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SOME LCC FOOTBALL HISTORY


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Things were going well for LCC football in the 1960's.  In 1969 LCC went 10-0.

1969 LCC Results

28 Muncie South 6

21 Crawfordsville 6

45 Lebanon 0

31 Delphi 22

31 Greenwood 0

26 Rensselaer 7

30 West Lafayette 0

23 Twin Lakes 6

30 Logansport 20 (played in the rain and mud on October 31)

LCC 16 6 8 0

Logan 0 12 0 8

26 Southwestern (Tippecanoe County) 6

Some of the players from the 1969 LCC team

Dave Delaney LE

Dan Drysdale LT

Tony Harris LG

John Reifenrath C

Tim Maloney RG

Keith Lehnen RT ( 1st Team All-State)

Brett Eberle RE

Joe Dewenter QB

Kerry Thinnes LH

Mike Schrader RH

Dave Metginger FB

John Ewalt

Jim Korty

Mike Drewery

Pat Doyle

Mark Sheets

Kevin Flynn

Gordon Halsema

LCC had some average years in the early 1970's, but won state in 1976.

 

How bad was it for LCC in the early 1980's?

In 1981 Keith Lehnen was the coach and there was about 300 students at LCC.  There was only about 30 players on the 1981 team and LCC had just joined the Hoosier Conference again in 1980.  They had to play WL, Harrison, and McCutcheon.  Coach Lehnen had concerns about whether football might die out at LCC.  The Freshman team only had 13 players in 1981.  Here are the names of some of the Football players on the 1981 team.

Tim Metzinger

Shawn Hamilton

Jim Bollock

Truong Ngugen

Doug Schrader

Doug Grupenhoff

Chris Anderson

Tim Gates

J.R. Porter

Jeff Deerr

Ted Dudzinski

Bill Bullock

Jerome LaReau

Steve Hannon

LCC went 5-5 in 1981, and only won 3 games the next 3 years.  Two of the 3 wins were against Seeger.  A football program can go from good to bad in just a few years.  

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tippy said:

Things were going well for LCC football in the 1960's.  In 1969 LCC went 10-0.

1969 LCC Results

28 Muncie South 6

21 Crawfordsville 6

45 Lebanon 0

31 Delphi 22

31 Greenwood 0

26 Rensselaer 7

30 West Lafayette 0

23 Twin Lakes 6

30 Logansport 20 (played in the rain and mud on October 31)

LCC 16 6 8 0

Logan 0 12 0 8

26 Southwestern (Tippecanoe County) 6

Some of the players from the 1969 LCC team

Dave Delaney LE

Dan Drysdale LT

Tony Harris LG

John Reifenrath C

Tim Maloney RG

Keith Lehnen RT ( 1st Team All-State)

Brett Eberle RE

Joe Dewenter QB

Kerry Thinnes LH

Mike Schrader RH

Dave Metginger FB

John Ewalt

Jim Korty

Mike Drewery

Pat Doyle

Mark Sheets

Kevin Flynn

Gordon Halsema

LCC had some average years in the early 1970's, but won state in 1976.

 

How bad was it for LCC in the early 1980's?

In 1981 Keith Lehnen was the coach and there was about 300 students at LCC.  There was only about 30 players on the 1981 team and LCC had just joined the Hoosier Conference again in 1980.  They had to play WL, Harrison, and McCutcheon.  Coach Lehnen had concerns about whether football might die out at LCC.  The Freshman team only had 13 players in 1981.  Here are the names of some of the Football players on the 1981 team.

Tim Metzinger

Shawn Hamilton

Jim Bollock

Truong Ngugen

Doug Schrader

Doug Grupenhoff

Chris Anderson

Tim Gates

J.R. Porter

Jeff Deerr

Ted Dudzinski

Bill Bullock

Jerome LaReau

Steve Hannon

LCC went 5-5 in 1981, and only won 3 games the next 3 years.  Two of the 3 wins were against Seeger.  A football program can go from good to bad in just a few years.  

 

 

That 1983 team is important despite going 0-10.  It was the impetus for the development of the youth program. 

 

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11 hours ago, foxbat said:

That 1983 team is important despite going 0-10.  It was the impetus for the development of the youth program. 

 

I thought the 1984 team was the worst LCC team ever, even though they beat Seeger 15-8.  On October 12, 1984 Attica beat LCC 50-0.  LCC had 26 rushing yards in that game.  I thought that was the lowest point in LCC football history.  

Attica 0 21 15 14

LCC    0 0 0 0

 

Things started to turn around on September 13, 1985 when LCC beat McCutcheon 6-4.  Rich Ebershoff's 9 yard 2nd quarter td pass to Vince Lockard was the only td of the game.  McCutcheon closed to 6-4 with 6:47 left when Ebershoff was tackled in the end zone, but LCC held on for the win.  It seemed like the youth program started to help by 1989, but then LCC almost closed in the Spring of 1990, and it would take about another 8 years before LCC would have a really good team.

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11 minutes ago, Tippy said:

I thought the 1984 team was the worst LCC team ever, even though they beat Seeger 15-8.  On October 12, 1984 Attica beat LCC 50-0.  LCC had 26 rushing yards in that game.  I thought that was the lowest point in LCC football history.  

Attica 0 21 15 14

LCC    0 0 0 0

 

Things started to turn around on September 13, 1985 when LCC beat McCutcheon 6-4.  Rich Ebershoff's 9 yard 2nd quarter td pass to Vince Lockard was the only td of the game.  McCutcheon closed to 6-4 with 6:47 left when Ebershoff was tackled in the end zone, but LCC held on for the win.  It seemed like the youth program started to help by 1989, but then LCC almost closed in the Spring of 1990, and it would take about another 8 years before LCC would have a really good team.

Really, only up until recently, LCC's been a feast-or-famine kind of team when it comes to post season ... although folks have always thought of them as dominant since inception.  Looking at Harrell's, from 1976, in the run-up to the 4-peats which kind of kicked off the "modern history" of LCC mythos, LCC's post-season was:

  • 1976 - State champ
  • 1989 - Sectional champ
  • 1999 - State champ
  • 2005 - Sectional champ

I ran some back-of-the-napkin calculations and, prior to the 1983 season, LCC was sporting just under a 54% win-rate.  The win-rate since the first youth program kids hit their senior year has been a tad over 71%.  Probably of greater interest to the LCC faithful, is that LCC's post-season has been less feast-or-famine.  Since the end of the four-peats, 2009-2012, LCC's post season has been:

  • 2014 - 2A Regional champ
  • 2015 - 1A State champ
  • 2016 - 1A Sectional champ
  • 2019 - 1A State champ
  • 2020 - 1A Regional champ
  • 2021 - 2A Sectional champ
  • 2022 - 2A Sectional champ
  • 2023 - 2A Regional champ
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13 hours ago, foxbat said:

That 1983 team is important despite going 0-10.  It was the impetus for the development of the youth program. 

 

This reminds me of Pioneer in the early 90s, right before Mike Johnson bought in to using the Delaware Wing-T and implementing it in the youth program. However, Pioneer had a very young program and had never really achieved anything as a program. There's an entire story somewhere chronicling Coach Johnson's journey to using the Wing-T, in which he attempted to attend a Wing-T clinic, in another state, just to realize that he had gone on the wrong date. He and his assistant, I want to say Clay Scott, then located the guy who ran the clinic and the guy, feeling sorry for them, let them pick his brain for a few hours, as the story goes. I absolutely love this story because it shows what can be accomplished when dedication and passion are applied to situations of adversity. Also, remember that this was in the early-90s, so there wasn't any internet or probably even cell phones involved.

 

Edited by AG
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Seniors on the 1959 LCC Football team!

Jack Morrison

Paul Sanders

Dan McGuire

Ron Edmundson

Don Rowland

Jack Hubertz

There was a Moser, Anthrop, Metzinger, Schrader, Mugg, and Conrad on that 1959 team.  There was an Anthrop and a Schrader on many LCC football teams.

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2 minutes ago, Tippy said:

Seniors on the 1959 LCC Football team!

Jack Morrison

Paul Sanders

Dan McGuire

Ron Edmundson

Don Rowland

Jack Hubertz

There was a Moser, Anthrop, Metzinger, Schrader, Mugg, and Conrad on that 1959 team.  There was an Anthrop and a Schrader on many LCC football teams.

I was looking through the names in your old team rosters and looking at how many of those "later generation" namesakes I coached too.  Coached three Anthrops and at least ten Schraders.  Used to have a saying in the youth program that you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a Schrader.  For the first time in a long time there's not a Schrader on the player roster; however, there's one on the coaching staff ... one of the ten that I coached in the youth league.

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Complete 1961 LCC Football Roster

Jim Lamb

Norm Sanders

Henry Ebershoff

Ken Morrison

Mike Croussore

Mike Rausch

Dick Edmundson

Mike Fleming

Bernie Conrad

Mike Henning

Ken McDowell

Dominic Oliverio

Lou Hatke

Jim Metzinger

Pete Halsmer

Pat Finley

Bernie Hickner

Tim Statton

Dave Manley

Jim Halsema

Jerry Rund

Jim Croussore

Mike Hansberger

Tom Scanlon

Tom Peters

Steve Harris

Tom Thomes

Bob Castor

Dave Cain

Phil Rothrock

Jim Rothrock

Ed Enochs

Pat Noonan

All 33 of them were under 200 pounds.  The tallest player was 6 foot 1

 

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10 hours ago, foxbat said:

Really, only up until recently, LCC's been a feast-or-famine kind of team when it comes to post season ... although folks have always thought of them as dominant since inception.  Looking at Harrell's, from 1976, in the run-up to the 4-peats which kind of kicked off the "modern history" of LCC mythos, LCC's post-season was:

  • 1976 - State champ
  • 1989 - Sectional champ
  • 1999 - State champ
  • 2005 - Sectional champ

I ran some back-of-the-napkin calculations and, prior to the 1983 season, LCC was sporting just under a 54% win-rate.  The win-rate since the first youth program kids hit their senior year has been a tad over 71%.  Probably of greater interest to the LCC faithful, is that LCC's post-season has been less feast-or-famine.  Since the end of the four-peats, 2009-2012, LCC's post season has been:

  • 2014 - 2A Regional champ
  • 2015 - 1A State champ
  • 2016 - 1A Sectional champ
  • 2019 - 1A State champ
  • 2020 - 1A Regional champ
  • 2021 - 2A Sectional champ
  • 2022 - 2A Sectional champ
  • 2023 - 2A Regional champ

Tippy... R u asserting that there was no youth program before 85 or so?  Coach LaRocca won a State Title without the support of countless hours of those dedicated to a youth program? ... If your saying that Lcc's success has been directly tied to the Strength of it's youth program... id agree... jus sayin....

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Lafayette Central Catholic started playing football in 1958.  Their first game in school history was Monday September 15, 1958.  They were playing the Indy Scecina B team at Scecina.  John Jardine was the coach at LCC.  Offensive starters for LCC were Paul Sanders, Walt Anthrop, Reno Rizzo, Ed Hickner, Joe Metzinger, Ron Edmundson, Dave Klinker, Jack Hubertz, Jim Lamb, Tom Moser, and Dick Isbell.  Danny Metzinger, Danny McGuire, Ken Ross and Jim Courter were starters on defense.  LCC won the game 12-11.

LCC  6-0-6-0

Scecina  0-2-7-2

Nobody should be surprised that an Anthrop scored the first td for LCC.  Tom Moser threw a long pass to Walt Anthrop for the very first td in school history.

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2 minutes ago, BendNotBreak said:

Tippy... R u asserting that there was no youth program before 85 or so?  Coach LaRocca won a State Title without the support of countless hours of those dedicated to a youth program? ... If your saying that Lcc's success has been directly tied to the Strength of it's youth program... id agree... jus sayin....

Buddy of mine from the '83 team was telling me that the vast majority of the LCC players around that time were getting their first looks at football around the time they were 7th grade and some were getting it in high school.  There was a "dads' league" formed after discussions about that '83 season that I believe was founded by LCC, West Lafayette, and I think that McCutcheon and Harrison might have been in that group too ... I think there were four founders and, at that timing, those four teams all competed in the Hoosier Conference.  That then grew into the Little Gridiron League.

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8 minutes ago, BendNotBreak said:

Tippy... R u asserting that there was no youth program before 85 or so?  Coach LaRocca won a State Title without the support of countless hours of those dedicated to a youth program? ... If your saying that Lcc's success has been directly tied to the Strength of it's youth program... id agree... jus sayin....

I didn't say there was no youth program before 85.  Foxbat said the development of the youth program started after 1983.  

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12 minutes ago, foxbat said:

Buddy of mine from the '83 team was telling me that the vast majority of the LCC players around that time were getting their first looks at football around the time they were 7th grade and some were getting it in high school.  There was a "dads' league" formed after discussions about that '83 season that I believe was founded by LCC, West Lafayette, and I think that McCutcheon and Harrison might have been in that group too ... I think there were four founders and, at that timing, those four teams all competed in the Hoosier Conference.  That then grew into the Little Gridiron League.

Gotcha... yes... Lcc bein so small struggled getting numbers... and like all of 1A just a few injuries killed alotta their  teams... Lil GridIron def saved FB from bein relegated to grade school recess .... . being its Indiana.. School sponsored Basketball teams were formed in 5th grade back then ...  the younger ones were playing it in their cribs... 😆

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Central Catholic's 2nd game in school history didn't go very well.  LCC played the Klondike Nuggets on Tuesday September 23, 1958 at Lafayette Jeff field.  LCC was butcher-ed by the power running of Klondike's Gordon Butcher and beat LCC 30-0.

LCC 0-0-0-0

Klon 6-6-12-6

This was Klondike's 2nd 11 man football game of the season.  Klondike had also won two 6 man football games to make them 4-0.  A school consolidation project merged Klondike, Battle Ground, and East Tipp High schools to establish Harrison (WL) High school in 1970.

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The big WL/LCC fight of 1960!

On October 21, 1960, Gordon Straley's WL team played Paul LaRocca's LCC's team.  LCC was 6-2 before the WL game.  LCC led 14-6 at the half.  Early in the 4th, WL's Hadley missed a 30 yard FG, but the ref said LCC was offsides on the play.  Hadley got a 2nd chance and made the 25 yard FG.  WL was up 16-14 at that point, and went on to win the game 23-21.

LCC  7-7-0-7

WL   6-0-7-10

The game, 2nd in history between the schools, ended on a sour note with rival players trading punches at the finish.  

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33 minutes ago, hhpatriot04 said:

@Rudy, perhaps for your interests!

 

@Tippy Did the city ever have a University High School for children of faculty and the like? 

No, Lafayette never did, but I think Bloomington had something like that.  Lafayette Jeff played Bloomington University in the 1960's.

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This is one of Muda's favorite LCC football games.  LCC played Klondike on October 11, 1960.  LCC won the game 71-0 at West Lafayette's Leslie field.

LCC 19-21-13-18

Klon 0-0-0-0

Klondike was playing its first full season of 11 man football.

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The South Bend Snow Debacle of 1962!

The 1962 Football Season was going great for LCC, they were 7-1, their only loss 6-0 to Lebanon. On Thursday October 25 LCC went up to South Bend to play SB St. Joseph.  SB St. Joe was ranked number 3 in the state in some polls.  The game was played on a muddy field.  They had cleared 4 inches of snow from the field.  Most of the game was played in a light snowstorm driven before a strong wind.  LCC had 7 turnovers in the game.  The LCC QB threw 5 interceptions.  LCC only had 31 yards rushing and 18 yards passing in the game.  SB St. Joe had 233 yards rushing and 233 yards passing.  SB St. Joe won the game 45-0.  It must have been a long trip back to Lafayette.

LCC 0-0-0-0

St. Joe 12-20-0-13 

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3 hours ago, Tippy said:

This is one of Muda's favorite LCC football games.  LCC played Klondike on October 11, 1960.  LCC won the game 71-0 at West Lafayette's Leslie field.

LCC 19-21-13-18

Klon 0-0-0-0

Klondike was playing its first full season of 11 man football.

Never forget 

What about the children?

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Central Catholic in 1983!

Some members of the 83 team

Steve Hannon QB 

Tige Smith

Mike Dimmitt

Jeff Garrity

Doug Elming

Jeff Brose

Paul Hunckler

Andy Dudzinski (now Fr. Dudzinski-Pastor at St. Lawrence Church)

Jim Riehle

Lee Bruce

Sean Reidy

Paul Sullivan

Jeff Fassnacht

Tony Pounds

Darren Hicks

 

Head Coach -Dennis Metzger (Had never been a head high school football coach before)

Assistant Coaches - Jim Croussore, Pete Weiand

In 1983 LCC had 290 students at the school.  In 1982 LCC was the 9th smallest football-playing high school in Indiana.

They were using the Cluster System in 1983.  LCC was in Cluster 56 with Attica, Clinton Prairie and Seeger.  In 1983 LCC went 0-10  

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42 minutes ago, Tippy said:

Central Catholic in 1983!

Some members of the 83 team

Steve Hannon QB 

Tige Smith

Mike Dimmitt

Jeff Garrity

Doug Elming

Jeff Brose

Paul Hunckler

Andy Dudzinski (now Fr. Dudzinski-Pastor at St. Lawrence Church)

Jim Riehle

Lee Bruce

Sean Reidy

Paul Sullivan

Jeff Fassnacht

Tony Pounds

Darren Hicks

 

Head Coach -Dennis Metzger (Had never been a head high school football coach before)

Assistant Coaches - Jim Croussore, Pete Weiand

In 1983 LCC had 290 students at the school.  In 1982 LCC was the 9th smallest football-playing high school in Indiana.

They were using the Cluster System in 1983.  LCC was in Cluster 56 with Attica, Clinton Prairie and Seeger.  In 1983 LCC went 0-10  

Fr. Dudzinski's brother is also a priest!

 

There's also a guy on that list, who is very modest and would hate to have his name mentioned, that spent LOTS of time ... 25 years, even before he had kids of his own ... with the youth program and was responsible for getting me involved all the way back in 2002.  His efforts went way beyond the LCC program and helped with youth football across the area and touching several counties around here. 

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