Best Football Team in McBride’s History: The Team of 1969

 

Memories of the Season by Dennis Ganahl (’71)

The Juniors, Class of 1971, felt pretty cocky, coming onto the 1969 Varsity team. The year before, our Junior Varsity (JV) team was crowned CAC Co-Champs. We had a 6-1-1 record with six shut-outs, and our offense scored 129 points. The Varsity team had a 4-4-1 record. We Juniors felt sure we were the better players, and of course, the Seniors felt they were better. Neither class had a size advantage because all of the Micks on our team were bantam weight, but each guy had a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Rainier. 

McBride was the only A-track college preparatory high school in the St. Louis Archdiocese. It wasn’t an all-male athletically oriented school like C.B.C., Vianney, St. Mary’s, S.L.U.H., Augustinian, Chaminade or DeSmet. Micks were admitted because we tested well on an academic test. McBride wasn’t an open-enrollment high school like Rosary, Mercy, Acquinas, DeAndreis either. McBride didn’t give athletic scholarships, but it did admit anyone who excelled on the entrance exam. 

Nobody had a guaranteed position except Dan Bantle, who had started as Varsity quarterback for two years. The coaches made every other guy earn his position starting on the first day of practice. As is the way with young men-in-full, even if they’re smart, it was going to be mano a mano fight. Football is a violent sport, and every player wants a physical challenge to test his mettle, his manhood. 

It took five weeks in 95-degree heat slamming each other with sweaty and bloody forearms, tackling guys running at full speed, and running thousands of hills in Sherman Park to mold us into the most-winning team in McBride’s history (9-1).  When the season finally began, we weren’t juniors or seniors, we were hardened teammates, and we felt, as a team, we could be champions. We held each other to account. We never accepted less than our best, despite bleeding blisters on our elbows, heels, and knees, and concussions. 

At the end of every practice, we’d spread Atomic Bomb on our strained and torn muscles. It was a journey, and by the end, the Juniors won their positions because we fought for them never giving an inch. Jerry Lampe and Greg Beller both won All-Conference honors, and the rest of us played hard every chance we got, and we had starters and backups throughout the line up. It was magical, having won two CAC championships in a row.

Memories of the Season by Larry Giovanni (’70)

It’s been 56 years since that magical high school football season, so many of the statistics and specific games and plays have become fuzzy, but the excitement of that season and the people and personalities on that 1969 McBride High School remain indelibly imprinted in my memory.

In many ways I was eagerly anticipating that season because there has been steady improvement on the class of ‘70’s football seasons from freshman through junior seasons.  Plus, the class of ’71 had been very successful in their two years together.  In other ways I was almost dreading my senior season because as an offensive lineman football practice was absolute sheer drudgery.  The “skill” players got to run, throw and catch the football;  Defensive players got to hit and tackle and try to cause fumbles;  All the offensive linemen got to do was block each other and hit blocking dummies.  And to make it worse, for the first time ever, we were going to have two-a-day practices in the hot, steamy August weather.

We had new coaches that year for varsity football.  Longtime coach Bob Goodwin moved on to the newly opened John F. Kennedy High School to run their athletic programs, so Earl Eilerman and Dennis Moore were elevated to Head and Assistant Varsity coaches respectively.  

There was a new attitude as Eilerman and Moore completely revamped both the offense and defense and it really seemed to fit our personnel.  Collectively we weren’t very big, especially when you consider today’s massive 300+ pound players.  Our starting O-Line was anchored by Rich Harness, who at 195 pounds was by far our biggest offensive lineman.  With me at right guard at 157 pounds, I was definitely the lightest.  However, we were very quick and technically sound.  With all-conference selection Dan Bantle quarterbacking the offense we were really clicking as practices neared the opening bell versus Chaminade – a team the class of’70 had never beaten.  And that defense!  They were also very quick and everyone there has a nose for the ball.

In fact, I felt so confident that the day before the first game I predicted to Ray Engelmeyer, one of our ruthless linebackers that we would defeat Chaminade by 4 touchdowns.  I felt even more confident when our first play had our sensational running back, Jerry Lampe sprint up the middle for 20 yards.  McBride actually won by 5 touchdowns, 33-0.  After the game, Engelmeyer charged me in the locker room, lifting me up by my shoulder pads against a locker and told me that I must be psychic and to NEVER make another prediction.  Quite a start to a memorable season.  This continued for the next three weeks as we dominated Augustinian, DeSmet and St. Mary’s.

The amazing thing about the Catholic Athletic Conference that year was how dominant almost every team in the conference was that year.  Typically, the CAC was a middle-of-the-road conference in football with DuBourg and Vianney usually leading the way.  However, in the fall of 1969 the CAC had the best non-conference record in the metro area, including the Bi-State, Suburban North and Public High.  At times during the season 6 of the 8 CAC teams (Acquinas, DeAndreis, Mercy, DuBourg, Vianney and McBride) were ranked in the Post-Dispatch’s Top Ten in the area.

Then came the game versus St. Thomas Acquinas, a team just the opposite of Chaminade; the class of ’70 had never lost to them.  It was going to be played on a Saturday night under the lights (my first football night game) and everyone was excited for that game.  Acquinas, with and old grade school classmate, John Gabrisch, at QB was also very good that year.  Still, we knew we would romp…until we didn’t.  The game was played in a driving rain, with the field a swampy quagmire.  Our offense never could get going and we had our first loss, 16-6.  It was the first time I could ever remember walking into our locker room and seeing players openly crying.  It was as devastating a loss as I’d ever experienced and I wondered if we would recover.

Recover we did.  It was so incredible to see an entire team decide on the spot to not lose again.  That attitude permeated everyone on the squad.  I had never been witness to such fierce determination in all my years of playing sports.  Especially since our toughest tests were still on the horizon.

I love to tell the story about how I would often relay the plays called by our coaches into Bantle.  After the Acquinas game, Dan decided that this was his team and he would carry us, so there were numerous times when I would relay the play to him and he would just look at me and say, “No.  This is what we’re going to run.”  Of course, the coaches weren’t too happy with me when the play we ran was not what they called.  I would just point at Dan.  The coaches rarely questioned Dan’s judgment.

The DeAndreis game was next and also played in the rain and mud, but the defense had two 4^th quarter goal line stands that clinched the win.  We dispatched Rosary, so then it was on to the co-leaders in the conference with us…Mercy.  They were an excellent team that was ranked ahead of us in the polls and both schools were ready for a bloodbath, and it was just that.   Lampe ran wild and again the defense held on late to give McBride a 12-8 victory.  All we had in front of us were DuBourg and Vianny, who for the last 4 years were easily the top 2 teams in the CAC.

We dispatched DuBourg rather easily, so with every other team in the conference having 2 losses, the championship was ours if we beat Vianney.  A team who in the last four years only had a total of 2 league losses.  Well, everything came together that day and we destroyed Vianney 34-13.  We finished the season at 9-1 overall, the best football team’s record in McBride history; we were 6-1 in the CAC and ranked #5 in the St. Louis Metro area and 8^th in the State.  Pretty good for a bunch of “braniacs”.

In my four years at McBride I had never seen the school come together as it did that Fall.  The crowds at the football games filled the stands regardless of home or away, and just walking through the halls at McBride made me feel like a big celebrity.  I was a smallish, mediocre offensive lineman, but everyone seemed to know who I was and during the season I was congratulated and cheered almost daily.

When the football team was honored by being inducted into the McBride Hall of Fame, it astounded me how humble all the players were.  In typical McBride style, the players were much more proud of experiencing McBride, the men it made us and of family and other life successes.  Long Live the Micks!