|
August 22, 2005 Roughrider Retrospective
Roughriders v. Sidney Yellowjackets, 1970
1970 team and coaches analyze the play. |
ROUGHRIDER RETROSPECTIVE - by Buz Howard
This is the first installment of a series designed to look back on memorable games in St. Marys football history. Each article, to be posted in Ridertown on Mondays, will reminisce about a key game from the series with the upcoming opponent.
In choosing these games, I am relying only on my own personal whims, based on over a half century of watching St. Marys football. I’m sure that each Roughrider fan could provide his own list of perhaps equally exciting games.
On Wednesday each week we will post a follow-up article providing an overview of the entire competitive series between the two schools, focusing on further highlights through the years.
The first game that we’ll discuss is, oddly enough, a loss: and not just any loss, but one of the most one-sided defeats in the annals of Roughrider football. However, hidden away in the dismal results of this particular game was a positive note, not entirely apparent at the time, but which was the beginning of a movement that proved to affect the program for years to come.
In 1970, Sidney High School, the Roughriders’ traditional first-game opponent, was the powerhouse of the area. The Yellowjackets had thrashed the Riders 47-20 the previous season and had the nucleus of their star-laden roster back for their senior year. Under coach Dave Haines, they were gunning for their 21st straight victory in a streak that would eventually reach 30 games.
Roughrider coach Skip Baughman and his staff had chosen to unveil a new strategy when the team took the field in the opening game. Baughman had decided to go to full-platoon football. It was a gutsy call, almost revolutionary in high-school competition at that time. Eleven players on offense, and another eleven players on defense.
Naturally, there was much discussion around town —- on Spring Street, at Goodyear, in the barbershops -— about the wisdom (or lack thereof) in the coach’s choice.
Fans opposing the new system saw it as a risky proposition. It’s dangerous to remove your best athletes from the field for half of the plays from scrimmage. It weakens offensive production and invites the big play against the defense.
Proponents of the idea felt that platooned players would stay fresher throughout the game, thus creating a late-game edge by wearing down the opposition. And what about the advantage of specialization? If a player is given fewer tasks to master in practice, won’t he execute them more efficiently during the game?
As it turned out, the Sidney Yellowjackets that night were unimpressed with St. Marys' platoon football, winning with relative ease, 54-12. Sidney quarterback Bruce Williams completed 12 passes in 17 tries, four of them touchdowns to sure-handed Mike Flanagan (later of Indiana University). Running back John Wiggins (later a star at Miami of Ohio), ran roughshod through the St. Marys defense to the tune of 165 yards in 20 carries. The only bright spots for the Roughriders that night were two touchdown passes from Greg Urich to halfback Mike Youngs.
It was the school’s worst defeat since falling to Lima South, 54-7, in 1939.
Of course in the week that followed, the platooning controversy still festered. The nay-sayers, citing the lop-sided score, seemed to hold the high ground. But others appealed for patience, pointing out the exceptional talent of the Sidney team which seemed destined to maul all of their opponents, regardless of the strategies thrown against them.
Did the loss cause the coaches themselves to feel any doubts about platoon football? “Sure,” says Denny Long today, reflecting on the game that was 35 years ago. “It was a long bus ride home. We started to worry that maybe we didn’t have enough athletes to run platoons.” Long goes on to say, “But Skip never wavered. Any time he committed to something, it was like a holy resolution.”
However, Baughman himself, when recently asked if he had any qualms that night about platooning, does admit to one fleeting moment of doubt. “When I looked over and saw Mike Youngs standing beside me on the sidelines when we were on defense, I called myself a number of ungentlemanly names under my breath.” Baughman then echoed Long’s words: “But, doggone it, we committed to it, and, come hell or high water, we were going to stick to it.”
Another former Roughrider assistant, Greg Freewalt, was asked his recollection of the loss to Sidney. “I left at halftime,” he confesses. “I wasn’t on the staff yet, so I didn’t have to stay and watch that fiasco.” (He actually used a word other than “fiasco.”) Freewalt, still a senior at Ohio Northern, was in the stands that night, and would start his long coaching tenure as defensive line coach the following year.
Probably the staff-member wounded most by the experience was the late Bob Priddy, a young second-year coach at the time. Priddy had just been appointed “defensive coordinator,” the first Roughrider coach to hold that position. The 1970 Sidney game was the first in his new role. In later years, during his legendary career, Bob simply refused to talk about it. One time however, when pressed to reflect on the game, he granted that, as painful as it was at the time, it did turn out to be a springboard for good things to come.
The story of platoon football in St. Marys is now well chronicled. A week after the Sidney disaster the Roughriders beat Greenville, 50-7. They went on to an 8-2 season and a WBL championship, the first of three in a row. The following year the Riders stopped the Sidney 30-game winning streak, winning at home, 16-8.
Altogether, St. Marys won seven Western Buckeye League crowns in the 1970’s, compiling an 86-16 record, the most productive decade in the program’s history.
Platoon football, in spite of its unpromising debut, has been kind to St. Marys ever since.
Coming Wednesday, August 24: an overview of the St. Marys-Sidney series.
Next week: Celina.
#12 Mike Youngs was WBL Offensive Back of the Year in 1970, rushing for 1048 yards on the season. Youngs' teammate (and long-time St. Marys career rushing leader) Mike Dzalamanow ran for 1098 yards in 1970. In the 1970 Sidney game, Youngs set the all-time Roughrider receiving yardage record at 151 yards. The 1970 Sidney game also tied the all-time record for most points scored against St. Marys (54) and set the record for most total yardage (564) against the Blue and Gold.
Photos taken by Tim Bates and Keith Dickman, courtesy Andrews Photography.
| 
