UW La Crosse Football, The Roger Harring Era & Michigan's Greg Mattison
Greg Mattison played his college football at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (Division III). He played for arguably one of the great football college football coaches of all time, Roger Harring, who is in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Michigan's DC Greg Mattison played for Harring and the UW-LaCrosse Indians (now called the Eagles) in 1969 and 1970. These were Harring's first two years coaching at UWL finishing 5-5 in 1969 and 5-4-1 in 1970.
Harring never had a losing season and finished 261-75-7 (.771) 12th all time among college coaches and 4th among Division III.
I found this document from the UW-LaCrosse online library a very interesting read about Harring and Mattison. There are season summaries for Harring's football teams for 1969 and 1970 which include Mattison in the team photos. He wore No. 63 in 1969 and No. 66 in 1970.
1969 UW-LaCrosse Indians Team Photo: 8th row (top row) first player on the left is Mattison:
1970 UW-LaCrosse Indians football team: Mattison is in second row, 5th player from the left (No. 66):
Also, apparently Greg Mattison was drafted in 1971 by the Washington Redskins (see page 9).
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:17 PM ^
...and post. Actually, that links says that Mattison was signed by the Redskins as an undrafted free agent. He must not have made the team because he's not included in nfl.com's historical players database.
August 23rd, 2011 at 8:39 PM ^
Interesting information. Thanks for posting
August 23rd, 2011 at 9:12 PM ^
lol, I live near La Crosse, I feel special
August 24th, 2011 at 1:58 AM ^
Never expected to see UW-L and Roger Harring on MGo. Not too many Wolverines around La Crosse, but at least my kids high school colors are blue and yellow so people just assume I am supporting them!
August 24th, 2011 at 10:11 AM ^
before coaching at UWL.
I have familly in Wisconsin and know a number of friends from Wisconsin who went to UW system schools. I found it interesting how there were little rivalries between UW-La Crosse, UW-Eau Claire, UW Oshkosh, UW Stevens Point etc., particularly football. I remember one conversation with a UWEC grad who said they referred to UW-Oshkosh as "UW Zero". Anyway, it was funny at the time.
Still, one can't deny the football tradition at UW-LaCrosse. That's been a great football program for a long, long time, and I thought it was interesting that Michigan's Greg Mattison was part of that experience.