WHEN THE PACKERS WERE THE “PURPLE PLAGUE” PART 2

Two seasons before, in 1992, Coach Venne talked to the Cudahy principal after his first team went 0-9 and asked him if he could take his players to the 1992 state finals in Madison. He was looking to shake things up and he thought this might do it. The principal agreed and the team went to Madison. While at Camp Randall, as Venne tells it: “Our kids were out there with no shirts on forming a “C” in the north endzone. Some coaches I was sitting with said ‘Who are those idiots? and I said “Oh, that’s my football team.’” That’s when success began to spark for the Packers.

After a scoreless first quarter, quarterback Keith Miller of Menomonie scored after a short drive on a one-yard run. After the conversion Cudahy John Duglinski hauled in a pass from Chad Janos and took it 48-yards for the score The two teams were tied 7-7 at the half. Cudahy forced four Menomonie fumbles that the “Plague” recovered and one of them was in the third quarter which led to a second score with Janos tossing a short 4-yard toss to Steve Madden. Madden beat future Little All-American linebacker (UW-Stout) Jamie Spielman. On the returning kickoff Mike Morrow of the Indians took a reverse on the play and scored on the kick return going 84-yards. Morrow had scored in every game of his prep career and that record was intact. In the fourth quarter Menomonie again fumbled and three plays later Duglinski gave his team the lead for good as he took another Janos pass 22-yards to the endzone. Jeremy Guth recovered the short kick off for Cudahy and helped set up a crucial 37-yard field goal by Duglinski. Junior halfback Wes Jock iced the game on a 33-yard counter touchdown run. Duglinski kicked all four extra points and the Packers ended up 31-14 victors.

Cudahy’s defense held the Indians star tailback, Mike Morrow, who had been averaging 12-yards per carry, to 26-yards in 10 carries. Plus, they held Menomonie to only one offensive touchdown which was a knockdown from their 32-points a game average coming into the title game.

If you read my blog…(RUFUS) KINGS OF THE HILL…PART 2…you will remember how tough King’s defense was in the late 1960’s through the early 1970’s. Well, I think the Cudahy defense was just as tough. Maybe better. Defensive coordinator Tom Kujawa came up with the name, “The Purple Plague” for the way his defenders played. Let’s look at what they accomplished as they plagued their opponents going 13-0 and holding opponents to 69.6 yards a game on the ground. In the air they allowed around 75 yards per game. The Packer Plague scored 456 points and allowed only 40 points…six total touchdowns allowed and only six points in conference play. They probably needed to toughen up on the kick-off team as they allowed three of the six scores on returns. Nine shutouts in 13-games. In the Division 2 title game they gave up the most total yards in any single game to #1 ranked Menomonie, 209-yards. The defense recovered 28 fumbles including four in the title game. Menomonie had a 23-game winning streak coming into the final game and they also had a tough defense, but the “Plague” gained 233 offensive yards.

The champs had many stars. John Duglinski carried 240 times for 1,637 yards as he scored 31 touchdowns, kicked 48 extra points and three field goals for 243 points. The 5’8, 160-pound tailback led the state in scoring. He earned honorable All-State. Others also shone brightly. Linebacker/tight end J.J. Kotarak (5’11, 200), one of the few two-way players, made over 100 tackles and caught 23 passes for 357 yards and five touchdown’s earned 1st team All-State. Another 1st teamer was Steve Madden (5’11, 190), a defensive back and running back who led the team in interceptions and also had 100+ tackles plus 562 yards on th5 ground. Both Kotarak and Madden were seniors but center/defensive tackle Clint Grochowski, (6’3,215) a junior, was a standout earning 2nd team All-State. Offensive tackle Greg Kunstman (6’5, 270) earned honorable mention honors. They didn’t pass often but with Chad Janos at the controls of the offense they were very effective. Running the multiple offense that Venne and his coaches devised, Janos was 110-59-5-915-16 on the year and besides tossing to Kotarak and Duglinski he had a very capable wide receiver in junior Chris Samz. Samz, (6’3, 190) caught 22 passes for 345 and six scores. He would get a little bigger in 1995 and be switched to tight end where he would ern All-State honors.

Carey Venne learned from and worked with many fine coaches. In high school at Milwaukee South Division his coach was HOF coach Bill Bartholomew. While at South Corey had the distinct privilege of going 0-20-0 as a starter. Yes, winless. Despite that record Corey was named All-City, won the conference pole vault title and as a senior captained the football, basketball and track teams. He played one season as a freshman at UW-Madison and then transferred to UW-Oshkosh as a quarterback and flanker. The Titans were captained by Venne, and they won the WIAC title in 1968, their first since 1935. Again, he was tutored by a HOF coach, Russ Young. He was a graduate assistant at Oshkosh in 1969 and then moved on to Cudahy where he served under another HOF coach, Jerry Bowe. Venne stayed at Cudahy for 33-years as an English and Geography teacher, 23-years as an assistant before moving into the head coaching position. When the head coaching job in 1992 came up both he and assistant coach Jeff Cavanagh talked things over, and it was decided that Venne would be the head coach and Cavanagh would be the offensive coordinator.

Carey stayed as the head coach until 1999 when he retired, for the first time, as the head man. He was still teaching at Cudahy when Milwaukee Pius came calling. He coached there one season going 3-6 and finished with a 75-23 record. He was replaced at Cudahy by Cavanagh but before that he won six conference titles between 1992-99 and contributed to an additional five as an assistant. He and Cavanagh were co-coaches in 2001. Jeff Cavanagh himself would also earn HOF honors. The team used a 5-2 defense in what he called an “attack-style”. He also employed a creative set of “multiple” offensive schemes. He was inducted in 2004 into the WFCA Hall of Fame. BUT he couldn’t stay off the field for long although it wasn’t until 2008 when Waterford came calling and he stayed there two seasons going 8-3 and 9-2. Then he retired, again, until 2011 when he coached Waukesha North and went 3-6. He finally coached at Palmyra-Eagle in 2020 and again went 3-6. I recently talked to Carey, and he said he was through.

BUT we’ll have to see. someone else may call and he will get the itch again to lead a team.

Did you see a pattern in Venne’s career? Even if you don’t have great success at time’s, you can work hard and learn from the best and succeed.

FINAL NOTE ON THE 1994 TITLE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES:

While I was doing research on Cudahy and the title game, I noticed something very unique. The coaches of ALL the teams in the final are in the WFCA Hall of Fame. I don’t know of any other final to have 12-HOF coaches in the same finals.

Division Winning Team Coach Final Score Losing Team Coach

1 Arrowhead (12-1) Tom Taraska 19-16 vs. Muskego (12-1) Dennis Johnson

2 Cudahy (13-0) Carey Venne 31-4 vs. Menomonie Joe LaBuda

3 Monroe (13-0) Pat Martin 7-6 vs. Waupaca John Koronkiewicz

4 Mayville (13-0) Alex Hilber 47-0 vs. Baldwin-Woodville Wade Labecki

5 Fall Creek (13-0) Ron Schultz 10-7 vs. Darlington Douglas McArthur

6 Hilbert (12-1) Mark Jonas 34-6 vs. Thorp (11-2) Eric Larson

This indeed was a true matchup in the championship games of a group of super coaches

POSTSCRIPT: As far as I can figure there are only two teams in Wisconsin nicknamed “Packers”. IN 1919, while working for the Indian Packing Company in Green Bay, Curley Lambeau started the Green Bay Packers. The Indian Packing Company was absorbed by the Illinois based Acme Packing Company. The two companies were involved in the canned meat industry. Through their support for uniforms and equipment the Packers were born and a nickname of the company that got the team started was used.

In 1888 John Plankinton sold his Milwaukee meat packing company to Patrick and John Cudahy and they operated the business in the Menomonee Valley of Milwaukee. A need for a larger facility pushed their move to Bucktown, a small town two miles south of Milwaukee. In the process they also acquired large tracts of land in the area. If you are on the corner of 6th Street and Howard Ave, in Milwaukee you will see a water tower. That building was on a tract of land that Patrick Cudahy owned, and he gave it to the city. The tower is on the highest point in the city and from the top you can see for many miles. The area where the new plant was built was incorporated in 1896 and Bucktown became Cudahy, miles south and east of the tower. The local high school took the nickname “Packers”. In 1971 the Patrick Cudahy company was sold and after several buyouts a Chinese company bought Smithfield Foods and with it, Patrick Cudahy Meats was obtained. Cudahy High School still uses the nickname Packers but instead of green and gold they are purple and gold. But, in 1994, for that one season, they went by another nickname. The “Purple Plague”.

WHEN THE PACKERS WERE THE “PURPLE PLAGUE” PART 1

1994 was the season of the “Purple Plague”. The “Plague” was all over southeast Wisconsin, and it was fierce. The “Plague” started in Cudahy effecting everyone from Greenfield to Brookfield, over to Wauwatosa, down to Racine and finally, over to Madison. The “Plague” was a force that couldn’t be stopped. Nearby South Milwaukee, Franklin and Greendale were also “plagued”.

In 1992, Carey Venne took over as head football coach at Cudahy. While he didn’t reach the heights of Louisiana’s J.T. Curtis of John Curtis Christian Academy (America’s second all-time winningest coach) or Bob Hyland at Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs (Wisconsin’s all-time winningest coach) all three suffered early failures before achieving great success. Venne’s came quicker than that of Curtis and Hyland. Both Curtis and Hyland had to wait several seasons after they started their careers to have a winning season and several more before they would win a state title.

That first season at Cudahy was a disaster going 0-9 with only two seniors from the 1991 team. but 1993 was a complete turnaround. Venne knew he had a talented JV team, but he resisted moving any of them up to the varsity. He kept that group intact so they would blend better as juniors with the experienced varsity players. And they did. The Packers went 10-1 and lost in the second round of the playoffs. He also kept the JV team of 1993 intact as well, though a few moved up. That JV team went 8-1 so with that incoming talent and the experience the varsity gained, they were ready to “Plague” their opponents in 1994. Venne chose not to move any of the JV’s up to the varsity in a way to build confidence and pride.

Carey Venne

The 1994 Cudahy Packers were loaded with talent as they had eight returning offensive starters and 10 defensive starters. They joined the Woodland Conference in 1993. The Conference has changed many times over the years. Besides Cudahy, the members were Brookfield Central, Brookfield East, Franklin, Greendale, Greenfield, South Milwaukee, Wauwatosa East and Wauwatosa West.

Cudahy opened the season against conference foe, Greenfield, and as the newspaper said,” they didn’t just overpower their opponent but the” Purple Plague” destroyed the Hawks”. Greenfield was the first to feel the force of the “Plague”, losing 35-0. Returning star back, John Duglinski opened with 183 yards on 15 carries. John was also the kicker. He scored a touchdown and kicked five extra points. Next up was Brookfield Central and the Lancers also went down to defeat, 28-0 but Duglinski was held to a season low 60-yards but kicked four extra points.

Week three brought the teams only regular season non-conference opponent, Racine Park a 27-14 victim. Case was held to 19 yards on the ground in 22-rushes, but they gained 131 yards through the air. The 131 yards in the air was the second most the defense would give up that season. John Duglinski carried for 174 yards on 25 carries and scored three touchdowns and three extra points. He opened the scoring early with a 65-yard sprint to the end zone. Later, with the game tied he plowed over the goal line on a one-yard score to push the Packers into the lead for good. Two fumbles by the Panthers quarterback, both recovered by Cudahy, in two crucial series was the difference.

The next three games were blowouts, especially the 55-0 win over Wauwatosa West. Duglinski was in full rushing/scoring mode as he piled up 435 yards and scored 10 touchdowns, kicked 13-extra points and a 22-yard field goal against Brookfield East. At the South Milwaukee game there was a great halftime show as the University of Wisconsin Marching Band. The band was on the way down to Evanston IL. To play at the Wisconsin vs. Northwestern football game on Saturday. Against Wauwatosa East the Packers were in for a battle. Going onto the game both teams were tied for the conference lead with 5-0 records. It was a tough battle and the two teams played to a 14-6 hard fought Cudahy win.

After being held to 79-yards on 18 carries while scoring one touchdown against Wauwatosa East, John Duglinski came back with a great game against Franklin. Yes, he didn’t gain huge yardage against Franklin (103-yards) but he scored three touchdowns and kicked four extra points to lead the team to a Homecoming victory. This was their warmup of the regular season finale against Greendale. The Panthers were hoping to move from the conference tie with Wauwatosa East for second place and with a win over Cudahy they could tie for the Woodland Conference title. Greendale entered with a 6-1 record while Cudahy was 7-0. The “Plague” was ready and produced a 42-0 win. Now the playoffs began.

First up was Westosha who had lost in the season finale to Burlington, the Southern lakes Conference East champion 46-13. The Cudahy defense was devastating bur so was the offense. Duglinski powered for 125 yards and four touchdowns, but it was a coming out party with the pass as quarterback Chad Janos finally got a chance to throw the ball, going 8-10-0-144-1. Tight end Chris Samz caught four balls for 70 yards and the score. The defense held the Westosha Falcons who ended the year with a 7-3 record to a total of -3 yards in the crushing 54-0 first round win.

Four days later the Packers matched up with HOF Coach Don Dalton and his Burlington Demons, who would end the season with a 10-1 record as Cudahy prevailed 27-6. Coach Dalton had produced several very good quarterbacks including Tony Romo and this season’s edition was Ryan Dussault who stretched the Cudahy defense with 17-34-2-155-1 with the short passing game. He did throw a short 10-yard pass that turned into a 47-yard touchdown in the third period. The Demons only gained18-yards on the ground but Janos came through with another fine day passing as he went 9-15-1-149-1 with 2-conversion passes.

Round three was a 28-0 win over Menomonee Falls (9-3). It was back to the ground game almost exclusively led by Duglinski who carried the ball 24 times for 171 yards and two touchdowns. This set up a showdown with nationally ranked and defending state champion Menomonie. The Mustangs had a 23-game winning streak heading into the final and they were favored against Cudahy even though they had lost some great stars from the 1993 team. This season’s team would be no pushover but then, Cudahy wouldn’t be one either.

Cudahy had a 12-0 record going into the championship game. They had played great defense and scored a lot of points offensively. The question was, could they stop the power from the Northwest? About that and more in the next blog.

BREAKING BARRIERS…PART 2

“The First Touchdown” …From my book, THE GREAT TEAMS

“On October 26, 1979, with the ball on Mineral Point’s 1-yard line, leading 16-0 in the third quarter, coach John Moreland of Mount Horeb substituted one of his running backs. The back carried on the next play but was thrown for a 1-yard loss. On the next play the team got that yard back. The substitute carried the ball once more and scored a touchdown, giving Mount Horeb a 22-0 lead. That running back was 17-year-old junior, Donna Wilborn. At 5’4”, 124 lbs., Donna became the first female to score a touchdown in a Wisconsin varsity high school game.”

NOTE: After extensive research I believe that not only was Donna Wilborn the first Wisconsin female to score a touchdown but also the first female nationally to score a touchdown in a varsity high school game. One more thing, when I wrote the book my information had Verona as the opponent but after printing the book, I found that the correct foe was Mineral Point.

On Friday, September 3, 1982, two Milwaukee area females made national headlines just as Luverne, Frankie and Donna had. Judy Jackson and Vicki Smith fulfilled their dream and played varsity football. Stories about them were in the Chicago Tribune, the New Your Times and the Saint George Utah Daily Spectrum had highlighted stories about the two. Jackson, a 5’9, 185-pound junior for Milwaukee Juneau started at tackle in a 16-0 loss to University School. She did a respectable job playing both ways and the guys didn’t pay much attention to her presence. Both coaches were complimentary of how she played.

Vicki Smith played for the first time that same night when her Shorewood team lost to Port Washington 27-0. Jackson would be a regular but Smith, a 5-7 ½, 160-pound junior middle guard would only get in for two plays that night and play sporadically the rest of the season. Smith had played on the freshman-sophomore team for two years. She moved up to varsity but after the first scrimmage in 1982 she quit the team and then, over the weekend reconsidered and rejoined the team. She had already put so much into the sport she couldn’t walk away. They were pictured along with their teammates in the school yearbooks for 1983 and 1984.

Following these trailblazers, something they really didn’t consider themselves. The state saw a few females play as time went on but all I can find are kickers.

Also from my book:

“In addition to Donna, a special mention should be made about one of the other most notable Wisconsin female varsity football players. That is Kassy McCarthy of 2009 state champion Waunakee. As the team’s placekicker, Kassy made 72 of 72 extra point attempts and 2 of 4 field goals. In the Division 2 state title game, a Waunakee 34-21 win against Kimberly, she was 4 for 4 in extra points but missed a 34-yard field goal attempt that had plenty of distance but went wide right. After the game, Kassy told reporters that she would like to kick for the UW Badgers and hoped she could try out for the team in 2010. McCarthy turned down D-3 soccer scholarship offers (she was a goalkeeper) and when UW-Platteville stepped up and offered her the opportunity to kick for them she signed with the Pioneers. A week or two into fall practice Kassy was injured and she dropped her dream of kicking for a college football team. McCarthy earned Second Team All-State by the AP in 2009. In 2012, Kevin Askeland of MaxPreps.com named Kassy #10 on the list of the best female high school kickers of all-time.”

There was only one honorable mention on Kevin Askeland’s top 10 list. That name was Luverne Wise.

Moving Forward

Since 2009 there have been a few more female players on varsity teams in Wisconsin. As mentioned, most have been kickers. But as recently as 2016 Badger High School had a female, Maddie Northern, who was a backup quarterback. She didn’t get into a game and she did receive a significant injury and as a result left the team. According to Coach Matt Hensler, Maddie was a pleasure to coach and he heard that she did later play a bit for an adult female Madison team.

2019 brought a new player to the Stevens Point Pacelli team. Lydiah Kildahl played her senior year as an offensive and defensive lineman. She played six games on defense and seven on offense. She had wanted to go out for the 2018 team but couldn’t because of mono. She wore #63, the same number her dad wore when he played for Antigo. In addition, three players from the Chippewa Valley drew attention. Taylor Schulz was a backup fullback/linebacker for Rice Lake earning just brief playing time. Emma Novak-Bougie and Kylie VanDong played for Fall Creek. They both were on the team but also didn’t receive any significant game time.

2022

It was senior and homecoming nights for Pewaukee and senior Ava Metz was under center at the start of the game on October 7, 2022. She took the first snap then turned the quarterback duties to sophomore Owen Dobberstein. Owen directed the team to a 45-6 lead when he was replaced by Metz. With 7:24 left in the second quarter 11-player history was made. The called play was a run. There was bad blocking by the line and as Ava went to hand the ball off, she was hit, and the ball popped in the air and went to senior fullback Matthew Ciesielczyk who took the ball 10-yards for a touchdown. Coach Justin Friske and his assistants ruled it a pass since the ball seemed to go forward in the air. OK, not a real bullet pass but a pass none the less. Not only is this event the first pass by a female in a varsity 11-player game but the first completion and the first touchdown pass. In my research I haven’t found another female in America to have ever recorded this feat. TV channel 12 recorded the play… Girl quarterback starts Pewaukee High School's homecoming game (wisn.com)

Two weeks earlier on September 24, backup quarterback Arianna Patenaude, playing for Winter/Birchwood passed 1-1-0-17-1 in a 16-39 loss to Northwood/Solon Springs. Several weeks before that game she started against Frederic and Clayton tossing 11 and 18 passes in those games. The one touchdown she threw in the Northwood/Solon Springs game is the first ever in an 8-player game in Wisconsin and maybe ever in the United States. She is probably the first ever nationally to start and play two complete games as a quarterback.

The week before the Pewaukee-Pius game, a sophomore for Washburn carried the ball five times for 32 yards and a touchdown. Sieanna Sandor also played linebacker and did the kicking. She is a very good soccer player and is one of the state’s best downhill skiers. Her coach, Adam Coykendall, is quoted in the Daily Press article as saying “She makes our team better in both our quality of play and in the quality of our team.”

I did additional research on females playing football. There isn’t much female participation information online and I found a few players missing from a Wikipedia page on female football players. Another site, STATISTA.com posts information about participation of football. In 2009 there were 1,249 females playing 11-player football vs. 1,109,278 males. By this season the numbers were 3,094 females and 973,792 males. There are several factors here. First, those totals don’t mean all of these students are playing varsity ball. No official records are split between varsity and non-varsity participation. The number of males may have dropped because of COVID where some lost interest. That is a factor MPS attributes to a reason for low turnout in many of their schools. The MPS schools didn’t play football for two seasons. However, COVID didn’t seem to hold back female participation nationally. Parents worrying about concussions is another factor for the downturn in male participation.

I contacted Todd Clark, the Communications Director at the WIAA, asking if they had any stats on females playing football in the state. A message was sent out to all the schools, and he only received six replies. Two females are on various freshman or JV teams, and the other four are on varsity squads. Two are on 8-player teams and two are on 11-player teams. All appear to be backups except for Adrianna Patenaude who is an occasional starter. Clark didn’t receive a reply from Washburn so that makes seven known Wisconsin females playing this year. There probably are a few more out there this season. Know of any? Let me know.

Almost all of the coaches I’ve talked to or read about say the same thing that Washburn coach Adam Coykendall had to say about his player, Sieanna Sandor. The females are a pleasure to coach. They work hard. However, the coaches all express concern for the females’ safety. As with males who are slight in size, injury is a possible factor in the coaches being leery of having such a player. In 1939 and 1947, the largest player on either the Atmore or the Stinnett football teams was someone weighing about 170-175 pounds. Today’s male players are, for the most part, much larger, stronger and faster.

In the 1930’s and 1940’s the press was sexist in reporting the playing of Luverne Wise and Frankie Groves. If you look at the video of Luverne, you will see that the coach and the press played her up as a pretty girl who didn’t muss her lipstick. The press in 1947 made some of the same comments about Frankie. The Dallas Morning News reported “With her brown hair curling out from her headgear. the blue-eyed diminutive 16-year-old girl athlete got knocked down only once and astonished spectators on her last play by somehow bowling over two opposing linemen…All this, fans, without smearing her lipstick or without losing her enthusiasm for the game.” She was also reported as saying “I flat ran right into them. I guess I got a little rough.” She didn’t wear makeup then.

Yes, the game is rough but to play up the female’s “softness” is a disservice to all. Today, the only paint that females wear in a game might be the glare paint under their eyes. They are here to compete not be in a beauty contest. They want to be taken seriously. It certainly isn’t for everyone, male or female, but it should be a rewarding experience for all who play, and it should be kept positive.

I also just saw this story after I wrote the above blog. Take a look: Female High School Football Player Is An Inspiration Playing An Unlikely Position (msn.com)