Playing football can't last a lifetime, but a football team can. Just ask Charlie's Boys.

Named after their head coach, Charles Godlasky, Charlie's Boys are a group of football players who played for him at Slippery Rock State College from 1959-64, Godlasky's tenure there.

That was an era in which The Rock's football fortunes turned around. Inheriting a program that experienced only three winning seasons during the 1950s, Godlasky guided The Rock to three straight PSAC championship games from 1961-63, winning the state title in 1962.

"We only lost one game (5-1-2) in 1960 and that's when we knew our program was going someplace," team member Quentin Currie said. "We had a party after that season because we knew we had a heckuva team coming back.

"We decided as a group we'd get together for a party every five years. Then we lost a guy in Vietnam and decided to make it every two years.

"Life is too short," Currie added.

The team had its 18th reunion party June 6, 50 years after Godlasky debuted as head coach, at the Embassy Suites in Coraopolis.

There were 48 players and three coaches, including Godlasky himself, scheduled to attend. The first reunion party had fewer than 20 players return.

The official list of Charlie's Boys now stands at 85, spread over 14 states and Canada.

"It's picked up steam over the years," former running back Jerry Bejbl said. "With each passing reunion, people realize that time is precious.

"We're talking about a perennial losing situation that suddenly went 20-5-2 in three years under Coach Godlasky. That type of experience stays with you. The people who made it happen ... we never left each other."

While the official reunion is every two years, many of these former teammates keep in contact with each other much more often.

One player who's never missed a reunion is Denny Douds, a guard-nose tackle for The Rock from 1959-62 who has won more than 200 games in 34 season as head football coach at East Stroudsburg.

East Stroudsburg was the team Slippery Rock defeated 13-6 for the PSAC title in 1962.

"I was a captain back then and it's a captain's responsibility to be here," Douds said. "I wouldn't miss this for anything.

"This is what a team is: Guys who stand by each other to still come together to care and share after all these years."

Douds said that Rock team was unique in that "nobody in their families before them had gone to college. All of these guys had to work for everything they got. They know how much their families sacrificed so they could get a college education."

"We were just a bunch of poor children," said Al "Cooter" Colledge, a former running back. "We came from hard-working families who gave all they had to give us an opportunity.

"We were grinders. We were motivated. Charlie was a catalyst that way," he added.

Many of those poor Slippery Rock players went on to successful professional careers. Colledge developed a software business into a worldwide industry. Tony Daniels, a backup quarterback, directed an FBI training academy in Virginia. Currie coached at Dartmouth.

Numerous players wound up coaching college football or various sports at the high school level.

"Slippery Rock had a great teaching program and that's what attracted a lot of Division I transfers to our team," former tackle Bruno Raso said. "We had something like 23 transfers come in during those years, guys from North Carolina, Notre Dame, Arizona State and VMI.

"Most were children from Western Pennsylvania who wanted to play closer to home and get into education. Charlie didn't bring in any of those guys. They just showed up."

Rock assistant coach Al Jacks went on to become head coach at Clarion University for 19 years.

"What I learned here I took up there," Jacks said. "All of our players at Slippery Rock were first-generation college children who were very receptive to coaching. They got it going and kept it going."

Linebacker Gus Cantanese went on to coach football for 21 years at Perry High School in Pittsburgh, winning a state championship in 1989 with eventual Pitt product Rod Rutherford at quarterback.

"For years, my offense at Perry was the offense we ran at Slippery Rock," Cantanese said. "Basic, but effective. Football is all about execution. Charlie showed us that.

"He was all about moral character and values off the field, too. Charlie made everybody go to church, whether we were Catholic or not."

Currie, the last PSAC football player to wear a leather helmet, described Godlasky as a players coach.

"He was part of us. He didn't separate himself from us," he said. "He initiated that bond that's still with us. We discovered that once you go to SRU, you're forever part of SRU."

Current SRU football coach George Mihalik, 141-85-4 in 21 years at The Rock, said football teams no longer have the staying power of Charlie's Boys.

"Society has changed. Players have changed. Tradition isn't viewed like it once was," Mihalik said.

"These guys have remained a team for 50 years. I'm envious of that. They're a unique group who have Slippery Rock as their common bond.

"Their time here is special. So is mine," Mihalik added.