A TALE OF TWO RIVERS…PART 1...THE 1940'S

“IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES”

One of the big stories in Wisconsin high school football during the mid-1940’s was the winning streak performed by Two Rivers.  The team was unbeaten over 29-game’s starting in 1943 through 1946.  To get a feel for how the streak started we must look at what came before it.

Football began in Two Rivers in 1921. The school could have started earlier but enthusiasm by the students and the public didn't back the sport until then. The season was only two games, both against Neenah which won game one, 19-0, and game two by a score of 7-6. Overall, during the period of 1921-1931 Two Rivers was often a at the bottom of the Northeastern Wisconsin Interscholastic Conference.

Well, as I said it wasn’t the best of times before 1932 as the Two Rivers football program seldom produced winners.  The season ending victory over neighbor rival, Manitowoc Lincoln High School, 6-0 capped a one-win year for the Purgolders.  Both came into the game winless and the Two Rivers Reporter newspaper editorialized the win like it was THE VICTORY OF VICTORIES.  Fullback Myron Rocheleau scored from the six-yard line with only moments left in the game.  He was given a hero’s hurrah as he was carried by his teammates carried him off the field on their shoulders. The team did it without their head coach being present as Dean Barber had rushed to his dying mother’s bedside in Oshkosh before the game.  It isn’t known who substituted for Barber as coach for the season ending game.

In 1932 Barber was replaced as the football coach by Ed Hall.  His start was slow as he posted a 1-6-2 record.   After another losing season in 1933 things turned around with a 6-2-0 record in 1934 and a 5-3-1 record in 1935.  Things dropped off a little bit from 1936-39 but then Hall hit his stride with a 6-1-0 posting in 1940 and an undefeated year, 6-0-1, in 1942. 

1942 Two Rivers team from the Two Rivers Reporter

As soon as the 1942 football season ended Hall accepted a coaching position at Oshkosh High School as the school’s head basketball and track coach as well as an assistant football coach.  Hall had become THE Two Rivers coach in 1934 when he took the reins of the basketball team as well as that of the baseball and track sports.  Hall posted an overall 41-32-10 football record at Two Rivers but his claim to fame was his 1940-41 undefeated (21-0) state championship basketball team.  His record on the hard court was 112-54.

I emphasize THE meaning that in these cases the person coached most if not all of the school sports. Many schools only had football, basketball (Boys) , baseball and sometimes track. THE coach was also often the Athletic Director. Often, they only had one assistant.

With little time to cover their school coaching needs the administration snared a young coach from Grantsburg, William Harry O’Mealy.   O’Mealy was born in Waukesha, earned seven athletic letters playing basketball track and running cross country at Waukesha High and attended Carroll College.  While at Carroll he participated in all three sports.  Harry graduated in 1937 and was an assistant there until he took THE head coaching position at Wautoma.  There he coached the 1940 baseball team to a 17-3 record.  He posted an overall 12-2-0 football record.  O’Mealy jumped at the chance to move and move quickly to Two Rivers and become THE coach.  The basketball season was already underway when he assumed the head coaching spot and went only 3-3 the rest of the year.  He coached baseball and track that spring and then assumed the football team in 1943.  Ed Hall had a number of stars graduate but the cupboard wasn’t bare and O’Mealy’s boys went 5-2-0.  The Pure Golds, Purgolder’s, The Golden Air Patrol or the Purple Raiders…various names listed in the Two Rivers Reporter as the school’s nickname.  Harry’s boys lost the 1943 opener to Manitowoc, 13-0.  They beat Sturgeon Bay in game 2, 48-0.  Next, the team fell to Kewaunee 13-7 and then the 29-game unbeaten streak began. 

While this wasn’t/isn’t the longest win streak in Wisconsin (Wausau’s 46-game streak between 1940-46 was longer at this time) it still drew a lot of state-wide attention.  The Raiders played tough ball, often waiting until late in the third quarter or the fourth to put their opponent away.  They followed O’Mealy’s preaching, “It’s never too late” to do the work.  Harry was a hard taskmaster like many coaches of the era.  He had many stars like Howard Perry, Fran Allie, Bob LaFond, Evan Gagnon, Harold Krizske, Edwin Rozmarynoski, Dave Warden, Bob Ciha, Bob Pischner, Bob Kowalsky and Chuck Linsmeier. Here's a profile on three of the stars:

Tackle Bob Ciha was named to what could be called the unofficial honorable mention list for the 1st official All-State squad.  The state All-State technically had no honorable mention listing for its 39- player newspaper posting on the squad, but an earlier story had Ciha’s name as part of some that were being considered for the top citation.

Two Rivers Reporter November 2, 1945

Bob Kowalsky was named in 1946 to the 2nd ever official All-State High School Football Squad, sponsored by the Wisconsin High School Coaches Association.  He was one of 38 players named to the team which was made up of 20 backs and 18 linemen.  Bob was the first Two Rivers player to gain 1,000 yards (1,063) in a season yet he only scored four touchdowns in 1946.  He was a fullback and a defensive back.  Bob attended Marquette University on a football scholarship.

Wisconsin State Journal Nov. 29, 1946

O’Mealy’s 1946 team was the second highest scoring team in the state as they scored 260 points in nine games while Madison Edgewood was number one with 301 points, also in nine games.  Bob Pischner was one part of the “Touchdown Twins” backfield.  Pischner scored 11 touchdowns and three extra points, 69 total points.  He would score 133 career points.  His teammate, Chuck Linsmeier was second with 11 touchdowns and two extra points for a point total of 68.  Besides Kowalsky, the only other player on the 1946 team that I could track down having played college ball was Chuck.

Linsmeier's father was the Two Rivers Point Light Keeper. Like Kowalsky, Chuck accepted a scholarship to play at Marquette University. When his playing days were over, he enlisted in the Air Force in 1951 and served in Korea.  After that he settled in California where at first, he was a pioneer in the calculator industry and later, with his wife Marlene, formed a successful non-medical transportation company.

1947 Two Rivers Neshotah Yearbook

There is more on the streak but that’s for next time.