Hall of Fame
A four-year starter and three-year captain, Dan Dullea directed the Tigers to their only unbeaten football season, a 10-0 mark in 1974.
Two years later Dan was at the helm when Towson went after the 1976 NCAA Division III National Football Championship in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl. Despite losing 31-28 to St. John's (Minn.) on a game ending field goal, Dan rallied the Tigers from a 28-0 deficit with 12:42 left in the contest to knot the score. Although it fell short, the comeback still ranks as one of the greatest in Tiger Football history.
Over his four-year career Dan helped Towson compile a 30-11 record, the best four-year record of any Towson quarterback.
A product of nearby Loyola High School where he was All-State and All-Metro, Dan suffered a shoulder injury during his interscholastic career that was slow to heal. A number of colleges recruiting him backed off. Towson didn’t.
"We were very fortunate to recruit him," said former Tiger coach Phil Albert (1972-91). "He was probably the pivotal guy. The year before he came to Towson we were 1-9. He was the catalyst. He was the defining player. He made it happen. We would never have been able to go undefeated that year without him under center. He paved the way for a tradition of those drop back, throwing quarterbacks we had. He opened the program door and said if you come here you're going to get exposure and have fun playing the quarterback position."
Towson’s very first football All-American, Dan left Towson with 26 individual records. Only one still exists; his 81-yard touchdown run in a 32-14 win at Federal City in 1974. That 42-year-old longest carry by a quarterback is Towson's oldest individual player record.
In 2009 Towson's Stagg Bowl team was honored as a Team of Distinction by the university's Athletic Hall of Fame. Dan was called on by his teammates to speak in their behalf. He addressed the banquet audience as a leader should, praising his teammates. He saved his most poignant remark until the end when he concluded, "We didn't love each other because we were winning. We were winning because we loved each other."
Dan died suddenly at his home in Queenstown in December, 2015.
