November 1, 1968. Fifty-four years ago. This is for my Borah Lion teammates and classmates from the class of 1969, and anybody else who may be interested.
I think the coaches had their toughest challenge all year during the week after the Capital game. By defeating Capital we knocked them out of a chance for the title. The same weekend we beat Capital, Highland came to Boise and were upset by the Braves. Truthfully, many of us were hoping that Highland would win. That would have made both the Rams and the Lions undefeated in the the SIC going into the game on Friday, just as last year Capital and Borah were undefeated. Still, if we lost to them we would be tied for first. However, since they lost to the Braves coupled with a possible emotional letdown after the Capital victory, the coaches had to keep after us. Oh, and I assure you, they did.
Do you remember these guys? They look like they are ready for a brawl.
The coaches. Tom Olsen was my sophomore English teacher as well as assistant sophomore coach. Good teacher, but he could have given me a better grade from time to time. He retired from the Boise School District. So did Ron Arnold who was my kids' high school principal many years later. Good man. He enjoyed old-time gospel and country music, in case you wondered. Marsh Jones was a tough guy and very adventurous. I think he played in the Canadian Football League before he came to Borah. Bob O'Mera (somebody spelled his name wrong) later coached at Idaho Falls and then Meridian, where he coached against the Lions and won a state title. Coach Nakano was also head wrestling coach and later head track coach at Borah. My oldest daughter took driver training from him. I never took drive training from him, but he nicknamed me Mr Magoo when he saw me drive. We all remember Coach Pankratz. I'll have more to say about him later. Coach Biegert was at Borah through 1970. When he got hired at Borah in 1966, he was engaged to Cheryl Couch, who was also Miss Twin Falls. She ended up winning Miss Idaho so they had to postpone their wedding. I met Cheryl before I met him because my mom used to be a hostess for the Miss Idaho pageant and Cheryl once visited our home as Miss Idaho. Brad and Cheryl were both teachers and later lived in Oregon and California before moving back to Idaho.
We had a short practice on Thursday afternoon. Then we packed our uniforms and change of clothes. We were headed for Pocatello the night before the game. But first we ate dinner at the Chuckwagon on Vista, paid for by the Borah athletic program. Things were different then. Then we boarded the bus and headed for Pocatello. We must not have gotten there until 11:00 P.M. or later. One thing I remember about the trip was that several players were sick, and I was one of them. I didn't like the thought of playing in the game that was for the championship and not being in optimum health. Actually, I probably wouldn't have thought of the word optimum.
Friday, November 1. We dressed in our white uniforms at the field house on the Idaho State campus. Their stadium was called the Spud Bowl. The first half of the game was a bit like the nightmare first half at Ogden. I mentioned earlier that Greg Phillips and some other teammates put together a number of videos of football games and we were able to watch them and relive the competition. One of those games was the Highland game. Unfortunately, or, maybe, fortunately, we only have the second half of that game.
You've heard me tell the story about how I used to lose my cookies before the game {this happened every game of the season until this game, the 9th game of the year}. Well, this time I told myself to get control. I was already sick; in fact, I puked at the Thursday night practice back at Borah, so I had to "hold it in." I succeeded. But I had little success at anything else in the first half. On our second offensive play I threw a pass that was intercepted by a Highland Ram who ran it back to our seven yard line. They scored a touchdown and we were down 7-0 early in the game. On our next series, Don Minter ran 52 yards for a touchdown. That is the one play I wish we had on film. I remember it well. Don took the ball and headed up the middle. One Highland Ram got a hand on his foot and Don stumbled briefly. They closed in on him for the kill, but Don kicked it into overdrive and they tackled nothing but air.
Each team now had a touchdown so we kicked off to Highland. The week before against Boise, they ran a reverse on a kick-off all the way for a touchdown. So we were ready for them to try it against us; at least, we thought we were ready. They executed the reverse and the runner who got the handoff ran it in for a touchdown. In the second quarter, junior Kenny Johnson, who was playing because fullback Craig Estell got injured in the first quarter, made what was probably his best run of the year and scored from 38 yards out. So the half time score was 13-13 and neither offense had any momentum. I'm not sure if either quarterback completed a pass the entire half. Just before halftime, Coach Nakano came down from the press box and talked to me on the sideline, giving me similar encouragement like he had in the preseason. He must have figured I needed it. He was right.
I survived halftime without throwing up, and we headed back to the field. If the first half was like Skeeter Davis's "The End of the World, " the second have was "Happy Days are Here Again." The defense stopped them time after time, and the offense pelted them. Even with two touchdowns called back because of penalties along with another play the would have put us nearly on the goal line, it was like target practice. Still, we only led by a touchdown going into the fourth quarter.
BJ Johnson. This was his game to shine. BJ and I became friends in August before our seventh grade year at West Junior High. He had just moved to Hummel Drive where I lived. He showed up on his 10-speed bike one day and basically introduced himself to me. I threw passes to him while he was riding his 10-speed and he caught them. We played in the Optimist football program on the Boise Cascade team, and we were in sports together all through high school. BJ and I are in the pictures below.
Against Highland in the second half alone, BJ caught 5 passes for 95 yards and scored the first touchdown of the fourth quarter. If I could have chosen the offensive player of that game and given the game ball, it would have been to BJ. Darrell Burchfield wasn't too shabby either, either, catching two passes for 66 yards in the second half. After BJ's TD, Don Hutt intercepted a pass that led to our next touchdown, a ten-yard run by Bill Cady. It was a play that we had been working on for three or four weeks, but it was the first time we ran it. After the kick-off, Raoul Allen stepped up and rose to the occasion to really but the game away. He stepped in from of Highland's all-conference receiver Al Dykman, intercepted a pass from all-conference quarterback Mike Trujillo, and ran it 38 yards for a touchdown. It was a thrilling play. Highland then scored a touchdown with less than a minute to play, and Andy Brassey threw a TD pass to Don Hutt on the last play of the game. Final score: Borah 47, Highland 20.
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