1926 Waukesha

In 1922 the WIAA issued a directive that no school could schedule a “championship” game. That directive didn’t stop teams from playing “post season” games that newspapers would declare as a title matchup. That would end after the 1926 season. In my research for my book, The Great Teams, I found that many teams scheduled additional late season battles, after their regular season ended, usually on Thanksgiving Day. The press would declare a winning team to be the unofficial, mythical state champion. That occurred in 1926 when the press awarded the title to 8-0-0 Marinette who beat Superior 24-0. This wasn’t a true title game, a matchup of unbeatens. Superior would end with a 3-3-3 record but was considered the top team in the northwest.

So why wasn't Waukesha considered as the champion or co-champion? I think the likely reason was publicity, or the lack of it. I recently made a trip to the Wisconsin State Historical Society to look up in information in the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel about the 1926 Waukesha team. These two very large newspapers boasted thousands of readers but like some of the other papers around the state they didn't cover much in the way of high school sports. There was no mention of the team. In fact, the two papers, with few exceptions only covered the Milwaukee City Conference and then only small game stories. In fact, I found two, three line stories about Shorewood vs Chicago Latin, Kenosha vs Beloit, Octono vs Oconto Falls, a basketball schedule for Oconto and a basketball schedule for Chippewa Falls but that was about it for high school sports coverage. So, outside of the Waukesha newspaper and the other members of the Suburban Conference, no one knew of the team's success.

In 1926, teams now scheduled, for the most part, Thanksgiving Day opponents before the season began. It was often a rivalry game. That year there were games between the likes of Waukesha and West Allis and a battle between Madison East and Madison West. But some schools held out for a big season ending game like La Crosse against Kenosha or the aforementioned Marinette vs. Superior. So, a true title game couldn’t be played between Waukesha and Marinette unless they set it up for before Waukesha’s Thanksgiving matchup with West Allis. The WIAA, no matter how it looked or was stated, wouldn’t have sanctioned an early December game. Between Waukesha’s November 8 game against Cudahy and the November 24 Thanksgiving game vs. West Allis they had a long stretch of inactivity. Surely Marinette could have met Waukesha sometime in that open timeframe and not played Superior for a poor excuse of a title game.

Due to losing eight starters from the 1925 team not much was expected of the 1926 Waukesha’s squad despite coming off an undefeated year. Based on the lead story in the Waukesha Daily Freeman previewing the Saturday opener, a non-conference game, against the Wauwatosa Aggies (the nickname of the Milwaukee County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy, located in Wauwatosa) it was supposed to be a tossup. But, maybe coach Lee Saubert was hiding the team's true talents and suckering opponents into not taking the “Red and White’s” too strongly. Then again, he only had three returning starters from the undefeated, untied and unscored upon 1925 team. Saubert had toyed with moving tackle Ray Braeger to a backfield spot but then changed his mind during the five weeks of preseason drills. This was Sauberts seventh season at Waukesha. He was an accomplished basketball coach as well and a beloved physical education instructor. He knew his players well and they were ready. The Cardinals, as was the Waukesha nickname at that time, came out on fire and blew the Aggies away, 61-0. Not all of the formal first names of the players are known but I was able to get most of them or their nicknames from the yearbook. The roster usually looked like this as the team was lucky to avoid serious injuries throughout the season:

Right End Johnny Weaver Center Harold Tonn

Left End Al Dillingofski Quarterback Herb Thiel

Left Tackle Ray Breager Fullback Clifford Goerke (Capt.)

Right Tackle Harold Able Halfback Bill McFarlane

Left Guard Warden Halfback “Cow-boy” Kuntz

Right Guard “Slim” Bassett

Other lettermen and main substitutes were: Guard Bill Pancratz, fullback Dawson Mann and halfbacks Frank Ruckert and Wayne Hallgareth.

Wherever he played, team captain Clifford Goerke was the main star. He plunged into the line as a fullback, hauled in passes as a halfback, returned kicks and did the teams kicking. His father was a blacksmith as well as the first postmaster of Storyville, later changed to Blodgetts Corners and then changed to Goerke’s Corner which was along the old Watertown Plank Road in what is the west side of Brookfield and where 'The Corners of Brookfield' are now located. In the opener that took place on September 25 at Frame Park in Waukesha, he scored three times and kicked seven extra points. Kuntz also had a big day scoring three touchdowns while Thiel had two of his own. However, the big story in the Monday Freeman (the paper didn’t have a Sunday edition) wasn’t the football game but the world heavyweight boxing victory by Gene Tunney over Jack Dempsey. Tunney’s face was all over the paper. The smaller story of the win was just right for coach Saubert who was trying to keep his team unknown to other teams so they wouldn’t be prepared for his players.

The following Saturday the Cardinals again played a second non-conference opponent, Marquette High and the Jr. Avalanche (Marquette University was nicknamed the Avalanche then and the high school took on the nickname) was crushed 30-6 (newspapers listed it as 31-6) as captain Goerke hauled in two touchdown passes from Thiel. It should be noted that the final scores in the newspapers differ a bit in several games from the yearbook. I am using the scoring information from the 1927 yearbook A third non-conference game was played next against Beaver Dam and Waukesha trounced them 45-0 (44-0 in the newspaper). This was the only game that Goerke didn’t score at least two touchdowns. He had one score and three extra-point kicks but this time it was the passing combination of Thiel to Braeger. The end caught two touchdown passes and scored two other times on defense. It was now mid-October and the team was about to start their conference play and they were ready.

They opened league play against South Milwaukee who was crushed 39-0 (paper had the score as 33-0). This was the only game that Goerke was limited to a single touchdown. Thiel scored twice and passed for two touchdowns. Shorewood was next up and it was a 68-0 blowout with Goerke scoring three times and kicking eight extra points. Kuntz and Thiel each had two touchdowns. Halloween and homecoming fell on the same day, October 30. Wauwatosa high was the opponent and they fell 72-0. Thiel and Goerke were the scoring stars with four touchdowns and three touchdowns with six extra kicks. The story of the game was not totally about football. It seems that in the festivities prior to the game there was a horse drawn hearse, yes a hearse ridden by someone to Frame Park, Something spooked the horse that ran onto the field and the game had to be stopped while the animal was corralled. The hearse was an omen for Shorewood as they were slaughtered by the Cardinals. By the way, the Cardinals or the “Red and White” are the nicknames used by the local paper and the yearbooks at this time. The team did wear black shirts in a few games and they later became known in the 1930s as the Blackshirts, a nickname still used by Waukesha South high school. The school mascot is a picture of a cardinal wearing a red and white sweater.

The next week, Cudahy went down in flames in a 45-0 loss. Thiel again had a big game as he passed for two touchdowns and scored three times. Goerke plunged for two touchdowns and kicked three extra points. Now, game eight had to wait 17 days as there was a big layoff before the finale on Thanksgiving Day. Many people urged coach Saubert and others at the school to schedule a game in the interim and an open letter in the Freeman asked that Marquette high school be contacted. It was turned down by the coach and the school and so the players had to wait for the Thanksgiving showdown with West Allis. Instead of playing Marquette they should have approached Marinette but there is no indication the coach of the school did so.

Waukesha closed out the season with a 20-0 win before 4,500 fans including 1,500 from West Allis. The game was notable not only for the fine play of the Cardinals but also for several fights by spectators with police. Two West Allis residents were arrested for punching police who were trying to keep the fans off the field. Not a good way to end the season for West Allis but it was a good victory and a great season for Waukesha.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a season recap in the Waukesha Daily Freeman from which draw additional information but I’ve totaled the scoring for the players the best I can and to no one’s surprise Clifford Goerke led the team with 18 touchdowns and kicked 32 extra points for a total of 140 points. Herb Thiel scored 13 times and threw for eight scores while “Cow-boy” Kurtz scored nine touchdowns. At the season ending banquet held for both the Carroll College and Waukesha football teams a name from the past was the main speaker. It was George F. Downer, the coach of the 1898 Milwaukee South Side High School, a team that was undefeated, untied and unscored upon. Now a sports reporter for the Milwaukee Journal and future publicity director for the University of Wisconsin, Downer praised the Cardinals for their intensity, their grit and overall awesome performance. Fine words from a knowledgeable person. His 1898 team was not only the state champion but is recognized as the second national mythical champion (the 1897 Madison High school was the first national champion. These are the only Wisconsin schools accorded these honors).

Coach Saubert would coach football until 1937 when he would be replaced by a former star, Clifford Goerke.

1925 - Waukesha's Great Season

When Lee Saubert arrived on the doorsteps of Waukesha high school in 1919, neither he nor others would expect the results he would achieve in all facets of the school’s athletic life. Born in LaFarge, WI in 1893, Lee attended La Crosse Normal School and received a degree in physical education in 1917. He taught at Dunkirk, NY for a year followed by another year at West Salem. During World War I he served in the army as a machine gunner. Following his discharge he taught at West Allis high school. Then, he moved to Waukesha where he spent the next 40 years as a coach and later athletic director for football, basketball, track and tennis. As a football coach he posted a 83-37-9 record in 17 seasons and as the school’s basketball coach for 33 years, winning the WIAA state championship in 1945. Saubert was instrumental in the building of the Haertel field that is used for football and track. When a proposal was made to build a new school gym he pushed forward a successful program to build a field house for multiple sporting events.

In 1924 he helped organize the Suburban League which was the forerunner of the Suburban Conference. Waukesha would finish first in the league 1924-27 and then win three more titles in the 1930s before he stepped down as the football coach in 1937. After several slightly above average seasons, the 1924 team posted a pedestrian 3-3-0 year. Not a great year record wise but Saubert was building for the future. One of the websites I use for research ideas is E-Yearbooks.com. Unlike Newspapers.com they don’t send out notices of a new yearbook edition being added to the site, so I check the web site every few weeks. This past weekend I ran across some newly added yearbooks including some of Waukesha High School's books from 1929 and the 1930s. In the 1929 yearbook there was a story on the school’s recent football successes. The story mentioned the 1925 team that was undefeated, untied and unscored upon. That team scored 220 points and posted seven shutouts. The 1926 squad was undefeated, 8-0-0 as well and scored 370 points and allowed only 18. Unfortunately, the 1926 and 1927 yearbooks weren’t available online so I contacted Waukesha South high school where the school librarian, Mary Beth Hass, was very helpful in sending me pages from the 1925, 1926 and 1927 yearbooks. Newspapers.com doesn’t have the 1920s editions of the Waukesha Daily Freeman so I also went to the city library. I got the scores and a few bits about the team. The paper mainly only gave game stories, but I was able to piece the season together. The yearbooks gave me some of the starters' first names which the papers from that era didn’t provide. But with the added information, beyond just the scores, there was a big question to be answered. Why weren’t the two teams considered statewide as the mythical state champion? I have the answer, I think. But first, a bit of history for those of you readers who don’t know much about Waukesha County in the 1920s.

Back in the mid-1920s Waukesha was out in the country away from Milwaukee. Looking west from Milwaukee into Waukesha County there was little population other than farmers and their families. The drive from Milwaukee to Waukesha took you along pastures and farmhouses unlike todays main route along Blue Mound Road, now loaded with shopping plazas and fast-food restaurants. It was then part of the Watertown Plank Road. The road swung around a bit from where Blue Mound and Barker Road now cross near the current I-94 at exit 297 (Goerke’s Corners) in the far west part of Brookfield. Waukesha was a city of about 15,000 residents. Other members of the Suburban League were from similar size communities. In 1920, Wauwatosa had 5,800 residents but the city would jump to 21,000 by 1930. Shorewood had only 2,000 citizens in 1920 but jumped to 13,400 in 1930. South Milwaukee had about 8,000 people in 1926 while West Allis had around 25,000 and Cudahy had around 9,000. Migration after World War II saw the beginning of cities like New Berlin and Brookfield, still unincorporated farmland in the mid-1920s. Driving to play an opponent was an adventure with no big, wide roads or interstates like today. An away game could take as long as an hour and a half or more instead of today’s 30-45 minutes.

In 1924 coach Saubert had the 3-3-0 average team but he used more than just his starters and a few substitutes which was different from the era for most teams. The substitution rules were restrictive so often a player was only replaced when a teammate was injured. Only five starters returned for the 1925 season but most of the other six starters had plenty of experience because Saubert freely used the substitution rules to his advantage.

Right End Earl Blasing Center Martin Zollnar (Capt.)

Left End Bob Shortell Quarterback Stan Winde

Right Tackle Joe Adashek Fullback Clifford Goerke

Left Tackle Raymond Braeger Halfback “Zip” Hey

Right Guard George Wilber Halfback Tony Natalizio

Left Guard “Slim” Bassett

All but Braeger, Bassett and Goerke were seniors. Some future stars for the next season who gained valuable experience were juniors Harold Able, Harold Tonn, Bill McFarlane and Frank Ruekert plus freshman Al Dillingofski who played tackle in 1925, end in 1926 and fullback in 1927 and 1928.

After five weeks, yes, five weeks of hard practice, new starters were put into place and the team jelled. The team had good speed as Hey and Natalizio were known for their long scoring runs of 30, 40 or 50+ yards. Occasionally, Blasing would carry on end-around plays or even from a halfback spot. Against West Allis he took the ball 90 yards for a score. Winde was a splendid passer and tossed eight or nine touchdowns for the season. Goerke was a line plunger usually plowing between Braeger and Bassett. Braeger was nicknamed “Five yard” Braeger because he could be depended on clearing a big hole for the backs. In the Thanksgiving Day game Goerke scored a touchdown, kicked five extra points and drop-kicked a 45-yard field goal. On the season he scored seven touchdowns, kicked 24 extra points and two field goals for a total of 76 points to lead the team.

This great performance by the Waukesha team will be added to the list of 18 other squads in state history that finished undefeated, untied and unscored upon having played six or more games. This was truly one of The Great Teams and I wish the information had been made known to me prior to my book being published.

Now, to answer the question as to why this team wasn’t considered as a state mythical champion it boiled down to one thing. Publicity.

Outside of the city of Waukesha and other members of the Suburban League, hardly anyone knew about the 1925 and 1926 teams' performances. The 1925 state champion team was Green Bay East with a 9-0-0 record, the same as they posted in 1924. In 1926 Marinette was the champion with a 8-0-0 performance. That team only scored 165 points but gave up just 10 points with six shutouts. 1926 was the last year for season ending matchups not scheduled at the beginning of the year. Waukesha’s traditional season ending game was against West Allis. Marinette had won seven games in 1926 and looked for a worthy opponent and met up with. Superior, the supposed champion of the northwest with a pedestrian 3-2-3 record. Marinette won 24-0.

Beginning at the end of the 1922 season the WIAA banned season ending matchup “championship” games, which were usually scheduled on or around Thanksgiving Day. While that ruling prevented the schools from calling it a championship, that didn’t stop the local newspapers from hyping the 1926 Marinette vs Superior matchup. The Marinette, Superior, Green Bay and Eau Claire newspapers called that game a championship event. I cannot find a single newspapers story outside of Waukesha that printed a mention of the fine seasons the school produced in those years. In a November 19, 1946 edition of the Waukesha Daily Freeman the first mention I can find about the school claiming a mythical state title and that is for the 1926 season and this was in a story about coach Saubert’s basketball coaching prowess. These two teams were really “under the radar” for their time. I hope that in some small measure this blog brings them more attention.

Next up: 1926 Waukesha High School.

An Epic Thriller

Much has been written about the game between Oconomowoc and Wisconsin Lutheran in their meeting on September 27, 2013. There was a featured story in the Saturday edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the day after the game as well as a story in the weekly Oconomowoc Enterprise newspaper the next Thursday. In 2017 Wissports named the game as the seventh best game in the 15 years the web page had been around (2002-2017). The Journal Sentinel reprinted their original story in 2017 as a reminder to readers of the epic battle. I’m going to cover this game but from several different directions as well covering a bit of Oconomowoc’s season.

The final score was 84-82, with the Oconomowoc Racoon’s (also known as the Cooney’s) over the Wisconsin Lutheran Vikings in an epic scoring barrage. There are two categories in the record book for total game points. The first is “Most Points Scored in a Game by One Team”. Most of the games were shutouts and big ones at that. All the games are also ones in which a team scored 100 points or more. In 1902 Stoughton beat Kewanee (IL) 145-0. Number two on this list is the 140-0, 1913 win by St, John’s Military Academy over St. Norbert’s College followed by the 138-0 win by Tomah over Elroy in 1908. The second category is “The Most Points Scored by 2-Teams in a Game”. The total of 166 points leads the record list and it's not close. The next highest scoring total for two teams in a game is 133 points, performed by Schofield D.C. Everest (73) vs. Wisconsin Rapids (63) in 1998. Two games tie for third with 132 total points. Milwaukee Bay View (74) beat Eastbrook/Hope School (53) in 2015 and Chippewa Falls (67) defeated Eau Claire Memorial (65) in 2018.

The game between Oconomowoc and Wisconsin Lutheran started slowly. With the score 8-7 at the end of the first quarter, no one could have suspected what was to happen. Both teams played to a draw, 0-0 for the first 10 minutes of that first quarter. Then the second quarter began and the scoring barrage kept up as there were eight scores between the two teams in that period. It was a battle of the two team’s quarterbacks. Lutheran’s Logan McShane ran for three touchdowns on runs of 6, 51 and 37 yards while the Racoon’s leader, Carson Larson, ran 51-yards for one score and passed for three with touchdowns of 54, 64 and 37 yards. The game was tied twice as well as the lead changing hands twice in that period. The eight scores came about every minute and a half. The first half ended 36-35 in favor of the Vikings and things were just getting started.

The next two quarters were equally frantic. The keys to the third period were a 39-yard interception return by Nick Gomez and an 87-yard kickoff return by Jarek Berg for the Cooney’s as they took a 63-58 lead as the fourth quarter started. Gomez’s interception helped put a two-score cushion between the two teams and from then on it was a battle to see who could outlast whom. In the end both Oconomowoc and Wisconsin Lutheran would score three times each in the fourth quarter. Big stats were being piled up on both sides as the two teams would end up with 1,247 total yards…708 by the Vikings and 539 by the Racoon’s. For Lutheran, Logan McShane would be 13-27-1-180-2 passing and 14-111-4 running. Terrance Ward led the Viking ground game with 265 yards on 23 carries and three scores. Anthony Carver caught six passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.

For the Racoon’s quarterback Carson Larson was the leader. This was by far the best game he ever had. He was 10-20-0-295-4 through the air and he ran the ball 14 times for 198 yards and four scores. That’s 493 yards and eight touchdowns that he was responsible for. Outstanding!! But to me, the biggest difference in this epic were the feet of receiver/kicker Casey Bednarski who despite suffering from leg cramps throughout the game, came up in a huge way when needed. Oconomowoc scored 12 touchdowns to 11 by Wisconsin Lutheran in the game. That’s a difference of one score. However, Bednarski made all 12 of his extra point attempts. Lutheran didn’t attempt an extra point kick, choosing to go for two points after each touchdown. They made eight of them, with Terrance Ward scoring three of them. Not only did Bednarski make all of his extra points but he placed 11 of his 13 kickoffs into the endzone making it harder for his opponent. He also punted three times for an average of 44.3 yards per kick. The Vikings had to go much further downfield to score which is how they were able to out gain the Racoon’s. Bednarski only caught two passes in the game but gained 131 yards including his second quarter 64-yard touchdown. The other reception went for 57 yards and set up a touchdown. In my estimation his performance was the biggest difference in the game despite the huge effort by Carson Larson.

To give up 80+ points in a regulation time game doesn’t say much for either teams defense but every stop became that much more important and Oconomowoc was able to come up with a few critical holds that did it for them. The win put Oconomowoc in the lead for the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference title with a 6-0 record while Lutheran dropped to 3-3. The Cooney’s would have their first undefeated regular season in 26-years and their first conference title in 11 years as they would end up posting an 11-1 season record. The Vikings would rebound from the loss and post a 7-4 season record. Coach Kirk DeNoyer directed WISCO for 20-years and posted a 194-47 record with one WISSA title in 1997 and four WIAA state titles in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2014 with two state runner-up postings. His teams won 15 conference titles. In 2013, the win by Oconomowoc was the first against Lutheran in 15 years. Oconomowoc played some other close games in 2013 as they were able to score 436 points on the season and gave up 300 points.

The win against Wisconsin Lutheran was the talk of the school for many weeks as the players were constantly stopped in the hallways to get a clap on the back and to discuss different aspects of the game. It was a battle those players will long remember.

The season before, Oconomowoc earned a 6-3 record but failed to make the playoffs. Having lost the team’s leading receivers, running back and defensive players from the 2012 squad the next year’s performance was unexpected. The 2013 11-1 record posted by Oconomowoc was the second-best season record for the Cooney’s. In 1987 they posted a 12-1 record as the team was the Division 1 runner-up, losing to Fond du Lac 3-0. Coach Ryan McMillen was in his fifth season heading up the program and earned the award as the Wisconsin Little Ten Conference Coach of the Year in 2013. He graduated a lot of seniors from the 2013 team and the Racoon’s slumped to a 1-8 record in 2014. McMillen and his coaching staff re-built the program and went on to post another 11-1 record in 2015 and finally an 8-2 showing in 2016 before moving on to Muskego as the school’s athletic director.

The 2013 team had many stars. Carson Larson earned the WLT Offensive Player of the Year, first team all-conference, South Central region POY and honorable mention All-State. His season passing stats were 110-199-4-2,082-26 while his rushing totals were 114-994-12. He passed for 4,776 yards and 50 touchdowns while rushing for 1,345 yards in his career. He was offered a scholarship to Minnesota State-Mankato. Casey Bednarski was the team’s leading receiver with 26 catches for an incredible 846 yards and 10 touchdowns. He kicked 53 extra points in 53 attempts and kicked 11 of 12 field goals. His punting on the season was an average of 41.8 in 24 kicks. Casey earned all-conference honors as both a wide receiver and placekicker. Defensive back Logan Ballering led the team with 106 tackles and three interceptions. Linebacker Nick Gomez was second in tackles with 89 and his only interception was in the Wisconsin Lutheran game. Both earned first team all-conference. Other first team all-conference members were offensive lineman Colin Valley and defensive back Dalton Dunham.

Just as the win against Wisconsin Lutheran was the talk of the school and the community, so was the season. A season that those players will long remember.