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.