Lions, Linemen, and Candy-Ass Backs

Listening to Greg Phillips interviewed on the radio last week brought back some memories.  Well, maybe the memories are never that far from my mind.  For most of us who graduated from Borah in 1969, high school football was our last ‘hurrah’, although some of us played 1 year of college ball.  But Greg, Ted Buck, and Darrell Burchfield (the Vandal) played 4 years of college football.  Jeff Phillips had to hang it up early at BSU, after his knee finally convinced him football was over for him, or he would have put in his 4 years, too.  Greg and Ted were part of the Boise State starting offense in 1971 that had 6 former Borah Lions in the starting lineup and captured the Camellia Bowl championship, the biggest NCAA Division II game at that time for small colleges west of the Mississippi. 

In high school Greg was the most vocal of the “five friendly fannies” – a term for interior linemen that a former college coach used to use – and he wasn’t afraid to give his opinion on spoiled backs.  I remember a late summer afternoon in ‘68 when I was standing around shootin’ the breeze outside the locker room with, I think, Bill Cady and Don Minter, while Greg, Jeff and Ted were working on blocking techniques about 50 yards away on the practice field.  And Cratz was working them hard.  A few minutes later they were heading into the locker room for a drink of water.  As they walked past, Greg couldn’t resist a comment (he rarely could resist one): “You guys are workin’ real hard.  Candy-ass backs.”  It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that description, and probably not the last.

 That whole line was quite a crew.  If you follow high school football today you might find it hard to believe that it was rare when a team had even one player weighing over 200 lbs in the starting lineup. When we were juniors, senior Bruce Cleveland was the only offensive starter over 200 lbs, and he weighed 205.  Ted, Greg, and Jeff tipped the scales at 225, 235, and 235 respectively, and with Darrell Burchfield weighing in at 200 at tight end, well, there was no line comparable.  Tony Wallace – who in my opinion was pound for pound the toughest Lion of all, weighed 180, which was an average lineman size.  And then there was center Tom Perkins at, uh, 170, and I think he was fudging a bit at that.  Of course, to me, he was the most important guy on the line because he was the one who snapped the ball to me every play.  And he was completely dependable.  The first game of the year I had a big blister in the palm of my left hand so I had to receive the snap with one hand, so all snaps had to be perfect.  And they were.

The truth be told, it was the offensive lines at Borah during those championship years that made the Lions almost unstoppable – the Lions were Kings of the Southern Idaho Conference for 13 of 14 years between 1958 and 1971  And they had to put up with a lot, including being told they were too slow, not tough enough, and then reading about the ‘candy-ass’ backs on the sports page of the Idaho Statesman.  But, hey, this blog is read by literally dozens of people.  So enjoy some glory, you…you…big time linemen.