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THE MERCY RULE


On Monday, October 14, 2024, I sent an email to Rico Ragsdale, the head football Coach at Milwaukee Academy of Science, telling him that his quarterback, Brayln Albritton had set a state record.  On Friday, October 11 against Kingdom Prep Lutheran Brayln tossed six 2-point conversions in a 54-0 win.  Rico responded, thanked me and then asked if I had any records of teams quitting at the halftime and what were the most in a season.  I had been thinking about this story and I responded that I did not have any “official” state record I could only think, off hand, of one other incident (Not in Wisconsin) and that took place back in 1977 in California.  It seems that Kingdom Prep called it quits at halftime.  M.A.S. had another occurrence against St. Francis when the Novas were manhandling the Mariners, leading 36-0 after the second quarter.


After replying to Rico, it suddenly occurred to me that I DID know of one such game involving a Wisconsin team.  That was the first national Championship game that took place in Detroit on Christmas Day, 1897, when North Tonawanda New York called it quits after trailing 14-0.  My three-part series posted earlier this year covers the event.


The occurrence in California back in 1977 leads to a long path of the beginning of the Mercy Rule.  Los Angeles Wilson High School was a powerhouse for several years in the mid-70’s thanks to the coaching of Vic Cuccia and the play of his son, Ron.  Wilson ran a semi-spread offense and between 1975 and 1977 Ron passed for a then national career passing record of 8,804 yards and 91 touchdowns.  He also ran for 2,647 yards and 54 touchdowns.  Wilson went 39-0 during this period and won three Los Angeles City Championships.  As a sophomore in 1975 Ron was 41-29-0-509-4 in a 36-3 win over L.A. Lincoln.  The next season, 1976, Ron was 32-24-0-398-4 passing and 14-136-2 rushing again against Lincoln.  Now, a senior, Ron was having another great season in 1977 when he was hurt at the end of game three, sat out the next game and only played the fourth quarter of game six.  In game seven Wilson again faced Lincoln and Ron was 39-34-0-509-7 (Yes, again, 509-yards).  ALL IN THE FIRST HALF!!!  The sc ore was 63-0 and Lincoln called it quits for several reasons, including the score itself.  The first reason was that Coach Vic had his team try seven onside kicks, recovering five. During this three-year period Wilson would try as many as 23 onside kicks and recover 16 of them.  The next reason was that Lincoln had a lot of inexperienced defensive backs and Wilson was exploiting that fact. And finally, the Lincoln coach felt that Wilson was running up the score.  That might have been, but Coach Cuccia had a comeback, one also used by Florida State’s Bobby Bowden when William and Mary Coach Lou Holz complained about a high score…” It’s not my job to play defense for you”.  The game report made national papers.


Now I digress a little.  In 1969 actress Sharon Tate and several others were killed by followers of Charles Manson, a story that made national headlines as well as the trial of all involved.  The first police officer to be called to the scene was Don Markam.  Don was young and when he wasn’t working, he coached football. 

After 25-years coaching in California, in 1987 Don moved to Brandon Oregon and stayed 5-seasons.  He then returned in late 1993 to California to take another coaching job.  When he returned, it was on the heels of opponents from Oregon howling about his running up the score.  Don's leaving was caused by a better coaching offer back in California. The OSAA (Oregon State Athletic Association) began a 35-point lead at halftime rule was instituted after the 1991 season. Those who proposed and helped write the rule pointed to Markham as the reason with his high scoring teams.  So, we have his high scoring teams to thank for the creation of the Mercy Rule.


In 1994, at his fourth of what would be ten schools that he coached over the years, Don took over a Bloomington High team that had gone 1-9 in 1993.  Of his 10 coaching stops Markam would have two stints with Bloomington.  His time at Bloomington would see his teams score even more points than in Oregon.

Utilizing the Double Tight-Double Wing offense where his squads ran a toss play that few teams could stop, Bloomington went 14-0, won the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) Division III Southern Section title while scoring a then, national team record 880 points or 62.9 points a game.  His star back, Greg Oliver, would set a state record with 352 points on the season.  Bloomington would win D-III titles in 1996 (Scoring 722 points in 14-games) and 1997 (Scoring 774 points also in 14-games).  Don Markam would end his career, dying in 2018 at age 78, with a career 311-112-1 record. 265 of those wins were in California as well as earning five overall C.I.F. championships.  




Since 1991 the Mercy Rule has caught on and 34 states currently have adopted it in some form.  Wisconsin introduced the rule in 2008.  California began utilizing the Mercy Rule in 2011.  There are some variations from state to state.  A few have a 42-point rule.  Some have a rule that anytime a team has a big lead, even in the first half, the clock starts running.  One of the reasons for the rule was, I’m sure, to prevent teams from canceling the rest of the game. But in some cases, the rule hasn’t kept the scores down.  In 2021 Wauwatosa West rolled over Pius 90-8.  West was leading 72-0 at halftime before the rule kicked in for the second half and only scored 18 more in that second half but they did convert on two 2-point conversions (Plus a safety).  The Trojans were content to run the ball gaining 474 yards on the ground, averaging 12.8 yards per carry.  They only threw the ball once for 36 yards. 

But one team from California failed to play well against an outmanned team.  Nearly two-months later in 2021 Inglewood High School blew out Morningside High School 106-0.  Leading 59-0 at halftime, the Inglewood coach refused to allow a running clock and kept his star quarterback in as he was allowed to toss 13…yes 13…touchdown passes.  Why the refs didn’t insist on the running clock is a mystery.  The Inglewood principal issued an apology and the C.I F. condemned the un-sportsmanship coaching.


 

Since 1994 a number of schools have passed Bloomington’s 880 seasonal points, mainly because those schools have made it to the finals in their state and have played mo0re than 14-games.  Aledo Texas scored 140 touchdowns in 2013 in 15-games and totaled a record 951 points on the season (63.4 points per game) while allowing only 134.  After Aledo beat Western Hills 91-0 there was an outcry from some Texans asking for the Mercy Rule to be implemented in 11-player football.  Texas also plays 6-player football, and they do have a Mercy Rule for that side of the game.  The UIL (University Interscholastic League), the Texas high school athletic governing body, voted NOT to implement the rule in 2014.  Spokespeople for the UIL cited that if they had the rule in place and games were cut shorter then, the third and fourth string athletes wouldn’t get any playing time. 


If you look at the Wisconsin state record book there is a list of schools scoring 100+ points in a game, but the latest 100+ game occurred in 1929, with most prior to 1919. MaxPreps.com has a quick look record book.  Check out (Cut and paste) the most touchdowns by a team that has a lot of super high scores:

The overall record book is at: 

 

FORFEITS


The previous week to my contacting coach Ragsdale, on October 4 in an 8-player game Almond-Bancroft defeated Menominee Indian 66-0.  In that game quarterback Emmitt Stiles threw seven touchdown passes and made it into the 8-player record book.  When I looked at the game stats on WisSports.net I noticed that only the touchdowns were listed in the scoring recap, the quarter-by-quarter scores weren’t entered and none of the conversions so I wrote Coach Andy Louis how they scored the two-pointers.  He couldn’t give me a breakdown and said he would have to look at film.  I asked about other games as Stiles probably had additional conversion passes and could set records. He said it would take time to find out who scored what and how.  


I noticed that in the A-B’s season schedule they had a 2-0 win over Wausau Newman Catholic.  Now I know that Newman is an 8-player powerhouse and ranked in the polls but I didn’t give it much thought at the time.  Then, as I was looking at the overall listing of game scores, I see some schools have two games listed.  A cancelled game and a score for another game.  An example is Abundant Life/St. Ambrose being scheduled in both 8-player and 11-player.  How can that be? 


On October 4 Darlington played a real game against Lodi and won 55-10 but their schedule also shows on that same day a game scheduled with AL/SA and they are credited with a 2-0 win.  How can that be when in 8-player AL/SA played Oshkosh Valley Christian and won 52-8?


If you look at the two Milwaukee Academy of Science games mentioned above, they have scores and stats.  To me that is acceptable if it is a win and not a forfeit.  Now, I don’t pretend to have all the details about the Newman vs Almon -Bancroft game but it seemed that there were a number of hurt players, and the game should have been called at some point and it should have been listed as a win, not a forfeit.  Today, October 24, I looked at Almond-Bancroft’s schedule and saw that they had two games on October 11.  A 66-28 victory over Wabeno/Leona and a 1-0 win over Bowler/Gresham?  Again, no conversion stats and no quarter-by-quarter scoring for the Wabeno game.  Was that also a second half forfeit?  A-B has stats for the Newman game so to me, that’s not a forfeit no matter when the game was stopped.  And what about the scoring?  2-0 or 1-0?


Well, Mr. Google knows all (Or thinks it does) as it states that:


“In the event the team forfeiting the game is already losing at the time of the forfeit the score stands as is.  Otherwise, forfeits result in a 2-0 score in the NFL or a 1-0 score in high school, NCAA or Canadian football”. 


In the early days of high school football, the scoring was 2-0 and that has stuck in my mind until now.  Moving forward I will use 1-0 as the standard.  So, does that mean that the real score of the A-B vs. Newman game was 1-0?


Just wondering.

 

In the beginning, there was no football until 1962 at Stratford High School.  A scrapbook in the school library says that they first played in 1931 but none of the yearbooks have a mention of the sport until the 1963 edition.  Newspaper searches confirm that in late 1962 Robert Stuckwisch was approached to come to Stratford to start several athletic programs at the school.  The early yearbooks have pictures and scores of boys’ basketball and for a few seasons’ girls’ as well.  One picture from the 1930’s shows the track team consisting of two young men posing in sprinters stances.  Baseball was added to the school in the 1950’s but there were no pictures of any other sports in the older yearbooks until 1964.


Robert “Bob” Stuckwisch had a diverse career prior to coming to Stratford.  He was an assistant football coach, head track coach as well as basketball coach at Otsego High School in Michigan.  Otsego is located about 17-miles north of Kalamazoo.  In 1950 as the basketball coach, he was noticed in many newspapers around the country for the following:


From the Racine Journal Newspaper, January 12, 1950


I found this same story in The Milwaukee Journal, The Wisconsin State Journal, The Chicago Tribune, the Wausau Daily Hearld, the Stevens Point Journal, the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press to name a few.  As a coach, Stuckwisch was evidentially “old school”.


Bob Stuckwisch…1963 Stratford Yearbook…the best picture I could find of the coach


Stuckwisch moved to Stevens Point as the Director of Recreation for that city but in 1954, at the end of the school year he resigned to go into a business venture in Washington D.C.  Bob moved back to the area and was asked to start the football, wrestling and track programs at Stratford.  He may have been the school's first official athletic director, but the year books didn’t show Stuckwisch as a member of the faculty nor a mention of anyone being the AD.  The 1963 yearbook mentions only one game that the school played as noted below in the picture.  Newspaper searches show no mention of the team until 1963.


So, Stratford appears to have lost their first game in 1962.  But in 1963 they went 3-3-1, posted a 2-5-0 season in 1964 and then they tied for the Marawood Conference title in 1965 with a 5-3-0 overall record. Citing poor health Stuckwisch resigned but stayed in the area.  He had set up an annual track relay competition and he handled that and lived in the Marshfield area. 



Jerry Fitzgerald…WFCA HOF photo


Young, at only 25-years, Gerald “Jerry” Fitzgerald moved from Gibraltar High School in Door County and took over the program.  His Gibraltar teams had gone 10-6 in his two years there but he was even better at Stratford.  The 1966 season, his first, started slow as they posted a 0-2-1 record but then rattled off 20 consecutive wins, finishing 6-2-1 in 1966, 9-0-0 in 1967 and again 6-2-1 in 1968.  His 1967 team earned the school the #2 ranking in the A.P. final poll.  After earning his Masters Degree in Administration, he took the head football coach and assistant principal positions at Tomah.  He would later move to Stevens Point in the same positions at SPASH and would have an overall career 230-117-2 Hall of Fame record at the four schools.


Bob Delaney

Bob Delaney would take over from 1969-75 not only as the head football coach but as athletic director.  Bob had an extensive coaching background, mainly in the college sector before he and his wife Mardie, also a teacher moved to Stratford. They would stay for many years after his coaching ended as teachers at the school.  In 1970 his team snapped Auburndale’s 31-consecutive win streak.  Delaney’s teams were almost always in the hunt for the Marawood title as they had only one losing season in the seven that he coached, and his 1971 team went 8-1-0 and tied for the conference crown.  His final season was 1975 and Stratford went 7-2.  The success of previous coaches was building.



Tom Knauf…WFCA HOF picture


Following Delaney stepping down, his assistant, Tom Knauf took over in 1976 and the school would reach newer heights.    His first team earned a 8-1 record and even though he had two losing seasons in his 12 years at the school (1980 4-5 and 1985 3-6) Coach Knauf produced a wonderful 91-33 record.  His 1986 team went undefeated and earned the WIAA D-5 title going 12-0 with ten shutouts and allowing only 13 points.


1987 Stratford yearbook


Knauf grew up in Marshfield attending Marshfield Columbus High School.  He first coached at Royall and after he left Stratford it was back to Columbus to run the football program twice, once for six years before becoming the defensive line coach at UW-Stevens Point and then back to Columbus to coach his sons and then he retired.


Cal Tackes with one of his teams at Cam Randall


Cal took charge in 1989, and he continued the winning ways without blinking.  In 24-years at the helm, only once in1991 did a Cal Tackes team fail to make the playoffs.  In 1991 the Tigers posted a 6-3 record.  Between 2003 and 2008 his teams won six consecutive state titles, a feat never performed before or since then.  A member of the WFCA HOF Cal ‘s record was a glossy 236-48, a winni9ng percentage of .831 which is currently ranked #5 on the WFCA 200+ coaching wins list.  Cal stepped down as head coach after the 2012 season but continues to help the football team and current coach, Jason Tubbs.


Jason Tubbs...Stratford Hogh School photo


17-years ago Jason Tubbs joined the staff as an assistant and when Cal Tackes stepped down as head coach he stepped in and the success has continued.  Now into his 13th season his teams have kept the streak of making the playoffs now at 33 consecutive years (Since they are currently undefeated with an 8-0 record, they are a cinch to make it this season).  His 2018 and 2019 squads lost in the state finals but in 2022 and 2023 they were D-6 Champions.


A number of schools, large and small, started their football programs after World War II.  Those schools have had very good success.  Fond du Lac St. Mary’s Springs, Waunakee, Edgar, Waukesha Catholic Memorial, Muskego, River Ridge as well as Stratford all started in 1949, sometime in the 1950’s or in the 1960’s and have done well.  Older, established schools as of late…Green Bay East, Green Bay West, Peshtigo, Delafield St. John’s and former Milwaukee powerhouses Washington and Bradley Tech have failed, for many different reasons to continue their past success.


One thing for sure is that whether or not you have had one longtime head coach like those at Memorial, Springs and Edgar or multiple coaches who have kept the school’s winning tradition, one thing is for sure…SUCCESS DOES BREED SUCCESS and it's been shown here with Stratford.  It also helps to have had HOF quality coaches molding their players talents to near perfection. More about how their success has been achieved in a future story.

There are streaks and THEN THERE ARE STREAKS.  Some good, some BAD.


If you look at the record book there are some that stand out and there are some hidden ones.  Here are some of them.


PASSING:

Jonah Kahl of Turtle Lake had quite a 10-game season in 2017.  He holds the record for Moist Consecutive Games, 300 yards or more: Season.  Kahl threw three 300-yard games and three 400-yard games all in his final six games.  His season totals were 318-197-9-3,430-45.  Against Hurley in his final game, a 76-44 loss, Jonah was 58-26-1-452-3, his top passing yardage performance. He tossed seven touchdowns in the lake Holcombe/Cornell 52-16 win that started his streak.  Kahl had eight total 300-yard+ games in 2017.  Jonah led the state in passing in his senior season.


Matt Ferris of Appleton Xavier posted 11 consecutive games with 200-yards or more in a game during the 2013 year.  Like Jo ah Kahl, Matt Ferris led the state in passing with seasonal stats of 419-258-11-3,949-50.   In game 10 he had sis “worst” game of the year, a 38-10 win over Notre Dame, when he completed 20 of 45 attempts for 223 yards and no touchdowns and two interceptions.  Having been injured in week 12’s game against Seymour, he gamely played in the state semi-final game against Greendale, a 44-20 loss.  Despite his injury he was 26-14-1-206-2.


A note on the 2020 COVID season as in the fall, Michael Dul of Mosinee tossed for seven 200+ yard games in his team's only seven games in that shortened season.


RUSHING:

Several running backs are tied for the record of Most Consecutive Games: 300 yards or more. During his groundbreaking 1970 season when he became the first Wisconsin back to run form2,000 yards or more in a season, Dick Barbour of Hillsboro did it.  Next, I had the privilege of attending game three of the 2001 season when Adrian Davis posted his third consecutive 300+ game, just days after 9/11.  Davis would become the first and only rusher to gain 3,000+ yards in a single season as he carried the ball 440 times for 3,422 yards and 43 touchdowns.  He had a total of five 300+ games in 2001.  The final person to do it was Jake Simuncak of South Milwaukee who turned the trick in 2016.


Columbus back Colton Brunell, the state's all-time leading rusher, holds the record for 30 consecutive games with 100-yards or more.

 

Ass for receiving, I really have no records for things like consecutive games receiving a pass or catching a touchdown or gaining 100 or 200 yards.  I have to work on that.

 

As far as team records there are a few, both good and bad.


First the good.


Everyone knows that Kimberly holds the record for the moist consecutive wins with 70 covering the 2013-2017 seasons.  The 70-wins beat the 48 consecutive wins by Manitowoc (1983-87) and that of Waunakee (2009-2012).  But what about consecutive shutouts?

 

Consecutive Shutouts

The official record is 18, set by St. John’s and it is legit as your looking over the records below will show. I’ve included the 1904-06 seasons:



Eau Claire High School which da a dubious 16-game shutout streak declined to meet St. John’s at a neutral site of their choosing.  Lawrence College is now Lawrence University. The Culver game was played at Northwestern University’s field in Evanston IL.  St. John’s was honored as the Military Prep Champion, the Western Prep Champion and the N.C.I Champion.  The win over Beloit Academy was for the North Central Interscholastic trophy.

Because St. John’s was aware of St. Louis utilizing the pass in their win over Carroll College (Now Carroll University) just days before the two met, they may have tried a pass or two of their own against the Pelicans and might have been the first Wisconsin High School to throw a pass.  Just sublimation on my part.  The 27-points by St. Louis ended the shutout streak. Milwaukee West Side later became West Division.

I should point out that many schools in the early history of the sport considered a forfeit as a 1-0 or 2-0 win and added that to their record as well as Alumni games.  Some schools chose to not include Alumni games as part of their records.  The school with the second most consecutive shutouts was the 1903-05 Eau Claire High School squads.  Included in their streak were several questionable games.  One was against a Kennedy Business School, a school that was open for a few years and was run out of a two-room log cabin.  Also, two Alumni games, a game against some local railroad workers (It might have really been just a scrimmage) and a 2-0 forfeit over Fort Atkinson.  Their 1903 10-0 game against Winona MN is a disputed score.


The more “modern” shutout record is held by Cashton who in 1980 won all eight games and in 1981 shutout their first five opponents before allowing a field goal in a 24-3 win over Stratford.  The school won their next six games, also by shutouts and earned the Division 6 State Title.  Only three points allowed in 20-games.  Quite a feat.


The top shutout streak, Most Consecutive shutouts in a Season, was performed by the 2019 Stratford Tigers who posted 12 consecutive whitewashes before allowing Amherst to put seven points on the board in a state semi-final 19-7 win.  Stratford lost the next week min the finals to Lake Country Lutheran in the finals 22-13 to end a story-book season.


Consecutive Losses:


Now, the bad.  It is widely known that Shorewood from 1988-94 had a 63-game losing streak.  Suppressing at the time if you looked at the school’s past performance in the 1930’s-1950’s.  My record book currently shows Green Bay West as having a 45-game losing streak, 2009-2014.  This is surprising as Green Bay West once had one of the all-time best overall winning records.


But I need to update the record book.  I have found that Nort Fond du Lac had an even longer losing streak than Green Bay West.  After a season opening 34-20 win over Randolph in 2016, North Fondy proceeded to lose 53 times.  The streak ended in 2023 when in game two of the season they posted a 20-14 win over Ripon.  However, the school has currently, as of game six of the 2024 season a 63-game consecutive conference losing record that dates back to an October 18, 2013 28-26 win over Kettle Moraine Lutheran.  The conference losing streak may continue, at least for another week, as they play against a tough Mayville squad on Friday, October 4.


During the losing streak I couldn’t find a story in the Fond du Lac reporter newspaper that explained why North Fondy only played three games in 2018.  A game in each August, September and October and there were no game stories to be found. in the paper They had two games cancelled in 2017, but the season record in WisSports just shows the three scheduled games for 2018.  They played seven games in the Spring of 2021, the 2020 COVID season.

 

So there are some of the streaks that can be found in the record book.

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