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Brian Gomez
Special for The Republic
Oct. 22, 2004

With thoughts of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech still fresh, Phoenix College quarterback Craig Liston led his racially diverse team against an all-White squad in the biggest game of his life.

"When we looked up in the stands, on our side of the field there were only Black folks sitting up there," Liston recalled.

Much more than wins and losses marked the 1964 Phoenix College football season. Phoenix College beat Oklahoma Military Academy 41-13 in the National Junior College Athletic Association championship game in Savannah, Ga., where it became the first racially diverse team to play a White team. advertisement

Stories of the improbable run to the top will be retold at 7 p.m. Saturday, when 31 players from the 1964 team will be honored at halftime of Phoenix College's homecoming game against No. 10 Pima Community College.

The team is the first to be inducted into Phoenix College's Ring of Honor, which recognizes distinguished alumni.

"In our day, Phoenix College was somebody, and we were recognized across the country," said former Phoenix College coach Shanty Hogan, whose 1964 team produced three NFL players and saw 26 players earn scholarships to four-year schools. "When that opening whistle blew, you had better have tied your hat on, because they were going to come after you."

Hogan said the Black players on his team didn't encounter any problems during their trip to Savannah, despite the obvious racial overtones.

"We weren't going to go down there if any of our people was going to be embarrassed or ridiculed," Hogan said. "When we made a great play, there was great cheering. There were no boos or anything like that at all. It was total acceptance."

Robert Wallace, a wide receiver on the 1964 team, echoed Hogan's sentiments.

"All we wanted to do was play football," said Wallace, who later played with Dick Butkus and Gale Sayers on the Chicago Bears. "We didn't think about the prejudice and Blacks not being able to stay in the same hotel (as Whites). We knew it was there, but we just tried not to think about that."

Two players from the 1964 team, South Mountain High School graduate Joe Furch and Brophy graduate Mike Hiller, were killed in the Vietnam War. Seven others have lost contact with Hogan and their teammates and cannot be located, Liston said.

Most of the players Hogan recruited came from high schools such as Carl Hayden, Central, Camelback, North and now-defunct Phoenix Union. He did not recruit big-name players, yet Phoenix College, which finished 9-1 in 1964, managed to beat several out-of-state teams, including powerhouse Trinidad College of Colorado in the season opener.

"These kids proved that they could play with anybody," Hogan said. "We approached each game individually. We just worked toward whatever we had to do offensively or defensively to meet the challenge of that particular week. When that week was over, the focus automatically went to the next week, and it went on and on and on for the whole season.