Senior Year Football Season
The Fonda Flyers
Senior Year
August 1967 to May 1968
Our senior year is upon us, we finally sit close to the windows in home room. As a senior you are looked upon to promote school pride and show leadership to the younger students in the school. Every major event is a “last” for a senior and soon we all would realize what it will feel like to walk across the stage to get your diploma and say goodbye to Fonda High.
Football practice has started and our first game will be against Lawton-Bronson. This will be our second year of football and we will play a full varsity schedule this year. Last year our only varsity game was against Lawton-Bronson so we will be making the trip to Lawton this year to play them.
We only lost one senior from last year’s team, Allen Goetschius. We will have 20 players on the team this year. They will be:
Seniors: Dennis Smith, Nick Baskerville, Chuck Orr, Pat Murphy, Dick Murphy, Don Smith, Dennis Stafford, John Tischer
Juniors: Gerald Johnson, Doug Kruchten, Rex Jackson, Don Darling, Jerry Christensen, Ron Petersen
Sophomores: Tim Bramble, Marshall Enderlin, Bob Cole, Bob Stauter
Freshmen: Virgil Barritt, Steve Stauter
Student Managers: Mike Tischer, Myron Hatteberg
Cheerleaders: Vicki Burditt, Jane Stauter, Darla McManus, Bonnie Dusing, Jeanette Miller, Lynn Cook
The team would be coached by Wally Parman in his second year of coaching and Mike O’Brien would be the assistant coach. We will have a new offense this year; we will be going to the Power I formation on offense. This is still a run oriented offense with the addition now of having more option plays and hoping to open up the offense for more production.
Our first game was schedule for Friday, September 15th. On Wednesday my mother came to school to advise my brothers and myself that our uncle Melvin had been killed in a farm accident. I went to practice on Wednesday and a short practice on Thursday due to family visitation. On Friday my family attended the funeral and the bus picked me up just outside of Early, Iowa at the junction of Highway 20 and 71 to go play in the game.
I remember it was a very nice night. You could see the field from Highway 20. The game started off slowly for us and Lawton scored on a 59 yard run early in the game to go ahead 7-0. The score was the same at halftime. We came out in the second half and finally got our offense going. Don Darling scored on a 9 yard run and Doug Krutchen ran in the extra point to tie the score. We did score again in the fourth quarter as Don Darling scored from the 2 yard line on an option play and Doug Krutchen ran in the extra point to win the game. Doug Krutchen had 75 yards rushing; Don Darling had 66 yards rushing. I had 26 yards rushing and was 4-10 in passing for 11 yards. I do remember in the third quarter throwing a really nice long pass to Dennis Stafford who was way behind the defenders. Unfortunately for us, Dennis lost the ball in the lights and it went right through his hands or our passing statistics would have been much better. We played well and won the game that is what is most important. We are also still undefeated as a football team.
Our next game was a home game against a highly touted Meridan-Gleghorn team which won their first game of the year 33-0. They were considered to be a very big team physically and had an exceptional runner named McIntosh.
Again, it was a very nice evening, playing at home to a very large crowd. We took the opening and scored as Don Darling ran for 34 yards and a touchdown. Meridan-Gleghorn came back and scored to make the score 6 to 6 at the end of the first quarter. We launched another drive and scored again right before halftime to make it 13 to 6. The third quarter was uneventful and Meridan-Gleghorn did not score again until late in the game when Rex Jackson deflected a pass into the hands of the Meridan-Cleghorn player who scored a touchdown. Again, they missed the extra point and we ran out the clock to win the game 13 to 12. Don Darling had 78 yards running in 5 attempts, I had 58 yards in 11 carries, Doug Krutchen had 54 yards in 14 carries and Pat Murphy had 18 yards in 9 carries. We had 7 yards passing. Our defense was outstanding with Gerald Johnson having 10 tackles, Dick Murphy, Pat Murphy and Doug Krutchen had 6 tackles. Dennis Smith had an outstanding game at tackle blocking his man who outweighed him by 30 pounds and Dennis also made a key stop late in the game on defense to help preserve the victory. We beat a quality team and are still undefeated. Out next game is against Harris-Lake Park at home.
We finally taste defeat to a very good Harris-Lake Park team. We kind of sensed we may have a problem when they pull up with two bus’s full of football players. We were just outplayed, out manned and finally scored on a 60 yard run by Don Darling after recovering a fumble. We played hard; however, they were just the better team. They had 307 yards rushing to our 58. Our defense was just on the field too long and we were unable to sustain drives to score.
Our next game was against the Pomeroy “B” team, the only junior varsity game we would play this year. We went over to Pomeroy and defeated them 33 to 0. We had a nice night. Doug Krutchen did not play due to a leg injury. I had a 53 yard touchdown pass to Dennis Stafford and I was the leading ground gainer with 56 yards. Gerald Johnson lead the defense with 9 tackles and Dennis Stafford had 8 tackles.
Our next game will be the homecoming game against Lincoln-Central. Homecoming at Fonda had always been during the basketball season since we didn’t have football. A new tradition would be started. We would play a very strong Lincoln-Central team and would end up losing 28 to 7. We outgained them offensively and played very hard, again, we were outmanned and they were a much bigger and physical team. Doug Krutchen had 50 yards rushing. Pat Murphy had 53 yards rushing and Don Darling had 40 yards rushing. I had a very nice night going 10-16 in passing for 97 yards.
Vicki Burditt was the Homecoming Queen; her attendants were Jane Stauter, Jane Hatteberg and Linda Seagren.
Our next game was a home game against Wooden-Crystal Lake. We got off to a fine start and were ahead 20 to 7 at halftime. We were without Don Darling this game due to illness. Our offense sputtered in the second half and they came back to tie the score at 20 to 20. This is a game we should have won handily and I believe if Don would have played we would have. Again, we played hard against a good opponent.
Our last game was against Harris-Lake Park again up there. It was a very cold and miserable night. The football field was on the south end of the lake and there was a very strong north wind. It was hard to play in those conditions. Again, we gave a very good effort only to lose to them again 28 to 7. We were behind 21 to 0 in the third quarter. I scored a touchdown to make it 21 to 7. We then tried an onside kick to try to recover the ball. Unfortunately, we all over ran the play and the Harris-Lake Park player picked it up and ran it in for the final touchdown. Was a long bus ride home.
Our year ends at 3 wins, 3 losses and one tie, honestly, it was very good for a second year team playing bigger schools with more talent and experience. For the two years of our playing, our record would be 8 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie.
We learned a lot playing football. We learned the value of teamwork. To never give up, overcoming, try to find a way to win and to never stop playing till the whistle ends the game. We all learned very valuable lessons which would carry over in our lives.
It was now onto basketball.