It was like being a five-year-old again at Christmas only it was late June, when I opened the envelope for the River Ridge 2024 Football Record Book. As I stated in my last blog: BOSCOBEL…PLAYING THE GAME (wihifootball.com) I was very impressed with what Jimmie Kaska had sent me. His Media Kit is a wonder but I was even a more impressed in what Wade Winkers, Head Football Coach/Athletic Director at River Ridge had produced. I was amazed at the detail. It showed pride in the school program as well giving me history that I hadn’t imagined.
There were 12 pages of recaps of the 2023 season then a Championship/Awards section. There were full page pictures/and stats for each conference champion squad. It was then that I discovered that River Ridge hasn’t always been known as River Ridge. Back when I was first starting to cull the microfilm files at the Wisconsin State Historical Society, I discovered that Bloomington had a powerhouse team going 9-0-0 in each of the 1970 and 1971 season. They were led by Greg Hermsen the school’s fullback who is the all-time leading scorer and is #2 all-time in rushing. Hermsen earned 2nd team All-State honors in both seasons and ended up leading the state in scoring in 1971 with 211 points. Quarterback Earl Patterson was also a three-year starter and is listed as the school’s career leading passer. The story moves on with other conference champions then to individual honors…All conference, WFCA All-Region, WFCA All-star game participants, an all-time listing of team captains and those who played college ball.
The football program began in 1902 but the record book really covers player and coaching records beginning in 1960 when Bloomington began playing 8-player football. In 1967 they moved to 11-player when the other members of the Blackhawk Conference did the same. There were years that Bloomington didn’t field a team. The book has a few seasons prior to 1960 going back to 1902. Each season has scores for all the games played.
The next section covers team and player stats for 64 pages. Yes, 64 pages. There are breakdowns of every 100-yard rusher in a single game, 150 yards in a single game passer and 100 yards in a single game receiving and more. And yes, EVERY 100/150-yard games. Wade lists all the single season performers. There are lists for punt return, kick-off return, interception, punting, tackles and tackles for loss.
Then it moves on to the coaching records with the afore mentioned season individual game scores. As well as all-time records vs. opponents. Finally, there are pictures of almost every team. Throughout, there are many color photos.
So, why did I mention Bloomington when the book is from River Ridge? Well, Bloomington was the first area high school. There are a lot of very small villages in the area and their students attended Bloomington and so the name was just that but from 1986-1994 the schools official name was changed to Bloomington/West Grant. The school was in western Grant County so hence, the slight name change. But in 1995 the name changed again and became River Ridge as the school district expanded to include other villages and the River Ridge School District was formed. Combined, the schools have a 308-234-2 record between the three versions of the school district. In the early part of the 1900’s Bloomington played, sporadically over many sessions, 11-player football until they moved to 8-player between 1960 and 1966. Like a lot of early teams many of their records are lost. Wade was able to accumulate some pre-1960’s records. Football had been discontinued in 1932 but his records for the earlier years is 6-29-6. Not counting the 8-player years brings the combined school 11-player record to 314-260-7.
With this fine book that Wade has produced I asked him where he got the idea to do such an expansive book. The idea came when he talked with and then read The Lancaster Record Book written by Jason Nihles. Jason works for the Platteville Journal newspaper, he’s a graduate of Lancaster High School and plays adult basketball and softball with Wade. Through Wade I made contact with Jason who sent me a copy of his book.
Jason wrote the book that I received back in the early part of 2013. He hasn’t made an update since even though he has done additional research on the school’s teams since. Family and work keep him busy.
The Lancaster Record Book is full of even better details than the River Ridge book. And why not? Lancaster had won six WIAA state titles and 25 conference championships up to 2012. There are individual pages dedicated to each conference and state champion beginning in 1937. The pages have a recap of the season, team stats, rosters and the “Key Players”. Coach John Hoch contributed his All-Time team with a brief biography of each player. Pages with recaps of the teams’ appearances in the state title games and individual pages on the school’s conference MVP’s and All-State players and all of this is in the first 104 pages out of 178. Page book. There are some additional 10 pages with advertising that he sold.
Of the remaining 74 pages out of the total 178 contain similar player stats that I mentioned above with River Ridge. The early part of the book is full of Lancaster history and even though you may not be from the area a history reader would find the info very interesting.
When I posted my May 10 blog: WISCONSIN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PROGRAMS WITH THE MOST WINS AT THE END OF EACH DECADE…1890-2023 (wihifootball.com) I left out something at the end of the story. I had tracked Lancaster as a possible entry for the story but the records I found were incomplete. The school library only had yearbooks that went back to the 1969 season. The local library had only a few older yearbooks and through looking at those issues and doing a bit more research I found a few more very early season records. With the info that Jason has on the Lancaster program starting in 1937 (He actually has the 1936 season w/l/t but not the game scores). Adding the season records Jason had up to the end of 2013 and then adding the season totals (2013-2023) taken from WISSPORTS records the record is 609-265-22. After I wrote this blog Jason sent me additional information to help confirm my totals. The known above record totals for the school of course doesn't include some missing seasons. Also, Lancaster, like a number of schools was forced to discontinue the sport for some years (1909-1914) because of financial problems or a lack of players. The 609 wins would have placed the school in the #4 spot on my previous blog, one win behind Marinette who has 610. If I had known Jason’s totals previously the school would be on the list, and I will look for more to see if Lancaster can move up a bit higher.
If you think about it, Lancaster (609 known wins), Darlington (715 confirmed wins) and the Platteville (566 known wins) have a combined 1,892 all-time wins. Remarkable for schools only 55-miles apart and often playing each other.
I highly recommend that you are interested in getting your own copies that you contact Wade Winkers… winkerswa@rrsd.k12.wi.us and/or Jason Nihles…ports@theplattevillejournal.com if you are interested obtaining a copy of their books. There are very limited editions of each. They will tell you the cost of the book plus postage. I think they are masterpieces.
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