1979: Rice Meets Moeller in 'Biggest Game Ever'
August 30, 2019
By Ron Pesch
Special for Second Half
DATELINE: Cincinnati, Ohio, 1979
“The Brother Rice-Moeller game is the biggest game any Michigan high school football team has ever played.”
Hal Schram - ‘The Swami’
Detroit Free Press
“I’m nervous as heck,” said Birmingham Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa to Free Press sportswriter Mick McCabe. “This is the biggest challenge of my life.”
On Saturday, September 22, 1979, Fracassa’s Warriors travelled 270 miles south from the hotbed of Michigan high school football to the hotbed of Ohio high school football for a first-ever showdown with Cincinnati Moeller. Heading into the 1980s, many would argue that Brother Rice was the top football (and perhaps the top boys prep sports) program in the state of Michigan. At the same time, many would say Moeller had replaced Washington Massillon High School as the premier grid program in the Buckeye State, and that Moeller also represented the nation’s top prep football team. To quote McCabe in his pregame write-up:
“Moeller had a 53-game winning streak snapped last fall after winning Ohio’s Class AAA state championship the previous three years. It also won the mythical national championship in 1976 and ’77. Seventeen players from (the 1978) Moeller team received college scholarships, including wide receiver Tony Hunter at Notre Dame and Larry Gates, the backup quarterback at Purdue.”
Moeller was coached by 44-year-old Gerry Faust – soon to become a Notre Dame legend. But in the fall of 1979, he was still building his impressive resume at Moeller.
While both were all-male Catholic schools and maintained three football teams – varsity, JV and freshman – there were stark differences. Fracassa’s varsity coaching staff at the time included three members: Mike Popson, Ron Kalczynski and Mike Cieslak. In comparison, Faust had 17 assistant coaches on his varsity staff (and 25 student managers).
“Every year is a rebuilding year for us,” said Faust. “We average between 24 and 38 seniors a year and about 20 of them start.”
“Their second team is as good as most teams around here, and I’m not exaggerating,” Fracassa told McCabe.
Entering the contest, Faust had posted a 152-17-2 record in 17 seasons at Moeller, while Fracassa, in his 20th year as a head coach, was 123-31-8. A former Detroit Pershing and Michigan State quarterback, Fracassa was named head football coach at Royal Oak Shrine in June 1960. After eight seasons at Shrine, Fracassa moved to Brother Rice and compiled an 86-14-3 mark, including a Class A mythical state title in 1974. His Warriors began an impressive 24-game winning streak in 1976, earning an MHSAA Class A playoff title in 1977, but the streak was ended by North Farmington in the Semifinal round of the MHSAA tournament in November 1978.
Faust arrived at Moeller in 1960 to start a football team and had guided the squad since the school began playing varsity ball in 1963. He first started bringing outstate teams to Cincinnati in 1977 with a game against Monsignor Farrell High School of Staten Island, NY. Jesuit High from Dallas, Texas, followed with a visit to Moeller in 1978.
Both Moeller and Rice were undefeated to start the 1979 season. Faust’s Crusaders had allowed only three first downs over three games, including a big 34-7 win over city rival Cincinnati Princeton, the school that had ended Moeller’s long winning streak, and a 30-13 victory over powerhouse Pittsburgh Penn Hills, a school with an enrollment of 4,200 that had compiled consecutive Class AAA Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League championships in the three previous years under coach Andy Urbanic. With the defeat of Penn Hills, the Crusaders were a flawless 3-0 against teams from across state lines entering the Brother Rice contest.
Undefeated in two games, Brother Rice was rated fourth in Class A in Hal Schram’s initial Top Ten rankings. Inexperienced following the graduation of quarterback Jon English (Michigan State) and receiver Marty Martinez (Stanford), the Warriors had downed St. Clair Shores Lake Shore, 21-7, then Grosse Pointe North, 13-7.
Game Time
A crowd of 20,792 (including members of the Brother Rice pep band) packed the University of Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium for the 8 p.m. prep version of the Michigan-Ohio State game. Moeller did not have its own field, playing games at Nippert, Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium (home to the NFL’s Bengals and MLB’s Reds), or a nearby high school field. Moeller dominated the first half with 282 yards of total offense to Brother Rice’s 64, but held only a 13-7 lead at the half. Senior wingback Eric Ellington awed the crowd with touchdown runs of 43 and 61 yards during the first quarter. Rice rebounded with a five-yard touchdown on a bootleg by 5-foot-11, 170-pound senior quarterback Brian Brennan following a fumble recovery by Emil Nagengast during the second period.
Starting their first possession of the third quarter on their own 33-yard line, Ellington ripped off a 34-yard run to the Rice 33 on Moeller’s first play of the drive. Three plays later, he went left for 10 yards and his third touchdown of the game. The Crusaders opened up a 33-7 lead in the fourth quarter before Rice got back on the scoreboard. Fracassa went to the playbook for some “razzle dazzle.”
Operating from their own 32-yard line with 2:19 left to play, “Brennan tossed a deliberate bounce pass on a lateral to reserve quarterback Dave Yarema,” wrote Randy Holtz in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Yarema then fired a 68-yard touchdown to the wide open Steve Allen to finish the game’s scoring.”
“We’ve been using it a long time,” said Fracassa, commenting on the play with limited delight following the 33-14 loss. “We told the kids before the game that this would be one of the best teams they were ever going to play against. They’re really a tremendous team. If you can’t contain Ellington, you’re in trouble. You’ve got to be something else to catch this kid.”
Ellington ended with 178 yards on 10 carries.
“Eric really ran well,” added Faust. “He’s a great back, but you’ve got to give credit to (our) line up front.”
Due to the early format of the MHSAA playoffs, which were introduced in 1975, the defeat likely had eliminated Brother Rice from the state playoff picture. A 10-7 loss to Catholic League opponent Detroit Catholic Central in Week 5 of the season and a 6-3 regular-season record ensured no postseason play for the Warriors in 1979. Detroit Catholic would end the year as Class A state champ with a perfect 12-0 record.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association had begun its football playoff system in the fall of 1972. To little surprise, Moeller went on to win the state’s Class AAA title for the fourth time in 1979, defeating Parma Padua Franciscan 41-7. Moeller again was proclaimed national champion by the National Sports News Service. (For those interested, highlights can be found here).
College Comes Calling
Back in Michigan, in February 1980, Fracassa applied for the head coaching position at Michigan State to replace Darryl Rogers, but wasn’t interviewed. When Frank “Muddy” Waters was named as MSU’s new coach, he offered Fracassa the position of offensive coordinator. But Fracassa chose not to go. In the fall, his Warriors again won the Class A championship. It wouldn’t be his last opportunity to jump to the college game.
The Great Experiment
In Ohio, Faust’s Crusaders would win the state and national titles again in late November 1980. After more than a month of rumors, on the day after winning the state title, Gerald Anthony Faust was officially announced as “the only head coach Notre Dame has ever selected from the high school ranks.”
Another Chance at MSU
Fracassa was a back-up signal caller at Michigan State. “I was always stuck behind the All-Americans,” he told the Detroit Times in 1960 shortly after taking charge at Royal Oak Shrine.
“First, he understudied Al Dorow,” wrote Wally Dwyer in the Times. “Then it was Tom Yewcic and finally Earl Morrall.”
Morrall’s son Matt, Leon Hart’s son Kevin, Tobin Rote’s son, Rocky, Roger Zatkoff’s son David and Jack Simmons’ son, Terry, were the offspring of past Detroit Lions who played on Fracassa’s 1974 champion.
In December 1982, George Perles was named to replace Waters as head coach at Michigan State. A former teammate of Fracassa’s at MSU and, later, a coaching friend and rival when Perles coached Detroit St. Ambrose and Fracassa guided Shrine, Perles spoke to Fracassa about the possibility of joining the Spartans’ defensive staff. Again, Fracassa chose to remain at Brother Rice.
A Legacy Sealed …
In the fall of 1983, Fracassa’s Warriors grabbed another Class A title. It was the third of nine MHSAA championships his teams would ultimately earn. When he retired following the 2013 season, he was the state’s all-time winningest football coach with a 430-117-7 mark.
… and a Legacy Altered
In November 1985, Faust resigned from his position at Notre Dame.
“Faust said the job was ‘the fulfillment of a lifelong dream,’” wrote Mitch Albom in the Free Press, days after the announcement. “And he did it proud on most counts. He worked feverishly, turned out good men, a clean program. And technically, a winning program, 30-25-1. But nowhere near winning enough for Notre Dame.”
“Faust knew it.”
To the dismay of countless Irish fans, Notre Dame continued to honor its contract despite the losses. “No matter how loudly the fans yelled,” noted Albom, “the school would not fire Faust.”
“So, with a choked voice and moist eyes, he saved the university the ugliness of firing him by resigning with one game left on his contract.”
“We probably won’t see another Gerry Faust experiment again,” added Albom at the time. “Everyone will point out that it didn’t work the first time …”
“College football was once a game of its name. College kids playing football. That was long ago. Today it is a multimillion-dollar industry …”
The great experiment certainly altered memories of Faust, the structure of coaching contracts, and the path for all high school coaches who aspired to lead at a higher level. One might even say it was a turning point for winning and losing, and what would be ‘acceptable’ at all levels of sports across America.
P.S. Moeller and Rice again met in 2007, with the Crusaders again topping Brother Rice, this time 14-6. Both schools had entered this match-up with identical 2-1 records.
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) Brother's Rice's Brian Brennan looks for an opening while a Moeller defender pursues. (2) Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa. (3) Moeller coach Gerry Faust. (4) A Moeller bumper sticker tells of its many successes during the 1970s. (5) Eric Ellington starred for Moeller against Brother Rice. (6) Faust left Moeller for Notre Dame in 1980. (Photos gathered by Ron Pesch.)
Camden-Frontier Enjoys 8-Player Rebirth
By
Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
October 20, 2016
By Chip Mundy
Special for Second Half
CAMDEN – When it comes to football at Camden-Frontier, fewer is better.
Three times better.
After enduring back-to-back winless seasons in 2014-15, Camden-Frontier made the switch from 11- to 8-player football. The result? The Redskins are 5-1 this season with a shot at making the MHSAA playoffs.
Camden, a farming village with 512 residents in the 2010 census, is nestled in a tri-state area just two miles east of the Michigan/Indiana border and 4 miles north of the Michigan/Ohio border. Frontier is a civil township just 11 miles northeast of Camden.
The school sits between the two along a peaceful country road that is void of traffic and other structures. Except on football weekends. This fall, the communities have connected with the football team and its success, even though the 8-player format wasn't embraced at the start, even by many of the players.
“At first, they didn't know how it was going to go,” said Ryan Sigler, athletic director and assistant football coach. “It was brand new to them, but it didn't take very long for them to see what it was going to be like. We did lose maybe six or seven kids who aren't playing and should be playing. They decided it wasn't for them, but I think after seeing how this year went and what's coming in the future, I think they will come back.
“It has been a positive experience, and the morale in the school is higher than it's ever been.”
Making the switch
After the second consecutive winless season in 2015, Camden-Frontier's football coach resigned, and the search was on for a new coach. In the process, switching to 8-player football became a possibility.
“I am a firm believer in JV football, and I want our kids to be able to play JV football,” Sigler said. “With our low numbers – I think we were 22 or 23 in our whole program last year – you're not going to have JV games because you take half of your kids and they go right to varsity.”
When Waldron football coach Mark Long's name popped into the discussion, Sigler and Camden-Frontier Superintendent Scott Riley explored the idea of going to 8-player. Not only did Long have experience and success in 8-player football at Waldron, Sigler and Riley could not get past the failures of the Redskins in the previous two seasons.
“Last year, we scored two touchdowns – one on offense and one on defense,” Sigler said. “The year before, we scored four touchdowns total.
“Scott and I kind of got talking, and we decided that Mark would be the right guy. He came to us in the process and said, 'If I come, I want to go 8-man football.' We kind of talked back and forth, what it would do for the program and how it would help us.”
Long agreed to leave Waldron, his hometown, to pursue a fresh, new challenge at Camden-Frontier.
“I had been coaching at Waldron for about 16 years,” he said. “I coached basketball and football, I was the athletic director, and we were extremely successful in football.
“I had the opportunity to go to Camden-Frontier and coach and take them from 11-man to 8-man, and it was something that I thought would be a good challenge.”
While Long's challenge was on the field, Sigler had to put together a schedule of 8-player teams. It was too late to join the Southern Michigan 8-man Football League, so he ended up with just a seven-game schedule, including a drive of 5 hours, 30 minutes that covered 298 miles to Pellston, which is just south of the Mackinac Bridge.
“We were not able to get into the league schedule, but we will be back in next year,” Sigler said. “We just got in too late, and we didn't want to break any contracts.
“Mark knew a lot of 8-man teams, so we could set our schedule, and we were able to get seven games. I wish we would have gotten at least eight. We're right in the mix for a playoff spot. It could come back to bite us that we only had a seven-game schedule.”
Making the sell
While setting the schedule at late notice was tough, selling 8-player football to a bunch of young men who had played only 11-player football was going to be tougher. Six or seven quit the program, but slowly the others bought into the new format.
“I was set on not playing varsity at all,” sophomore fullback/middle linebacker Cole Mapes said. “I heard that we were going to stay at 11-man for JV, and I didn't care for 8-man.
“Then I started seeing what was going on, and I saw how much dedication that Coach Mark put into it. With 11-man, we had no hope.”
Others slowly but surely accepted the new format. Long said the younger players were more open to the switch than the older players at first.
“A lot of the sophomores started showing up on Day 1 in the weight room and the 7-on-7s in the summer,” he said. “The young kids really bought into it quickly.”
Some of the veteran players, like junior guard/defensive end Austin Zilka, were more apprehensive about the move.
“My initial thought was, 'Why are we changing?'” Zilka said. “I understood that we hadn't had the best record, but I didn't understand why we were changing.
“I never thought about not playing because either way, when you pad up and get hit, it feels the same whether there are eight men on the field or 11 men. It took me about two weeks to get adjusted and (I) realized that I had no choice if I wanted to play football. Now, if I had a choice, I like that we're winning, but I like the teams that we played in 11-man. But I think I'd stick with 8-man.”
With the players buying into the program and the success, Sigler is hopeful players who decided not to play this season will return to the program next season.
“They decided it wasn't for them, but I think after seeing how this year went and what's coming in the future, I think they will come back,” he said.
Early wins – and doubts
Camden-Frontier started the season quickly, but not everybody was impressed. The 86-8 opening-game victory, along with wins by 56-0 and 50-0, left many in the community wondering if it all was simply because of the level of competition.
That question was to be answered in Week 5. On a Saturday – and Homecoming – Camden-Frontier hosted 8-player power Battle Creek St. Phillip, a team that lost in the MHSAA championship game in 2015 and had started its season 4-0.
“I kind of felt uneasy just scheduling them,” Sigler said. “We had a bye week before we played St. Philip, so we prepared for two weeks. We're preaching the whole time that we have to prove that we're the type of football team that we want to be, and it is going to take hard work. We had the best two weeks of practice that we had all year.”
It turned out to be a signature moment of the season. The Redskins shut out St. Philip 22-0, and suddenly that 8-player football team that had beaten four nobodies in the eyes of the community was now the apple of the community's eye.
“It was huge for the community to see that there are other good 8-man football teams and there's going to be a lot tougher competition down the road,” Long said.
And the attitude toward the football team changed.
“We went into that game thinking that they were going to be good, and by all means they were, and it was one of the defining moments that we had as a team,” Zilka said. “And it proved to all the people that said, 'You guys beat a team that isn't very good 86-8, and you're not very good.' It showed that we're here to make a statement.
“They realized that we can play pretty good football and be a good 8-man team, and they kept encouraging us and it helped.”
Expectations from fans also were not negative as they had been in previous years.
“The atmosphere at the football games is a lot better,” sophomore running back/outside linebacker Cale Lehman said. “People expected us to lose, and now it's like they know we have a chance at winning.”
Suddenly, following the Redskins was bordering on an epidemic.
“It was awesome,” Sigler said. “I've noticed a lot more people are staying longer at our games now. You'll have the parents who come out and stay for their kids, but families and others are coming out and staying for the whole game.
“We drove up to Pellston for a game – it was a five and a half hour drive – and we had more people in the stands than they had, and it was Parents' Night. It's been awesome how the parents and community have run with this. We had a full set of stands at Lawrence. People have really bought into this and gotten on board with it.”
Camden-Frontier lost to Lawrence 32-8 in a battle of unbeatens, and the next week was the trek to Pellston. Not many high school teams from small towns get to have a road game that includes an overnight stay.
“We went up Friday after school,” Sigler said. “Our middle school coach runs a logging company, and his logging company donated hotel rooms for us. Tight-knit communities do things for each other.
“We drove up and had the kids bring snacks and food and when we got out there, we grilled outside. It was awesome. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, all that stuff. After that, we went and bowled for two hours, just to get them doing something fun and to relax.”
Then, on Saturday, the Redskins defeated Pellston 58-12.
“It was a team-bonding experience as well as a game,” Zilka said. “We had fun, and then we did what we came up there to do.”
Several parents who made the trip took their sons to see the Mackinac Bridge after the game.
“Some of those kids had never seen the bridge,” Sigler said. “Most of the parents went, and a lot of them surprised the players and took them to the bridge after the game. It was a cool experience.”
One hurdle remains
The season has been a full one. A switch from 11- to 8-player football. A new coach. New opponents on the schedule. A huge Homecoming victory. A 298-mile trip and a visit to the Mackinac Bridge.
What possibly could remain? How about this scenario: Camden-Frontier sits in the No. 16 spot in the points race for the playoffs. Sixteen teams qualify for the 8-player playoffs, and the Redskins need to win and maybe get a little help to secure their first postseason berth since 2000.
Tonight, Camden-Frontier will visit Waldron – yes, the same Waldron that was coached by Long for several years and is his hometown. A better script could not be written for the final game in the regular season with the playoffs on the line.
“I live in Waldron and my daughter goes to Waldron,” Long said. “I coached there and grew up there and played there, so it will be emotional for me and a little tough, but hopefully when the game starts, it will be just another game.”
While Waldron remains home, getting the chance to coach at a new place has been refreshing for Long.
“It has been a rejuvenation,” he said. “It's no different than a job. Once you've been someplace for a certain amount of time, you become complacent. I'm around new kids, but I really still care about the kids I coached at Waldron.”
And he has a great appreciation for the communities of Camden and Frontier and his new team of players.
“For them to come in and buy in – and the community to buy into 8-man football the way that they have – has been a blessing for me,” he said. “They have accepted me from Day One, and I can't say thank you enough.”
With newfound success, don't expect Camden-Frontier to rush back to 11-player football. But Sigler said never say never.
“I think we will stay here for a while, but I wouldn't say that we'll never go back to 11-man again, either,” Sigler said. “But it's not likely anytime soon.”
“The biggest misconception is that a lot of people look down on 8-man football. I didn't know at first if it was right for us, but I'm glad we did it. Obviously."
Chip Mundy served as sports editor at the Brooklyn Exponent and Albion Recorder from 1980-86, and then as a reporter and later copy editor at the Jackson Citizen-Patriot from 1986-2011. He also co-authored Michigan Sports Trivia. E-mail him at [email protected] with story ideas for Jackson, Washtenaw, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Sophomore running back Cale Lehman finds an opening against Elyria Open Door Christian of Ohio. (Middle) Junior running back Hunter Fackler carries the ball as Austin Bennett (14) and Logan Barnes (17) provide blocking. (Photos by Matthew Lounsberry and Andrew King/Hillsdale Daily News.)