1986 Football Team - Outstanding Team

In the annals of GCC Athletics, the successes of the 1986 Football team should be celebrated with or without championships, by the way they played the game and how the accomplishments of that team and its players resonate today.

On the heels of the 1985 team’s 10-1 record and dramatic Potato Bowl win, the1986 team coached by Jim Sartoris reeled off 10 straight wins to start the season to advance to the season ending Pony Bowl against Riverside College. They were even ranked as the No. 1 team in the nation.

But saying that the team won 10 straight games does not do justice as to how the Vaqueros won those games. Statistics from 32 years ago tell us that GCC outscored its opponents 374-113 in 11 games with most of that damage coming in the first two quarters of those games, which had them at a 231-42 advantage.

With the offense scoring points at an unheard of clip, Coach Sartoris was quick to give credit to the defense led by then defensive coordinator John Cicuto as a big reason why the team was so successful.

“Coming into the season, we knew we had a chance to be successful because we had many players returning from the 1985 team at key positions and had depth in several areas which is important to combat injuries during a long season,’’ said Sartoris. “But the real key to that team was the defensive effort and John Cicuto and his defensive coaches deserve the credit for that. Our players were in such a great system that the opposition rarely had a chance to react, and when they did the score was so one sided that it was almost too late for them.

’’Revisiting the statistics on the defensive side of the ball, the Vaqueros actually allowed just 85 points in 10 games before falling to Riverside 28-10 in the 1986 Pony Bowl that ended their season at 10-1. But that suffocating defense created48 QB sacks for an average of 4.4 a game and 21 interceptions and in one four-game stretch, shutout four straight opponents by the incredible tally of 189-0.

Sartoris was named Western State Conference Coach of the Year and co-state COY and 26 players from that team earned All-WSC honors. Chris Hale and Bil Schultz, future teammates at USC and NFL players, were named All-American, as well as Rob Hoffman and John Bavaro.

The season ending loss may have slightly tainted that season for the 1986 Football team but being named the Outstanding Team at the 2018 Hall of Fame will keep the memory of that tremendous season alive in the annals of GCC Athletics.