1965 Saint John's Johnnies football team

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

The 1965 Saint John’s Johnnies football team represented Saint John’s University in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) during the NAIA season. In head coach John Gagliardi’s 13th year, the team went 11–0 overall (7–0 in the MIAC) and won the conference title.

Saint John’s reached the NAIA playoffs and beat Fairmont State 28–7 in the semifinals at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. Stan Suchta rushed for 124 yards and was the game's MVP.

In the Champion Bowl, the NAIA national championship game, Saint John’s dominated Linfield 33–0. The defense intercepted four passes and held Linfield to just 43 yards of total offense. Suchta added 91 rushing yards and three touchdowns and was the championship’s MVP.

Defensively, Saint John’s opened the season with four straight shutouts and allowed only 27 points all year (2.5 per game), while giving up just 112.1 rushing yards per game. Offensively, the Johnnies averaged 233 rushing yards per game, led by Jim Shiely with 823 rushing yards.

Gagliardi was named NAIA Coach of the Year and MIAC Coach of the Year. Pat Whalin earned first-team Little All-America honors, and eight players were named to the All-MIAC team. Mike Collins received the Golden Helmet award, and three players earned AP Little All-America honors: Whalin (first), Fred Cremer (second), and Collins (honorable mention).

This title was Saint John’s second NAIA national championship in three years. Gagliardi went on to become the winningest coach in college football history and is in the College Football Hall of Fame.