In 1979, after losing their top four quarterbacks to injury, the Carroll College football team finished the last half of the season with one of the most remarkable streaks of defensive play in school history.
In their last four games, the Saints went 4-0 with throwback scores of 13-2 over Rocky Mountain College, 27-7 over Western Montana, 6-3 over Ricks College and 8-7 over Western again.
But the hard-luck Saints finished at 6-2 and second in the conference.
In those final four contests, the “Purple and Gold Curtain” held the opposition to an average of 4.8 points, and 168 total yards per game. And the emotional leader of that defense was All-American linebacker Don “Dr. Doom” Diggins.
Diggins was a four-year starter for the Carroll football team from 1976-79. He was recruited out of South Bend, Ind., when assistant coach Gary Hoovestal witnessed him dunking a basketball in the high school gym.
“I started playing full contact football without pads when I was 8 years old, football was my passion,” Diggins wrote in an email from Arizona. “On offense, I was Gale Sayers and on defense I was Dike Butkus. So by the time I was able to play in pads, I was 13 in the seventh grade at Jefferson Junior High.”
Diggins said his father told him that he was going to be the NFL’s first black quarterback.
“So naturally I went out for quarterback the first year I played in junior high, but as soon as Randall Cunningham hit the league, there was no need to chase my father’s dream, and the next year I played tailback and inside linebacker, the two positions that I loved,” he recalled.
It was the beginning of Diggins’ development as a linebacker, following in his older brother George’s footsteps, who was playing for Iowa Central.
“Dr. Doom” went on to become a two-time all-Frontier outside linebacker for the Saints, where he helped the club to conference titles in 1976 and 1978, and was part of the first Carroll team to qualify for the NAIA playoffs.
“The 1979 season was by far my most memorable … because our defense only allowed nine points a game; and after the Rocky game, when we lost all of our quarterbacks, we held our opponents to under five points a game,” Diggins wrote. “The Rocky game and the Montana Tech game were two of the best games I’ve ever been a part of.”
Diggins recounted how the Saints had four goal-line stands against Rocky that netted zero points for the Bears.
“I had the pleasure of intercepting their QB, that had not thrown a pick in over 200 pass attempts, that set up our only touchdown that day,” he wrote. “Against Tech … their QB had not thrown a pick in over 300 attempts, and I got him that day, as well setting up our offense inside their two-yard line for another Saints score.”
“Dr. Doom” finished the season leading the team with 110 tackles and three interceptions, despite the fact that every team ran away from his side of the field. The 6-foot-3, 195-pounder, was chosen a first team 1979 Kodak All-American, and third team AP All-American.
“Don had a very fine year,” then coach Bob Petrino told the IR. “Overall he played the run and the pass very well, and he did a good job of being one of the emotional leaders on the team. He was a leader.”
Diggins has been employed with Swift Transportation Co., of Arizona LLC, for 22 years, where he is presently the Human Resource Compliance Leader of 32 terminals, and 40 on-site locations nationwide.
This week, Diggins will be inducted into the Wendy’s Carroll Hall of Fame during Homecoming Week, with five other individuals and one team.
“Don was a smart player who understood the game very well,” Gary Hoovestal said. “He also had a little bit of a mean streak in him.”
Tim Burton, an all-conference defensive back for the Saints back then, described how Diggins was an intense, highly skilled outside linebacker.
“As a free safety I loved playing Diggs’ side of the field, because I always knew he would make something happen and get the job done,” Burton said.
