FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[Ralph Turner]

3am posting Ralph??   

Obstetrically speaking, a great time of night!    

[smedindy]

Pre-season polls are such a crap shoot. Well, most polls are speculation anyway. Thankfully D-3 knows how to decide it on the field.

BTW, I had a vision that the Purple Horde from Ohio visited C'ville. Oh, please. I'd drive down for sure for that one!

[ADL70]

Yea, Kenyon will be there in 2009.   

[wally_wabash]

Yea, Kenyon will be there in 2009.   

Entering year 9 in the NCAC and Kenyon is the only team I haven't seen play which is a travesty.  That situation will be remedied this fall when I take my first venture to Gambier.  I hear that Kenyon's KAC has to be seen to be believed.   

[WallyFS4]

Wally,

Go to the square.  The Amish ladies will be selling their pastries and goodies.  At least the last time I was there.  Worth the walk up the hill.  As always.

WABASH ALWAYS FIGHTS!

[gobash]

Wally,

Go to the square.  The Amish ladies will be selling their pastries and goodies.  At least the last time I was there.  Worth the walk up the hill.  As always.

WABASH ALWAYS FIGHTS!

Huh, I thought the Bible frowned upon women selling their goodies.

(No offense to any Amish posters reading this by candlelight)

[Superfoot Wallace]

http://dumcoach.com/mswf/mswf.pdf

Interesting read for those that like the history of our sport.  Wonder how much this resembles the Piper offense.  That would be a nice addition to the pile of playbooks, a Piper playbook or some notes, scribblings, writings what have you about the Denison Single Wing.

Betting Woody carried forward quite a bit to Oxford and Columbus.

signed,
Mash Cyclone

[frank uible]

This volume by Caldwell (published in 1949) remained the "single wing bible" during the 50s (I once had a copy but don't know what became of it). During the late 50s a significant number of teams continued to use the single wing, including Michigan and Tennesse along with Princeton. I wonder how many of the spread/shotgun adherrents make reference to Caldwell's teachings since there is much of the single/double wing in the spread/shotgun.

[wabco]

Wabash Coach from 1961 through 1966, Ken Keuffel, ran the single wing.  In fact he wrote a book about it:  "Winning Single Wing Football:  A Simplified Guide for the Football Coach".  He also had a PhD in English and taught in the English Dept. at the College.

He was a better writer than single wing coach, as during his 6 years Wabash went 28-20-5 and lost to the Dannies 5 times (beating them once).

He came from the East and meandered back there ... I believe to a prep school, experiencing a similar record.  He was replaced for 3 years by a "coach" (at least that is what he was called) Max Urick ... whose record  made the Wabash faithful long for the days of the single wing.  BUT ... shortly after ... fortuines began to improve.

By the by, Ken was a great guy and his offense simply required a punt/pass/run/FG kicker type tailback .... the one of note was Lynn Gerard.  And yes, boys and girls, he was a Phi Delt.

[frank uible]

That improvement undoubtedly was caused in significant part by the coaching tenure at Wabash of the admirable Frank Navarro. Ironically  the last part of his head coaching career occurred at Princeton - but he chose not run the single wing there.

[Gray Fox]

I saw this on the SCIAC board.  I'm not sure he will be playing football.

Tyler Brown

Camarillo

GPA: 3.62.

SAT: 1,800.

College choice: Allegheny.

Athletic accomplishments: Placed third at the 2008 Ventura County Track and Field championships in the 110 hurdles, 300 hurdles and long jump. Two-time Pacific View League 110 hurdles and 300 hurdles champion. Received the football program's 2007 Captain's Award and Pride Award. Member of school's league championship football team.

Academic/extracurricular: 2007 CIF Spirit Scholarship winner. Camarillo's Cops and Jocks representative for 2007. Football representative for Drug Free Campaign for two years. Pop Warner youth football coach. Serves as a Rotary track meet volunteer. Named as Camarillo scholar athlete for four years.

[LGHistorian]

Wabco-
Yes, the years you refer to are not the best of Little Giant football.  However, among Max Urick's few games he won was the final Wabash victory in the Iron Key game with Butler in 1969. It was Tony Hinkle's last visit to Wabash as football coach and he left town with a big "L" losing 16-7. The following season, Urick's last at Wabash, Wabash tied Butler 21-21 at the Butler Bowl.
Max went on to be AD at Iowa State, 1983-93, and Kansas State from 1993-2001.
Coach Urick will always be remembered fondly in my little corner of the world. My family had moved to Crawfordsville in 1969 and still had not adjusted to being in a new town.  My oldest brother was serving overseas in the Air Force and I missed being around sports teams as I used to live right next door to my old hometown high school and football field.
I started hanging around the Wabash practice fields at Mud Hollow and one day he stopped to speak to me.  He told me it was OK to talk to some of the players and coaches before practice and that I was welcome to hang around as long as I didn't get in the way.
That turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me as I went on spend the next 10 football seasons as part of the program, first as a junior high kid and then eventually a Wabash student.
Max Urick and his successor Dick Bowman may have not been among the best coaches in Wabash football history but they and their assistant coaches helped a kid like me get through a tough time adjusting to a new town. I know if it were not for the coaching staff and players kindness and interest in me as a teenager I would not be wearing a ring from the 1977 Stagg Bowl team.

[wabco]

Frank Uible

You refer to Coach Navarro.  A good Coach Navarro story:  His coaching office was located in the first floor of the present Alumni Office House next to the Trippit Center.  First room to the left when you walk in.  It is a large room (probably a living room in the original design) with a brick fireplace and mantle against one wall.  Frank's desk faced the fireplace.  When you came in, you would be treated to a pencil Norman Rockwell of Coach Navarro leaning over a bench with one foot on the bench and a football player sitting on the bench.  On Navarro's shirt was a big block "W" and a lanyard and whistle.  He was holding a clip board.

Now ... this was a real Rockwell and was drawn using Frank as the model of the coach with a real player (name unknown to me).  It was the drawing which - improved upon and in color - appeared in the Saturday Evening Post magazine under the moniker:  "The Coach".  (The Sat. Eve. Post had a series of Rockwells on its cover.)

A new recruit (or more probably the parent of the new recruit) would recognize the drawing and think "Wow, Wabash".  Well, the "W" in fact was from Williams while Navarro was there.  But it was an interesting drawing.  Navarro was - at least in my view - the beginning of the present era of Wabash Football as we see its tradition and approach today.  (Lots of Wabash tradition from the past ... I believe Coach Navarro was the first of the present tradition.)

[frank uible]

The original of that illustration is in the Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, MA and bears the title, "The Recruit". The name of the player shown is Dennis Kelly, an actual player at Williams from Pittsfield, MA at the time; the name of the trainer at the foot of the player is Joe Altott, Williams' trainer.

[wabco]

Frank

I stand corrected.  I knew it was something like "The Coach" but I am sure you are correct ... memory dims with years. 

My best memory of Navarro was the Stag Bowl when Wabash showed up (planes, cars, vans from all over) and - with the sheer joy of being there - the Wabash fans won over the locals.  As I recall there was a Piggly Wiggly next to the stadium.  A constant line of Wabash "ants" could be seen streaming to and from the Piggly Wiggly to obtain their libations.  Pres. Seymour doing magic tricks on the plane going down there and then leading cheers on the sideline.  And a great game.. Widener had a good team, as did we.  No one lost so much as the game just ran out of time.