One of the first facts of life I discovered about collegiate
football in the mid-sixties other than the primary fact that I
wasn't big enough, fast enough, or good enough to compete well with
the other players on the field, was that Ohio and Pennsylvania
football was considered to be the best in the nation other than
perhaps that played in Texas. Having had limited exposure to the many
arguments among high school football fanatics about the relative
merits of the standard of ball played in either Ohio or Texas, the
"talk" was new to me but fascinating. I learned about the Big 33 Game
annually played in Hershey, PA and became a rapt listener to the
conversations among my teammates and coaches. The original Big 33 Game
began as an Intra-Pennsylvania game but the first game against Texas
was played on August 1, 1964 between just-graduated All Stars from
Texas against a similar host team of thirty-three squadmen from
Pennsylvania in the stadium at Hershey, PA, the chocolate capital of
the U.S. The Texas team was coached by former Texas and NFL great
Bobby Lane but after the Pennsylvania team won 12-6, the word was that
most of the better Texas players were involved in their annual
North-South High School All Star game that was held in conjunction
with their annual coaching clinic. The great stars such as Warren
McVea from San Antonio Brackenridge H.S. who dazzled everyone at
Houston and Greg Pipes of Fort Worth Paschal, alma mater of famous
football writer Dan Jenkins and the infamous player Joe Don Looney
never made it to Hershey. The PA guys howled that they had kicked butt
and that was that. When the game was played on August 14, 1965 at the
same time all of us were already in our UC camp, the Texans were able
to bring their very best team as the Texas coaches' clinic had passed
and they beat the northerners 26-10. As these were the only Big 33
Games played up to the point that I first was told about, the names
Norm Bulaich, Chris Gilbert, and "Super Bill" Bradley didn't mean much
to me but my Ohio and Pennsylvania teammates were well-versed
regarding the abilities of these players. Of course, Bulaich starred
at TCU and then for the Colts and Dolphins while Gilbert was a star on
Darrel Royal's first monster Wishbone team. Bradley, supposedly the
best high school player in the nation that season, became a long-time
defensive back for the Eagles. Someone named Terry Hanratty was the
quarterback for the Pennsylvania squad and as I was told, they could
gain but twenty-three rushing yards against the Texas defense. Wow, I
was impressed. I later learned that after another two drubbings, the
game was canceled as the PA high school coaches were embarrassed to be
beaten so badly, with 45-14 the score in the 1967 finale. The game was
revised so that the PA stars faced off against each other again, then
against Ohio stars and later, those from Maryland before reverting to
a PA vs. Ohio format.
The conversations wound down a natural path to "who had the best
freshmen team" and unbelievably, the Ohio guys who made up the
majority of our frosh roster, seemed to agree that Kent State
supposedly had a great squad for the past two seasons, one of the best
in the country, and in subsequent conversations, a few of our coaches
agreed. As usual, I had never heard of Kent State or most of the
Mid-America Conference schools and was filled in by Larry Gordon who
had transferred to UC from Kent and who was a part of this so-called
super-freshman team. What I also learned something about was
Massillon, Ohio football and again, having had no previous exposure to
any of the information, I had a lot to learn. I recalled a Sports
Illustrated article about a Massillon High School and what was to be,
the oddest tradition of placing a miniature football into the cribs of
the newly-born male babies in their local hospitals. Supposedly, they
were a powerhouse that was considered one of the best teams in Ohio on
an annual basis which by inference meant that they were also
considered one of the best teams in the nation on an annual basis. Leo
Strang, the Washington High School Massillon head coach from 1958
through 1963 seasons had compiled an enviable 54-8-1 record and since
almost all of the Massillon head coaches seemed to do so well and then
go on to coach Midwestern college teams, it was no surprise that
Strang was tapped to take over a floundering Kent State program in
'64. With some of the most highly-sought players in the state on his
own high school squad, Strang brought them en masse to Kent State with
him and then went out and did some big-time recruiting to fill the
Golden Flashes roster with excellent talent from Western Pennsylvania
and the state of Ohio.
We did not play Kent State and did not until 1971 but my interest
level was up. Trevor Rees had been their long-time head coach, serving
from 1946 through 1963 and winning most of his games with a 92-63-5
record but the '61-'63 teams racked up but eight wins and it was
decided that it was time for Rees to retire. Reaching just down the
road into Stark County, Kent State named the hugely successful Strang
as their new head coach. He introduced a Wing-T with unbalanced line
that had worked so well for him at Massillon and after a 3-5-1 debut,
looked towards his super frosh squad that had beaten Pitt and
four other teams by the tune of 128-46, to lead the way in 1965. Larry
Gordon was one of those freshmen but bailed out to play closer to home
in Cincinnati. Veteran Ron Mollric would be pushed by Strang's high
school QB Ron Swartz; '64 rush leader would not be able to hold off
Sewickly, PA's High School All American Don Fitzgerald who was the
frosh top's ground-gainer, averaging over one-hundred-and-twenty yards
per game; sprinter Billy Blunt of Massillon was expected to and did in
fact take over the wingback spot; Doug Landis would quickly become the
starter at fullback. So it went with an almost all-soph squad on the
field and the record improved to 5-4-1. At the end of the season, I
tagged along as a number of us drove to Kent State to visit the high
school teammate of one of the fellows. We met Coach Strang who rolled
out the red carpet and let us know that if we were at all unhappy and
interested in transferring, he was interested in talking with us. I am
quite sure he was making a general statement that was not in violation
of any NCAA rules and certainly, he would not have made such a blatant
or specific overture to a scrub like me! I met Fitzgerald who was a
stud, perhaps 5'10" and a block of muscle at 230 pounds. He seemed
reserved and extremely nice and took a lot of time answering the
hundred questions I had about the type of running and lifting he was
doing to be such a stud player. As the other guys rolled their eyes
and asked questions about the offense, defense, probability of playing
time, and demeanor of the coaching staff, I wanted to know about sets,
reps, how many steps one could run in the stadium, and biology lab
time.
None of us transferred to Kent State and even with all of the
available talent, Strang didn't fare well, going 4-6 in 1966 and 5-5
despite the awesome rushing display of Fitzgerald and the support of
the Massillon crew who were now seniors, in '67. Kent State opened up
a week before we did in '66 and some of us saw their opener where they
were nipped 27-23 by a very mediocre Buffalo team so we knew there was
a chance they were not going to be as good as expected or advertised.
Fitzgerald captained the '67 team but had his best season in 1966,
setting an NCAA record with 296 season carries, forty-seven of
them against Western Michigan. He finished second in the country that
season in rushing yards, totaling 1245 yards and in his career, rushed
for 2221. As a first-team All MAC back, he was definitely "the man" in
Ohio, giving the Ohio State fullbacks a run for their money in the
power department. Fitzgerald was drafted in the fifth-round by the
Cardinals for the 1968 season but did not make it out of camp,
considered to be a step too slow for the pros but he was a guy who
went all out. I kept tabs on Kent State football even after becoming a
high school coach and Strang's successor, Dave Puddington, another
successful Ohio high school coach who had been the head man at
Washington University in St. Louis prior to taking over the Flashes
program in 1968, sent me his Wing-T offensive playbook when I became a
high school coach. Strang had a great uniform design with a helmet
that featured a blue "K" with lightening bolts on a white shell. With
the basic blue jerseys, white front and back numbers, and "KENT STATE"
across the chest above the front numbers, the Flashes cut a sharp
figure on the field.
