When I wrote my last blog…STRATFORD…1986 vs. 2019…A COMPARISON I mentioned that I had problems finding stats on 1980-81 Cashton. I wanted to compare Cashton with the 1986 Stratford team. Since I couldn’t find the Cashton stats I chose to focus on “the other” undefeated team, Belleville. This was a school that had given up only seven points on their 9-0 season and yet they also failed, like Cashton, to make the playoffs. Here’s the lowdown:
THE STATELINE CONFERENCE:
Belleville was part of the Stateline Conference. Not a real good name for this extinct collection of schools as few are actually close to the Wisconsin/Illinois border. Belleville played 11-player football until 1930 then started with 6-plaqyer in 1941 until 1953. A six-team League, the Stateline switched to 8-player until 1962. Beginning in 1963 they went back to 11-player. In 1980 the members were Madison Holy Name (Yes, besides Edgewood there was a second Catholic high school in the area), Barneveld, Argyle, Pecatonica, New Glarus, Black Hawk (South Wayne, WI), Juda as well as Belleville. This was all before the Black Hawk/ Warren (IL) co-op began, the Pecatonica/Argyle co-op, and the Brodhead/Juda co-op all began. Most schools weren’t within 20-miles of the state line.
THE SCHEDULE AND TEAM STATS:
After posting a 7-2 record in 1979, finishing second in the Stateline, Belleville was picked by opponent coaches to win the conference title in 1980. The Previous season they had held their opponents to 46 points while scoring 217. They were returning eight offensive and seven defensive starters, several of whom played both ways. In their final two1979 game's they posted shutouts against Holy Name (40-0) and Barneveld (21-0). Belleville had two other shutouts earlier in 1979. The team would post another shutout in the 1981 season opener to give them 11 shutouts in 12-games.
This past June, assistant coach Tanner Wallom sent me a file on Belleville football history. While a lot of the early stats in Tanner's file are incomplete it is a fine project giving the program a great perspective. I used some of Tanner's info along with that of what I found in the Madison State Journal newspaper to record the team's individual game totals. As seen above the offense wasn’t overpowering but effective enough to win while the defense was outstanding.
Belleville was not a large village with 1,302 residents. The members of its conference were generally populated with between 900-1,400 people. Their two non-conference opponents, Belmont and Verona, were quite different in size. The Cashton Wildcats played tough against tiny Belmont (About 750 residents) and barely got past Verona, a then village of about 3,300 people.
In game #2, Verona scored early on a 4-yard run in the first quarter. The extra point was kicked and the Verona Wildcats led 7-0. Stopped in the middle of the second, deep in their own territory, Verona punted, and Ron Gehin of Belleville took the ball to the house, 40-yards. A few minutes later Ken Bartelt, after a Verona fumble, scored a second Belleville touchdown on a 20-yard run. Bartelt kicked the extra point. The score was 13-7. That’s how the game ended, and the only points Belleville would give up in 1980. Eight shutouts on the great season stood out and others took notice.
Seven players made the all-State Line team, two on both sides of the ball. A basic running attack, good enough to eat up some of the clock, they did occasionally throw the ball. Quarterback Brad Flannigan (6’3, 175) was 118-51-3-744 passing. He threw only two touchdowns and one extra point conversion. His completions set up a number of rushing scores and Finnigan was the team’s leading scorer, scoring 12 touchdowns. Others making the all-conference squad were OT/DL Van Rear, 5’11, 170, DL Paul O’Connor, 5’11, 165, LB Ron Gehin, 5’10 and DB, Tim Stadelmann, 6’0,160. Running back Ken Bartell, 5’9,155 scored five touchdowns and kicked 15 extra points. Besides Van Rear, offensive guard/defensive lineman Robin Jaggi, 6’1, 175 was the other player to earn honors on both sides of the ball. Jaggi earned a spot on the State Journal All-Area team.
Wisconsin State Journal, November 18, 1980, All-Area Team
THE WIAA PLAYOFFS...1980
1980 was again a sort of strange year for the WIAA in choosing what teams should be in the playoffs. In D-1 it was clear that undefeated Superior, Racine Case, Kenosha Tremper and Wisconsin Rapids should be the four teams to represent the “big” schools. Besides being the only four teams in D-1 they had the only opponents’ composite records over .500. Tremper would win their second consecutive state title. In the final D-2 poll Pulaski, Grafton, Whitewater, Sussex Hamilton and Oregon were ranked in that order. However, Sussex had a lower opponent composite record than Oregon yet was rated higher because they were undefeated while Oregon’s opponents had a higher composite despite that school having lost a game. The WIAA chose Oregon over Sussex to make the playoffs. Oregon lost in the semi-finals to eventual champion Whitewater.
The next two divisions were pretty cut and dry as in D-3 the top four teams with winning opponents composite schedule made the cut…Little Chute, Two Rivers, Rice Lake and Edgerton. Actually, Edgerton’s opponents composite was a losing one as was #5 Medford but just a hair better, so they made they got in, only to lose in OT to Rice Lake in the semis. In D-4 there was another quirk in the polls. Mosinee, DeForest, Coleman and Mayville were picked. #2 ranked DeForest had a losing opponent composite and would win in the semis but fall in the title game. Mosinee, DeForest and Coleman were all undefeated going into the playoffs while Mayville, with a 8-1 record edged out five other one-loss teams by having a winning composite record.
Now we come to Division 5. The final poll, dated October 23, 1980, in the Wisconsin State Journal shows:
What’s Missing? #17 Belleville with an 8-0 record and a .426 composite. #1 Augusta, the eventual state champion, had a .585 composite while #8 Shell Lake had a .442. Somehow Belleville got left off the poll. The WIAA decided, with so many (11) undefeated potential conference champions going into the final regular season weekend to expand the eight teams. Poynette beat Randolph in the season’s final game to win the conference title. As listed above, Augusta, Cornell, Prescott, Cassville, Cambridge (The 1979 champion), Shiocton, Shell Lake and Poynette were awarded spots in the playoffs. Shell Lake would be the 1980 champion. #11 Black Hawk lost the conference title in the State Line final, 20-0 to Belleville. If the WIAA posted an updated season final ranking I would imagine that Belleville wouldn’t have been overlooked. They might not have made the playoffs but maybe the team would have been given some additional consideration. Near-perfection might have helped. This wasn’t the end a good offense/great defensive team deserved.
Because of so many D-5 teams going undefeated the WIAA expanded in all divisions in 1981 to eight teams as well as adding a sixth division. The playoffs went from 16 squads and four divisions in 1976 and 1977. In 1978 it added a fifth division and 20-teams. Further expansion in the number of eligible teams and a seventh division would come in later years.
THE STATS:
Knowing that the Wisconsin State Journal covered high schools around the Madison area as well the smaller schools in the southwestern part of the state I searched and found what I needed. I knew that in the late 1960’s through the early 2000’s the newspaper covered game reports for a number of teams far and wide. From as far northeast as North Fond du Lac, north to Tomah, northwest to Onalaska, southeast to Burlington and all of southwest of Madison. In the end I had no idea that the paper covered 143 schools and 17 conferences in all. I found that not only the Belleville game stats but Cashton as well. That was a happy surprise as I will cover the Cashton 1980-81 teams in more depth next time. Hopefully my readers like the season stats charts. They make good comparisons.
Special thanks to Tanner Wallom for some substantial details on Belleville's school's history.
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