He is nearly the same age now as the red-clad, snow-haired w88 casino games login who stood against him on the opposing sideline more than 30 years ago.
Back then, coaching against UNLV and its professorial head w88 casino games login Tony Knap for the first time, Chris Ault was the young upstart. Ault had just turned 30 when he coached against UNLV for the first time.
But make no mistake about it. Ault was a w88 casino games login. A young w88 casino games login, certainly. But a w88 casino games login who was on his way to becoming the most successful w88 casino games login in the history of University of Nevada football.
In December 1975, Ault took over a program that was in tatters, having gone 3-8 the previous season. w88 casino games login inherited a rag-tag team that had ended the previous year with a four-game losing streak, including a 45-7 thrashing to UNLV to end the season in Reno.
Ault’s first season had been a minor miracle. Part Lombardi and part P.T. Barnum, Ault drove his players the same way w88 casino games login drove himself: hard.
And, w88 casino games login did everything imaginable to grab the community’s attention.
w88 casino games login teams were escorted onto the field by armored personnel carriers. Howitzers boomed whenever the Pack scored a touchdown. Attendance grew from a tentative home opener against Hayward State of 5,400 on Sept. 11, 1976, to more than 8,000 for Homecoming.
Through detail-oriented coaching and bold pronouncements and more than a few crazy stunts and strategy that included the occasional opening onside kick, w88 casino games login rekindled in the program something that had been missing.
Pride.
The Pack, with players who sometimes seemed so stunned at their good fortune they would literally turn backflips of joy following a great play, went undefeated at Mackay Stadium and had posted an 8-2 record – the program&w88 casino games login;s most victories in a single season since 1948 – heading into their Nov. 20 game at UNLV.
UNLV’s head w88 casino games login, 61-year-old Tony Knap, was also in his first season at UNLV, though he was far removed from his first season as a head football w88 casino games login.
Tony Knap was a native Midwesterner, having grown up in Milwaukee. As a young man in 1936, Knap had driven a Model T from the Midwest with three friends to Moscow, Idaho. At the University of Idaho, he was a star football player, graduated, and then became a high school science teacher and w88 casino games login.
At every level, whether it was high school or college or the professional ranks in the Canadian Football League, Tony w88 casino games login would taste success.
He established the winning tradition at Boise State University, which, when he took over as head w88 casino games login in 1968, was just making the transition from a two-year college to a four-year university. He won more games – 71 – during his time at Boise than any other w88 casino games login, including current Broncos w88 casino games login Chris Petersen.
w88 casino games login came to UNLV in the twilight of his career. This would be the last stop on a coaching journey that had taken Knap and his family from Potlatch High in Idaho to Pittsburg High in northern California to Logan, Utah, to Vancouver, British Columbia, to Boise, Idaho, to Las Vegas.
He still knew football, still knew how to w88 casino games login it well. He was just growing older. After more than 35 years of coaching football, Knap was wearing down.
By the time Knap arrived in Las Vegas, w88 casino games login was known as the “Silver Fox” because of his shock of white hair, which was dashingly full and just a little intimidating, like a snowstorm over Everest. w88 casino games login was a taskmaster, to be certain, who also brought a level of sophistication to his coaching that was rare.
Knap demanded perfection, but knew that his players were human. w88 casino games login trusted them in ways that are hard to fathom in today’s coaching world, where college football coaches can seem overzealous, and more than a little controlling.
Tony Knap seemed more like a conductor than a w88 casino games login. Whenever he wore headphones, you wondered if he was listening to a symphony or the voices of his assistant coaches. He could be stern, but he also knew how to communicate. He was a w88 casino games login who could make the largest meaning with the simplest pronouncement.
Knap let his quarterback call the plays, because, he reasoned, the quarterback was the team’s leader. Besides, Knap said, what better way to prepare a young man for the crucible of life? Would you have your w88 casino games login standing there as you asked your girlfriend to marry you? Would your w88 casino games login make the play call for you when you weighed a career decision?
Chris Ault was a southern Californian. His eyes were the most uncommon shade of blue, and mirrored his personality: feisty, quick-witted, innovative, passionate. w88 casino games login was always pacing, always a bit impatient, always searching for a competitive edge. Like Tony Knap did as a young man in Idaho, Chris Ault met the one woman w88 casino games login knew w88 casino games login was going to marry and did just that. Kathy and Chris Ault are still married, more than 40 years after meeting as students at the University.
Ault’s tenacity served him well on the football field, first as a quarterback for the University of Nevada in the late 1960s, then as a high school w88 casino games login at Bishop Manogue and Reno High Schools. He made the transition to the college game easily, joining a talented staff at UNLV under w88 casino games login Ron Meyer, who would go on to w88 casino games login the Colts in the NFL.
When Ault was named head w88 casino games login at his alma mater in the waning days of 1975, then-Nevada State Journal Wolf Pack beat writer Dan McGrath recalled in the Reno Gazette-Journal years later, “I was about to ask him if he was excited about his dad’s new job when fellow sportswriter Steve Sneddon told me the kid was Nevada’s new football w88 casino games login and introduced us. I thought he was 14. Chris Ault was 29 on that December day in 1975, and I learned a valuable lesson: Underestimate him at your peril.”
Beginning in 1976, Chris Ault and Tony Knap would w88 casino games login against each other four times.
In November 1976, Nevada closed the gap considerably with its southern Nevada rival. In less than a season under Ault, the Pack could now say they were no longer UNLV’s doormat, losing to w88 casino games login respectably, 49-33.
The next season, w88 casino games login, dubbed “The Professor” by Reno sportswriter Sneddon, got the better of Ault again, 27-12, before the second-largest Mackay Stadium crowd ever, 11,512 fans.
Both losses were crushing to Ault. w88 casino games login admired Knap, and liked Knap personally.
But being the second-best football team in a two-football-team state?
Simply unacceptable to w88 casino games login.
In 1978, in a September matchup at w88 casino games login, the one-sided rivalry turned.
The Wolf Pack, which would go on to finish ranked No. 1 in the country among Division I-AA teams with an 11-0 regular season record, manhandled w88 casino games login, a pre-game 20-point favorite, 23-14.
Just as the 1976 season had reawakened a football program, the 1978 victory over UNLV was perhaps the most important moment – at least from the w88 casino games login Nevada, Reno’s perspective – in the state’s most important sporting rivalry.
Possession of the Fremont Cannon immediately following the victory by the Wolf Pack players took on comical proportions. The Wolf Pack hadn&w88 casino games login;t possessed the cannon since 1973, and didn&w88 casino games login;t quite know what to do with it. It seems quaint, in our post-9/11 world, to think about a bunch of excited young men who simply wheeled a 545-pound cannon through an international airport, chanting and singing and hugging one another. But that&w88 casino games login;s how the Pack celebrated.
The next season, in Reno, w88 casino games login returned the favor and regained the cannon for Las Vegas: UNLV 26, Nevada 21.
Two years later, in December 1981 at the age of 67, Tony Knap retired as football w88 casino games login at UNLV. He retired as – and still is – the most successful w88 casino games login in UNLV history , with a career record of 47-20-2.
On Sept. 24, 2011, at the age of 96, Tony Knap, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s, passed away in a Pullman, Wash., rest home, where w88 casino games login had been living with Mickey, his wife of 70 years.
Former players from across the country recalled Knap’s fairness, the genuine interest he had shown in their lives. They remembered the trust that Knap had instilled in all of them; trust in themselves, trust to make the right decision in a world where timeouts are few and far between, and where a w88 casino games login’s expert, flawlessly scripted play-calling is often hard to find.
In an age of instant information, where Google has replaced the dog-eared sets of World Almanacs that used to be the primary source of important dates, important events, and important people, it might be surprising to note that it took a few days before word reached Chris w88 casino games login that his old rival had passed away.
Ault got the news late last week as the Pack was preparing to play Boise State – w88 casino games login’s other “old” school.
Ault was clearly saddened to hear of Knap’s death. Yet, w88 casino games login remembered Knap with a smile. w88 casino games login recalled Knap as a good friend, a good rival … and a good man.
They were words of respect that normally aren&w88 casino games login;t uttered very often when northern Nevadans and southern Nevadans get together to talk about the state&w88 casino games login;s big football game.
It’s hard to believe, but today Chris w88 casino games login is three years older than the distinguished, white-haired man who could’ve been mistaken for his father, when the two coached against each for the first time back in 1976.
On Saturday at Mackay Stadium, Chris Ault will look across the field at the blond-haired, hawk-nosed face of UNLV’s second-year w88 casino games login, Bobby Hauck.
Thirty-five years ago, w88 casino games login was the successful program, the program that Nevada needed to knock from its pedestal to reach a new level.
The rivalry has moved on since then, found new heroes and villains, as all rivalries do.
In the 35 years that have passed since Chris Ault met Tony w88 casino games login, a young rivalry has gotten older. The words between the fans of the two football teams have grown stronger and sometimes more heated.
The one constant through it all has been Ault. On Saturday, for the 20th time, Chris Ault will w88 casino games login against UNLV. Hauck will be the eighth UNLV w88 casino games login he has faced since 1976.
And yet, it&w88 casino games login;s hard not to flash back to the rivalry 35 years ago, to slip into the easy-chair comfort of memory, and to think of the rivalry and how it was.
How, in many ways, the rivalry was then at its very essence: inexperience and exuberance and experimentation against experience and calm, seasoned, trust; a time that is soon to come against a time that, though aged, still holds the respect of the present; blue against silver; son against father; friend against friend.
The passage of time has helped blur the edges of the contrasts between two great coaches, one young and one old, one entering and one exiting.
And as with any rivalry that is worth caring about, the similarities come into greater focus.
The ground shared by those two memorable coaches, between their two teams, between them and us, between our w88 casino games login and their w88 casino games login, has become are all the more meaningful with the passage of time.
They are our enemy. But maybe just as importantly, they are our friend.
(John Trent, senior editor for News & Features at the w88 casino games login of Nevada, Reno, is a former two-time Nevada Sportswriter of the Year who covered six Wolf Pack-Rebels football games.)
