Trosko had success as the team's coach in the 1950s, but the program suffered a 29-game winless streak (0–27–2) from 1959 to 1962.[2][3] The program's decline followed the decision of the Eastern Michigan administration not to award athletic scholarships. Competing with non-scholarship athletes against schools with scholarship athletes, Trosko's Eastern Michigan teams were unable to compete.[3] In August 1965, Trosko abruptly quit as the school's head football coach,[4] and it was reported that the resignation was the result of "an apparent break with school administrators over policy."[5]