In 1969, the East Tennessee State Buccaneers won the NCAA University Division title. They defeated West Virginia Mountaineers 26-7 before a crowd of 102,316 at Miami Stadium in Miami, Florida. East Tennessee State (3-0-1) was led by head coach Russ Johnson, who accepted the job after five seasons as an assistant under John Merritt at North Carolina. He had taken over for Tom Cassidy, who was fired after going 32-6-1 during his tenure at ETSU. Before becoming head coach, Johnson had a successful stint as an assistant under Bill Lewis at Maryland where he helped the Terrapins win the 1966 National Championship. On paper, East Tennessee State looked like the favorite to win the championship. They went into the season ranked No. 1 in the country and were undefeated after three games. However, they lost their first game of the season 21-7 to Penn State on September 29th at Carter Field. After losing the opener, no one expected ETSU to make it to the championship game. However, the Bucs came back from an early 10-0 deficit to beat West Virginia 28-10 on October 20th at Johnson City.