Monday, Oct. 22, 2007 | 7:15 a.m.
It was 1968, and tin soldiers and Nixon were coming. So was football, for the first time, to the UNLV campus.
In 1968 you could get killed fighting the Vietnam War, or even complaining about it. On the other hand, playing football against Azusa Pacific would not get you killed, unless, possibly, you were a wide receiver chasing an overthrown pass in the end zone and tumbled over the cliff on the open end of the field.
If you want the nutshell version of how Bill Casey became the first quarterback in UNLV history, that's basically it.
Casey, a San Diego native, had started his college football career at Cal as a backup to Craig Morton. The Berkeley campus was to war protest what Johnny Unitas was to high-top football cleats. But with Morton entrenched as the Golden Bears' quarterback and shouts of "hell no, we won't go" ringing through the ear holes of his football helmet, Casey decided that hell, yes, he would go - to San Jose State, where playing time would be easier to come by.
But then he hurt his ankle and he got that letter from the President. And although he never heard of Nevada-Las Vegas, he had heard of its hometown, and that they were starting a football program there. And that two-a-days were going to roughly coincide with the end of the Tet Offensive, which was not to be confused with the Wishbone Offensive, under any circumstances.
Casey, bright college guy that he was, decided he'd rather throw footballs around the desert than Napalm around the jungle. So he told Bill Ireland, the coach of these Rebels in shoulder pads and the politically incorrect Stars and Bars on their helmets, that if he could fix it so he could play one more year, he would.
While they had rules about transferring schools and how many years you could be enrolled in classes and still throw the football on Saturday afternoons, it was years before the Miami Hurricanes would start breaking them. So the NCAA was a little more lenient about who got to play in those days.
Ireland, according to Casey, had to get letters from UNLV's opponents that said it was OK for him to play. Ireland got the letters and UNLV got a Division I quarterback.
That was the first story that Casey told before the old Rebels lined up in the end zone to slap the current ones on the shoulder pads as they ran onto the field to play Colorado State on homecoming Saturday night. But it wouldn't be the last. Heck, it was only a quarter of six. The wind hadn't even begun to blow.
Bill Casey played just that one season at UNLV. But it was a memorable one. Comprised mostly of Las Vegas high school kids and a few junior college transfers from Bakersfield, Calif., the Rebels football team won the very first game it ever played, beating Saint Mary's of California, 27-20. Then the Rebels beat Azusa Pacific and San Francisco and Westminster College of Utah and Southern Colorado and Cal Tech and Southern Utah and UC San Diego to go 8-0.
They had to put up extra bleachers at the old Cashman Field for the Rebels' last game of the year, against Cal Lutheran. Alas, UNLV lost, 17-13.
I asked Casey if the loss kept the Rebels out of the playoffs, out of one of those bowl games with cool names for small colleges, such as the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl or the Grantland Rice Bowl. He said he didn't know.
"I'm not even sure what division we were in," he said.
For the record, from 1968-72, UNLV was classified as an NCAA College Division Small College Independent. Casey completed 95 passes in 168 attempts in 1968. His completion percentage of .565 still ranks as the third-highest in UNLV's 40-year football history, and that was in the days of man-to-man defenses when you threw the ball down the field to split ends and flankers.
"We didn't dink and dunk like they do now," said Casey, who was nearly as old as some of the Rebels' coaches in 1968.
That, said W.R. "Willie" Davison, another member of the inaugural '68 team who lumbered from the hospitality tent to the playing field Saturday night, made Casey valuable to his teammates for another reason.
"He was old enough to buy us beer," Davison said, laughing and joking and punching his old teammate on the shoulder.
Both Casey and Davison went on to become successful businessmen. Casey, who began his post-football career in the casino business, is a financial services representative for American International Group (AIG) in Henderson. Davison, who graduated from Las Vegas' Rancho High before becoming an offensive tackle on that first Rebels team, is president of a special events company in Sparks and The Great International Chicken Wing Society annual cook-off in downtown Reno.
So whether you're looking to invest your money or just an extra helping of ranch dressing, these are your guys. You can look them up or, better yet, just catch them on the field at next year's homecoming game.
They'll be the ones laughing and joking and punching each other on the arm before the wind begins to blow.
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