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September 19, 2005 Roughrider Retrospective
Roughriders v. Ottawa-Glandorf Titans, 1976
#74 Rick Imwalle closes in on B.J. Dicke. Bob Harmeyer photo, courtesy Andrews Photography. Click for larger image. |
ROUGHRIDER RETROSPECTIVE - by Buz Howard
This is the ninth installment in a series of articles on St. Marys football history.
On Wednesday each week see Ridertown for an overview of the entire series.
 Among old-time St. Marys football fans, some games take on names of their own—convenient tags to be used as points of reference in football discussions. Hence, there’s the “Slow-Clock Game” (Wapak, 1967), the “Monsoon Game” (Wapak, 1975), the “Big Daddy Game” (Dunbar, 1990), and the “Glass Bowl Game” (Fostoria, 1990). There’s even a game named after a fan—the “Jack Lawler Game” (Wapak, 1985).
One of the wildest, most riveting games ever waged at Memorial Field took place on October 29, 1976. It is commonly called the “B.J. Dickey Game.”
The Roughriders were undefeated when Dickey’s Ottawa-Glandorf team came in to St. Marys for the season’s eighth game. A win for the Riders would clinch at least a share of the League title.
The Roughriders were relying on their traditionally strong running attack, with halfback Ron Keith and fullback Rick Lauth piling up big yardage behind the blocking of an exceptional offensive line: tackles Steve Hirchfeld and Greg Jacobs, guards Bob Roth and Doug Wine, and center Bob Zink.
However, the backfield had been hit by the injury bug. Halfback Greg Starts had gone down early in the season with a strained knee. Keith was day-to-day with a deep thigh bruise, and Lauth was forced to deal with a back injury. It would be a patchwork backfield that Coach Skip Baughman would put together to finish the season.
The early portion of the Ottawa game went well enough for the Roughriders, who worked their way to a 21-7 halftime lead. Brian Hoenie, playing just his second game at right halfback, was a pleasant surprise on his way to a 125-yard night. Keith, in spite of his nagging injury, had 58 yards and a touchdown at halftime, and John Fortman, filling in for Lauth at fullback, was also running well, scoring a first-half TD. The Riders even notched a touchdown pass in the opening half, with quarterback Tom Menker hitting Dan Harner for 29 yards.
But Keith, who had been re-injured late in the second quarter, was unable to take the field in the second half. Baughman then called on Rick Lauth, who was supposed to get a night off to further heal his back, to fill the breach. Fortman remained at fullback, with Lauth playing out of position at Keith’s halfback spot. The Rider coaching staff seemed to have worked out the jigsaw puzzle in the offensive backfield.
But now the problem was B.J. Dickey. With a powerful and accurate throwing arm, Dickey was also one of the fastest players on the field, evasive against the pass rush. From a shotgun formation, implemented by Coach John Terwilliger for the first time in this game, Dickey started passing on every down. He completed seven in a row to start the second half, including his second touchdown strike of the game to Jerry Burgei, a terrific all-around athlete who would go on to play defensive back for Michigan. The Titans had narrowed the gap to 21-14.
Then, early in the fourth quarter, Dickey scrambled for 10 yards and a third O. G. touchdown. At this point Terwilliger opted to try a two-point conversion, but the Roughriders covered a throwback attempt, and still hung on to a precarious 21-20 lead.
Brian Hoenie then ran for a 36-yard touchdown to give the Riders some breathing room, but Dickey countered with a 63-yard scoring strike to his favorite receiver, Al Laubenthal, to again bring the visitors to within a point, 27-26. The Titans once again tried the two-point conversion, but Dickey, under an intense St. Marys rush, threw short of his target.
With the Roughriders clinging to the one-point lead, they got the ball back with 3:29 on the clock. Ottawa was out of time-outs. With a first down or two, the Riders would be able to take a knee and run out the clock. But then the game took a weird twist. Lauth broke two trap plays, the first for 27 yards, and the second for a 26-yard score. After a failed conversion attempt, the score was now 33-26. Ironically, by scoring a touchdown, St. Marys gave B.J. Dickey one final chance to win the game.
With only 31 ticks left on the scoreboard clock, Dickey once again wove his magic. He hit a 17 yarder to Laubenthal, who stopped the clock by getting to the sideline on the St. Marys 46. Dickey then connected to Greg Schmeidebusch for 20 more yards, the clock stopping to move the chains.
There were seven seconds left when the Titans ran their final play. Dickey went for Laubenthal at the back of the end-zone. Defensive back Mark Stucke blanketed Laubenthal, and the pass had to be thrown high. Laubenthal managed to get a hand on it, but the ball skipped off his fingertips incomplete. There was a collective sigh of relief from the home side of the field, and probably from the tracker-backers, the Riders having held on to the crucial WBL contest by the slimmest of margins.
 Dickey had completed 25 of 38 passes for 426 yards and three touchdowns. He would go on to be the starting quarterback for Michigan.
Laubenthal, who had ten catches that night, would go on to star as a receiver at the University of Dayton, later becoming the long-time athletic director at Ottawa-Glandorf.
Ron Keith’s injury would cut his season short. But still he had managed to gain 1216 yards in eight games. The following year Keith would lead St. Marys to the State semi-finals.
The Roughriders would suffer their only loss of the season the following week at Van Wert, but still would win the 1976 Western Buckeye League Championship.
See Ridertown on Wednesday, Sept. 21 for an overview of the St. Marys-O.G. series.
Next week: Van Wert.
Bob Harmeyer photos courtesy Andrews Photography. Click for larger images.
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