END OF AN ERA AND AN UPSET???

Both November 7 and 8, 1968 goes down as important dates in state and Madison area high school football history.

THE END OF AN ERA

November 8 was the date of the last game that the Madison Central High School Tigers played their final football game ever.  The school opened about 100-years prior to 1968 as Madison High School.  The Wisconsin State Journal newspaper reported that the school started playing football 75-years prior to 1968.  I can’t find anything sooner in any written or photographic material that goes before 1893.  There are photos of the 1894-97 hanging in the between NCAA and the NFHS buildings in Indianapolis…see Lucius Donkle Jr and his son Lucius III looking at the photos of those four teams…A FAMILY AFFAIR RELATING TO THE 1897 MADISON CHAMPIONSHIP…PART 1.  Madison claimed to be the state champions for those four seasons that could be disputed due to inadequate available records of other state-wide schools.  To be sure they were successful.  1897 is the first year that enough records for other state teams can make Madison High the first official state champion along with being the first high school National Champion.

On Friday night, November 8 Madison Central…the name changed after Madison East and West opened in the 1920’s…played a final game at Madison’s Breeze Stevens Field.  Their opponent was Madison West.  The West Regents were 4-4-0 overall, 4-3-0 in conference play going into the contest.  If West won, they would earn a fifth-place spot in the Big Eight Conference.  Meanwhile the Central Tigers were winless, 0-7-0.  They only played conference games that year but if they beat West, they would avoid sharing the bottom place in the conference with winless Janesville Craig. The school was riding an eight-game losing streak having lost their last game of the 1967 season.

The Central/West series started in 1930 and the Regents held a commanding 30-7-2 overall record. By the 1930’s Central was now a middle of the pack, so to speak program.  As it turned out it would be another victory for West and Central would close on a dismal 27-0 loss note thanks to West’s Art Sanger’s running 30-times for 226-yardsand two long touchdown runs of 49 and 78 yards.  Even though Sanger carried the ball 30 times he was pulled in the second half as West’s reserves played the final 19 minutes.  Madison Central would close their football records ranked, at that time, the 11^th winningest state program with 275 victories along with 246 losses and 32 ties.  The Tigers would earn that early state title and the glorious 1897 National Championship before becoming an underachieving program, probably due to losing students/athletes to the newer schools.

THE UPSET???

The day before Central and West played on November 7^th Madison La Follette and Madison East faced off, also at Breeze Stevens Field before 8,500 screaming fans in one of the greatest games in city history.  It had rained sometime prior to the game, and it was hard traction for both teams yet East was able to dominate.  As recently as April of 2025 at a Madison Hall of Fame gathering former players were still talking about it, and why not.  Memorial was ranked number 1 in the state while East was #19.

Nov. 8, 1968 Wisconsin State Journal A.P.  statewide poll released the day after the game.  The same day the Memorial/East game results were printed.

The same day as the poll was released the citation above the game stats tells much the results:

Madison La Follette was favored to win not only because of their press poll rankings but by most fans.  As good as La Follette may have been, East was the dominate team in this matchup thanks to coach Herbert “Butch” Mueller having his Purgolders ready to pound the Lancers.  Much of the credit went to, deservedly so, to All-State quarterback Tim Healy.  In fact, this game probably solidified Healy for all the honors he would receive.  Healy was eight of 16 passing for 138 yards, five to his top receiver Bob Homburg.  While he didn’t pick up a lot of yards rushing it was his ability to get free from defenders that made his play even more dazzling.

Madison Capitol Times, Nov. 8, 1968, East’s Tim Healy runs for a gain against La Follette

But what was even mor impressive was the quarterbacks right foot.  East clearly dominated the statistics yet failed to put up a lot of points.  The running of backs Tom Mucks and Ron Buss picked up 49 and 67 yards rushing respectively.  They along with Bob Storck, Larry Christenson, Ed Bosold and Healy were stars on the defensive end.  It boiled down to a great athlete coming through in the clutch late in the game to kick the only field goal of his career, a 28-yarder, to give his team the victory.  It was a perfect snap, a perfect hold and a perfect kick.  Yes, La Follette got the ball two more times in the fourth quarter and yet couldn’t move the ball.  It was Easts defense on a soggy field and their quarterback that made the difference.  Without a play-by-play description, suffice it to say this was a great game.

THE END RESULTS OF THE GAME

The final Big Eight Conference standings…note that there were 13 teams in the conference that year.

THE FINAL STATE STANDINGS:

East jumps from #19 to the #2 spot and La Follette dropped to #4

The top 10 the week before in the U.P.I poll matched that of the A.P. but now East jumped into the poll to #2 and La Follette dropped to #8. Both polls were posted in the Wisconsin State Journal on November 14, 1968

East would end up dominating the Madison All-City squads with Healy sharing POY honors with West’s Art Sanger.  Sanger made first team All-City as a running back…239 carries for 1,149 yards and 15 td’s.  Healy completed 63 passes for 1,181 yards and 12 touchdowns while running for 238 yards.  Other Purgolders on the first team were offensive guard Paul Ziebarth, offensive tackle Greg Hoffman, end Bob Homburg, defensive end Bob Storck, and defensive back Ron Buss.  Buss was actually the team’s leading rusher with 408 yards even with missing one game.  The team had a balanced rushing game with Coach Mueller substituting players regularly because several also played defense.  Tom Mucks was the sole second team player for the squad but others who picked up honorable mention were:  Center Ed Bosold, tackles Geoff Hurtago, and Larry Christenson, as well as back Randy Sokolak. 

While Tim Healy was named only to the Madison All-City Team as a quarterback and as a co-POY, the voters must have thought that was enough for him.  A few weeks later the AP All-State team was released, and he earned two big honors…First team quarterback and first team defensive back.  It should be noted that it has been rare once the All-State teams placed both an offensive and a defensive team instead of just a top 11-players for a player to be named to both sides of the ball.  1968 was a VERY rare time when hot only Healy but two other players were named to both of the first team groups.

Hartford’s offensive tackle/linebacker Mark Fraundorf and Brookfield Central’s center/defensive end Randy Barrett were honored on both squads to make it the only time this occurred.  Also, a fourth player, Eau Claire Memorial’s Dick Vorphal earned a first team spot as a linebacker and a second team position as an offensive tackle.

In mid-December Healy was named to the U.P.I. first team as the quarterback and 6’4, 222 defensive end Bob Storck was named on both of the first team A.P and U.P.I. lists.  Defensive back Ron Buss was accorded honorable mention on the A.P. team.  Offensive guard Paul Zierbarth was earned special mention on the U.P.I team.

Coach Mueller was named City Coach of the Year.   He retired after the season and was replaced by the soon to be former head coach of the closing Madison Central, Wayne “Knobby” Kelliher who would be named into the WFCA hall of Fame in 1999.

Mueller coached at East for 23-years and had a 112-60-12 record.  He was inducted into the WFCA HOF in 1980.

GREAT SUPERIOR TEAMS…PART 4

1952 SUPERIOR CATHEDRAL… PART 2 OF A 2-PART SERIES ON SUPERIOR CATHEDRAL 

COVERING SOME GREAT HIGH SCHOOL TEAMS FROM 1930 THROUGH THE MID-1960’S ON SEVERAL CITY OF SUPERIOR FOOTBALL TEAMS

A few years back when I wrote my book I didn’t know about the record of the 1952 Superior Cathedral Panthers.  Sorry I missed it because they would have been mentioned in several sections of the book.  I hope this will, in some way make up for that “miss”.

I must digress for a moment.  When I found out about 1952 Cathedral, I was frustrated that I would have to spend long hours in Madison at the historical society scanning grainy microfilm.  I delayed my research, waiting for other avenues of getting the story.  At the time the Superior newspapers were not available online.  Often, I’ve had to rely on getting yearbook information from schools and libraries.  For several years I would look at E.Yearbooks.com to see if a copy of the 1953 yearbook would show up but no, it did not.  The public library, the county historical society and the Catholic Archdiocese had no copies.  No info anywhere unless I wanted to go back to Madison and look at the microfilm.  Then, two months ago Newspapers.com downloaded Superior papers.  The digital copy on Newspapers.com was just a grainy as what I would find at the Historical Society but at least I had a search engine to speed things along.  Now I started on research on several teams. 

Just as February opened, I contacted the library and the local historical society again to see if they found copies of the 1953 yearbook.  No.  I then checked E.Yearbooks.com again, and to my delight the book had been posted!!  The online papers are somewhat fuzzy because of age when digitalized.  I was tempted to post the grainy team photo from the newspaper just to show you that there would be only one picture that I could use but I resisted team photo posting.  The one newspaper photo that I posted of Ray Birch in the 1952 Proctor game was at best, the only usable reprint. Luckily the yearbook photos showed up well.  So, with all this, on with the story.

For many years Superior Central dominated the city, often beating the other two high schools in town, Superior East and Cathedral, often by big scores.  Central had more consistently winning teams like the 1918-20 squads under coach Irl Tubbs and then under Harry Conley.  East would have some middle of the road teams.  Central had twice as many students as East and often the better athletes in football seemed to attend that school.

Superior Cathedral was an even smaller school than East with only 225-300 students, usually in the 1950’s having around 250.  In the early years they played both of the two public schools but later it was just the East Orientals that they met each season.  The Cathedral Panthers would join the Michigan-Wisconsin Conference later in the 1950’s but would play an independent schedule in 1952.  In truth, in my research it seems that the school was more of a powerhouse in basketball. 

Cathedral opened in 1923 and started playing football in 1924.  There would be several football coaches over the period up to 1932.  After the 1932 season, with13 seniors, 10 were starters, on the team that had a 0-6-1 record the school had to make a decision.  The football coach, who was also the basketball coach, quit.  His replacement could only coach basketball.  With student enthusiasm at a low point concerning the football program, the school’s principal decided to cancel the program, for the time being, in the spring of 1933.  That cancelation turned out to last 11-years.

The school hired a basketball coach who lasted a few years, doing well in that sport before the school settled on hiring Morris “Morrie” Arnovich, Morrie Arnovich - Wikipedia, a major league baseball player who coached the basketball team during his off season from 1935-38.  Arnovich was born and raised in Superior and had attended Superior Central.  Morrie also attended Superior State College and had been a two-time All-Wisconsin player sat the college.   Before Arnovich arrived, no matter who coached the basketball squads, they were strong on the hardcourt.  Steve Bachand was a four-year starting forward, leading the team and the city in scoring during his sophomore-senior years but never played for Arnovich. 

After graduating high school, Bachand stared at St. Thomas College in St. Paul and set scoring records there.  He would then attend Superior State earning an MBA and later a Masters in history and return in 1938 to coach at Cathedral.  In Steve’s first season, 1938-39, the Panthers went 11-6 but in his next year they were 17-2 followed by an 12-3 record in 1940-41.  World War II rolled in and he left to enter the Army Air Corps (Forerunner of the Air Force) before Cathedral finished the 1941-42 season but he had coached the team to a 10-11 record.  Upon returning from the war Bachand took the dual duties of coaching football (A sport he never played in school) and basketball.  He would later become the school’s athletic director as well. 

What was sort of crazy was that in 1943 the school decoded to reinstitute football as a school sport in the middle of a world war.  From the newspapers I found that over the next three years the Panthers played some larger schools JV teams and even second-string squads but also a few regular varsity teams. 

In one of the first stories about the 1952 team, it was mentioned that they had gone 6-1-0 the previous year.  I wanted to find out how the Panthers fared the next year so I then jumped to 1953 and found that Cathedral posted a 7-0-1 record in 1953.  19-1-1 in the 1951-53 years!!  Could this be the making of a HOF coaching career that has gone unreported?  Next, I searched as to how his early teams performed.  Some newspaper stories had Steve Bachand as the head football coach from 1948-52, others had his story going back to 1947 and ending with 1953.  But I found that he took over the football duties in 1946 and as a new head football coach it wasn’t a good start.  Gone were the games against JV or second-string players.  He scheduled regular varsity opponents and his team got stomped, going 1-6-0 that year.  1947 brought a 2-4-0 record followed by a 3-3-0 posting in 1948.  1949 was a 4-2-1 season but things looked a bit better in 1950 as the Panthers went 4-3-0 with several crucial injuries to overcome.  Then 1951 came along and his team went 6-1-0 before the magical 1952 year.  And 1952-53 was also a magical basketball season as well.  Bachand coached his team, led by football end Dave Tucker (22.2 points per game) and back Ray Birch (19.6 points [per game), to a 21-2 record.  The teams only two defeats were to Superior East by four points, a team they had beaten earlier by 10 points.  In the Wisconsin State Catholic Tournament, they lost in the finals to Menasha Saint Mary’s 69-67.   Tucker would lead the city /area in scoring as a junior and senior and set numerous records.  The only one he didn’t set was for points scored in a game and it was Birch who held that record with 44-points.  Dave Tucker would go on to star on the University of Minnesota basketball team, return for a while as the Cathedral school’s football coach and then coached basketball for many years at Ontonagon MI.

The 1953-54 season was also successful.  As noted earlier the football team was 7-0-1 and basketball was 19-3.  The next few years were hit or miss for Cathedral football.  1954 they earned a 4-2-1 record followed by a 1955 ‘s disastrous 1-7-0 season.  Rebounding in 1956 the Panthers were 6-1-0 but 1957 brought another bleak year as Bachand struggled through with a 1-6-1 season.  Having some great success along some poor results on the football field, Steve Bachand quit the sport, turning the reigns over to William Meyers, his long-time assistant.  No, it turned out not to be a WFCA HOF worthy football coaching career but it would be a gratifying one, non the less.

Steve Bachand would end up spending 31-years at Cathedral as the basketball coach, teach history, working as the school’s athletic director and forge a great impact on the school and the city of Superior.  Superior Cathedral would close in 1969.  The football team would have a breakeven final year in 1968.

Cathedral lost final Bessemer 13-6 in an injury riddled season.  Tied for third place in the M-W.

Bachand had great respect for his players and they had great respect for him.  He was proud of his association with Cathedral and being a citizen of Superior.  Back in 1956 he helped, along with 10 other men, organize the Superior Youth Organization that would sponsor little league baseball.  The SYO officially joined Little League Baseball in the spring of 1957.  Steve was inducted into the Superior city Hall of Fame in 1995, and the WBCA Hall of Fame in 2005.  After Superior Cathedral closed in 1969 Steve crossed the bay to teach at Duluth Cathedral HS.  He later served as the City of Superior Parks and Recreation Department director until he retired.  Lest you think that as he got older his skills as a coach diminished, I will point out that the Panthers basketball team went 19-1 in their final season of 1968-1969.

Yes, my stories are about great football teams and not basketball, I feel a need to include the exploits of some of those great teams, even in a small way.

Coach Bachand being carried off the field after completing a perfect season.  He and his players were one of only a handful of teams to accomplish an undefeated, untied and unscored upon season.

GREAT SUPERIOR TEAMS…PART 3

1952 SUPERIOR CATHEDRAL…PART 1 OF A 2-PART SERIES ON SUPERIOR CATHEDRAL 

COVERING SOME GREAT HIGH SCHOOL TEAMS FROM 1930 THROUGH THE MID-1960’S ON SEVERAL CITY OF SUPERIOR FOOTBALL TEAMS

For many years Superior Central dominated the city, often beating the other two high schools in town, Superior East and Cathedra, often by big scores.  Central had more consistently winning teams like the 1918-20 squads under coach Irl Tubbs and then under Harry Conley.  East would have some middle of the road teams.  Central had twice as many students as East and often the better athletes in football seemed to attend that school though a number of students from East went on to play college ball.

Superior Cathedral was an even smaller school than East with only 225-300 students, usually in the 1950’s having around 250.  In the early years they played both of the two public schools but later it was just the East Orientals that they met each season.  The Cathedral Panthers would join the Michigan-Wisconsin Conference later in the 1950’s but would play an independent schedule in 1952.  In truth, in my research it seems that Cathedral was more of a powerhouse in basketball. 

Upon returning from military service during World War II Steve Bachand took the dual duties of coaching football and basketball.  He would later become the school’s athletic director as well.  Bachand had been a star in basketball and baseball at Cathedral.  He had been a starter on the basketball team before the war and led the team in scoring three years running.  He returned to Cathedral after college to teach and coach basketball before his draft number called him up.  But here he was, in 1946, as the new head football coach and it wasn’t a good start.  Going 1-6-0 that year.  1947 brought a 2-4-0 record followed by a 3-3-0 posting in 1948.  1949 was a 4-2-1 season.  Now things looked a bit better in 1950 as the Panthers went 4-3-0. Nearly the same record as 1950 but with a lot of younger players anxious to do better.  In1951 Bachand and his team went 6-1-0, the best season record that the school had ever produced.  Then magical 1952 year rolled around.

Blessed with good talent from the previous two season’s the team played only a six-game schedule.  The previous three seasons the team had played seven games, which for many schools seven or eight games were normal.  Looking over the yearbook and the Superior Evening Telegram, I couldn’t find a reason, but I have an idea as to why they played only six games.  Several teams around Wisconsin had to cancel or had games cancelled on their schedule due to the polio outbreak of 1950-53.  Like Covid-19, at least at first there wasn’t a prevention for the disease.  It wasn’t always easy for schools in the 1950’s to cancel a game and pick up a new opponent.

The team started their season on September 6, and this was an unusually early start for all the Superior area teams. It was a week or two earlier than past seasons.  Expectations were high after 1951 and the Panthers didn’t disappoint.  They took to the road for the season opener 55-miles northwest to Floodwood, MN.  The town in 1950 had only 667 residents, 90 high school students.  This was a school that was outsized and outplayed by Cathedral and yet the Panthers didn’t blow them away.  Dave Tucker, the star end for the Panthers, had a great game catching two touchdowns (30 and 11-yards).  Jerry Fabbro threw the td’s and did his job to get the team moving a bit.  Fabbro had been a fullback in 1951 but was switched to the quarterback spot.  He would stay there for most of the season and direct the attack. He would on occasion, when needed, revert to his old position of fullback. The rushing game was sluggish and that held the final score down.  Halfback Ray Birch did return a punt 33-yards for a touchdown and kicked an extra point but he and the other halfback, Jack Nault just couldn’t get the ball moving.  Coach Bachand felt that it a mix of early season jitters that caused the team to not score as often as he expected.

From the 1953 Superior Cathedral Memories yearbook (The photo took both pages of the yearbook. The fold blots out the faces of three players).

The Superior Evening Telegram didn’t carry very much in the way of player stats.  It seems Bachand and the other area head coaches were more interested in the scoring stats, which was typical of the era.  Looking at the Cathedral schedule they played, for the most part, comparable size schools, except to Floodwood and Ashland DePadua Catholic.  Superior East had more than twice as many students as did Duluth East, but Proctor and Two Harbors had just a few more students than Cathedral so it sort of balanced out.

Getting ready for Two Harbors Coaches Steve Bathard and Bill Meyers talk things over with captains Don Bedis and Dave Tucker…Cathedral yearbook

In game two against Two Harbors Birch had two touchdowns and placed three extra points.  Fabbro tossed a td pass to Birch for one of his touchdowns, ran for a short score and intercepted a crucial pass that might have led to a score.  The ground game was starting to go.  But they had to overcome penalties.  Tackle Don Bedis, linebacker/center Jack Connelly and Dave Tucker stared as well.

Ashland DePadua was a team that had fewer students but a bigger sized squad.  From tackle to tackle, on the offensive line, the Bruins averaged 200-pounds.  Huge at this time in the sport.  The Panthers cut their penalties in half, down to 55-yards.  Birch and Nault had big gains to get the team into scoring position, but those few penalties again cut the scoring to a minimum.  After three games they were now really ready to roll and against bigger schools.

The next game, against Superior East, was a showdown matching two city rivals.  The Orientals were suffering through a season marred by injuries and their final record would show a 2-5 season.  Several major starters were hurt and out for the contest.  The Panthers took advantage and cruised to a 35-0 win.  Down 13-0 just before halftime, Easts starting quarterback, Roger Lowery was carried off the field and sent to the hospital.  It had been close up to then, but it was downhill for East after that.  In fact, three more starters for East would be forced out of the game in the second half.  Coach Bachand took advantage and substituted his backfield freely as six running backs and two quarterbacks saw action.

Jack Nault catches a 10-yard touchdown vs. Superior East...Cathedral Yearbook

Proctor was next.  They weren’t having a great year, but Proctor felt that they could make a good showing.  They could not. They were outmatched.  Three minutes into the game and Cathedral started the rout with their first score.  The smothering Panther defense continuously stuffed the Rails run game to the extent that Proctor didn’t make it into Cathedral territory until the final play of the game when they end on the 48-yard line.  Ray Birch and Jack Nault each scored twice and by the middle of the second quarter Bachand played his reserves the rest of the way.

Ray Birch scoring vs. Proctor. The only usable newspaper picture I could find.

The season closed on October 17 with a 39-0 victory over the Duluth East Greyhounds and it was a true Panther defensive showcase for the second straight week.  Intercepting four passes and recovering two fumbles Cathedral showed that they were a team for the ages.  Dave Tucker, the star end, proved that he was a very valuable kicker by booming kick-offs deep and punts far.  One punt went 63-yards before it was tapped down but he had several others over 40-yards vs. Duluth East.  Ray Birch scored two touchdowns, intercepted two passes and kicked three extra points.  He would make the UPI weekly honorable mention for state player of the week for the second time that season.  Burch turned out to be the leading scorer on the team with nine touchdowns and 18 extra points (Kicks and runs) for 72 points.

The season that ended on October 17, was seven-17 days before most other high schools around the state so there was at least one hole in the schedule.   But the success at Cathedral didn’t end then.  Tackle Don Bedis was named to the AP All-State third team, in an era when each team was made up of 11-players.

 In early November the UPI released their final listing of the states undefeated teams.  The teams record shone throughout the state in newspaper after newspaper.

My list, retyped because the newspaper stories I found were grainy and left a few final scores out. Cathedral was the only undefeated 6-game team in 1952.

This isn’t the official UPI list as what was released was before the three Milwaukee schools played their final game. I tracked down the scores to the three Milwaukee teams final battles.  All three were undefeated before the final game.  In the 12-team City Conference that year neither King or Washington played Tech.  The two squads played to a 13-13 tie and Tech won their first ever City title with a 28-0 win over Lincoln.

It would be a few years before any other team, Chilton in 1969, would perform the same undefeated, untied and unscored upon year.

Next time is PART 2 of the Superior Cathedral story.