The 1967 Wayne State Tartars football team represented Wayne State University as an independent during the 1967 NCAA College Division football season. The team compiled a 7–2 record, averaged 376.1 yard of total offense per game, and scored 275 points and 40 touchdowns, each of which was a school record at the time.[1]Vernon Gale was in his third year as the team's head coach.[2] The team's tallies of 48 points against Michigan Tech and 49 points against Western Reserve were the highest point totals by a Wayne football team since 1951.[3][4]
The team began the season with seven consecutive victories. In the sixth victory against Eastern Michigan, a capacity crowd was drawn to Tartar Field, leading Detroit Free Press columnist Joe Falls to write: "They were standing on rooftops, fence tops, car tops and tree tops – anything that would hold them. They jammed into those rickety old porches along Hobart Street and they climbed telephone poles and held on for dear life. . . . This was backyard football at its best – maybe the finest moment in the history of Wayne State University."[5]
The team's statistical leaders included quarterback A. J. "Apple Juice" Vaughn with 1,090 passing yards and 776 rushing yards and Paul Hay with 253 receiving yards.[6][7] Vaughn set school records (since broken) with 17 touchdown passes, 207.3 yards of total offense per game, 1,882 yards of total offense, and a 142.01 passing efficiency rating.[8] In Wayne's victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Vaughn set a national NCAA College Division record with 555 yards of total offense (271 rushing yards on 26 carries and 284 passing yards with 11 completions on 21 passes).[7][9] At the end of the 1967 season, the Detroit Free Press joked that "the Wayne State crew turned out more records in the past nine weeks than Motown, let alone the RCA victors."[7]
The 1967 season was the last year in which Wayne State played its home games at Tartar Field. WSU Stadium opened in 1968.[10]
