From year one of the program til the early 60s, Florida State never had a pure passer. Even Lee Corso, best-known of the early signal-callers, ran for twice as many yards as he passed. Then Bill Peterson installed an NFL-style offense to compete against an increasingly tougher schedule of big time opponents. To pilot his aerial circus he chose Steve Tensi, a lanky kid from Ohio with a howitzer for an arm. Tensi connected—both on the field and off—with a sure- handed receiver named Fred Biletnikoff. Together, they led the upstart Seminoles to wins over the gators and Oklahoma, on the way to a top-15 finish in 1964.
A conversation with the late Steve Tensi, FSU’s first great QB
