This is the third in a series of articles commemorating the 50th anniversary of Butler's undefeated 1963 varsity football team.BUTLER TWP — Butler was more than home to a prominent football program in 1963.It became a common stop for prominent college football coaches.“They all used to come around here,” then-safety Terry Hanratty said. “You never knew who was going to show up at one of our games or practices.“Joe Paterno, Duffy Daugherty, Bo Schembechler, Ara Parseghian ... we saw quite a bit of all of those guys.”At least 12 members of the 1963 Golden Tornado squad went on to play major college football.Hanratty, of course, wound up as the starting quarterback at Notre Dame after starting one year behind center for Butler in 1964. Bill and Terry Rettig became linebackers for Penn State and Vanderbilt, respectively.The Rettig brothers were the first two 1,000-yard rushers in Butler varsity football history.“I got a chance to watch Terry play in college one time and they upset Alabama that day,” Bill Rettig recalled. “And Terry had a monster game against them.”Frank Shipkowski, a tackle, went on to play at Wyoming. Bill Quigley, a center, played at North Carolina while guard Ron Saul joined his twin brother, Rich, at Michigan State. Chuck Esper, another tackle, played at Rutgers.Ed Codi, an end, went on to Kent State before transferring to Slippery Rock. Another end, Dick Quigley, went to Alabama.Tackle Dennis Secunda went on to Memphis and tackle Tom McGrath played at Penn State.“There was no number in place limiting the amount of Division I scholarships back then,” retired Butler football coach Art Bernardi said. “A lot of guys would go on to big programs, struggle to get on the field, if they ever did, and eventually give up the game.“That wasn't really the case with our guys. We had some tough, talented players who wound up doing well in college ball.”Codi said a number of players from the 1962 Butler team moved on to Division I schools, including Dave McCandless to Houston and Mike Sheptak to Georgia.“Once the major college coaches started coming here, they kept coming,” Codi said. “They saw the talent coming up behind those guys.“This place was a hotbed for football.”Hanratty agreed.“In something like a 20-year period, there were 60 Division I football players to come out of Butler,” he said. “That was unheard of.”Daugherty, the Michigan State coach, wound up being the guest speaker at the 1963 Butler team's postseason banquet.“Western Pennsylvania was a popular recruiting spot in general through those years,” Bernardi recalled. “Coaches wouldn't just check out our kids. There were plenty of top programs around here.“We certainly got our share, though, that's for sure. College football programs wanted our kids and we had players go all over the country.”Butler Football Hometown Heros will honor the 1963 varsity football team prior to kickoff at the 2013 season opener Aug. 30. Anyone knowing the whereabouts of players and coaches from that team are urged to call Kevin Vogel at 724-822-5291.