1918 Pandemic, WWI Threatened HS Sports

Football

March 31, 2020

By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half

Into a world filled with the challenges of World War I, a new menace arrived

It didn’t wear colors or plead allegiance to a flag. It held no prejudice. It knew no borders.

“Have you had it yet?” asked the Detroit Free Press on the front page of the Wednesday, April 3, 1918 edition. “Doctors are not agreed as to what it is, but the victims, and there are a lot of ‘em, are enthusiastically unanimous in declaring that it’s all-fired discomforting.

“Whatever the name of the disease is, there’s an epidemic of it throughout Detroit and Highland Park.

“Dust, weather, and whisky all are blamed in wild guesses as to its origin.”

The illness resembled common influenza, according to the newspaper, and in fact that’s exactly what it was, in mutated form, spurred on by many factors of the era. Sometimes referred to as the “grip” or “grippe” in the United States, this was the first of three waves that hit. By the fall and running into the summer of 1919, it would wreak havoc upon the globe, killing an unfathomable 50 million people as it spread – compared to the estimated guess of 16 million killed worldwide during WWI. In the U.S., the estimate was more than 675,000 deceased because of the flu.

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic

The United States officially entered the war in April 1917, and it was this move that led to the cancelation of the 1918 spring prep sports season in the state at a late March meeting of the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) – the predecessor of the modern-day MHSAA. The Second Half article, 'Over Here,' Athletes Gave To WWI Effort’, details that time when the Boys’ Working Reserve was created to address the labor deficiency caused by WWI. The move, in hindsight, was a wise one considering what was to come.

In the U.S., research indicates the first outbreak of an odd form of influenza appeared in Haskell County, in southwest Kansas. In early March 1918 the virus appeared at Camp Funston, a training camp located near the Fort Riley Army base in north-central Kansas. Designed to prepare troops for duty in France, the camp was one of 16 established by the federal government near the outbreak of WWI. As soldiers moved city to city, camp to camp and ultimately overseas, the disease spread nationally and globally. To date, experts still debate the global origin of the pandemic. Falsely, it was christened the “Spanish Flu”.

In Michigan, Pinckney, located about 20 miles from Ann Arbor, had reported an outbreak of various diseases, including an odd form of influenza, in late March. Camp Custer in Battle Creek reported “a flurry of influenza … thought to be caused by dust” in an early April report published in the Ann Arbor News. “A large number of men in the Ford factory are suffering from influenza,” relayed the Detroit Times at the same period. “It spreads rapidly where men work indoors and close together.”

The United States War Department, on April 4, reported via the news wire that the army’s health was good, “although bronchitis and influenza complicated with pneumonia in many northern camps increased the … death rates slightly over the preceding week.”

Word out of Lansing’s “vital statistics department” indicated that pneumonia, which “often followed influenza in its wake,” had led as the cause of death in March in Michigan, with 490 cases. Influenza was blamed as the reason in 39 instances. In mid-April, the Grand Rapids Press noted schools and industry saw operations hampered by influenza sweeping the city.

The April 25 edition of the Escanaba Morning Press included a quarter-page posting from the Board of Health highlighting precautions that should be taken by residents in order to combat what was now being referred to as an epidemic of “Spanish Influenza which is now Prevalent in Our State.” Lansing reported that pneumonia death totals swelled to 892 in April with influenza totaling 125. (Recall that the first flu shot, developed by Jonas Salk and Thomas Francis, didn’t arrive until 1938.)

Reports about the devastation from around the world continued to fill column inches in Michigan newspapers, although the spread of illness seemed to subside in the state as spring flowed into summer. July saw only 13 deaths attributed to influenza and 107 to pneumonia.

Doctors and officials continued to grasp at straws in trying to identify who was most susceptible. A theory that it attacked the underfed was proven false. Another wire article circulating in papers around the state indicated that “Persons who want to avoid the Spanish influenza, or the common garden variety of the same disease, were warned by the New York City department of health … not to kiss ‘except through a handkerchief.’”

But by late summer, life in Michigan seemed back to normal. In May of 1917, the Selective Service Act had passed, requiring all males between 21 and 30 to register for military service. On August 31, 1918, the act was expanded to cover men between ages 18 and 45 with a provision “that voluntary enlistments be closed until after the war.”

That action helped resolve a lingering question, posed by the creation of the Boys’ Working Reserve by the Interscholastic Athletic Association back in March.

“Last spring when the (MIAA) held a meeting at Ann Arbor, it was decided that ballots should be cast the third week in August by members … (to decide) whether football would be played or not,” wrote the Detroit Times in mid-August.

“Taking 18-year olds would wreck many entire elevens and threatens disruption of Schoolboys’ Interscholastic competition,” stated the Detroit Free Press in a headline. The paper then noted in an article, published after the passage of the 18 to 45 draft bill, that “With the act curtailing enlistments, the boys will be unable to go to the navy as many had planned and likely will remain here until called. The most sensible solution will be to play football and the grid game bids fair to play the greatest part of any prep school sport in preparing boys for the war.”

Votes slowly trickled in with a majority of MIAA member schools opting to compete. As a former coach stated, “the younger boys have worked up to this opportunity and cannot enlist, so they should be allowed to play football.”

Public Schools Open and Football Starts

Students across the state returned to the classroom come September as scheduled. In newspapers, readers were introduced to new teaching staff. Advertisers pitched new clothes, shoes, pencil sharpeners and other school supplies. Front pages included headlines about key victories by the Allies over the Central Powers, while cities and towns continued to offer up their “best manhood for the cause of democracy.” A railway ad in the Lansing State Journal offered trips to Camp Custer to “See the Soldiers” and “Miles of Barracks.” Midwest writers picked the Chicago Cubs over the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.

“Despite the German and the trouble he is causing the Allied forces over there and over here, the lads seem determined to make the most of the 1918 football season and prepare for the bigger battles which are in store for them,” wrote the Free Press on the fourth of September, in an article announcing game schedules for Detroit Central, Eastern, Cass Tech, Northern, Western, Northeastern and Northwestern high schools.

“High School Starts Grid Play Monday” was the headline in the Kalamazoo Gazette on Sunday, September 8. The Kalamazoo Central squad would practice for two weeks before lining up “against a strong Camp Custer Team on Sept. 21. It is hoped to bring a big Custer band here for that occasion.” However, the game was cancelled and the Camp football team disbanded.

Influenza was back in the headlines by mid-September, “raging” at epidemic levels in Boston, then Camp Devens, a nearby Army training facility; then across the military. Assistant secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was carried off a troopship in New York on a stretcher, dealing with pneumonia that set in after a bout with “Spanish influenza contracted while on his voyage home” from France after inspecting “U.S. troops in Europe.”

Approximately four thousand men were in quarantine because of an outbreak at the naval aviation training camp at Great Lakes, Illinois. Surgeon General Rupert Blue reminded the public “that it was well not to under-rate the disease,” and requested the National Research Council “to determine the exact nature of the microbe, or micro organism which is causing the so-called ‘Spanish influenza.’”

The virus had again reached Michigan by October 1, when papers announced it had hit a naval training station in River Rouge, and that there were nearly 2,000 cases diagnosed at Camp Custer. “To aid in the care of the men, 25 extra nurses have been called from Battle Creek and a dozen from Ann Arbor.”

Recognizing the danger, draft plans were abandoned for troops by the War Department. Warning placards began appearing in cities to help residents recognize the symptoms. The flu would soon overwhelm Detroit where, initially, 10 cases were reported on October 1. Ten days later, health officials frankly admitted that the city, with 953 cases, had an epidemic on their hands. “Health authorities believe that many cases of real influenza have not been reported.” On October 14, known cases had exploded to 1,924. Within 24 hours it was 2,563.

Still, Detroit schools did not close. “There is less danger to the children in the schools,” Detroit commissioner of health J.W. Inches said, “then there would be if they were closed and the youngsters ran the streets.”

On October 12, Governor Albert Sleeper suggested that all “churches, theaters, moving picture shows, pool rooms, billiard rooms, lodge rooms, dance halls” remain closed and that “all unnecessary public meetings and gatherings shall be avoided” indefinitely.

“I trust that the patriotic citizens of this state will give us their cooperation in this manner.”

Children with colds were ordered to be sent home but schools were not required to close. That decision was an option available at the discretion of local school boards. Various districts had been closing because of the virus, including Petoskey, schools in and around Ann Arbor, Jackson, Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, as well as various outlying areas like Sault Ste. Marie, Fremont, Charlotte and Allegan. More and more would follow suit.

Meanwhile in Europe, what would become known as the “100 Day Offensive” was showing success. Demands for unconditional surrender were issued by President Woodrow Wilson.

Three days before it was scheduled, Governor Sleeper called off the annual University of Michigan – Michigan Agricultural College (renamed Michigan State College in 1925) football game scheduled for Saturday, October 19. However, many high school contests around the state still were played.

“Saginaw high school’s football eleven went down to defeat at the hands of Detroit Northwestern, 1917 state champions, at Alumni Field Saturday afternoon, 20 to 0. There was nothing of disgrace in the beating, however. Saginaw fought gamely from whistle to whistle,” reported the Saginaw News. “The crowd was rather disappointing, probably due to the influenza scare …”

That night at midnight, the governor’s suggestion to suspend public gatherings became mandatory.

This second wave of attack devastated Michigan and much of the rest of the nation. The October death toll announced to the media by the state’s Vital Statistics department for influenza and pneumonia was 4,200.

On October 19, the Surgeon General announced that 283,331 cases of influenza had been reported in army camps and that 14,153 individuals had “died from influenza since the epidemic began.”

Locally, health officials made additional moves to suppress the spread. “In Flint, the population (has) been wearing … masks for a week and Muskegon is the second city of the state to take up the practice,” noted the Muskegon Chronicle on Monday, October 21, announcing the new order put in place by health officer R.J. Harrington. “All school pupils have been ordered to wear them. Factory employees will wear them continuously unless in a few instances where work is such that this is impossible. Employees at restaurants, stores, and hotels must wear them at all times when on duty.” Still many residents refused the direction.

Soon after, Port Huron closed schools and also requested residents to wear gauze masks to combat the epidemic.

Ban ends

The governor’s ban on public gatherings ended on Friday, November 8, despite protest by physicians. The announcement allowed businesses to reopen, but cities were allowed to dictate direction as they saw fit. Cancellation of gatherings still took place at various points around the state.

“Football games between Saginaw and Bay City Eastern and between (Saginaw) Arthur Hill and Flint (Central) high schools … were called off this afternoon by health officials,” stated reports out of Saginaw immediately after the ban was lifted. “… it would be unwise to bring teams here from Flint and Bay City, where the influenza situation is considerably more serious than in Saginaw.”

But a number of other schools quickly resumed play. “Hurry-up arrangements were made last night and the game” with Grand Rapids Catholic Central was announced, “even with limited time to advertise the contest,” wrote the Muskegon Chronicle, excitedly reporting plans for a Muskegon High game scheduled for Saturday at Hackley Field.

“There were no games before this issue went to press,” stated the ‘Athletics’ section of the school’s monthly publication of the Said and Done. “Most of them were postponed or annulled because of old Mr. ‘flu’ coming uninvited. He not only made us wear muzzles but he also made us stop playing football. Coach Rand however gave his men no rest, but kept them practicing every day. Then, when Grand Rapids Catholic came over they had something to hit.”

While the lift of the ban was big news, the headlines were, rightfully, dominated with bulletins from across the Atlantic. Pending defeat combined with German Revolution led Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate the imperial crown on November 9. The terms of the Armistice, ending WWI, began at 11 p.m. Washington, D.C., time on November 11, 1918.

Lansing Central is Mythical State Champion

In gridiron play, reigning state champion Detroit Northwestern, Detroit Central and Lansing Central quickly emerged as strong candidates for the state’s mythical crown.

Unbeaten in Michigan, Northwestern had lost to Toledo Waite. Lansing had dominated all of its first six opponents, including a 40-0 win over the Michigan Agricultural College reserves. Unbeaten and unscored upon, Lansing dispatched Northwestern from the title race on November 21 with a 10-6 win, played at Lansing’s South Field. The game was dominated by Lansing halfback Harry Kipke, who scored nine of Lansing’s 10 points. Trailing 10-0, Northwestern’s single score came on a recovered fumble in the Lansing end zone in the third quarter.

“The game was witnessed by the largest crowd which has attended a high school game in Lansing in recent years, despite the fact that a special train filled with pigskin fans had done to Ann Arbor to the M.A.C - U. of M. game.” Michigan downed the visitors from East Lansing, 21-6 at Ferry Field before an estimated 20,000 – “the largest crowd of the season by 10,000” in their rescheduled meeting.

On Thanksgiving Day, Lansing Central and Detroit Central squared off at 2 p.m., again at South Field, to determine the state title. While Detroit Central had lost to Toledo Scott a week earlier, an even larger crowd appeared for the “Capitol City” squad’s battle with the Blue and White

“From the first whistle to the final, Lansing had everything in her favor,” stated the State Journal following the “big red” team’s crushing 61-0 triumph. While rain had preceded the contest, very little fell during the game, and the field “was in fairly good condition.”

“Led by (Harry) Kipke, the most sensational prep school halfback in the state, Lansing romped over the Detroit goal-line almost at will,” stated the Free Press. Lansing led 25-0 at the half.

“He is exceedingly quick on return of punts, can both hurl and receive forward passes,” said Richard Remington of the Detroit News, when naming the junior and two of his teammates among the 11 players on his All-State team. “He has a rapid change of pace and seems to know intuitively when to cut in. He punts well, good drop kicker and place kicks seem easy to him.” Added Remington, “This year he is 50 percent better physically, and 100 percent better in knowledge of the game.” Kipke would again earn all-state selection by Remington in 1919, then move on to a Hall of Fame college career as a player and coach.

Lansing Central sought out another opponent for the following week. “We would play any high school in the country, either Chicago, Boston or New York, preferred,” said coach E.J. Shassberger, seeking a game so as to lay claim to a national title. “We think it proper that the rest of the country should know or see just what Michigan’s champion high school is like. When arrangements for a contest with Toledo Scott (which had beaten Waite 12-7 on Thanksgiving) fell through, the season was officially concluded after eight victories. (In 1952, Dick Kishpaugh, “the Kalamazoo authority on prep sports” named the 1918 Lansing Central squad as the state’s greatest of all-time. The article appeared in the December issue of The Michigan Coach magazine).

By the end of the month, the state board of health announced that influenza was subsiding within the state. Sandusky was still dealing with extreme infection, while Grand Rapids and Bay City were “among the larger communities … hit the worst, but the barely 100 cases at each of these cities give no cause for alarm.”

A December report in the Grand Rapids Press stated that “During November the vital statistics bureau reports 2,779 persons died from pneumonia and influenza.” December totals would climb slightly before falling to under 1,934 in January and 949 in February 1919, leveling to normal levels by April.

With that, prep sports were back in full swing. That winter, Holland surprised many by defeating favored Detroit Northwestern, 14-13, for the state’s 1919 Class A basketball championship. Cadillac defeated Greenville, 35-13, for the Class B crown. The tournament was hosted at Michigan Agricultural College.

Come spring, trailing Battle Creek by a half-point as the meet headed to its last event, Detroit Eastern grabbed team victory in the state track and field final, 24½ to 24 thanks to a fourth-place finish in the half-mile relay while Battle Creek failed to place in the race. High schools athletics would roar through the 1920s and survive the Great Depression before seeing another interruption.

Ron Pesch has taken an active role in researching the history of MHSAA events since 1985 and began writing for MHSAA Finals programs in 1986, adding additional features and "flashbacks" in 1992. He inherited the title of MHSAA historian from the late Dick Kishpaugh following the 1993-94 school year, and resides in Muskegon. Contact him at [email protected] with ideas for historical articles.

PHOTOS: (Top and last) Lansing Central was named "mythical" football state champion in 1918. (2) A Detroit Times placard explains Spanish flu in October 1918. (3) The Lansing State Journal in September 1918 advertised an opportunity to visit soldiers encamped at Fort Custer. (4) The 1919 Saginaw High yearbook. (5) An advertisement called fans to the 1918 Muskegon vs. Grand Rapids Catholic Central football game. (Images collected by Ron Pesch.)

Football

Memorable Wakefield Run Won't Be Forgotten

October 2, 2019

By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half

When it comes to football, Russ Maki wears his heart on his sleeve. A 1971 graduate of Wakefield High School, he’s on a mission.

As a 7-year-old, he fell in love with the sport and, in particular, with a team.

“My Dad brought me to every (Wakefield) game,” he recalled. “We lived four blocks from the football field, and I watched every morning and afternoon practice.”

Maki’s memories are of the 1960 Cardinals, and he’s on a quest to honor the team.

Football began in 1920 at Wakefield. Interrupted briefly for a national crisis, it returned to the gridiron stronger than ever – but then, until recently, disappeared from the landscape of this Upper Peninsula town. Like in other cities across the nation, shrinking enrollments have impacted the sport.

“(That 1960) team just kicked everybody's butt,” added Maki. “The players on this team were my heroes then and still are to this day. Hardly anybody in town knows they were State Champs.”

Football state championships in Michigan are decided on the playing field via a tournament these days. But that wasn’t the case when Maki was a kid.

Hence, his challenge. He would like the school district to honor the team with recognition such as a pennant to hang in the gym. So he needs proof.

Big Iron

The City of Wakefield proudly notes that it is located in the heart of Big Snow country. Indeed, nearby are three of the finest ski hills in the Midwest. Located in the center of town is Sunday Lake. Porcupine Mountains State Park and Lake Superior are a little north. It is beautiful country.

But it wasn’t snow, scenic waterways or quality of life that initially attracted folks to the Gogebic Range area of Michigan. Rather, it was the discovery of iron ore in 1881. The find inspired a mad rush to capitalize, and that led to the founding of the village of Wakefield in 1887. The city was incorporated in 1919.

Hop on highway US-2, head west, and around 10 minutes later, you’ll be in Wisconsin. Stay on US-2, jog a bit to the north, and in two hours you’ll find yourself in Duluth, Minnesota. A trip from Wakefield to Fargo, ND, is six and a half hours. For comparison, a visit to Detroit, with traffic cooperating, would require a commitment of at least nine hours.

So it’s completely understandable that, from the beginning, Hurley High School – located a mere 13 miles away in the Badger State – became a rival.

“The Wakefield high school football team will meet Hurley on the local grounds Saturday afternoon,” announced the Ironwood Daily Globe on October 20, 1920. According to Coach (Fred) Hackett, who has charge of the team, the boys are light and newly organized and have only a fair chance of winning the game with Hurley.”

Indeed, it was a mismatch, with Hurley trouncing the “green but willing youngsters” from Wakefield, 46-6.

“In the two weeks that the Wakefield team has been out in uniform, Coach Hackett had little time to even drill some of the youngsters in ordinary tactics of the game, much less develop a strong team.”

The schools met again in 1921 with similar result, but continued to play each other sporadically in the coming years. A field goal by Pat O’Brien with eight seconds left to play in the 1929 contest gave Wakefield a 23-20 victory over its natural rival, sealing the school’s first ever unbeaten (but once tied) season.

“A local grocery store offered a free ham to each player on the team if they beat Hurley in that season-ending game,” said Maki, laughing. “Can you imagine that?”

They became league rivals when both teams, along with Bessemer and Ironwood from Michigan and Ashland from Wisconsin, became charter members of the Michigan-Wisconsin Conference in 1937.

Hopes for a different moniker, “for brevity’s sake,” were tossed around by the press at the time. The ‘Big Five’ was pitched by the Iron Mountain News. The Ironwood Daily Globe suggested ‘Michwico’, a juxtaposition of the words Michigan, Wisconsin and Conference. Another thought was the ‘WHABI’, a combination or first letters from each member town.

Instead, as time wore on, the league simply became known as the “M-W.”

Alumnus comes home

Wakefield discontinued football for two years – some say three – due to World War II. The team returned in the fall of 1945. Ansel Anderson, a graduate of league rival Ashland and Stout Institute in Menomonie, Wis. – where he took part in basketball, track and captained the football team – guided the athletic squads at Wakefield for two seasons.

In 1947, the school hired one of its own.

Roman Charles Yatchak had starred in both football and basketball at Wakefield, earning all-U.P. honors in the early 1930s, then lettered in football, basketball and baseball at Iowa State Teachers College. He coached prep ball in Iowa, then at Highland Park in metro Detroit before returning to Wakefield. A year earlier, the Cardinals became members of the newly formed Western Upper Peninsula Football Conference, comprised of Class ‘C’ schools from Houghton, Hancock, L’Anse, Ontonagon, Lake Linden and Crystal Falls. The 1947 season would be the first during which each member played one game against all the other members.

“The squad has responded magnificently to his tutoring,” wrote the News near the end of Yatchak’s first gridiron season at the helm. Wakefield had posted a 5-2 mark heading into the season-ending contest with Bessemer, now a nonleague game. The Cardinals had faced the Speedboys on 17 occasions with minimal luck, winning only four contests since 1924 when the teams first met.

Bessemer again came out on top, 13-0. Still, the season featured a third-place finish in conference play and was deemed a success. Ten juniors were expected back for the 1948 season.

The Cardinals, under Yatchak and assistant Vern Carr, won the Western Upper Peninsula Conference title in the fall of 1948 and posted a 7-1 mark overall. The loss was 6-0 to Ironwood, an old M-W conference rival, in the season opener and was played on the road. At season’s end, eight Cardinals earned all-conference honors, with center Ed Kuivinen receiving first-team all-U.P. accolades and Bob Novack appearing on the second team honor roll.

It was Wakefield’s best mark since 1929. Yatchak’s squad finished the 1949 season with another league title and a 7-1 mark. Again, the loss was to Ironwood.

Good times

After a nine-year absence, in 1951 Wakefield and Hurley renewed their cross-border rivalry. It would continue uninterrupted until 1993.

The game was played beneath the lights at the new home of the Hurley Midgets before a crowd of 2,000.

“The Cards opened the season with a thriller but a heart-breaker,” wrote the sports editor of the school’s yearbook, The Echo.

Both teams opened scoring in the first quarter. Trailing 7-6, Wakefield grabbed a single point advantage with a safety secured late in the third by downing a Hurley back behind his own goal line. The 8-7 lead held until late in the fourth, when Hurley halfback Louis Grandelis “tossed a perfect pass to end Tony Cornolo,” who rumbled to the Wakefield 6-yard line. The play covered 51 yards. Fullback Bob Johnson plowed over his left tackle on the ensuing play for the touchdown with just over a minute to play. Johnson then “drove through center to tally the extra point” and a 14-8 victory.

The Cardinals romped over the Midgets 27-0 in 1952 on their way to their first 8-0 season. There were only three undefeated U.P. teams that year, and the Floyd Barber Trophy – symbolic of gridiron supremacy above the straits – was awarded by the U.P. Sportswriters Association to Menominee, which finished 7-0 and had won its last 15 games.

Wakefield fell to Hurley, 14-0, in 1953 and 38-14 in 1954. A 32-13 victory by the Cards in 1955 cemented the annual battle as a highlight of the schedule.

Attendance issues and stellar success

“Wakefield football teams seem to be a drawing card in every football stadium except their own,” wrote the Wakefield News in mid-September 1954. “The local populace has never really supported football as other range towns have. … This fact is surprising, especially since local teams have been extremely successful.”

In an attempt to improve local support, in 1957, Hurley and Wakefield again became conference rivals when the Cards returned to the Michigan-Wisconsin league from the Western Upper Peninsula Football Conference.

“The recommendation of the change of conferences was made by Coach Roman Yatchak to draw a larger attendance at football games,” stated the Globe. Contests with foes from the Western U.P. Conference, all 50 to 110 miles in distance from Wakefield, simply didn’t capture the attention of local fans. With the change, league contests would be no more than 50 miles away – the longest when they needed to travel to Ashland.

The Cardinals finished 3-1 in the M-W Conference in 1957 and 6-2 overall that first year. In the fall of 1958, Wakefield ran the table, ending the year with the M-W crown and a flawless 8-0 record on the season, the best in school history. Wakefield outscored its opponents 234-26.

Yatchak’s team had included 13 returning lettermen including four regulars. Dick Koski, winner of 12 varsity letters at Wakefield, was much of the reason for the success. At season’s end, he was named to the Detroit Free Press’ Class C all-state team backfield. He netted 943 yards from scrimmage and finished as the third-highest scorer in the U.P. with 106 points. Teammate Jerry Bugni earned honorable mention recognition.

(Koski would go on to star at Northern Michigan College, then coach high school ball, guiding Ontonagon for three seasons and then Negaunee for 31 more. He retired following the 1999 season with a 211-113-1 record).

Despite the perfect mark, Wakefield finished the season ranked No. 7 in Class C-D by United Press International in its 1958 season-ending prep ratings. Charlevoix was the leading vote getter in the classification according to UPI’s panel of 21 top high school coaches. The Barber Trophy again went to Menominee. Wakefield, which finished second in the voting, was one of five undefeated U.P. teams that year.

A loss in the final 60 seconds of play, again to Ironwood, was the single flaw on the Cardinals’ 1959 slate. The team ended the year ranked 10^th in the final UPI Class C-D rankings.

State Champs

Maki’s favorite, the 1960 squad, included 12 seniors. Ontonagon, winner of one game in 1959, dropped from the schedule, leaving Wakefield with only seven games as the season opened. About a dozen schools in Michigan and Wisconsin had been contacted in an effort to secure an opponent for the early October date. Despite Yatchak’s best efforts, he couldn’t find a replacement.

A Friday night blockbuster kicked off the season. At Longyear Field in Ironwood, a crowd of 3,000 lined the grounds on a warm, humid night for the rematch between the ’59 Michigan-Wisconsin Conference co-champs. Tied at 7-7 at the end of the first quarter, Wakefield opened a 21-7 lead as the teams headed to the locker room for halftime. Ironwood took the opening kick of the second half 11 yards to its 28, and then mounted a 10-play, 72-yard drive for a touchdown. A low kick kept the margin at eight. 21-13.

“Shortly after that the Red Devils were unable to capitalize on two golden opportunities to score following the recovery of Wakefield fumbles,” stated the Globe in its coverage the following day.

Ironwood snagged the first bobble on the Cardinals’ 32-yard line, but Wakefield held firm, allowing only seven yards on four plays: “Ironwood lost a certain touchdown when an end dropped a pass just a few steps from the goal line.”

The Red Devils grabbed the second fumble at the Wakefield 13, but the Cardinals’ unrelenting defense drove Ironwood back to the 17-yard line. An attempted field goal on fourth down sailed beneath the crossbar. From there, “neither team made a serious threat.”

For Wakefield, there were really no other major threats for the remainder of the season.

The Cards topped a strong Houghton 11 on a beautiful sunny Saturday by a score of 20-7 before a home crowd of 1,000. Again, an inopportune fumble by the hosts at their own 21 was snuffed out in four downs by the staunch Wakefield defense.

Next came conference victories over Bessemer, 40-0, Ashland, 20-6, and Hurley, 46-6. The win at Hurley was highlighted by a 50-yard interception return by Bob Orlich and an 81-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Dewey Maki that opened the second half. Dave O’Leary, Hurley’s signal caller, picked up a Wakefield fumble and streaked 90 yards for the Midgets’ only points in the contest.

With the wins, the Cardinals secured the M-W championship and jumped from third place to first place in UPI’s weekly ratings, replacing Imlay City as the state’s top team in the Class C-D listings.

Despite continued efforts, no opponent could be found for the open date. When the team returned to action in mid-October, it squared off against Iron River. A 61-yard touchdown run by Tom Miheve on the second play of the game opened the scoring. Bob Erickson’s 31-yard TD dash followed. Then Dewey Maki “streaked 58 yards up the middle” in tallying the Redbirds’ third score. Miheve capped the scoring in the fourth quarter, whizzing 57-yards for his second TD as Wakefield grabbed a 27-0 road win before 2,500 at Nelson Field.

“Roman had the same personality traits as Coach Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers. They were clones of one another,” said Russ Maki, describing the coach based on observation and conversations with former players in the years to come. “Yatchak was such a perfectionist. He’d have the players run a play, say an end sweep, over and over, six, seven times, maybe more, until it was perfect.”

The coach yelled and instructed and blew his whistle at afternoon practices audible to residents of the surrounding neighborhood.

“Mothers quickly learned to recognize signs to when practice was wrapping up, and the players were headed for the showers. It was time to cook the roast beef,” added Maki. “Their sons would be home in an hour.”

The season-ending contest with Calumet was a track meet, with the Cardinals steamrolling the Copper Kings 61-7 at Agassiz Field in Calumet on Friday, October 21.

According to the Globe:

“Shifty Tom Miheve registered three markers, Bob Erickson, power-driving fullback added three more, followed by Dewey Maki, Bob Koski and Tom Neznanski each with a TD apiece. Bob Orlich added three extra points and Miheve, Erickson, Bob Smith and Pete Petramek each posted one.”

Still topping the UPI rankings after the game, now all Wakefield could do was wait for the rest of the state to finish the schedule.

On Saturday, November 5, the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters Association gathered in Iron Mountain and awarded the Barber Trophy to Wakefield. The trophy was presented to Coach Yatchak and captain Bob Erickson at a special assembly at the high school on Monday.

The Cardinals had ranked No. 35 in Hal Schram’s Top 50 teams in the state, regardless of size, published in November in the Detroit Free Press. It was an impressive accomplishment for the little U.P. squad, especially when one considered 675 schools in Michigan sported prep football teams.

It would take until after Thanksgiving weekend – more than a month – before the UPI coaches panel would announce its final poll.

Word finally appeared in print in the SHORTS IN SPORTS column in the December 1 edition of the Wakefield News, which was published weekly.

“Congratulations this week go to: Wakefield Cardinal football team for being named top Class ‘C’ team in Michigan by United Press International.”

The city with a population of 3,231 celebrated its first (and only) mythical state football championship.

The annual Fourth of July parade included a red flatbed truck, adorned with an ornamental goal post and a large banner that read “State Class C Champs.” Four players, dressed in their uniforms, stood on the bed, carrying footballs.

Yatchak’s 1961 team extended the win streak to 14 games (and 25 wins in 26 dating back to 1957) with victories in its first two games before falling to Bessemer in a heartbreaker, 13-7. It would be the only loss of Wakefield’s seven-game season.

Following the 1961-62 school year, Yatchak departed Wakefield to help develop the athletic program at newly-opened Lansing Waverly High School. His Cardinals teams had posted 90 wins and two ties over his 15 years in charge, against only 25 losses.

Changing landscape

The coming years saw plenty of regular-season success, but no team would match the accomplishment of the 1960 squad. Mythical state titles, where state championships were determined by press polls and media input, were replaced in 1975 by MHSAA championships decided by postseason play.

“The Sunday Lake mine closed in 1961. They employed 225 guys. It was a big deal,” recalled Maki. Between the mine’s first shipment in 1885 and closing, Sunday Lake had raised an estimated 17 million tons of ore. Between 1960 and 1970, Wakefield’s population plunged by nearly 15 percent to 2,757. “A lot of people left for mining work elsewhere in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona.”

Maki himself made honorable mention all-state in 1970 as a senior when the Cards went 6-2 with losses to Hancock and Hurley.

“Dick Koski had a brother who was the same age as me. He was as good as Dick, maybe better. The Koski family left. There’s no doubt in my mind that we would have won some basketball state titles, maybe another Barber Trophy if they stayed. You just don’t know.”

The Gogebic area did see its fortunes improve, but the reprieve wouldn’t last.

“White Pine, a little town about 35 miles northeast of Wakefield, had a small copper mine. Digging deeper they found new veins of copper. All of sudden, they (needed workers). I remember five charter busses would line up near the football field each morning to take people to work there. That was happening all around the area.”

“Of the more than 3,000 workers at White Pine Copper Mine, less than 1,000 live here,” noted the Ironwood Daily Globe in September 1971. “Many workers commute great distances – some up to 90 miles each day.”

However, uncertainty and layoffs began in 1975 and 1976. Employment dropped in half or more. In 1995, the mine shut down completely.

Wakefield’s 1991 football team was the first to qualify for the MHSAA postseason and won its opening-round contest with Central Lake before falling to Lake Linden-Hubbell in Class DD. The 1998 and 2000 teams also qualified.

Dropping student enrollment was impacting athletic programs at schools across upper and lower Michigan, including at Wakefield. Between 1985 and 2003, enrollment had fallen from 225 to 100. Following the 2003-04 school year, Wakefield consolidated with Marenisco, a district located 15 miles southeast. Still, for a variety of reasons, enrollment continued to drop. In 2009, Wakefield-Marenisco entered a co-op with Bessemer for football, and that fall, the Gogebic Miners were formed. Past rivals became teammates.

The rivalry with Hurley had been resurrected in 2000 and continued through the 2017 season. That school year, Ironwood joined the co-op, supplied the football schedule and its home field for the games.

In 2018, games were played at Bessemer. With enrollment now determined by combined school totals, the Wisconsin schools on the Gogebic schedule were replaced with games against Negaunee, Ishpeming Westwood and Iron Mountain, each with similar-sized enrollments.

The Dick Koski Trophy, a new entry in the state’s collection of rivalry hardware, also was created in 2018. Awarded annually to the winner of the Negaunee-Gogebic game, it celebrates Koski’s connection to Wakefield and Negaunee.

This season, home contests are staged at Ironwood. In 2020, the games are scheduled to move to Wakefield.

Celebration

Maki hopes a lesson in history may help inspire future kids, so he’s been doing his homework.

“They have banners honoring conference champions,” he said.

If all goes as hoped, a new banner could be unfurled in time to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the 1960 championship.

“I am scheduled to speak at the next Wakefield school board meeting in late October to try to get this team some recognition such as a pennant to hang in the gym,” added Maki, also noting a desire for a public dedication, perhaps during Wakefield’s annual Independence Day celebration. “A lot of people come back to watch the fireworks.”

Now, wouldn’t that be a blast!

PHOTOS: (Top & 5) The 1960 Wakefield team is celebrated in the school’s yearbook for the 1960-61 school year. (2) An Ironwood Daily Globe advertisement announced a local store would guarantee a ham to every Wakefield player for a win over Hurley in 1929. (3) Roman Yatchak and Vernon Carr led Wakefield to its greatest football glories. (4) Dick Koski starred on the field for Wakefield before becoming a legendary coach. (6) Wakefield earned the Barber Trophy as the Upper Peninsula’s best team of 1960. (7) The Dick Koski Trophy is awarded annually to the winner of the Negaunee/Gogebic football game. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch.)