Editor’s note: In the Colorado Classics series, The Denver Post takes a weekly look at individuals who made their mark on the Colorado sports landscape and what they are doing now.
Just imagine what suspense author Stephen King could do with a villain called “The Beast.”
But sometimes names can be deceiving, as in the case of John “The Beast” Bayuk. Unless disguised in his football uniform and on the field for coach Dal Ward’s University of Colorado football teams in 1954-56, Bayuk couldn’t scare anybody.
One of his assistant coaches, Hugh Davidson, said the fullback was “big teddy bear,” but there was nothing soft and fuzzy about how Bayuk earned his nickname, which remains second to Byron “Whizzer” White among CU sports legends.
The day was Oct. 2, 1954, and Colorado was playing at Kansas. Bayuk ran all over the Jayhawks in a 27-0 win. When the team returned to its hotel, a woman in the lobby was overheard saying one of CU’s players was “a beast.”
Fred Casotti, CU’s sports information director, seized on the opportunity.
“He asked the lady if she wanted to meet The Beast,” Bayuk said. “He brought her over and said, ‘This is “The Beast.”‘ She said I didn’t look like a beast.”
The nickname stuck.
“Everybody knows me by ‘The Beast,”‘ Bayuk said from his home in Salida. “My kids, my grandkids and even my great-granddaughter call me ‘Beast.’ I go with it all the time, and I’ve never gotten tired of it.”
Maybe the only time he had to respond to John or Mr. Bayuk was during the 15 years he was on Salida’s city council.
But it will be “The Beast” again this year as CU looks at the 50th anniversary of one of its most fabled seasons. In 1956, with Bayuk achieving All-America status, the Buffaloes finished 8-2-1 and 4-1-1 for second place in the Big Seven Conference. CU went on to the 1957 Orange Bowl and beat Clemson 27-21 for its first bowl victory.
Bayuk scored two touchdowns, including the winner with 7:13 left in the game. A pass interception by Bob Stransky, a fellow CU All-American, secured the victory.
There possibly wouldn’t have been a trip to Miami for the school’s second bowl game without Bayuk’s beastly antics against Missouri in the conference finale.
Oklahoma won the conference, but the Orange Bowl didn’t take the same team two years in a row. The Buffs were holding on to a 14-14 tie in Columbia, Mo., and second place in the Big Seven.
“We had fourth down and about a foot to go to keep a drive going late in the game,” said Bayuk, who got the call for the big play. “I ended up on the bottom of the stack at the line of scrimmage. Someone was poking me in the eye, so I bit the guy on the arm. When I got up from the pile, a Missouri player hit me and we got a 15-yard penalty.”
The first down enabled the Buffs to run out the clock, and they were off to the Orange Bowl. The next week, a package came from Missouri’s president. It was a set of false teeth and a note saying, “Let’s see you bite your way out of this.”
Overall, Bayuk, at 6-feet-1, 220 pounds, had seven games of 100 yards or more rushing, his best a 184-yard and four-touchdown performance at Arizona in 1954 as CU won 40-18. Bayuk’s time at CU was in the days of Tulagi and The Sink, student hangouts where he swears his drink of the day was orange juice.
“He probably was one of the first big backs,” Davidson said. “He wasn’t real fast, but he was powerful. He could bulldoze people.”
Bayuk was well-primed for CU. His Salida High School team ran the single wing, as did the Buffaloes under Ward.
“We played some rough, tough football at Salida,” Bayuk said. “Our guards were about 120 pounds.”
After CU, Bayuk went to the Cleveland Browns, but was there when Jim Brown was ruling the NFL. Bayuk played a season in Canada before entering a series of business ventures in Denver and Fort Worth, Texas. He retired and “came home” in 1986.
A reunion of the 1957 Orange Bowl team is scheduled for Oct. 6-7 in Boulder. His No. 30 jersey has been honored for his selection as an All-American when players played both offense and defense.
“We had a good bunch of guys,” Bayuk said. “We weren’t big like the players are today, but we’d match them guts-for-guts any day. We played for the love of the game.”
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-954-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
