Sometimes, as Max Willsey learned on a cloudy, cold Thanksgiving Day in 1955, a small role in a big game can be the tip of a really big iceberg.
On that afternoon 54 years ago, the University of Denver Pioneers were playing Wyoming in a key Skyline Conference football game at DU’s Hilltop Stadium. The Cowboys needed a victory to gain a tie for the conference title with Colorado A&M.
Willsey’s recollection of what was called the “wildest and woolliest game in Skyline Conference history” remains sharp. He still has newspaper clippings of the game too.
“I was part of it at the beginning, but by the time it ended, I was just watching what was going on,” Willsey said. “A lot happened after my part.”
Willsey played only the final second of the game, but his time on the field proved to be a determining factor in what was later dubbed “The Whistle Game.”
The stage for the wild finish was set when Wyoming place-kicker Joe Mastrogiovanni booted a field goal for a 3-0 lead with one second left.
Willsey stepped into the picture for the kickoff return. Injured ribs had kept him on the bench all day, but coach John Roning wanted some fresh legs.
“The return was set to the right, but it was blocked and I cut back left,” Willsey said. “There was a big pileup at about the 32-yard line, but I got a lateral off to Dick Gupton. He ran it all the way back for a touchdown.”
The scoreboard read DU 6, Wyoming 3, but the controversy was just starting.
After official Al Oviatt signaled touchdown, a major brawl broke out. Observers claimed that players, fans and band members fought.
Wyoming athletic director Glenn (Red) Jacoby filed a protest, claiming the return had been whistled dead before Willsey’s lateral. Wyoming defensive back John Watts claims to this day he tackled Gupton and his knee hit the ground at the 2-yard line before he fell into the end zone.
“Butch Cassidy couldn’t have done a better job of highway robbery,” Watts said from his home in Ruleville, Miss. “There was a whistle that caused the Wyoming players to stop playing.”
Gupton’s account isn’t available. He dropped out of sight in recent years and couldn’t be located by DU’s alumni program.
The protest was so strong from Wyoming that Denver Post columnist Jack Carberry urged conference commissioner Dick Romney to make a ruling in order to “save” the conference. Romney eventually ruled that the touchdown was a judgment call, and the score stood.
But the whistle and the tackle weren’t the only questions about the wild finish. Game films revealed that on Wyoming’s drive to Mastrogiovanni’s field goal, the Cowboys got some assistance in a game that had more twists and turns than a Hitchcock thriller. On one play during that drive, referee Pat Panek marked the spot of the ball with his hat. Films showed an unidentified person came off the Wyoming bench and moved the hat downfield for enough yardage to give the Cowboys a first down.
Claims and counterclaims went on for years.
“I still get angry when I think of that game,” Watts said.
In subsequent years, the Wyoming football media guide carried a footnote, pointing out the outcome of the game was in dispute. The asterisk was removed in 1992.
“That was the last second of football I played for DU,” Willsey said. “I was a junior, but I injured my back before my senior season and couldn’t play again.”
Willsey is part of the DU Sports Hall of Fame as a member of the 1954 team that won the Skyline Conference championship.
After college, Willsey coached football at the high school and junior high school levels in the Denver area. While coaching at Thornton High School, one of his star pupils was Steve Zabel, who went on to All-America status at Oklahoma and NFL years with Philadelphia and New England.
Willsey bio
Born: Sept. 11, 1935, in Indianola, Iowa
High School: Whittier Union High School, Whittier, Calif.
College: University of Denver
Family: Sons Robert and Bo Wyatt, daughter Lora (Deceased)
Hobbies: Season-ticket holder to DU sports teams.
