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Roger Wehrli
Posted on: October 14, 2020 at 00:19:42 CT
ScottsdaleTiger MU
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Wehrli's father was a high school basketball coach for years at Bellevue High School in Holt County. Bellevue was a country high school and probably never had an enrollment of more than thirty. It was combined with Mound City a number of years ago.
Wehrli was a football and track standout at King City. He had something like four scholarship offers. Mizzou was the only big time program. The others were schools like Northwest Missouri State. With the way college recruiters beat the bushes today, if Wehrli was recruited today, he would have his pick of any program in the country.
Missouri played a home and home series with SMU in the late 1950's and early 1960's. That was the days before the death penalty. One of the SMU QB's was Don Meredith who eventually quarterbacked the Cowboys and then was part of the original Monday Night Football broadcast team. Another member was Howard Cosell.
In the early 1960's, SMU had a wide receiver, Jerry Levias, a very, very highly touted Texas recruit. At the beginning of the the week prior to the game Devine moved Wehrli from the cornerback spot on one side of the defense to the cornerback spot on the other side. that was before the days of a wide side corner and a boundary corner. Wehrli had never played on that side before. After the move, Wehrli learned the move was made by Devine so he would be covering Levias. He shut Levias down, a couple of short catches as I recall.
Wehrli was also a great punt returner. If memory serves he lead the nation in punt returns one year.
Larry Wilson, the Cardinals' Hall of Fame free safety was asked during the exhibition season of Wehrli's rookie year by someone in the St. Louis media if Wehrli was going to make the team. Wilson laughed and said that Wehrli had the quickest feet of any defensive back he (Wilson) had ever seen.
Dan Devine was a great coach. I would argue the best in Tiger history, but in truth in the 1960's the State of Missouri produced some exceptional football players and Roger Wehrli was probably the best.
Edited by ScottsdaleTiger at 00:30:50 on 10/14/20
Wehrli was a football and track standout at King City. He had something like four scholarship offers. Mizzou was the only big time program. The others were schools like Northwest Missouri State. With the way college recruiters beat the bushes today, if Wehrli was recruited today, he would have his pick of any program in the country.
Missouri played a home and home series with SMU in the late 1950's and early 1960's. That was the days before the death penalty. One of the SMU QB's was Don Meredith who eventually quarterbacked the Cowboys and then was part of the original Monday Night Football broadcast team. Another member was Howard Cosell.
In the early 1960's, SMU had a wide receiver, Jerry Levias, a very, very highly touted Texas recruit. At the beginning of the the week prior to the game Devine moved Wehrli from the cornerback spot on one side of the defense to the cornerback spot on the other side. that was before the days of a wide side corner and a boundary corner. Wehrli had never played on that side before. After the move, Wehrli learned the move was made by Devine so he would be covering Levias. He shut Levias down, a couple of short catches as I recall.
Wehrli was also a great punt returner. If memory serves he lead the nation in punt returns one year.
Larry Wilson, the Cardinals' Hall of Fame free safety was asked during the exhibition season of Wehrli's rookie year by someone in the St. Louis media if Wehrli was going to make the team. Wilson laughed and said that Wehrli had the quickest feet of any defensive back he (Wilson) had ever seen.
Dan Devine was a great coach. I would argue the best in Tiger history, but in truth in the 1960's the State of Missouri produced some exceptional football players and Roger Wehrli was probably the best.
Edited by ScottsdaleTiger at 00:30:50 on 10/14/20
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Roger Wehrli - ScottsdaleTiger MU - 10/14 00:19:42
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