Friendships Bind Long-Ago Champions
By
Ron Pesch
MHSAA historian
August 28, 2015
Twenty-five years ago, the story of Permian Panthers of Odessa, Texas, was famously told in the book Friday Night Lights written by H.G. Bissinger.
The author recently reunited with various team members as he recalled the book’s silver anniversary in an article for the August 3, 2015, issue of Sports Illustrated.
“It took me about 10 to 15 years of working in different groups, different places, different environments, to finally come to the conclusion that I’m not gonna have a group of coworkers and teammates like I had then,” said Jerrod McDougal, recalling his days playing high school football for the Panthers.
That same feeling is certainly shared by groups of former gridders around the state of Michigan.
A chance meeting led me to breakfast with one such group. The members of Grand Rapids Central's 1947 mythical football state champions gather at a Russ’ restaurant in Grand Rapids on a Monday each month.
Central was one of 17 football squads in the state spread across four classifications who could call themselves state champions after that season. Back in those days, the Michigan High School Athletic Association did not sponsor a football playoff, so any team with an unblemished win-loss record could lay claim to the crown. With eight wins and no losses or ties, The Hilltoppers, as they were then known, did exactly that.
Nearly 70 years later, Don Hill can recall the circumstances of all 19 points allowed by the defense that season. The team remembered its coach, Chuck Irwin, who would go on to become Grand Valley State University’s first athletic director, and the days when summer conditioning wasn't 7 on 7 camps, but rather throwing a football around an empty lot, or a city park.
When I noted that Muskegon Heights’ Tigers also laid claim to the state crown that year, I was quickly reminded that both teams had defeated Holland High that season, but that Central had vanquished the Dutchmen 14-0, while the Tigers struggled to defeat Holland 14-12.
For the record, most newspaper writers gave the nod to both Flint Central and Muskegon Heights as the best in the state that season. Orville Peterson recalled that Flint Central had beaten an undefeated but once-tied Flint Northern team to end the year. That was indeed the case, as Coach Harold Auer's Indians downed coach Guy Houston's Vikings 20-6 on Thanksgiving Day at historic Atwood Stadium.
During the Grand Rapids Central gathering, a pair of restaurant patrons, who could overhear our conversation, wandered over to the table to congratulate the teammates on their accomplishment and to share a few memories of their own covering the value of prep sports in a proper education.
Similar gatherings are quite common across the state.
Each fall, the “Leather Helmets Club,” comprised of football players from Muskegon High School gather for a catered dinner at a rental hall on the shores of Muskegon Lake.
“The 1950 season was the first year that the Big Reds moved from leather helmets to plastic,” recalled Bob Ludwig, now 87 yards old and a member of the 1944 mythical state champions. “We started the Leather Helmet about 25 years ago with 65 guys.”
Ray Carlson, who served as starting quarterback for Muskegon’s mythical state champions back in 1940, still can recall the season.
“It was the year the district installed lights at Hackley Stadium,” said Carlson. “That’s when most of the games were moved from Saturday afternoon to Friday night.”
For many years, the event was a perch fry, but as time marched steadily on, the task became too challenging for this collection of gridiron greats from Big Reds teams, as membership in the club has shrunk to 25. The group will again gather in the fall, and debate inviting members from the 1950s to the gathering to expand membership.
Sometimes, such reunions are single one-time events. In 1993, Ann Arbor High School’s team from 50 years back collected to celebrate its 1943 mythical state crown. In 2013, the 1973 Saginaw Arthur Hill team, undefeated and unscored upon over the season, gathered.
Pat Brady graduated in 1950 from Saginaw St. Andrews. For three seasons – 1948, 1949 and 1950 – the Bulldogs lay claim to mythical state titles in Class C. Over the span, the team racked up 27 straight victories.
“We had a pretty good group of kids,” said Brady recalling the days. “Frank Brogger was our coach, and he made sure we took on a good schedule. We played schools in Flint, Detroit, Saginaw, Bay City and Jackson. We played Sunday evenings at our own field. They really took care of that field. During the week, we practiced in the cinders behind the field. On Saturdays we would go through things on the field in our socks.”
Induction into the Saginaw County Hall of Fame in 2005 led to regular gatherings by team members. A group of seven and another former player from Saginaw St. Peter and Paul meets for coffee at an area McDonald’s at least twice a week.
“He was a rival back then, but we’re friends now,” added Brady, laughing. “We’ve lost a lot of the guys; we’re all in our 80s now. Still, it’s a lot of fun to get together and talk about old times and new times.”
“Whether you play in front of a crowd of 900 or 19,000, the experience of high school football is unlike any other,” noted Bissinger in Sports Illustrated, recalling something shared across state lines and across generations.
The beauty of high school competition is found in the friendships made that last a lifetime.
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) A report from Pesch's wealth of documents shows most of the undefeated football teams at the end of the 1947 season. (Middle) The Grand Rapids Central group stands together after a gathering last December, from left: Tony Krenselewski, Orville Peterson, Don Hill, Bud Hall, Herb Carpenter, Gordon Osmun and Floyd Hall.
Schmitt Happily Home as St Johns Coach
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 13, 2019
ST. JOHNS – The 50 or so students chanting “Schmitt! Schmitt! Schmitt!” during the earliest minutes of Monday morning know him mostly as a high school math teacher.
Which makes sense – the oldest probably had just turned 3 when Andy Schmitt was locking down his local legend status as St. Johns’ history-making quarterback.
What they probably don’t remember, they’ve surely heard about – how he led unheralded St. Johns to the 2004 Division 3 championship game, its only appearance in an MHSAA Football Final, on the way to starring at Eastern Michigan University and earning a tryout from the Detroit Lions.
That fame he earned more than a decade ago still stands tall, just as the Redwings' first-year varsity head coach did by a few inches over the rest of his coaching staff and possibly all of his players as the team kicked off the 2019 season with a midnight practice on its home field.
While Schmitt’s experiences and successes surely could have led him down a variety of football coaching roads, he always was circling to come back home – with the hope of giving today's players opportunities to make memories like those that continue to resonate within him.
“It never mattered on opportunities. It was always a matter of trying to come back home,” said Schmitt late Sunday night, as St. Johns’ game clock behind him ticked down the seconds until football teams statewide were allowed to practice for the first time this fall. “My wife’s from here. I’m from here. I grew up with a lot of pride in this community. I saw myself, once I decided to get into education and coaching, I saw myself coming back to St. Johns.
"We had such a good experience playing here, made a couple of nice runs, and I just want to help this program do the same thing."
He began a busy journey as a mostly-unheralded high school junior in 2003. Unheralded, that is, until he led St. Johns to its first District football title that fall.
Schmitt then emerged the next season as the best from a historically-deep group of standout mid-Michigan quarterbacks, leading St. Johns to the Pontiac Silverdome. Although the Redwings lost that championship game to Lowell 38-17, Schmitt made a pair of long scrambling passes that helped St. Johns stay tied with the Red Arrows until the final minutes of the third quarter. And regardless of the defeat, the playoff run spoke volumes – Schmitt eventually was named Lansing State Journal All-Decade quarterback for the mid-Michigan area in 2010, prestige that lives on even for players who have seen him play only on YouTube.
“It’s all over the school. He’s got a banner in there, a picture in the weight room,” Redwings senior lineman Sam Hallead said. “It’s always there to motivate us.”
Schmitt went on to Eastern Michigan University, where after redshirting his first year he played 34 games with 30 starts before a knee injury ended his college career after the team’s third game of the 2009 season. All told, he threw for 5,867 yards and 33 touchdowns at EMU and holds four school passing records while ranking near the top in a number of other categories. He still shares the NCAA Division I record for single-game completions with 58 against Central Michigan in their 2008 meeting.
Schmitt came back from his injury to try out for the Lions in 2010, and then he turned toward his next career. He student taught at Williamston, then as a long-term substitute at Bay City John Glenn before taking his first fulltime teaching job at New Buffalo. Then it was on to Fowlerville and Ovid-Elsie Middle School before arriving back at St. Johns in 2015. Schmitt coached at all of the schools where he taught, and was a freshman coach the last three seasons under his former coach Dave Mariage, who retired from the head varsity job after last season. A week after Mariage resigned, Schmitt was promoted, and he’ll be surrounded this fall by all of the same staff – and with Mariage as his freshman coach.
It's where Schmitt always was meant to be, with qualities he began showing 20 years ago shining through.
“The same love of the game. The same enthusiasm. He loves the game, he knows the game, and he’s excited every day he comes out here,” Mariage said. “I didn’t know that’s what he was going to do (become a teacher and coach), but he’s a natural leader. He checks all the boxes. He’s going to do great.”
Schmitt takes over a program that remains one of the most consistently successful in the Lansing area.
Mariage stepped away with a 124-72 record over his 19 seasons, and the Redwings haven’t finished below .500 for a season since 2005. They’ve won two more District titles since Schmitt graduated and are a regular league title contender.
St. Johns will begin its seventh season since building a football stadium after Schmitt starred on a field that certainly could be referred to as yesteryear. And Hallead said the varsity has 35 players out, with his class plenty familiar with the new coach after Schmitt coached them as freshmen.
Schmitt laughed when asked if his players know of his legendary status in town – “They don’t need to know” – but he admits there’s substantial buzz heading into this season. He’ll never forget how the community came out to support the team when he played, and that support was perhaps the heaviest driving force that brought he and his wife Teisha (Thelen), also a 2005 grad and three-sport standout, home again and home to stay.
“The amount of pride that I experienced going through the runs that we had junior and senior year, and again, watching this town come together and how supportive the town was, made football mean so much to me,” Schmitt said. “How a group of people can bring a lot of people together, seeing the support, seeing the pride made me want to come right back to St. Johns.
“This is home. There’s not going to be anywhere else. This is where we’re going to raise our kids. There’s no going anywhere from here.”
Geoff Kimmerly joined the MHSAA as its Media & Content Coordinator in Sept. 2011 after 12 years as Prep Sports Editor of the Lansing State Journal. He has served as Editor of Second Half since its creation in Jan. 2012. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for the Barry, Eaton, Ingham, Livingston, Ionia, Clinton, Shiawassee, Gratiot, Isabella, Clare and Montcalm counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) St. Johns first-year head varsity coach Andy Schmitt works with his defensive backs during Monday morning’s “midnight madness” practice. (Middle) Schmitt formerly starred at quarterback for the Redwings, leading the program to its first District and Regional titles.