It's Not About the Numbers: Gordy Schofield - Part 1

This past November, 2021, I received an e-mail mentioning that the former Antigo coach, Gordy Schofield, had passed away at age 90 on the 18th. It was suggested that I write a story about him. I replied, that as a former player of Schofield’s, I would like to talk to him about the coach. It was also suggested that I talk to some of his friends as well. It took a while for me to get a chance to connect to several and others replied to a questionnaire I had sent out. Afterwards I decided to focus on both the coach and his 1976 championship team. This part is mostly about the coach.

In my book I mentioned several Antigo teams, the 1972 and 1978 squads, but no real detail on coach Schofield and I regret that.

Born in Rice Lake in 1931, Coach Schofield attended Cameron High School and then on to UW-Eau Claire and later to the University of Pittsburgh. After college he took a job as an assistant football coach at Antigo and he never left. Serving as an assistant from 1953-61, Gordy got his big chance to move up to the top coaching spot in 1962 and he remained the head coach for the next 25 years not including a year off in 1965. Antigo opened the Schofield era with a 6-1-0 record in 1962, placing second in the conference to D.C. Everest. He kept things rolling in 1963 as the Red Robins ended D.C. Everest’s 22-game winning streak 34-21, knocking the Evergreens from the top spot in the state poll. Everest was hoping for a final game loss by Antigo to Wisconsin Rapids so they could tie for the conference title but the Red Robbins prevailed with an easy 40-0 win. They finished 7-1-0 overall and gave coach his first of 15 conference championships. Gordy helped Antigo beat Everest in 1958 to end that schools 20-game win streak. In those days, Hall of Fame coach Howie Stiehm was the “top dog” coach in the conference but Coach Schofield was just getting started.

Courtesy of the Antigo Daily Journal newspaper

Howie Stiehm retired in 1972 with a 20-year coaching record at D.C. Everest of 127-30-3, a .806 winning percentage. In 1970 the Evergreens were rated as the #2 team in the UPI and AP polls to #1 Green Bay Premontre while finishing #1 in the final 1971 UPI poll. They Dropped to #2 in the AP poll in 1971, behind Oshkosh who was ranked #2 by the UPI. Everest had also been ranked #2 in the final AP poll of 1966 so there was a lot of competition in the Wisconsin Valley Conference. Over time in his career, Coach Schofield would face off against a number of Hall of Fame coaches besides Stiehm. Among the other HOF coaches, he faced were Len Luedtke (Shawano/Marshfield), Ted Thompson (Assistant at Antigo in 1963, only and head coach at Wisconsin Rapids for only 1976), Ken Biegel (Wisconsin Rapids, replaced Thompson), Jerry Fitzgerald (Stevens Point), Fred Kuhl (Rhinelander) and Wayne Stefenhagen (D.C. Everest).

When Gordy Schofield returned to coaching in 1966, he set off an 11-year streak unmatched in the school's or the conference’s history. While he was away for the 1965 season Dale Peterson directed the team to a 6-2-0 record, good for 2nd place in the conference. It isn’t often that there are two Hall of Fame coaches on the same staff but there were FOUR! Dale Peterson filled one of those spots at Antigo, first as the head freshman coach, then moving up to cover for Coach Schofield in 1965 and then becoming a prized assistant, handling the duties of being the line coach for 20-years until he retired in 1988. When he retired Coach Peterson thought his coaching duties were over so he could watch his son’s play but he returned as the freshman head coach for two more seasons and then was the assistant freshman coach for two more years before finally retiring from teaching. While the players he coached weren’t usually big they were quick and tough. He had been a head coach in Canton, Minnesota before moving to Antigo in 1957 to teach physical education. He had been that department's head for many years when he finally stepped down in 1991. Dale was elected to the WFCA HOF in 1996.

Another assistant, Dennis Schmidtke, started in 1961 as a history teacher until 1966 when he left to earn his Master’s degree and returned inn 1967 to spend the next 22 years as the backfield coach. When he returned from getting that Master’s degree, he became one of the guidance counselors along with Coach Schofield. He retired in 1993 and was elected to the WFCA Hall of Fame for his fine work as an assistant in 2012.

The fourth key member of the coaching staff was Ron Dillahunt who served as the freshman coach starting in 1970 until Schofield retired. He developed a number of the future stars. He followed Gordy as the head coach for the next 11 years, winning Valley titles in 1988 and 1992. He was elected to the WFCA HOF in 2009. He was a teacher and coach for the Red Robins for 38 years.

I mention the assistants for good reason. It was under Gordy’s leadership that he meshed the coaching staff into an efficient and dominating group. He influenced his assistants and they in turn helped influence the players. To the best of my research efforts, the three Antigo assistants are the only three long-term coaches to be on the same staff to be inducted into the Coaches Hall of Fame and it is a tribute to Coach Schofield that he was able to accumulate such a strong staff and keep them for such a long time. His coaching expertise and leadership were keys to Antigo’s success. He had a somewhat restrained and relaxed personality but when he wanted to get your attention he could do so. Teamwork was what he wanted and what he got from all. He didn’t usually praise individuals but he did in 1976 when he spoke before the town in the school gym after the team returned from Oshkosh with the first WIAA Class AA state title. He had a philosophy that “you win as a team and you lose as a team.” He helped mold boys into men.

The players never called Coach Schofield “Gordy” to his face. They were very respectful and it was always Coach or sir. The players were captivated by the coach growing up. They went with their parents to the home games to cheer for the school and listened to his Saturday morning radio show. With the assistants on staff, Peterson, Schmidtke and Dillahunt, most of the players felt they were playing for the best coaches. Schofield was demanding but fair but the players were often exhausted from the grueling workouts. Those practices made the players better on the field and they learned life lessons from the coaches.

After retiring Coach spent his time in the community playing golf, cutting wood, and skiing while working at a local ski hill and he was active in his local Lutheran church. For many years he attended the numerous re-unions for his teams. He was simply loved by his players, the other students and the town of Antigo. In the end, his former players would say the Coach was the type of man they wanted their sons to be. As a guidance counselor he influenced not only his players but the other students. On the field he never said the team “Must” win. He would say “play hard, long, fast, physical, don’t make mistakes and give it your all”. When he retired in 1987 his career record was 199-41-2, a .829 winning percentage. Besides 1976, his teams won two more WIAA titles in 1978 and 1982. Why did he retire with 199 wins? Why not shoot for 200+? He could have easily stayed to hit that number and beyond but to him it was time to retire. It wasn’t about the numbers. It was how you played the game.

Final Note:

My thanks to some of the 1976 stars for contributing to this story. Tom Meyer, who first mentioned Coach Schofield’s passing to me and then the great comments from Dan Thorpe, Dave Strobel, Terry Grams and Dean Seis. Pete Theisen from the 1972 mythical state champion team also added some good insight. The information you all provided added much of this blogs content.

1917 - Part 3: A Title Game

The Thursday December 6 papers included three short stories in the La Crosse Tribune. The first, reading left to right is a story with a Milwaukee Sentinel byline by a person with the last name of Vaughn. It says that both Watertown and Waukesha wanted to play a home game so negotiations between the two had broken off. Marshfield has called it a season so he felt that a playoff now was senseless and the season should close altogether.

As you look to the right a few columns, a story from the Sentinel headlined "Watertown claims State High Title Over All Elevens" with a subheading "But is Willing to play Marinette if Northeastern Team Insists Upon it." It printed a letter from R.A. Buell, principal of Watertown who mentions that Waukesha had refused to play them and Watertown refused to acknowledge Waukesha as the champ and since Marinette wants to play, they seem to be the logical opponent for Watertown.

At the far right was a story from Green Bay announcing that Marinette and Watertown had agreed to play for the title in Green Bay on Saturday, December 8th. They decided on a neutral site as the gate profits would go to the Red Cross. Neither team would take a profit after expenses.

The day before the game, Friday December 7th, The Green Bay Press Gazette was full of information about the next day's game. It published the lineups including weights of the players and messages to the public from the coaches. A huge crowd at City Park, maybe a record for the city was there that day. The mayor asked the citizens to be courteous to all visitors and wished both teams well. The paper showed the game schedule for each team as well as highlighting the officials. It was also announced that the Watertown team was arriving at 7:15pm via the Chicago and Northwestern railroad and Marinette would travel by rail, arriving at 9:40am on Saturday. the paper asked that "Mr. Weatherman" hold off the incoming snow. They should have asked him to hold off the cold as well.

The title game was set. Fans were coming to town. There would be a dance for both teams and visitors at the Elks Club following the game. But few would show up as the weather went from cold to freezing. Friday night the temperature at 6pm was 18 degrees but overnight into mid-morning Saturday it hit 7 below. The gates opened at 1pm and the temperature was 0. To the northwest, Duluth and Superior were 15-20 below at the same time and icebreakers were called out to help shipping.

The Press Gazette gave a near play-by-play account of the game and it appeared that even with a long layoff the teams were sharp. Overall, there were only three penalties between the two teams. Marinette took the opening kickoff and with a fairly crisp passing attack, despite the weather, marched down the field as their quarterback, Medley passed to his left end, Peters for 30 yards and the first score. The extra point kick was missed. After exchanging punts, Marinette drove again and Medley again hit Peters for a 20 yard touchdown. Their right tackle, Nelson made the extra point and Marinette was up 13-0 through the end of the half.

In the middle of the fourth period, Peters intercepted a Watertown pass and returned it 30 yards for his third score while Medley made the extra point. The weather was getting colder and the wind was picking up. Despite the weather, Watertown tried to comeback but couldn't. Near the end, Marinette's quarterback Medley passed to the endzone to Peters between two defenders. The ball slipped off his fingers and fell incomplete to the ground. Marinette's team captain, Wagner complained to the referee that there was interference and the official agreed and awarded the tam their fourth score. I don't know if this was a fluke or a rule of the day but it seems strange to have allowed the score. It ultimately would not affect the outcome as Medley kicked the extra point and the game ended 27-0 for the state champion Marinette squad. Watertown failed to show the expected aggressiveness, though Coach Thomas refused to blame the loss of their star halfback Wegemann who was unable to play. He had ripped a tendon in the Marshfield game and the doctor refused to clear him. Thomas admitted that Marinette was the better that day. J.E. Dahlgren of the La Crosse Tribune even agreed that Marinette was tops.

Final Notes

One of the major complaints by my son when we were putting together my book was often when we posted a team's record the scoring totals didn't match the game by game scores. I mentioned earlier that the Waukesha Freeman and the school yearbook had different opponent scores for the win over Milwaukee Washington so I used the yearbook score. When the La Crosse Tribune printed the schedule for Watertown, they had a few scores different from the Watertown yearbook as well. Same with the Green Bay Press Gazette with their feature about the team before they played for the title. I again decided to use the yearbook as my guide. However, there were two problems with the yearbook. I wrote the team's schedule along with others and wrote the total of 270 points scored on the season. They didn't have calculators back then and the correct total was 290 points. I had often taken the yearbook totals as correct rather than doing the math but my son and I found they were often miscalculated. I also found several mentions of the school's record going into the Marinette game that they were 9-0-1 but the yearbook only had them at 8-0-1. The school reported to the Gazette that they had played and beaten the "College Scrubs" 46-0. After further review it turned out to be the Watertown Northwestern College Seconds, the varsity second string. So, I added that game to their record along with the correct scoring for the season.

I also want to mention the newsman who wrote "Cal's Comments" for the Green Bay Press Gazette. His name was George Whitney Calhoun. His great grandfather, Daniel Whitney, was the first 'Yankee' to settle in Green Bay in 1832. Calhoun was, at various times a telegraph editor, sports columnist and city editor for the Gazette. He was 27 years old in 1917 and as a newsman he had become familiar with many of the high school athletes in town. By all accounts he was a fair writer. Calhoun would only write his column for a few months and then move to other tasks but his work was insightful. In 1919 he teamed with a 20 year old former Green Bay East star, Curly Lambeau, who was home from college (Notre Dame) recuperating from a severe case of tonsillitis. they convinced the owners f the Indian Packing Company to put up $500 for uniforms and in August of 1919 the Green Bay Packers were born. Calhoun would work as publicity director and he passed the hat among the fans to collect anything they would pay as there was no fence to the field at that time. When a fence was added he stood at the gate to ensure all fans paid to get in. He was part of the Packer organization in various capacities, as a fan and a member of the Packer Board of Directors until his death in 1963. He was inducted into the Packer Hall of Fame in 1978.

J.E. 'Jack' Dahlgren was born and raised in La Crosse where he became a reporter for the La Crosse Daily Tribune upon graduating from high school. He resigned in September of 1908 to attend Beloit College. Just a few weeks later he returned home to take a position as a reporter with the La Crosse Leader-Press where he specialized in sports stories. He also did some side reporting on other events and was considered to be a fair and accurate writer. Having played football, basketball and track (as a pole vaulter and high jumper) in high school he seemed to key his attention toward the first two sports. He was also an accomplished billiards player and won many YMCA sponsored tournaments as well as an accomplished hand-ball player and bowler. When the Leader-Post merged with the Tribune in 1917, Jack came on board as a member of the newly combined staff. He left the paper in 1918 after being inducted into the army where he trained at Fort Grant in Rockford, Illinois. There he contracted the 'Spanish' Flu but recovered and was mustered out of the service in January of 1919. He served on the County Board of Supervisors and was serving his second term when he died suddenly from pneumonia (perhaps weakened by his experience with the flu) in late January of 1920 at age 31. He had been sick only a few days prior to his sudden death. In a 1917 story, then at age 28 he mentioned that the 'young scribe from Green Bay (George Whitney Calhoun, age 26 at the time) had a lot to learn about La Crosse football."

1917 - Part 2: Newspaper Wars

Continuing to look at the controversial state title of 1917. Here is what appears to be the best timeline for events that can be put together:

Several teams played on Saturday, November 24th and the winners expected to play again on Thanksgiving if a match could be made.

The next day, November 25th, the Milwaukee Sentinel proposed the Marshfield and Watertown match and it was not accepted until Tuesday night, November 27th.

The headline in the November 26th La Crosse Tribune read: "Marinette Turns Back on La Crosse Refusing to Play Title Contest". The paper went on to claim that by refusing to play, Marinette could not be considered a credible title contender and the same went for Eau Claire, Marshfield or Chippewa Falls, all who had turned La Crosse down for a Thanksgiving Day game. Being unable to schedule any Wisconsin schools, La Crosse scheduled a game with Owatonna (MN) to be played there. That would be about a 120 mile trip away to a city that's about 5 miles west of Rochester. In the column next to the Marinette/La Crosse article was one about Rochester scheduled to play St Cloud for the Minnesota state title. There were several digs about the Rochester scores against the Winona schools.

The next day, Tuesday November 27th, the Green Bay Press Gazette stated in "Cal's Comment", a semi-daily sports column, that Marinette was being lambasted by La Crosse for not playing them. Marinette doesn't feel La Crosse is now a team to play instead of others that were undefeated. Because they couldn't find a suitable Thanksgiving opponent the team has now disbanded. Cal asked why Waukesha and Watertown wouldn't play Marinette. Meanwhile, the La Crosse Tribune continued their attack on Marinette and printed a copy of Watertown's season record along with their own. In a side story the school announced that the season was closed as their star back had chicken pox. But the paper claimed that there were but two schools in the race for the title, Watertown and La Crosse.

Wednesday, November 28th rolled around and the Milwaukee Sentinel announced that the title game had been set. The Green Bay Press Gazette made no mention in their evening paper as they focused on the West vs East matchup in that city with a full-page story. The Wisconsin State Journal in Madison also reported the title game. But it was in the La Crosse paper that there was a brief story of the Wisconsin matchup as they also reported the season schedule of Rochester and again questioned their qualifications for the Minesota title. Since I had been unable to track all of Rochester's games before, I now had the complete record and sent it on to Kevin Askeland of MaxPreps.

Thanksgiving Day, November 29th brought Watertown to meet Marshfield and to be fair and at the request of a local reader the La Crosse Tribune printed the Marshfield schedule. They again took another dig at Marinette: "We are nothing but fair; we are willing to admit that Marinette has a grand team, one of the best in the state of Wisconsin. But a 'quitter' can never be conceded a championship of any kind." Watertown and Marshfield played to a scoreless tie before only 400 fans and the title was now still in play. Marshfield had the ball five times on the Watertown one yard line and failed to score on all five occasions.

On Saturday, December 1st, Marinette who had supposedly shut down for the season now took notice that neither team playing for the title on Thanksgiving had won so now they threw down the gauntlet and challenged any team, through a message to the Milwaukee Sentinel asking them to set up a game with any team they thought would qualify as a suitable foe. At the same time the Press Gazette proposed that Green Bay host the game for Marinette.

It took until Sunday, December 2nd for the La Crosse Tribune to continue their attack on Rochester and Marinette and continue their praise for the local high school.

Monday came and the Press Gazette reported that the Sentinel had named Marinette, Marshfield, Watertown and Waukesha for a 'title series'. The semi-finals would be played on Saturday, December 8th. The Milwaukee Sentinel wanted to pit Marshfield against Marinette and Waukesha against Watertown. It also made mention of La Crosse agreeing to play Marinette, contrary to earlier reports, in Marinette but that the game had been cancelled due to heavy rains. The football field being down in sort of a valley had nearly two feet of water and mud on it so they couldn't play there and they couldn't agree on a different site. Cal from the Gazette wrote that day:

"La Crosse High, for some unknown reason, making an awful wail about state championship football honors. It is hard to figure where the Westerners can be considered in the running. They have only played one Wisconsin team; Tomah and this aggregation can be rated along in the 'minor league' class.

'Chesty' Dahlgren, who gets up very capable little sports column in the La Crosse paper, from a high school point of view, raves continually about La Crosse's eleven. He can't seem to see anything but his home team, and when some other sports writers are inclined to hammer out some copy on different lines, he gets peeved and comes back with personalities."

Cal's Comment continued to point out the cancelled Marinette game with La Crosse, the fact that La Crosse cancelled a game with Green Bay West and the fact they didn't put out a challenge for Thanksgiving Day until a few days before the holiday.

On Tuesday the Press Gazette reported that Marshfield had retired for the season and neither Watertown or Waukesha thought Marinette an equal foe. But on Wednesday the Gazette said Marshfield had reconsidered and was willing to meet Waukesha. The Tribune now considered the season over as J.E. Dahlgren wrote that the top teams were, in order: Waukesha, Watertown, Marshfield, La Crosse and Marinette.