Our first football game is scheduled for September 27, 1966 on a Tuesday night. Seeing as we could not get a varsity game lined up for most of the year we would be playing the "B" teams from other schools. Our first game would be against the Pomeroy "B" team at 7:30 PM.
Monday's practice was set for a Monday evening to go over final preparations for the game and to get us under the lights so we had an idea of what it would be like to be to actually play football in those conditions. Our practice was no longer than an hour.
I remember finding it very difficult to sleep the night before the game. So many thoughts going through your mind, so much to remember, so much to consider, yet, so anxious for the game to actually be played.
Monday at school was a very exciting day, lots of anticpation, lots of people who had never even seen a football game in person would be attending their first game. There was an article in the local paper about the game and how it would be nice if the community could come out and support the team win or lose.
As hard as our coaches and players had been practicing, you also now had the band who would do something at the game and you now had to have cheerleaders as well. All of the cheerleaders that had cheered for Fonda all had been basketball oriented. You can't yell, R E B O U N D very well for football so obviously new cheers had to be learned. The cheerleaders for the 1966-67 football team were, Bonnie Dusing, Darlene Hunter, Sheral Adams, Jane Stauter, Judy Smith and Vicki Burditt.
There were no dressing rooms at the baseball park so we had to dress at the school and then be bussed to the games. We got to the field about 6:30 and did our warm ups, it was a beautiful fall night, crisp yet not too cold. I remember the sky was full of stars, it was a wonderful night. As we warmed up the crowd started to show up as well, more and more people kept coming and soon the field on both sides was surrounded by locals who wanted to see the game. My best estimate is that there were at least 750 people for the game.
We lost the toss and kicked off to Pomeroy and forced them to punt. The snap back to the punter went over his head and by the time he retrieved it and punted it we had the ball at the Pomeroy 18 yard line. On the first play of the game for us offensively Doug Krutchen skirted the left end to the 4 yard line and scored on the next play. We were ahead!!!!! Pomeroy then took the kickoff and drove down to our 15 yard line where we stopped them and took over on downs. We drove the ball out to midfield and then I pitched the ball to Doug Kruchten again and he went 56 yards for another touchdown. We were now ahead 12 to 0.
Pomeroy would rally and tie us at 12 to 12 in the third quarter. One play that still stands out to me today is a play made by Dennis Smith in the third quarter. We set up a return on a punt. Don Darling and myself were the return men. The ball was kicked to Don and down the sideline he went, the wall was perfectly set up for him to score. I was trailing the play and saw that all Don had to do was beat one man and he was gone. The Pomeroy player had a good angle on Don, yet, he never saw Dennis Smith. Dennis had a better angle on him and put a block on him that was so devastating that he knocked the helmet off of the player as well as knocked him out of his high top shoes. I remember watching the player fly through the air and he landed and didn't move. It absolutely was the best block I have ever seen. Unfortunately Don got tangled up with Dennis Stafford and tripped over him and didn't score, but 44 years later, I still remember that block.
The game has now moved to the fourth quarter and we are still tied. We have been stopped twice, once on the eleven yard line and then again to the two yard line losing the ball on downs both times. Pomeroy tried to run a reverse on the eleven and Dennis Smith recovered a fumble and now with just minutes to go in the game we have a chance to score and win.
We ran two plays for no gain and then Pomeroy had a five yard penalty, we are on the six yard line. I gave the ball to Pat Murphy on a fullback dive and he got to the three yard line and then I ran a quarterback sneak to get the first down. There was less than a minute to go in the game. There was no scoreboard so the time was kept on the field. I ran another quarterback sneak and got just short of the goal line and then handed the ball off to Pat Murphy who scored with less than thirty seconds to go in the game, we didn't make the extra point so we now led 18 to 12.
We kicked off, Pomeroy tried a double reverse on the kick off, we tackled the runner and one play later the game was over, we had won!!!!! We had won the very first game we had ever played in. The crowd was crazy the players were just as excited. I remember getting on the bus and the bus went all over town as we were yelling, " We're Number One" over and over, honestly, it was incredible the amount of excitement and fulfillment we all had in that moment. We went back to the gym, showered, the kids were all at the school yelling and wanting to just touch us and be a part of the experience.
Statistically the team had a good night with Doug Kruchten being the leading runner, I did have a 42 yard pass to Dennis Stafford that helped our cause. The most important thing though was that we had won. There will be more games to be played and other memories yet, this one I will never forget. 20 kids and coaches can come together in August and in 6 weeks win a game they had never played before. To me, it talks well about the coaches, the team, the school and the community.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Fall 1966-Football comes to Fonda
It's 1966 and the school year is about to begin again. A great summer has passed and now back to the books and being around your friends. As juniors you now knew the lay of the land, while you were not the king of the study hall yet, you were moving in that direction.
Our class consisted this year of Nick Baskerville, Vicki Burditt, Carlotta Delano, Joyce Echher, Beckie Gottschalk, Jane Hatteberg, Myron Hatteberg, Darlene Hunter, Steve Meister, Dick Murphy, Pat Murphy, Karen Nieland, Charles Orr, Joleen Reis, Linda Seagren, Dennis Smith, Don Smith, Dennis Stafford and myself. We lost Philip Kelly and Steve Schossow. We gained Steve Meister midway through our sophomore year and also gained Charles Orr and Dennis Smith. There were 19 of us now.
The senior class was a really good class with many talented people in it. Roger Hatteberg was one of the most musically gifted people I have been associated with. He was a terrific singer, piano and organ player and set very high standards. Some of the other more talented people in the class were Jeanne Hatteberg, Sheral Adams. I also enjoyed very much Alan Goetschius and Darwin Samuelson.
As I mentioned in my last post, football was now coming back to Fonda. A very little known fact about Fonda football is that Fonda was the "mythical" state champions in football in Iowa in 1921 with Cedar Rapids. Fonda was coached by the legendary Jim Kelly who would go on to become the US Olympic track coach in 1956. Football was discontinued in Fonda in 1943 due to the war and was not played again until 1966.
Tom Adams who was the principal now not only had to get it all set up but his most important decision would be who would be his coach. In my opinion he made an excellent choice in hiring Wally Parman right out of college. Parman himself had been a very good athlete and was very good in relating to all of us. His assistant head coach was Tom Adams and Mike O'Brien who both excellent communicators and motivators.
My first encounter with Coach Parman was not the best for me. We had been playing golf and were at McCartan's Standard Station on the highway. I was in there with Terry Smith getting a bottle of pop. Coach Parman walked in, introduced himself and asked me if I was coming out for the football team. I told him yes, I wanted to be the quarterback. Smith then chirped in that I would have to give up the cigarettes and drinking to help get in shape. I about dropped to the floor as those were not things I did. I got this very quisical look from Coach Parman as he left. Fortunately for me Coach would see that those were things that I did not do. Coach Parman would also coach the other male sports to include basketball, track, baseball so we were his all year round.
We had 20 out for the team from freshmen to juniors. We only had one senior out for the team as the coaches thought that only having the player for one year would not be helpful to the program. Those who were on the first team in 1966 were, Gerald Johnson, Pat Murphy, Denny Stafford, Nick Baskerville, Elmer Smith, Denny Smith, Dick Murphy, Bob Cole, Tim Stauter, Don Smith, Don Darling, Allan Goetchius, Tim Bramble, Doug Kruchten, Chuck Orr, Marshall Enderlin, Carl Hatteberg, Rex Jackson, Steve Meister and myself.
Since Fonda OLGC played fall baseball we really didn't have a place to really practice till their season was over. Our first practices were way down at the south end of Fonda in a hay field that was very uncomfortable to practice on. Very hard and quite painful. Eventually we would get to the baseball park and practice there, but the first several weeks we practiced down south of town or outside of the ball park.
Since none of us had really played any organized football there were alot of drills, fundamentals and terminology that had to be learned. The coaches had to determine who could play what positions and then also have to coach individual skills to those players. They had a good plan and again, both were excellent communicators and motivators.
Also in those days, coaches did not hydrate their players like they do today, the thought process being that by denying you fluids you got in shape faster and could stand the heat better. We never had a player go down or get sick, however, I am sure that would not be acceptable under today's guidelines.
I always was in pretty good shape, however, never ached as much in my life as I did after we actually started hitting and being hit. Incredible how much that could hurt and how you would bruise. After a while you did toughen up but I think we never knew how many aches and pains you could really have until you went through the total process.
I remember the first time we padded up. No one knew how to put on the pads, the thigh pads, it was incredible how naive we really were. Fitting your mouth piece was interesting as well. They were made out of a rubber component. You would put them in boiling water till they were very soft, then put them in your mouth to make the indentation of the rubber and hold them there till they cooled off. Yikes, that hurt.
Coach Parman and Coach O'Brien also were the good cop/bad cop at times. Coach Parman could really get after you at times and then Coach O'Brien would come over and put his arm around your shoulders and build you back up. There was nothing better to me in my life though than winning the praise of both of those coaches, they meant alot to me and I wanted to my best to make sure I did not let them down.
Since we did not have alot of players, some of the teachers and people in town would come out and scrimmage with us. Lee Hurlburt who played football in college would play, Verlyn Myers, Coach O'Brien, Jim Tjaden who played football in military school, Herb Delano, Ray Morgan and Doug Evans from OLGC scrimmaged with us a couple of times. I believe OLGC baseball coach Tony Sebben put the stop to that once he found out Doug was out there with us. These were mature men who would just beat the tar out of you, however, it did make us better and stronger as players.
I worked for Jim Tjaden at the grocery store, he was the owner. I do remember one time Jim was playing running back and he came around the corner on a sweep and I came up and hit him really hard. It was the best feeling to hit him, I saw him the next day at work and he was still limping. Made the day go much better as he spent alot of time in the office and not out telling me what to do.
Chuck Orr joined us about two weeks into practice. Chuck and his family moved to Fonda in the middle of September. His father Bill was the elevator manager. Bill had been an outstanding basketball player at Ware, Iowa and had earned a scholarship to the University of Iowa. The war broke out and Bill went to war serving in the Army in the South Pacific. A much higher calling for those young men and we are so thankful for what they did. Yet, I always thought there was a part of Bill who really wondered about playing at Iowa. A great man was Bill Orr.
Chuck Orr tells the story though about registering for school and meeting Tom Adams. Chuck got all of his books and the last thing that was put on top of the books was a football helmet. Chuck asked Mr. Adams what that was, Tom told him it was a football helmet. Chuck informed Tom that he was a basketball player not a football player. Tom told him he was a football player now, practice was at 3:30. So here comes Mr. Orr all 6'2" 145 pounds of him to join the football team.
Since we had no real idea of how to play the game. The coaches decided to make our offense very simple and rely on playing great defense. We ran the straight T formation offense. I did win the quarterback position and now had to learn the plays and call the plays. In those days the coaches did not send it the plays, the quarterback called the plays. Our backfield consisted on Doug Krutchen at running back, Pat Murphy at fullback and Don Darling at the other running back. Our offensive line was Denny Stafford and Alan Goetchius or Chuck Orr at end. Nick Baskerville and Denny Smith at tackle, Don Smith and Dick Murphy at guard and Gerald Johnson at center.
The football field had to be drawn out inside of the baseball park and the goal posts set. I remember that there was a problem in setting out the field, I don't remember if the hash marks were off but the field was not what I would call square, however, same for both sides, soon the goal posts would be set and the games would begin. The stage is set, anticipation is high for the first game in Fonda in 23 years.
Our class consisted this year of Nick Baskerville, Vicki Burditt, Carlotta Delano, Joyce Echher, Beckie Gottschalk, Jane Hatteberg, Myron Hatteberg, Darlene Hunter, Steve Meister, Dick Murphy, Pat Murphy, Karen Nieland, Charles Orr, Joleen Reis, Linda Seagren, Dennis Smith, Don Smith, Dennis Stafford and myself. We lost Philip Kelly and Steve Schossow. We gained Steve Meister midway through our sophomore year and also gained Charles Orr and Dennis Smith. There were 19 of us now.
The senior class was a really good class with many talented people in it. Roger Hatteberg was one of the most musically gifted people I have been associated with. He was a terrific singer, piano and organ player and set very high standards. Some of the other more talented people in the class were Jeanne Hatteberg, Sheral Adams. I also enjoyed very much Alan Goetschius and Darwin Samuelson.
As I mentioned in my last post, football was now coming back to Fonda. A very little known fact about Fonda football is that Fonda was the "mythical" state champions in football in Iowa in 1921 with Cedar Rapids. Fonda was coached by the legendary Jim Kelly who would go on to become the US Olympic track coach in 1956. Football was discontinued in Fonda in 1943 due to the war and was not played again until 1966.
Tom Adams who was the principal now not only had to get it all set up but his most important decision would be who would be his coach. In my opinion he made an excellent choice in hiring Wally Parman right out of college. Parman himself had been a very good athlete and was very good in relating to all of us. His assistant head coach was Tom Adams and Mike O'Brien who both excellent communicators and motivators.
My first encounter with Coach Parman was not the best for me. We had been playing golf and were at McCartan's Standard Station on the highway. I was in there with Terry Smith getting a bottle of pop. Coach Parman walked in, introduced himself and asked me if I was coming out for the football team. I told him yes, I wanted to be the quarterback. Smith then chirped in that I would have to give up the cigarettes and drinking to help get in shape. I about dropped to the floor as those were not things I did. I got this very quisical look from Coach Parman as he left. Fortunately for me Coach would see that those were things that I did not do. Coach Parman would also coach the other male sports to include basketball, track, baseball so we were his all year round.
We had 20 out for the team from freshmen to juniors. We only had one senior out for the team as the coaches thought that only having the player for one year would not be helpful to the program. Those who were on the first team in 1966 were, Gerald Johnson, Pat Murphy, Denny Stafford, Nick Baskerville, Elmer Smith, Denny Smith, Dick Murphy, Bob Cole, Tim Stauter, Don Smith, Don Darling, Allan Goetchius, Tim Bramble, Doug Kruchten, Chuck Orr, Marshall Enderlin, Carl Hatteberg, Rex Jackson, Steve Meister and myself.
Since Fonda OLGC played fall baseball we really didn't have a place to really practice till their season was over. Our first practices were way down at the south end of Fonda in a hay field that was very uncomfortable to practice on. Very hard and quite painful. Eventually we would get to the baseball park and practice there, but the first several weeks we practiced down south of town or outside of the ball park.
Since none of us had really played any organized football there were alot of drills, fundamentals and terminology that had to be learned. The coaches had to determine who could play what positions and then also have to coach individual skills to those players. They had a good plan and again, both were excellent communicators and motivators.
Also in those days, coaches did not hydrate their players like they do today, the thought process being that by denying you fluids you got in shape faster and could stand the heat better. We never had a player go down or get sick, however, I am sure that would not be acceptable under today's guidelines.
I always was in pretty good shape, however, never ached as much in my life as I did after we actually started hitting and being hit. Incredible how much that could hurt and how you would bruise. After a while you did toughen up but I think we never knew how many aches and pains you could really have until you went through the total process.
I remember the first time we padded up. No one knew how to put on the pads, the thigh pads, it was incredible how naive we really were. Fitting your mouth piece was interesting as well. They were made out of a rubber component. You would put them in boiling water till they were very soft, then put them in your mouth to make the indentation of the rubber and hold them there till they cooled off. Yikes, that hurt.
Coach Parman and Coach O'Brien also were the good cop/bad cop at times. Coach Parman could really get after you at times and then Coach O'Brien would come over and put his arm around your shoulders and build you back up. There was nothing better to me in my life though than winning the praise of both of those coaches, they meant alot to me and I wanted to my best to make sure I did not let them down.
Since we did not have alot of players, some of the teachers and people in town would come out and scrimmage with us. Lee Hurlburt who played football in college would play, Verlyn Myers, Coach O'Brien, Jim Tjaden who played football in military school, Herb Delano, Ray Morgan and Doug Evans from OLGC scrimmaged with us a couple of times. I believe OLGC baseball coach Tony Sebben put the stop to that once he found out Doug was out there with us. These were mature men who would just beat the tar out of you, however, it did make us better and stronger as players.
I worked for Jim Tjaden at the grocery store, he was the owner. I do remember one time Jim was playing running back and he came around the corner on a sweep and I came up and hit him really hard. It was the best feeling to hit him, I saw him the next day at work and he was still limping. Made the day go much better as he spent alot of time in the office and not out telling me what to do.
Chuck Orr joined us about two weeks into practice. Chuck and his family moved to Fonda in the middle of September. His father Bill was the elevator manager. Bill had been an outstanding basketball player at Ware, Iowa and had earned a scholarship to the University of Iowa. The war broke out and Bill went to war serving in the Army in the South Pacific. A much higher calling for those young men and we are so thankful for what they did. Yet, I always thought there was a part of Bill who really wondered about playing at Iowa. A great man was Bill Orr.
Chuck Orr tells the story though about registering for school and meeting Tom Adams. Chuck got all of his books and the last thing that was put on top of the books was a football helmet. Chuck asked Mr. Adams what that was, Tom told him it was a football helmet. Chuck informed Tom that he was a basketball player not a football player. Tom told him he was a football player now, practice was at 3:30. So here comes Mr. Orr all 6'2" 145 pounds of him to join the football team.
Since we had no real idea of how to play the game. The coaches decided to make our offense very simple and rely on playing great defense. We ran the straight T formation offense. I did win the quarterback position and now had to learn the plays and call the plays. In those days the coaches did not send it the plays, the quarterback called the plays. Our backfield consisted on Doug Krutchen at running back, Pat Murphy at fullback and Don Darling at the other running back. Our offensive line was Denny Stafford and Alan Goetchius or Chuck Orr at end. Nick Baskerville and Denny Smith at tackle, Don Smith and Dick Murphy at guard and Gerald Johnson at center.
The football field had to be drawn out inside of the baseball park and the goal posts set. I remember that there was a problem in setting out the field, I don't remember if the hash marks were off but the field was not what I would call square, however, same for both sides, soon the goal posts would be set and the games would begin. The stage is set, anticipation is high for the first game in Fonda in 23 years.
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