October 5, 2005 Roughrider Retrospective
Roughriders v. Shawnee Indians, Series
ROUGHRIDER RETROSPECTIVE - by Buz Howard
This is the 14th installment in a series of articles reminiscing the history of St. Marys football. During the football season two installments each week will appear in Ridertown.
The St. Marys-Shawnee series began in 1928, the Roughriders winning seven straight times before their first loss against the Indians in 1954. St. Marys later ran off a 17-game winning streak from 1987-2003, and currently own a 32-10-1 advantage in the series.
Shawnee High School joined the Western Buckeye League in 1953, taking the place of Bluffton, a charter member of the league.
In 1967 Shawnee surprisingly dropped out of the WBL to find more challenging opponents in the now-defunct Miami Valley League, a conference consisting of bigger schools. In 1982 they petitioned to re-join the Western Buckeye League. The member schools graciously set aside any bitter feelings they had from being snubbed 15 years earlier, and took Shawnee back into the fold.
In football, Shawnee has won or shared five league titles—in 1962, ’63, ’64, ’66, and 2004.
In 1958, Skip Baughman’s first year as the Roughrider coach, St. Marys came from behind with three second-half touchdowns to beat the Indians, 22-18, two of the scoring plays coming on runs from quarterback Ron Schamp, and a third coming from all-WBL fullback Lynn Cisco.
In 1962, Shawnee won a narrow victory, 14-13, stopping the Riders on the seven-yard line at the end of the game. St. Marys touchdowns came from Ron Jones and Terry Young.
In Shawnee’s impressive streak of three straight league championships from 1962 through 1964, two of the linemen were players who eventually came to work for the St. Marys City Schools—center Jeff Howison, who would become assistant principal, and two-way lineman Bob Priddy, who would later become the legendary defensive coordinator for Skip Baughman.
Priddy, who died in 1998, had played under three coaching legends himself. The Shawnee coach for the first two years of the championship run was Jim Young, who would go on to be the head coach at Arizona, Purdue and Army.
The third championship year in the Indians’ streak came under the tutelage of Larry Smith, who later would become the top man at Tulane, USC and Missouri.
Priddy also played at Miami University under Hall-of-Fame coach Bo Schembechler.
In the 1965 game with Shawnee, the Roughriders trailed, 14-0, at the half with Tim Fortney injured and unable to play, and the Indians fullback, big Dan Protsman, running for major chunks of yardage. Though Protsman would eventually gain 141 yards in 33 carries, the Riders geared up their own running game and came back to win. Floyd Keith (126 yards in 12 carries) and Ron Keiber (94 yards in 11 carries) led the way. The highlight of the game was a 67-yard touchdown run by Keith.
The 1983 game saw the Riders rout the Indians, 63-6, a night which saw 12 different St. Marys backs carry the ball. Leading rushers were Mark Knous, with 62 yards in just four carries, and Jim Hollman, with 56 yards in 12 carries.
However, the biggest blow-out in the series came in 1993, when the Roughriders, on their way to their fourth State Championship, beat Shawnee, 65-6. The Riders posted 448 yards on the ground, led by Shawn Lamb’s 119 yards and Luke Kleinhenz’s 100 yards. Again everybody played, and again 12 different St. Marys backs found their way into the Grid-Stat.
In 1999, the game was much closer, and the Riders hung on for a 25-22 win behind Stephen Kill’s 122 yards and three touchdowns.
The 2003 game, decided by a blocked Shawnee punt on the final play, was featured in the previous installment of this series.
Shawnee won the 2004 game, 7-6, behind the passing of Matt Hershey (13 for 18, 150 yards) and four fumbles lost by St. Marys. The victory gave Coach Dick West’s squad a share of the league title with St. Marys and ended the Riders’ 17-game winning skein against the Indians.
Next week: Kenton.
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