IUP Athletic Hall of Fame
Ask any contingent of individuals who have followed IUP sports over the years their choice of the Indians' most meaningful and/or dramatic event of all time, and you are sure to find many pointing to the !968 Boardwalk Bowl football game.
The first NCAA Division II postseason regional game the Indians had ever played. It matched IUP in Atlantic City's Convention Hall as a definite underdog to a vaunted University of Delaware team that had been around the big time for many years.
For drama, the Indians came very close to pulling an upset. Leading 21- 10 at halftime, then kicking a field goal with a minute to go to lead 24-23, IUP lost 31-24 when Delaware completed a pass with 15 seconds remaining.
The quarterback for IUP in that game was Wally Blucas, who had masterfully engineered coach Chuck Klausing's outmanned but determined offensive platoon for 60 minutes and had either scored (on two keepers) or passed for (a 62-yard play to 1997 Hall of Fame inductee Dave Smith) all three Indian touchdowns.
One game of course does not make a Hall of Fame inductee, though, and Blucas' selection is merited by his entire 1968 campaign (a 9-0 regular-season record), his four-year IUP career (a 32-5 record), and his many professional accomplishments.
When Blucas completed his playing career a year later, he had set team records for the 41 touchdowns he was responsible for (24 passing and 17 rushing) and 3851 total offense yards (2698 passing and 11 53 rushing). His being intercepted only once in 152 pass attempts in 1969 remains a team season record.
Now superintendent of schools at Girard (near Erie) after having been high school principal and assistant superintendent there since 1974, he has been a PIAA/Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League officer since 1975. Earlier, he completed an IUP master's degree and coached football at Karns City.
Daughter Kristen Cabazolo, 29, works in marketing, graphic design and advertising in Front Royal, Virginia. Son Marc, 27, a four-year basketball letterman and Academic All-American at Wake Forest, is now an actor in Santa Monica, California.
