter 7, but used the results of the October interview with him extensively in Chapter 12, the story of the Sept. 26, 2009, Franklin vs. Trine game.

There were quite a few people I reached out to — players, family and coaches — who did not respond to my invitations to participate or declined to do so. And there was one player, South Newton High School place-kicker Nelson Orellana, who I tried every which way to find … just short of buying a classified ad in hopes that my plea for help finding him in the media would reach someone who knew where he was or how to get in touch with him. I really did come close to buying that ad, and went as far as getting a price quote before pulling back at the last minute. 

As pleased as I was with the way the series turned out, I believe that having all of those additional voices and perspectives — or at least a majority of them — would have made it even better. 

I hope you enjoyed this story behind the story … and even more importantly, enjoyed the fun, memories and good times that all “the stars” of On Hoosier Gridirons had to share.

Previously in the series: 

Introduction

Chapter 1: 'We Stood Out'

Chapter 2: Mastering the Spread

Chapter 3: The Kicker With the Ever-Present Smile

Chapter 4: Like Father, Like Son 

Chapter 5: Where Legends Played

Chapter 6: A Moonlight Graham Moment

Chapter 7: 'Clearly the Best' Small-School Teams in Indiana

Chapter 8: New Teammates

Chapter 9: Farewell, Levi ... and Welcome, Pup!

Chapter 10: Waiting Their Turns

Chapter 11: No Easy Decision

Chapter 12: Sept. 26, 2009

Chapter 13: The Rest of 2009 

Chapter 14: A Quarterback's Prayer 

Chapter 15: Back to Cruise Control 

Chapter 16: The Highest Honor

Epilogue and Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 16The highest honor

Quarterbacks Eric Watt and Kyle Ray performed on the football field at such high levels in 2010 that it was not surprising each of them was a strong nominee for the Gagliardi Trophy (shown above in photo by Ryan Coleman of d3photography.com), the honor awarded annually to the most outstanding college player in NCAA Division III competition.

The Gagliardi is often compared to the much-better known Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the top football player each year in Division I competition. Division II also has an annual award for its most outstanding player. It is known as the Harlon Hill Trophy.

The D3 Gagliardi Trophy, first awarded in 1993, is named for John Gagliardi, best-known as the legendary Hall of Fame head football coach – for 60 years – at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minn. Before coming to Saint John’s, Gagliardi had coached for four years at Carroll College in Helena, Mont. 

John Gagliardi’s 489 career victories are the most ever in college football. He retired from coaching in November 2012 and died in October 2018.

The Gagliardi Trophy selection process has changed enough over the years that the simplest way to explain how the winner is determined is to convey how it is done today. All of what follows about that process is according to Jim Gagliardi, director of athletic marketing for Saint John’s and director of the Gagliardi Legacy Fund at the university. He also is a former player and son of the late coach.

Each year, as the football season dawns, Saint John’s J-Club booster organization sends out award nomination forms to schools that were ranked in the previous season’s Top 20 or Top 25 polls. Other schools can submit nominations, too, simply by filling out a form accessible online. The vast majority of nominations come from a player’s head coach.

In mid-November of each year, the Saint John’s J-Club Board of Directors (about 35 people) whittles the nominations to a target of 10 finalists, and the finalists’ names are announced. Ten is a target number but not a requirement; on occasion, there have been as many as 15 finalists. In arriving at its list of finalists, the board tries to represent all six D3 geographic regions (until recently, there had been just four regions).

The finalists can include an athlete from Saint John’s, a Division III program. In fact, the Johnnies have had the third most finalists since the award’s inception, and four of those won the trophy. Needless to say, with John Gagliardi as its head coach, Saint John’s has had many successful teams and seasons through the years.

Finalists are announced publicly in mid- to late November, after which a panel of voters, also spread throughout the six regions, casts ballots to pick a winner. The voting panel of about 40 people includes coaches, school administrators, former winners, some members of the news media and representatives from d3football.com. Each voter votes for one athlete (no second- or third-place votes). Since 2007, fans also have been able to go online and vote, although the top vote-getter of all fan votes is treated as just one vote in the final tally.

In early December, the top four vote-getters are announced, and about 10 days later, the first-place vote-getter among those top four is announced as the trophy winner.

Precisely how (and where) the winner is announced also has been handled differently through the years. For several years, almost exclusively within the period when the Rotary Club in the city of Salem, Va., was hosting the event, trophy winners weren’t announced until the night of a reception held for the top four vote-getters.

In other years, the winner was announced a couple days before the reception. And in a few of those years (1993-2017) when Salem was hosting, the winner’s reception was held on the same weekend in Salem as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the game played for the NCAA D3 postseason tournament championship.

Places other than Salem also have hosted the reception and Stagg Bowl.¹ Although Salem has hosted both the reception and bowl game the same weekend, the reception and game are not always held at the same locale. But they were in 2010.

The Gagliardi Trophy is presented to its winner by a representative of trophy sponsor Jostens Inc., a manufacturer of memorabilia such as school yearbooks and class and sports championship rings. It is based in Minneapolis, Minn., which is about 80 miles southeast of Collegeville.  

By late-season 2010, it should have been obvious to followers of Division III football and members of the J-Club Board and Gagliardi Trophy voting panel that Watt and Ray, as well as their respective teams, Trine University and Franklin College, were having remarkable success. Both schools had nominated their quarterbacks for the award.

On Nov. 23, 2010, after the J-Club Board had made its first review of the nominees, it was announced that Watt and Ray were indeed among 10 finalists. Watt was the first Trine finalist for the award; Ray was the second from Franklin (quarterback Chad Rupp had made it in 2008). 

A few weeks later, in early December, the J-Club announced that Watt and Ray also were among the top four vote-getters and would be invited to the winner’s reception on Dec. 16 in Salem. The two other top-four vote-getters invited to Salem were quarterback Ben McLaughlin of Louisiana College and defensive end Matt Hoffman of Rowan College in Burlington County, N.J.

Below, in a photo by Ryan Coleman of d3photography.com, the four posed with the trophy at the Salem award reception. From left are Ray, McLaughlin, Watt and Hoffman.

The nominations of Watt and Ray for the award were handled much differently by the two players’ schools. 

At Trine University, the promotion of Eric Watt to win the award began early – at the start of the season. A modest-sized committee consisting of head football coach Matt Land and representatives of the school’s marketing department and the office of university President Earl D. Brooks II met weekly to discuss strategy and ways to promote Watt, Land said. The weekly meetings continued at least through the point when the list of 10 finalists was announced.

The Trine strategy involved sending, after each game of the 2010 season, Eric Watt’s updated statistics to the J-Club Board of Directors, the people who would select and announce the 10 or so finalists in mid-November.

“We ran a Division Three version of the Heisman (Trophy) campaign that entire year,” Land said. “Our marketing department, and the president, and I basically creeped on the Gagliardi selection staff and sent email updates – like a marketing thing – really nice weekly updates to them. … We thought we had the best player in the country, and we were going to make sure that everybody knew it. Or at least knew that we thought he was (the best), and then (we’d) see what happens.”

There was no such organized campaign at Franklin College to promote Kyle Ray for the award.

Then-head coach Mike Leonard said he would have been involved in submitting the nomination form for Ray, but if there were any promotional campaign thereafter, it would have been handled by the school’s sports information director.

In 2010, Kevin Elixman was the school’s SID, a position he had held for more than 20 years at the time. Elixman died in 2015, so there was no way to ascertain for this project whether Elixman’s office did any such promotion.

Franklin College does have a marketing department today, but it did not have one in 2010. Its staff today is small, and if it had existed in 2010, it would not have been involved with anything to promote an athlete for a national award, a person at the department said when contacted in September 2022.

The school’s athletics director at the time, Kerry Prather, today is the college president. Attempts were made to contact him to learn whether he remembers anything about the school’s promotions of Ray or its two other Gagliardi nominees, Rupp (in 2008) and wide receiver Kyle Linville (in 2013).

The author’s attempts to talk to him were filtered through an executive assistant, who asked that questions be placed in an email that she said she would forward to Prather. After a significant amount of time had passed since sending her that email without receiving a response from the president, the author contacted the executive assistant again. If Prather did not respond, she said, she “assumed” that meant he had no memories of the situation.

When Mike Leonard was told details about Trine’s organized efforts for Eric Watt, the coach said he knows he wasn’t involved in any such thing at Franklin College for Ray. 

 “I chose to do things differently than self-promotional things,” Leonard said. “I think just to be a finalist (like Ray was) is a big deal. Kyle had an absolutely great year that season. He was the leading passer in several national categories and as such was a no-brainer. I nominated him, and I think his stats speak for themself.”

Ray said that the school did put together a promotional video for him that would be played at the finalists’ reception in Salem. Indeed, schools of all top four vote-getters prepared such videos for their candidates.

But Ray, shown at right in a photo by Ryan Coleman of d3photography.com watching his promotional video at the Gagliardi reception, said he was not interviewed for his video and that he appears in the video only through archival game-highlight footage. 

He said the video did contain interviews of coach Leonard; Jay Moseley, who was then president of the college; and professor Joel Cramer, then-chairman of the college’s department of journalism, Kyle’s major. There is no known public availability of his video.

Jay Moseley, who left the Franklin College presidency in June 2015 and is now retired, was contacted at his home in Durham, N.C. He said he did not remember any campaign on behalf of Kyle Ray for the Gagliardi honor and, unlike his Trine University counterpart, Earl Brooks, did not attend the Gagliardi presentation ceremony in Salem, Va.

Ray did feel that people in his hometown of Trafalgar cast a lot of votes for him using the online fan voting procedure.

Trine University President Brooks left Indiana by plane early to attend the Gagliardi award reception. Eric Watt said he flew separately – and alone – and joined the three finalists in Salem the day before the reception. He roomed overnight with fellow finalist Matt Hoffman.

Trine coach Land and offensive coordinator Dan Pifer traveled together the day of the reception. So on Dec. 16, Land, clad in a formal suit while Pifer wore a sweatsuit, thinking he’d change once they got to Virginia, drove through snowy weather from Angola to Indianapolis where they planned to catch a flight to Virginia. But the bad weather caused them to miss their flight, Land said.

They arranged for a new flight, and along the way, they also missed a connecting flight and sat through a delay in take-off, he said. The obstacles pushed the coaches considerably behind schedule, so that when they finally arrived in Virginia, Land said, there was little time to spare before the start of the reception.

Land said he collected their luggage and Pifer summoned a taxicab, and they headed directly to the reception venue. Land walked in wearing his suit and Pifer was in his sweats. At Eric’s table, they joined Eric’s parents, Ron and Luanne Watt, and South Newton High School’s offensive coordinator, Blaine Durham, who had ridden along with the Watts in the couple’s Ford Expedition. Eric said his then-girlfriend and her mother, who had driven from Athens, Ohio, also were there. 

Kyle Ray and his family – his mother; brother, Justin; sister, Leslie; and Kyle’s paternal grandparents – attended the event and sat together (see Leslie Ray photo of their group below). Also attending were Franklin head coach Leonard and offensive coordinator Josiah Sears, Kyle said.

Kyle roomed overnight with fellow finalist Ben McLaughlin of Louisiana College, and he said the two quarterbacks hit if off immediately.

“He’s a cool guy. He has that Southern charm. We still text each other once in a while.” 

As noted earlier, each of the four finalists’ promotional videos prepared by their schools was played at the reception. 

Both Watt and Ray were moved by the other finalists’ stories. Watt, in particular, was humbled. “After hearing everyone else’s stories that night, I figured I was in fourth place for sure,” Watt said. 

Hoffman, for instance, missed the final game of his junior year at Rowan College to donate marrow to a Texas father with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Hoffman, shown at right during his Gagliardi reception interview in a photo by Ryan Coleman of d3photography.com, had been among 370 students at his school who had registered for the National Marrow Donor Program.

In a 2016 newspaper interview, Hoffman said he had been in contact with the recipient, who was still in Texas and doing well. “He’s been in remission for years,” he told the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill, N.J. 

In a 2023 interview, Hoffman estimated that he had reached out to check on the recipient’s condition more than a dozen times over the years after his marrow donation. In his last inquiry, which came in October 2017, he learned from the recipient’s wife that the man had died since the contact in 2016. “But he got eight more years” after the transplant, Hoffman noted.

In 2021, Hoffman learned that he was a match for another individual in need, and Hoffman went to New York to donate again. He said donors are allowed to look in on recipients no sooner than 12 months after the transplant procedure. Hoffman said he reached out in 2022 to inquire about that second recipient’s status but has not received a response.

After college, Hoffman worked for eight years as an assistant coach in charge of the defensive line at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly, N.J. In 2019, he moved to Cherokee High School in Marlton, N.J., to teach, serve as head track coach and assistant football coach in charge of the defensive line.

Ben McLaughlin sat out the 2008 season at Louisiana College after receiving a yearlong suspension for violating team rules. He used the time off to do serious soul-searching, after which he decided he wanted to finish what he had started at the school. 

He came back strong in 2009 and even stronger in 2010, setting school career records for passing yardage, touchdowns and passing touchdowns in his junior year and excelling in the classroom. 

In his senior season, McLaughlin, shown watching his Gagliardi nomination video at right in a photo by Ryan Coleman of d3photography.com, became the American Southwest Conference career passing leader and led all divisions of football with 3,770 yards passing and 42 touchdowns. 

Kyle Ray, posing at left in Salem, Va., with his head coach, Mike Leonard (left), and offensive coordinator Josiah Sears (right), told the reception audience about his football-playing father, Rob, and Rob's death from cancer two months before the start of Kyle's 2009 season.

Rob Ray had inspired Kyle in his final years in college, and Kyle mentioned that he changed his jersey number from 10 to 26 his senior season to honor his dad, who had worn that number when Rob played at Franklin College 30 years before him.

Saint John’s website credited Kyle Ray for his dean’s list academics, major in journalism and his help with Habitat for Humanity projects and raising funds for Special Olympics while in college.

Trine University’s video in support of Eric Watt can be found on YouTube. It also had been available on the university’s website since the 2010 season.

In the promotional video, Trine head coach Matt Land described his quarterback as a quiet leader on the football team, someone who let his actions do his talking. “He doesn’t say a lot, but when he does speak, (teammates) listen.” 

Land and Todd Saylor, who is identified in the video as the team’s motivational speaker, are quoted crediting Watt for a good amount of community service during his years at Trine.

Saylor said Watt, shown during his Gagliardi interview at right in a photo by Ryan Coleman of d3photography.com, devoted time to reading to grade-school children, supporting state parks and the environment, “and he helped me raise almost $100,000 for Project Help,” a program to help feed the homeless and needy in the community. “It was a great effort by the whole football team, and Eric was a big part of that.”

University President Brooks spoke highly of Eric on the video as well: “I’m pleased to share with you the character and leadership of an outstanding young man and an excellent football player in Eric Watt. Eric has had tremendous institutional impact and has been a program changer in every sense of the word since his arrival on the campus of Trine University in the fall of 2007. Eric is an exceptional leader who sets high expectations for himself and has tremendous influence on those around him.” 

At Trine, Eric was active in community and campus activities. He was a four-year participant in a community reading program at Carlin Park Elementary School in Angola; took part in clean-up efforts at Pokagon State Park and was involved in on-campus charity fundraisers as well as the American Cancer Society’s annual Relay for Life and the football program’s annual talent show.

One way to illustrate Watt’s impact on the Trine football program, head coach Land said in the tribute video, is to compare attendance at Trine home football games in Watt’s first year to that in his senior year. The first year, attendance was over 8002  per game, he said, adding that by Watt’s senior season, it had grown to 5,000. 

“It takes a village to rebuild a football program, and our village in Angola is strong, and Eric is a great big part of that,” Land says in the video. “When Eric leaves, I’m personally going to be very nervous. He’s a great football player. … (he’s) going to be very difficult to replace.”

At the reception that evening, Saint John’s J-Club and representatives of Jostens Inc. ended the suspense and announced that Eric Watt was the 2010 Gagliardi winner. Ryan Coleman of d3photography.com photographed Watt with the trophy below. All of Ryan’s images are used here with his permission.

Today, Eric remains the only Gagliardi winner from an Indiana school. 

“We had quite the time in Salem after I won,” Eric said, adding that the “we” included university President Brooks. The group met ESPN football analyst Tom Luginbill at the hotel bar, and Eric said Luginbill extended his congratulations and bought a round of drinks. Luginbill would announce the Stagg Bowl D3 championship game for the network that weekend.

Saint John’s Jim Gagliardi said that the J-Club and Jostens do not disclose how any of the other nominees for the award finished in the final balloting. 

Here is a list of all 14 Indiana players who made the finalist cut for the trophy through the years since the first award in 1993:

1993 – Chris Conkling, QB, Anderson College

1995 – Terry Peebles, QB, Hanover College

1997 – Trey Holcomb, LB, Manchester College; Kevin O’Donohue, LB, Hanover College

1998 – Chris Stormer, QB, Hanover College

2005 – Russ Harbaugh, QB, Wabash College

2007 – Adrian Pyneberg, LB, Wabash College

2008 – Chad Rupp, QB, Franklin College

2009 – Spud Dick, QB, DePauw University

2010 – Kyle Ray, QB, Franklin College; *Eric Watt, QB, Trine University

2013 – Kyle Linville, WR, Franklin College

2017 – Evan Wyse, QB, Trine University

2018 – Lamar Carswell, RB, Trine University

* Gagliardi winner

Jim Gagliardi was asked if any two or more Gagliardi finalists have played opposite each other on the gridiron – like Watt and Ray had done on Sept. 26, 2009.

“Without doing much research, I would say it is very common,” Gagliardi said. “I took a quick look at the winners, and I got to about 10 with just general knowledge. (Saint John’s) has had four winners, and they all lined up against other winners at some point.”

It is less common for Indiana finalists to square off against each other. There have been only four years (1997, 2007, 2008 and 2009) when Indiana players who would become a finalist played against another Hoosier finalist.

On Oct. 4, 1997, future (’98) finalist Chris Stormer of Hanover, a quarterback, and teammate and ’97 finalist Kevin O’Donohue, a linebacker, played Manchester, whose defense included linebacker Trey Holcomb, also a finalist in ’97. Hanover won the home game, 45-7.

It happened three times in 2007. The first was on Sept. 8 when future (’08) Gagliardi finalist Chad Rupp, the quarterback for Franklin College, and ’07 Wabash finalist Adrian Pyneberg, a linebacker, met for a game at Wabash, which the Little Giants won, 35-33.

The next occasion that season was on Sept. 22, when Tri-State, quarterbacked by freshman Eric Watt, played at Franklin, quarterbacked by future (’08) finalist Chad Rupp. The Grizzlies won, 38-14.

Later that season, on Nov. 10 at Greencastle, Ind., Pyneberg was opposite future finalist (’09) Spud Dick, the quarterback for DePauw University, in the annual Monon Bell Classic in which DePauw beat undefeated Wabash, 24-21, on a 47-yard field goal as time expired.

The 2008 instance came at Trine University on Sept. 27, when Watt and Rupp faced each other again in a game that Trine won, 30-27. At the time, Watt was two years away from being a finalist, while Rupp would become a finalist at the end of that season, his senior year.

The only other verifiable time two Gagliardi finalists who played for Indiana schools went opposite each other on the gridiron was the Franklin-Trine meeting on Sept. 26, 2009, Watt vs. Ray.

Watt and Rupp are the only Gagliardi finalists from an Indiana school involved in three games against other Indiana finalists; Pyneberg was involved in two such games. 

In the 2007 game between Franklin and Tri-State, Watt started at quarterback but came out with an injury in the second quarter and did not return. He was not active in the third and fourth quarters when future finalist Kyle Ray logged minor time after coach Leonard had pulled Chad Rupp from the game. Ray did not see action in the two teams’ game at Trine in 2008, when Watt and Rupp again faced each other.

In addition to those games, Watt played in games involving two non-Indiana finalists, Case Western Reserve quarterback Dan Whalen in 2009 and Wisconsin-Whitewater wide receiver Aaron Rusch in 2010. 

Franklin quarterback and 2010 finalist Kyle Ray and wide receiver and ’13 finalist Kyle Linville also played opposite Rusch in the 2010 postseason. Linville played in games involving two other finalists from Whitewater (quarterback Matt Blanchard, twice in 2011, and linebacker Cole Klotz in ’13) and two from Mount Union (safety Nick Driskill in 2012 and quarterback Kevin Burke in 2013. Burke would win the Gagliardi that season. Linville was no longer with Franklin in 2014 when Burke repeated as Gagliardi winner. Burke is one of only two players to repeat as Gagliardi winner. The other is quarterback Luke Lehnen of North Central College, Naperville, Ill. Lehnen won in 2023 and 2024).

Watt graduated cum laude from Trine with a B.S. in finance with an emphasis on international business. He was the 2010 recipient of the MIAA conference’s annual Albert L. Deal Scholar-Athlete Award, issued annually to recognize athletes who have excelled in academics and athletics and displayed outstanding leadership qualities. It is named for former MIAA commissioner Albert Deal. 

Watt was a three-time member of the MIAA Academic Honor Roll and was active in Delta Mu Delta, a business honor society, and Alpha Chi Omega, an athletics honor society. 

Dan Simrell, Trine’s quarterbacks coach during Eric’s time at Trine, was effusive in his praise of the quarterback.

“He was the best player in Division 3,” he said. “He was a sponge with information. I never had to get on Eric or to raise my voice. He was late for practice once, and I told him, ‘See that silo over there? Run to it and around it and come back, then let’s go.’ He was a joy to coach. We still are friends. We’ve played golf together.” 

Eric was interested in continuing to play football after college. Simrell tried to get his protégé a spot in an NFL combine and wrote to both the Denver Broncos and Chicago Bears on Eric’s behalf, to no avail. He said the Bears responded by saying Eric lacked the physical size to withstand the beating of NFL hits from much bigger defensive linemen and linebackers.

Simrell had better luck with his connections in the Italian Football League, particularly those with the Bologna Warriors, which Simrell had coached in 2008 and ’09 (their seasons are in spring). In fact, Bologna team representatives liked what they saw in Watt when they first came to Angola to see Eric play for Trine. (The picture below, provided by the Watt family, shows Eric in his Bologna Warriors jersey with his Aunt Kay, Uncle Bob and parents Ron and Luanne Watt.)

Simrell said each team in the Italian league is allowed to sign and play up to three American athletes, and Italian league teams are always looking for quality quarterbacks. A summary of Eric’s 2012 season with the Warriors appears in the Epilogue of this series. Below is a picture, courtesy of the Watt family, of Eric taken in Italy during his time there.

In 2016, Eric was inducted into the Trine University Athletic Hall of Fame, and two years later the 2008 Trine team that Watt led to a 10-1 record in his sophomore season was inducted into the hall3.

In 2019, Eric was named to Trine’s Quarter-Century Football Team. Joining him on the team were former head coach Matt Land, receivers Paul Curtis and JaVontae Hence, defensive backs Aaron Selking and Aaron Shoemaker and punter Nate Fitzsimmons. Watt’s football jersey No. 13 has been retired by the school.

In June 2026, at a ceremony at Purdue University, Watt was inducted into the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

While still attending South Newton High School, Andy Rodriguez began dating Devan Whitaker, a very good friend of Bobby Hanna – the Rensselaer Central High School alumnus introduced in Chapter 3. 

At the time, Hanna had no love for Andy, Eric Watt and Ryan Care, just like those three South Newton friends had none for Hanna. “They were from a rival school, so we disliked them,” Hanna explained. “But my friend (Devan) said to me, ‘Hey you idiot. You guys are exactly alike. You guys are just stupid. You guys would love one another if you just hung out with each other.”

Devan’s words proved prophetic, although the thaw first involved just Andy and Ryan, with whom Bobby started to hang out, “and I got close to them senior year in high school, and we had a good time.”

Eric didn’t break into the friendship ring fully until after high school.

Hanna briefly attended Franklin College in 2007 then transferred to Purdue University in West Lafayette, where he obtained a degree in technology leadership and innovation. When Hanna moved back to Lafayette after transferring from Franklin College, he moved in with Care, who also was attending Purdue.

After graduating Trine in December 2010, Eric moved to West Lafayette.

“I was in the area,” Hanna said, “and that’s when we started hanging out quite a bit really to where we are now, and I call him my best friend, and he probably would do the same.”

At this point of his interview, Hanna joked that it was somewhat surprising to him that he and Eric reached the point of being “best friends” because, as Hanna explained, “he doesn’t give out a lot (of information) all the time. He’s a pretty reserved guy. I mean … that’s why we really didn’t get along at first. I thought he was standoffish and cocky, but then I thought like, no, that’s just his personality. He’s just a laid-back, quiet guy.”

Eric and Bobby played basketball together in Subaru and church leagues in the area in the late 2010s, COVID proving to be an unfortunate disruptor of that pastime. 

Bobby says they still get together occasionally to shoot hoops and play HORSE and see each other about once a month although they often will talk daily – either by phone or text.  

Above is a contemporary family photo of three Watt siblings with their mother taken in March 2023 at the Watt Trucking Inc. vendor station of the Mid-America Truck Show in Louisville, Ky. From left are Eric's older brother Keith; mother Luanne Watt; brother-in-law Bo Clement; Bo’s wife, Michelle Watt Clement (Eric's sister), who is holding her and Bo's son, Jimmer; and Eric with his then-girlfriend (now wife), Dennise.

___________________________________________________________________________

Footnotes: 

1 - In 2022, North Central defeated Mount Union, 28-21, to win the Stagg Bowl, played Dec. 16 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

2 - If attendance data in the Trine football team's archived statistical records online is accurate, the average attendance at the five home games in Watt's freshman year, 2007, was 2,917. Average attendance at the five home games in his senior season, 2010, was 4,783. It should be noted that average attendance in 2006, the year before Watt arrived on campus, was 950.

3 - Curiously, neither of the two subsequent teams, 2009 and/or 2010, both of which (like the 2008 team) won MIAA championships and qualified for the NCAA Division III postseason tournament, has been similarly honored. 

Tomorrow: Epilogue and Acknowledgments

(in the Epilogue, catch up on what all the people featured in these chapters are doing today)

Previously in "On Hoosier Gridirons": 

Introduction

Chapter 1: 'We Stood Out'

Chapter 2: Mastering the Spread

Chapter 3: The Kicker With the Ever-Present Smile

Chapter 4: Like Father, Like Son 

Chapter 5: Where Legends Played

Chapter 6: A Moonlight Graham Moment

Chapter 7: 'Clearly the Best' Small-School Teams in Indiana

Chapter 8: New Teammates

Chapter 9: Farewell, Levi ... and Welcome, Pup!

Chapter 10: Waiting Their Turns

Chapter 11: No Easy Decision

Chapter 12: Sept. 26, 2009

Chapter 13: The Rest of 2009 

Chapter 14: A Quarterback's Prayer 

Chapter 15: Back to Cruise Control