Before HBO-TV’s 20+ year series “Hard Knocks” that started in 2001 highlighting individual NFL football teams and before MTV’s short series in 2006 “Two-A-Days” about Hoover Alabama’s football team there was H.G. Bissinger’s book “Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team and a Dream” in 1990 about the Odessa Texas team. That book spawned a movie and several TV series. Before all these programs arrived on the national scene there was a well-received T. V special about a Wisconsin high school team and its coach.
Sometime in early 1977 Whitefish Bay coach Bob Albrightson was approached by NBC News/Sports to be the focus during the upcoming high school football season. I’m not sure why Albrightson was asked to be filmed as there were several other more well-known national coaches to consider. In particular, one coach was Gerry Faust of Cincinnati Ohio Archbishop Moeller High School. Faust was the talk of the country after his Crusaders won (Tied in the polls with Warner Robins, GA.) the national mythical national championship by going 12-0 in 1976 and of course winning the Ohio State high school title. They would again win both titles, state and national, in 1977.
Albrightson was a good coach, spending 14-years as the Blue Devils head coach and 27-years as a teacher. Bob had a 67-59 record at Whitefish Bay that earned one Suburban Conference 1972 co-title, and his teams finished second four times. Maybe he came to the attention of NBC because of his many newspaper and professional articles. He was a very good artist as well, seemingly to specialize in football portraits as posted on the school athletic web page. As a frequent sports commentator on NPR, he was also often on other talk shows, both local and nationally. So, that may have been how he was approached to have his season filmed.
1977 Coach Bob Albrightson celebrating a touchdown
A November 17, 1977 news-story in the Waukesha County Freeman newspaper brought a minor controversy to my attention. The article was focused mainly on Waukesha North coach Dewey Schiele and a few other Suburban Conference coaches. Entitled “Coaches React Differently to TV Special”, Schiele said in great detail that he was against allowing NBC to put a microphone on him or his players or to even film the team. Scheduled for Sunday night, December 3, the 10:30-midnight broadcast was on a show entitled WEEKEND and was hosted by Lloyd Dobyns. The program was fairly well received. But, as I said, Schiele turned the network and Albrightson down. Not all of the Whitefish Bay opponent coaches were asked to participate. Those not chosen told the Freeman reporter that they wouldn’t have allowed the filming even if they had been asked.
Prior to each upcoming game NBC would attempt to get permission to film Whitefish Bay’s opponent. The 11-team Suburban Conference played an eight-game rotating format of conference opponents and then each team would schedule a non-conference game. On The reasons for declining on Schiele’s part came from comments by other coaches that NBC was setting Albrightson to be the guy in “the white hat” and the opposing coach would be in “the black hat”. One coach, Wauwatosa West’s Don Brenner did allow the filming but said afterward that he would never do it again…too disruptive to his coaching style. During the filming he felt that it was hard to concentrate on the game and that went for his players as well.
Schiele’s and Albrighton’s coaching styles differed a little. Don Schiele was thought of as a rah-rah type guy. Bob Albrightson had an oft-quoted philosophy of “winning isn’t everything and football is only a game so it should be fun”.
Dewey Schiele
Yes, Albrightson would occasionally raise his voice to a player but when he asked Schiele if he had any reservations about being wired, the Waukesha North coach said that he did. Schiele said you had to treat certain players differently. He said he never yelled or criticized a quarterback, but he could get explosive with a linebacker who missed a tackle. Those who chose to not to be filmed seemed to bed the more “explosive” coaches in the conference. You can edit may things, but some word can’t be totally erased. Besides, those that declined felt that they would be the guy wearing “the black hat” and that could hurt their reputations in one of the state most competitive conferences.
Bill Spaltholz of South Milwaukee said he was never asked to be filmed but would have refused saying that “They’re trying to create an image for one person and you can look bad in contrast”. Also, it would have distracted from his coaching. John Richmond of Wauwatosa East said “You put anybody in any job in a pressure situation and he won’t appear like he will in a normal situation”.
Jerry Bowed of Cudahy was not asked but would have declined, admitting that he was a little more volatile than other coaches and was not one to hold back chewing out a player.
Ted Bear of Waukesha South did allow himself to be wired and said the people from the network were professional and he didn’t even notice them except for one instance. That was at half-time when the filming crew was allowed in the locker room. The camera’s presence was a bit of a distraction then. Tony Mooren of the Waukesha Freeman, who wrote the story, also felt surprised that Bear would have allowed the NBC crew to film. Several years earlier, in a game between South and North, a local station filmed Bear and his staff in an unfavorable light. However, this experience went well for Bear and his Blackshirts.
In the end, NBC did a fine job in presenting high school football in a favorable light.
More notes:
Dewey Schiele was Waukesha North’s first football coach starting in 1974. He posted a 34-39 record at North and in 1978 he was named by the Waukesha Freeman as the County Coach of the Year. His 1975 and 1978 teams were Suburban Conference Champions. Prior to coming to North Dewey was the head coach at St. Francis where he was 26-24. Often picked to be near the last team in the preseason poll for the Parkland title his teams finished mot seasons in the middle of the pack an in 1973 they went 8-1. Dewey had a long experience with baseball, scouting for the St. Louis Cardinals for 12-years. In the movie “Major League” he is in the credits as umpire #6
Nationally #1 ranked Cincinnati (OH) Archbishop Moeller High School not only won the 1976 and 1977 mythical national championships but were voted to the top spot in 1979 and 1980 with Jerry Faust at the helm. After posting a career record of 178-23-2 Faust was chosen to become the head coach at Notre Dame where from 1981-85 he posted a 30-26-1 record. Steve Klonne, Faust's top assistant directed Moeller to the 1982 mythical title.
AFTERWARD:
The first major TV ‘reality” show seems to be when HBO-TV began an NFL reality series called “Hard Knocks” which began in 2001 and continues today, 2024. The network has covered 20-teams over the 24-years (Filming several teams one different occasions
MTV’s reality show focusing on the Hoover AL team showed a team that was led by a controversial coach, Rush Probst. To learn more about Probst and his team check out the two attached links: Two-A-Days - Wikipedia and Rush Propst - Wikipedia.
Friday Night Lights spawned two TV series…”Against the Grain” which ran for a short time in 1993 and one of the stars was Ben Affleck: Against the Grain (TV series) - Wikipedia. In 2004 the book inspired a major motion picture that stared Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Tim McGraw and Connie Britton. Friday Night Lights (film) - Wikipedia. Then in 2006 NBC tried again with a TV series with the same name and it ran for five seasons staring Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler Jesse Plemons and Scott Porter, to name a few. Friday Night Lights (TV series) - Wikipedia
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