"For the Record"
Written for The Spring Street Journal.
by Burton Andrews
©2007 Burton Andrews
With two games in the regular season remaining Kobe Frye’s career rushing mark stands at an unofficial 3943 yards. Provided he stays healthy, he is set to become the only 4000 career yard club member in Roughrider History.
Back in 1975-77 there was a great running back named Ronnie Keith - number 24. Now standing eighth on the list of eleven 3000 yards club members, he accumulated his 3163 career yards mostly in his junior and senior years. As a sophomore, an arm injury allowed him to only see action in the last four games of the season. With just that amount of playing time, Keith managed to rank tenth in the WBL leading rushers at the end of the season.
Finishing second in the WBL for 1975, the Riders utilized good ol' no. 24 to win the 1976 Western Buckeye League Championship with a 9-1 record. Van Wert, who was picked by everyone to win the league, defeated St. Marys on a night they were unable to start any of the regular backfield for the game due to a gaggle of accumulated seasonal injuries.
The 1976 Roughrider offense feature an outstanding cast of players that contributed to Keith’s performances. At QB was a three-year starter no. 16 Tom Menker. Up front was another classic pair of first-team All-WBL guards, a senior, no. 60 Bob Roth, and a junior no. 62 Doug Wine. Between them was All-WBL first-team center no. 51 Bob Zink.
Stepping down the line from the guards we find two more quality linemen. They were the duet of no. 72 Greg Jacobs - 2nd team All-WBL and no. 71 Steve Hirschfeld, WBL Lineman of the year, 1976, and All-State of Ohio 1st team offense, who played in the Ohio High School North-South All-Star football game held in Canton, Ohio.
While Keith had a spectacular season in ‘76, he lost a running mate in game one that may have boosted his running successes even further when no. 19 Greg Starts suffered a knee injury. The injury forced Starts to switch to defense. So while he did get to play football, he was an outstanding performer who would have given WBL teams fits trying to defense both him and Keith.
Keith was joined in the backfield by no. 40 John Fortman, who in addition to being very fast, was also a pernicious blocker. While playing mostly in the wake of Keith, defenses were mistaken if they ignored Fortman because he’d make them pay in big yardage dividends.
From out of the '76 St. Marys vs Wapakoneta game came one of the Roughrider fan’s favorite legends. The game at home, remained a tie 0-0, clear into the fourth quarter with 1:23 remaining in the game. At this juncture, Ron Keith asked Coach “Skip” Baughman to call his number. Two runs and a pass each utilizing Keith, setup his dive into the endzone for the winning TD with just 20 seconds left on the clock. It marked one of the rare times Baughman had allowed a player to call the play.
A big back, when he wanted to Keith could lower his head on the trap and bang into the defense with the best of them. His running style was more in tune to standing tall on sweeps, making quick cuts through his blockers and using his ability to turn on more speed to pile up the big yardage.
Coming back for his senior season, Keith and his offense continued to dominate the WBL defenses for 1,572 rushing yards. At the time it was the best season of rushing for a Roughrider RB and it set Ron Keith at the top of the list. He stayed there until Jeff Cisco topped that chart in 1979.
Ronnie Keith was rewarded with 1st team honors All-WBL, and additionally named the WBL Back of the Year 1977.
The '77 backfield was quarterbacked by no. 10 Bob Pruitt, a junior. A year later, his senior year at the Rider team banquet, Pruitt would be complimented by Skip Baughman when, according to how the coaches graded out players on game performances, Skip pointed out that Bob never made a mistake in his QB-ing chores.
The 1977 offensive line saw the return of no. 62, Doug Wine. He was picked as Lineman of the Year in the WBL, and 1st team All-WBL. Guards and center coach Denny Long also produced 1st team center no. 50 Lou Moran, and 2nd team guard no. 61 Scott Bailey. (Bailey would follow up Wine as Lineman of the Year, a year later.)
Rounding out the interior offensive lineman were 1st Team All-WBL tackle no. 73 Stan Sanford and no. 75 Gregg Wibbeler.
Running back no. 32 Greg “Rocky” Clark provided a hammer that punished defenses. Carrying tremendous upper body strength, Clark could crash through a hole, or make his own. A popular song for high school bands at the time was the theme song from the movie Rocky. The SMABB fight song must have seemed to be that number because they played it every time Clark made a long gain.
All through the '70’s the Rider football team kept knocking at the door of the State of Ohio Football Playoffs. Finally, the 1977 squad won the computer Regional Championship and played in the State Semifinal contest against Elyria Catholic. The playoffs of that era only took the top four computer regional champions in each of only three divisions, and played a two-game tournament.
The game was a smash-mouthed affair with eventual State Champions Elyria winning by a PAT - 7-6. The leading ground gainer for the game was Ronnie Keith.
Next up on the 3000 yard club is a surprisingly unheralded legend of the gridiron, 1999-2001 Nate Homan. Hopefully, we will do some justice to this outstanding runningback and those lineman and other teammates who contributed to his 3245 career yards rushing.
Ron Keith 24 follows blockers Bob Roth 60 and Doug Wine 62 in 1976.
