were stabilized. This signaled the end of the football team's games against larger schools. The football team was disbanded for the most of World War II, and Pete Henry, the athletic director took over football coaching duties for 1942 and 1945. Things began to look up by the late 1940s, when Donora-native "Deacon" Dan Towler chose W&J over offers from larger football programs. The backfield in 1948 was nicknamed the "Four Gazelles." While still dominant, with the third highest scoring total in the country, that group would have been one of the most best backfields in the nation if not for a plague of injuries. The fifties and sixties were generally poor for W&J football, as President Boyd Crumrine Patterson, faced with budget deficits, limited athletic scholarships to "on-need" and spread the remaining scholarships among more sports. In one bright spot, Art Massaro was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 29th Round of the 1953 NFL Draft, making him and Deacon Dan only the 2 W&J players ever drafted. Deacon Dan earned All-Pro honors in 4 of his 6 years in with the Rams, before leaving to become a Methodist minister. One other member of the "Four Gazelles", Jack Sourbeer, was recruited by the LA Rams in 1951, but declined their offer to attend medical school instead. From 1956 to 1972 Washington & Jefferson competed in the NCAA College Division. In 1958, the Presidents, who had previously been independent and not members of any conference, joined the Presidents' Athletic Conference. The teams of the seventies were similarly poor, save for a PAC championship in 1970 and a second-place finish in 1971. When the NCAA re-aligned its football conference structure in 1973, W&J joined Division III. Resurgence in Division III (1982–present) In 1982, John "Lucky" Luckhardt took over the team and began a resurgence. Led by freshman running back A.J. Pagano, the Presidents qualified for the 1984 NCAA Division III playoffs, the team's first post-season appearance since the 1922 Rose Bowl. The 1985 team was nationally ranked and barely missed taking the PAC championship. In 1986, they won the PAC and secured another bid the NCAA Division III playoffs, only to lose to Susquehanna University. The undefeated and united 1987 team won the PAC and advanced to the Division III playoffs, where they defeated Allegheny College in ten inches of snow in a game called "one of the greatest NCAA