By MATT OTTE
Special to The Gazette
Something unusual happened in Stevens Point football on this weekend - Saturday, Sept. 23 - a half-century ago.
The Panthers of P.J. Jacobs High School lost a game!
How unusual was it for Point to lose a football game? Well, that 16-6 defeat at Wausau would be not only the lone setback in 1950, but also the single flaw on the Panthers' record over a three-year (1949, 50, 51) period covering a total of 22 games.
Stevens Point, coached by John Roberts, had posted an 8-0 record in 1949. Highlighting that campaign was a 13-6 win over Wausau. It marked the first Wisconsin Valley Conference for the Lumberjacks in no less than 11 years - since 1938. It also was only the second loss of any kind in 75 games for the amazing Lumberjacks of coach Win Brockmeyer.
In that memorable Point-Wausau game of 1949 watched by 4,000 Goerke Park fans, Bob Bostad's 74-yard run with an intercepted pass and 84 rushing yards by Nubbs Miller were among the highlights for the Panthers. Point had started the year by defeating Waupaca, 38-0, behind four touchdown passes by Carl Wiemann, and a week later the Panthers opened their Valley schedule in Antigo with a 20-6 win featuring Miller scoring all three TDs.
Then came that first win for Point over Wausau in more than a decade followed by a 32-6 victory at Rhinelander (Wiemann passing for three touchdowns), a 49-0 win at Merrill and a 13-0 decision over Marshfield. A 42-2 non-conference triumph over Mosinee, with Miller scoring five more touchdowns, kept the perfect record intact.
Now boasting seven wins (five in the Valley), only a season-ending contest at arch-rival Wisconsin Rapids was left for Point to have an unbeaten season and for anyone except Wausau to win the Valley in more than a decade. It turned out to be a one-sided game for the Panthers even thought the score was only 7-0. Miller tallied in the third quarter for the only real evidence of a 303-81 yardage advantage. The win was the Panthers' first after four straight losses to the Raiders.
Miller (a unanimous pick), end Bill Higgins, tackle Don Mancheski and guard Henry Olsen made the all-Valley team picked by players. Wiemann missed by a couple votes on that team but he, along with Miller - unanimous again, Higgins and Mancheski made the coaches' team. Olsen, Dick Cable and Don Greek were on the coaches' second team, while honorable mention went to Bostad, Johnny Kardach, Bill Cook, Butch Schierl, Bill Speerstra, Butch Sorenson and Jerry Miller. Higgins got the biggest postseason honor. He made first team all-state as picked by the Associated Press.
The big names of 1949 were missing in 1950. Among the top performers of '49 returning, however, were Cable, Kardach, Sorenson and Jerry Miller. The new campaign began with a 6-0 victory over Antigo. This game was a scoreless tie for 47 minutes and 56 seconds. With four ticks left on the clock, John Litzow tossed a TD pass to Cable.
Possessing a nine-game winning streak, probably for the first time in school history, the Panthers took the bus to Wausau in search of No. 10 on that fateful Saturday 50 years ago. The Jacks got their revenge even though Point gave them quite a battle. It was only 9-6 in the final period before Wausau tallied the touchdown that clinched the 16-6 win. The only score for the Panthers came on a 46-yard pass play - Jerry Quandt to Don Aldrich.
Point may have lost that game but their heads were still high. Another winning streak began the following week. Building a 20-0 lead, the Panthers defeated Rhinelander, 26-12. George Roman ran 23 yards into the end zone with an interception in the second quarter. Another week later, sophomore Jim Witkowski gained 120 yards and Litzow threw scoring passes to Joe Sanks and Ronnie Turzinski in a 23-13 victory at Merrill. Then it was a 54-0 win over Marshfield in the rain, the Panthers rolling up a 405-114 yardage margin as Kardach scored three times (once on a 90-yard kickoff return) and threw a touchdown pass to Turzinski.
That brought the season to its finale and another battle for the '01 River Jug with Rapids. Runner-up honors in the Valley were at stake for these two 5-1 teams. The Panthers won, 28-12, and finished 5-1 for the year (no nonconference games that season). It was close (14-6) at the half following scores by Turzinski and Jerry Miller, the latter on a pass from Litzow. As 3,700 watched at Goerke Park, Witkowski and Nick Whelihan scored to push the difference to 28-6 early in the final period. Bud Peabody converted all four PATs.
Particularly outstanding on defense, according to Stevens Point Journal accounts, were Miller, who played "probably the greatest game of his prep career," and Sanks, who was "the fifth man in the (WR) backfield all night."
Despite just one loss at Wausau, Point got only Sorenson on the all-conference team. Cable and Hurlbut missed by a vote each. They were on the second unit with Kardach and Turzinski. Witkowski, Miller, Ken Hurlbut, Aldrich and Jack Sether got honorable mention.
One season later the 1951 team would duplicate the 1949 record of 8-0 to give the Panthers their 21-1 mark for the last three years of Roberts' high school coaching career. He came to P.J. Jacobs from the University of Wisconsin in 1946 and his six teams had a cumulative record of 33 wins, 10 losses and a tie. Roberts moved to Central State College (now the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) in 1952.
Like the '49 Panthers, the '51 team registered four shutouts, the biggest of which was 7-0 over Wausau. The only score of this game came in the first quarter, Sether running 87 yards for a touchdown. He had 118 yards for the night. A week earlier, Point had opened the season at Chippewa Falls, winning 32-0 as Sether scored one TD and threw a pass for another to Witkowski.
The Panthers had their second straight 7-0 game in Week 3 at Rhinelander. Sophomore Rhody Tuszka ran four yards in the last quarter for the only score. He gained 92 yards, Sether had 88 and Don Woelffer completed seven of 10 passes for 136 yards. Merrill was the fourth victim, 33-21, although it was a one-sided 33-7 at the half. Tuszka had three touchdowns with his 99 yards this time. Sether had two scores and 65 yards.
Sether scored three times and gained 128 yards in 13 carries the next week when Point blanked Marshfield, 37-0. The Panthers led by only 6-0 at halftime. P.J. Jacobs stepped out of the Valley the next week and beat La Crosse Central (3-1-1 at the time), 32-7. Point had a 319-83 yardage edge. Tuszka had two TDs and Sether piled up 112 yards. Back in the Valley a week later, Antigo was a 30-6 victim of the Panthers, who led only 7-6 at intermission but rolled in the second half. Woelffer tossed three TD passes. Tuszka caught one of them, also had a 60-yard run for six points and rushed 121 yards. A Panther oddity, a field goal (17-yarder), was kicked by Norm Ryskoski. He also had three PATs.
That brought the season to its finale - the Rapids game - with an undisputed Valley title in the balance. The Panthers won on the road, 20-7. Tuszka had an amazing night - 204 yards and two touchdowns, including a 60-yard fourth quarter gallop that sealed the win. Sether got the other score and 109 yards. Point stretched its latest winning streak to 12 games covering two seasons.
For the 1951 campaign, Tuszka had 12 TDs (nine in the Valley to take scoring honors). Sether had 10 in all and finished second in Valley scoring with eight touchdowns. Tuszka gained 747 rushing yards for the season, Sether had 705.
The conference scoring leader, however, didn't make the all-Valley team - no doubt because he was a sophomore. Those honors went to Sanks (only unanimous pick), Roman, Dave Hurlbut and Sether, all seniors.
The overlooked Tuszka, along with Woelffer and guard Mike Seagraves, made the second team. Linemen Roy Hall and Bruce Summers earned honorable mention. Sanks capped his fine season by gaining first-team all-state honors. Hurlbut was picked to the third team, and Roman and Sether got honorable mention on the mythical team.
Point's 12-game string of victories over part of 1950 and all of 1951 ended in the first game of 1952 - a 13-13 tie with Chippewa Falls. The next week the Panthers lost to Wausau, 40-0.
Since 1951, neither P.J. Jacobs nor SPASH (opening in 1971) has posted an undefeated record. During that period of about a half-century there were seven championship seasons:
1954 - tri-title with Wausau and Merrill.
1956 - undisputed title (Wausau no longer in Valley).
1960 - undisputed title.
1977 - co-championship with Merrill (two Wausau schools in conference since 1970).
1988 - tri-championship with Wisconsin Rapids and Antigo.
1990 - co-championship with Wisconsin Rapids.
1993 - tri-championship with D.C. Everest and Wausau West.