#TBT: 120 Years of Ithaca Football Wins
October 2, 2014
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Ithaca football team has won 61 straight games dating to opening night 2010, a stretch that is the longest active streak in the U.S., second-longest in MHSAA history, longest to take place fully during the MHSAA playoff era, and three wins from cracking the the national all-time top 10 list.
But more than a century before the Yellowjackets began this era of invincibility, they were among those embracing the sport during its infancy in the late 1890s.
Research by the Ithaca Area Historical Society led to the uncovering of the above photo of the 1899 Ithaca High School football team and all but two of the players' names.
The Ithaca program has 376 victories dating back to the start of the 1950 season – and further research that is underway should show the team has well over 500 wins dating to its first team in 1895. Cadillac, with 512 victories, was 10th on Michigan high school football's all-time wins list heading into this season.
For some added perspective: The MHSAA was begun from a preceding organization during the 1924-25 school year. The first MHSAA playoffs were played in 1975. Ithaca's most recent varsity football loss came to Montague in a 2009 Division 6 Semifinal.
Kalamazoo's Winter a Pro in the Fall
July 19, 2012
Kalamazoo's Ron Winter has been part of just about every major event possible on a football field with more than four decades officiating high school, college and now National Football League games.
He can appreciate each level for what makes it special. And he's passed on those experiences and lessons galore to young officials and students at Western Michigan University.
Winter -- and MHSAA registered official the last 42 years -- was appointed earlier this month to serve a two-year term on the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports.
Click to read more about what he enjoys about each level of the game, and for his advice for young officials looking to join him at the highest level.