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.
DCC, Rice Begin Following New Leaders
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
August 16, 2017
The Detroit Catholic League football coaching carousel took a few more turns during the offseason, with a pair of programs once led by two of the winningest coaches in state history welcoming new leaders for this fall.
Two former understudies to those longtime mentors now find themselves with the top jobs directing programs that have combined to earn 18 MHSAA Finals championships.
Adam Korzeniewski, 43, is the new coach at Birmingham Brother Rice, replacing Dave Sofran, who replaced legendary coach Al Fracassa after the Warriors won their third consecutive Division 2 title in 2013.
Dan Anderson, 48, is the new coach at Detroit Catholic Central, taking over for recently-retired Tom Mach, who directed the Shamrocks to a Division 1 runner-up finish nine months ago.
“It is daunting,” Anderson said. “You question yourself. Would Tom have done that? You want to keep the tradition alive. I’m not Tom Mach. I can learn from him and put my stamp on it.”
He and Korzeniewski will seek to do so while navigating what continues to be one of the most competitive leagues in the state. Detroit Catholic Central (10), Brother Rice (8) and Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (7) have combined to amass 25 MHSAA football titles, while Warren DeLaSalle has added two more.
But when Mach announced his retirement from DCC in February, it continued a recent run of Catholic League Central programs passing the baton. Following the 2015 season Paul Verska – who led DeLaSalle to the 2014 Division 2 title – stepped down from the Pilots, and Mike Giannone left Macomb Dakota to fill Verska’s spot. Fracassa retired after the 2013 season with a record of 430-117-7 since starting at Royal Oak Shrine in 1960 and moving to Brother Rice in 1969; he holds Michigan’s record for most high school football coaching wins, while Mach is third with a record of 370-94 from 1976-2016.
St. Mary’s longtime leader George Porritt (256-71 since 1989) will enter this season as the league’s only coach with more than a year heading up the program at his school.
“I’m not a tight T (formation) guy. But I will run it right at you,” Anderson said in explaining a philosophical similarity to Mach. “And I do run some tight T plays. You can’t get rid of the wham. Tom’s philosophy was defense wins championships. That won’t change while I’m here.”
The wham is a basic run play into the middle of the line, a trademark of Mach’s offense. It’s simple but often effective. Anderson said he will install a multiple offense incorporating formations and plays from a variety of schemes as the Shamrocks look to add to last season's 13-1 run.
Anderson has been well-schooled, at Catholic Central and a number of high schools in Ohio where he grew up, played football and coached. He came to Catholic Central in 1999 as a freshmen coach. The next five seasons he was the head junior varsity coach. In 2005, he became a varsity assistant – and in 2007 he became the defensive coordinator.
Anderson played defensive end and offensive tackle at Archbishop Alter in Kettering, Ohio, located near Dayton. He earned a scholarship to University of Pittsburgh where he played guard and was a starter his junior and senior seasons.
Long before then, he knew he wanted to become a teacher and a coach. A junior high history teacher, who was also a coach, played a major role in Anderson becoming the person he is today.
“He coached me in CYO (Catholic Youth Organization),” Anderson said. “He made a big impression upon me. I was 12 or 13 years old, and I knew then I wanted to teach history and coach.
“I love the game (of football). As soon as I got out of college (1992), I started coaching as a volunteer assistant at Penn Hills (Pa.).”
And he hasn’t stopped coaching since. After leaving Penn Hills, Anderson went to Pomfret, Maryland, located just outside of Washington, D.C., and coached three sports (baseball, basketball and football) at McDonough High. After two years, he went back to his alma mater and spent five years there, the last three as the head football coach. His wife at the time was transferred to General Motors in the Detroit area and, again, Anderson sent out applications and was hired by Catholic Central as a history teacher and football coach.
Anderson said he feels fortunate to be in this position. Learning and having mentors within a parochial school system prepared him for this opportunity and challenge.
“Mach, to me, was a heck of a mentor,” he said. “My high school coach, Ed Domstiz, was one of my mentors, too. And he’s still coaching.
“Tom was laid back. He didn’t take things too seriously. With all of the extracurricular things that go on now, he wanted football to remain a game. That bothered him, the kids jumping from one school to another. To me, high school was a great time, all of the friends that you made. When you move around you miss that.
“For Tom, it was more of his relationships with people. He had the Xs and Os, but it was about building men. That was always an emphasis. You had to develop them into great people. What you saw with Tom is what you got. It was refreshing.”
Though Korzeniewski isn’t directly replacing a legend, Fracassa’s shadow still looms over Brother Rice football; history doesn’t leave us that quickly. Expectations remain high for a program that won three straight Division 2 titles from 2011-13. The Warriors finished 7-4 last fall.
There’s an added unknown for Korzeniewski. He’s never been a head coach before. He’s coached for 17 seasons, including six as Fracassa’s defensive coordinator. The last two seasons Korzeniewski was the defensive coordinator at Birmingham Seaholm, working under his good friend Jim DeWald. The two were teammates at Western Michigan during the mid-1990s.
Korzeniewski’s approach is to keep things simple. He doesn’t see his job as having more pressure than most head coaching positions. As a coach, you teach. For the players, they learn.
“To me, it’s my job,” he said. “I go about it as I would anything else. To other people it would be different. I do my job every day.
“I didn’t come here thinking other people did this or that. It’s the kids. It goes back to why I got into coaching. You see the progress. It’s important to them that they get better. Football is important to them.”
Just as Anderson learned from his predecessor, Korzeniewski has borrowed much from Fracassa.
“I learned the importance of a team,” Korzeniewski said. “Nothing is more important than the team. And there’s something else. He made every player feel a part of the team. He had a way to make kids compete. I wish I could do that.
“What’s important to me is that things get taught and understood. You have to be demanding and supportive. (It’s) the action and reaction.”
Rest assured, both coaches will be watched as if through a microscopic lens. They understand that. They also understand they are heading into once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, and they’re going to make the most of them.
“I’m excited,” Anderson said. “We have a great group of kids. We have a great group of coaches and we’re going to enjoy each other’s company.”
Tom Markowski is a columnist and directs website coverage for the State Champs! Sports Network. He previously covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Catholic Central's Dan Anderson (left), here coaching the defense during the 2016 Division 1 Final, and Brother Rice's Adam Korzeniewski, the Warriors' defensive coordinator during their 2012 Division 2 title run, are taking over top Detroit Catholic League programs this fall. (Middle) Former Brother Rice coach Al Fracassa (top) retired after the 2013 season, while DCC's Tom Mach stepped down in February.