Program eras · Mal Pearson · Gary Taylor · Dewey King · Cliff Schimmels · Jim Rexilius

The Rebuilding Years 1969–1981

Thirteen seasons, five head coaches, four winning records. Mal Pearson and Gary Taylor won six games between them in four years. Dewey King steadied it in the middle of the decade — 6–3 in 1976 and again in 1978 — and then fell to 1–8 in 1979. Cliff Schimmels and Jim Rexilius each went 2–7 in the single season they were given. By 1981 Wheaton had won five games in three years.

Era record
39-77-1
.338 · 13 seasons
Winning seasons
4/13
CCIW titles
0
none
NCAA playoffs
0
none
Best season
1976
6-3

This is the stretch the program measures its recoveries against. There were good players in it — Larry Wagner made 109 tackles as a sophomore in 1975 and finished with 259; Glenn Sedjo captained the 1970s line and earned All-CCIW, All-State and academic All-State in the same season — but there was no sustained team around them. The conference titles of the Chrouser years were two decades gone and would stay gone until 1995. What the era produced instead was the vacancy J.R. Bishop walked into in 1982, and the mandate that came with it.

Guard the Gate
Guard the Gate A defensive-unit shirt: the goalpost as a portcullis, the knight braced in front of it. Wheaton played as the Crusaders from 1930 until the name was retired in 2000, covering the whole of this era. A new illustration made in 2026 in tribute to the nickname, not an archival image — see the Crusader Era.

Head Coaches

5 coaches across 13 seasons
CoachYearsSeasonsRecordPct
Mal Pearson 1969–1970 2 4-13-1 .250
Gary Taylor 1971–1972 2 2-16 .111
Dewey King 1973–1979 7 29-34 .460
Cliff Schimmels 1980 1 2-7 .222
Jim Rexilius 1981 1 2-7 .222

Season by Season

1969–1981
19693-619701-7-119711-819721-819732-719744-519755-419766-319775-419786-319791-819802-719812-7
YearRecordCCIWHonorsCoach
1969 3-6 Mal Pearson
1970 1-7-1 1-6-1 Mal Pearson
1971 1-8 1-7 Gary Taylor
1972 1-8 1-7 Gary Taylor
1973 2-7 2-6 Dewey King
1974 4-5 4-4 Dewey King
1975 5-4 5-3 Dewey King
1976 6-3 5-3 Dewey King
1977 5-4 4-4 Dewey King
1978 6-3 5-3 Dewey King
1979 1-8 1-7 Dewey King
1980 2-7 1-7 Cliff Schimmels
1981 2-7 1-7 Jim Rexilius

Turning Points

  1. 1969Mal Pearson’s first season, 3–6; the program will not have a winning year until 1975.
  2. 1971Gary Taylor goes 1–8, and does it again in 1972.
  3. 1976Dewey King’s 6–3 is the best record of the thirteen years.
  4. 1979King finishes 1–8 and leaves; two more one-year coaches follow.
  5. 1981Jim Rexilius goes 2–7. Wheaton has won five games in three seasons.