Back in April 2022 I did a two-part story on the 1976 Antigo Red Robins and their great coach, Gordon Schofield.  One of the players that I mentioned was quarterback/defensive back Dan Thorpe.  Antigo won the initial Class A (Now D-1) WIAA championship and Thorpe was a team leader.  While doing research for my two recent blogs on the 1980’s I ran across Dan’s name listed in the WIAA web pages concerning Football Championship Games listing of yearly champs… Team Champs .  I’d

UPDATER AT 10:50AM, 2/26/2025 Hopefully you liked Part 1…The Top Teams.  Now I move on to the Top Game, Coach and Players of the decade. THE TOP GAME All the WIAA state finals in 1980 and 1987 were low scoring/close margin games. Great battles under the eyes of those watching at Camp Randall.  Another game of note was the 1986 shoot-out between Kimberly and Sheboygan South, a 37-33 Papermakers (Sept.12) win.

As the decade of the 1980’s opened both the WIAA and WISSA were making changes to the post-season.  Under pressure from schools/coaches/media the two organizations were listening and they began to slowly expand playoff participation.  Some schools were also reaching national recognition in polls like the weekly USA Super-25.  There were, of course, some minor rule changes as well as equipment improvements but the big change was a growing threat to the sport…soccer.  Parents,