It isn’t necessarily pleasing for Ken Hatfield to think back to 1979 and his first season as Air Force’s football coach.
But something memorable did happen. The Falcons lost their first eight games. And after a 20-6 setback to Colorado State in Fort Collins put Air Force at 0-8, a perplexed Hatfield took stock of the program. He spent most of the Sunday after the CSU game grilling his mind for answers.
In the afternoon, he took a walk near his home along a path where he had a view of Pikes Peak and the Rampart Range — some ominous but spectacular scenery.
“I wondered what the pioneers thought about the mountains ahead as they approached through the plains in their wagons,” Hatfield said. “I thought about the great spirit they must have had to keep going. I thought that maybe I should have a pioneer’s spirit in coaching football.”
The Falcons won two of their last three games in 1979, and a spark was ignited in Hatfield’s mind about how Air Force could be a better football team.
“Our main rivalries in those days were Army, Navy and Notre Dame,” he said. “I knew we had to either be better than they were or do something different than they did.”
Thus began Hatfield’s plan to switch Air Force’s offense to the wishbone, a triple-option attack.
At the same time that Hatfield was shaping his team’s future in terms of X’s and O’s on the field, Air Force athletic director Col. John Clune and academy superintendent Lt. Gen. Kenneth Tallman were making a decision almost as bold as the Falcons switching to the wishbone.
After playing football as an independent, Air Force joined the Western Athletic Conference in 1980.
“John Clune and Gen. Tallman were the architects of a great decision to join a conference,” Hatfield said. “They took some guff at first, but we never were going to have the tradition of Army and Navy, and being in a conference allowed us to carve out a niche for Air Force west of the Mississippi River.”
The impact of joining a conference and switching to an offense that best suited Air Force’s players came together with an 8-5 season in 1982. By then, Fisher DeBerry, a proponent of the wishbone, had joined the Falcons’ coaching staff.
“We couldn’t recruit the pro- style quarterbacks to Air Force,” Hatfield said. “I knew for us to move the ball, our quarterbacks had to run with the football.”
In 1982, the Falcons produced their first winning season since 1973. They defeated Brigham Young 39-38 on the road and began a four-game winning streak against Notre Dame with a 30-17 victory over the Irish at Falcon Stadium.
They won the Commander-in- Chief’s Trophy for the first time by sweeping Navy 24-21 and Army 27-9. Air Force also won a bowl game for the first time, defeating Vanderbilt 36-28 in the Hall of Fame Bowl in Birmingham, Ala.
A year later, when the Falcons were 10-2, Hatfield was named the national coach of the year.
Hatfield provided a base for DeBerry and Troy Calhoun to continue a winning program at Air Force. On Wednesday night, Hatfield will be inducted into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame.
After the 1983 season, Hatfield left Air Force to coach Arkansas, his alma mater. He also coached at Clemson and Rice before retiring.
“I had as much fun coaching the (1979 Air Force) team that lost eight straight games as any I coached,” said Hatfield, who lives in Springdale, Ark. “I don’t have any regrets. My leaving for Arkansas allowed Fisher and Troy Calhoun to take the program to new heights.”
Hatfield is still coaching by continuing two programs that his late wife, Sandy, began. Once a week, Hatfield takes Margo, a female mastiff, to a veterans hospital for therapy sessions with patients. He also participates in a Horses for Healing program that enables special-needs youngsters to ride a horse.
“When those youngsters are on that horse, they feel like they’re taller than anyone else,” Hatfield said.
Hatfield bio
Born: June 6, 1943, in Helena, Ark.
High school: Central, in Helena
College: University of Arkansas
Family: Wife Sandy (deceased), brother Dick
Hobby: Taking care of his dogs and horses.
Mission: Helping people who need it.
