1965-69                 Return to Football Year-by-Year            HOME                       Updated 6-24-2007

   Survivors of the 1966 Football Season - Class 0f 1967   SEE BELOW for season review.  

L-R: Dan Potter, Jeff Hane, Greg Ziegler, Kirby Dennis, Dennis Finucane, Pat Macfee, John Grace, Dennis Friedl ??, Ed Bernica and Dale Bennett

Not Pictured: Andy Valdivia, Jim Devlin, Steve Magistro, Tom Magness, Steve Moore, Joe Collard, Ed Gerhardt. Deceased - Tim McFeeters.  ( ?? Friedl decided to be in the picture - He could have played ! )

1965-69           The teams of this era had several individual stars but only one winning season (1968's 8 game schedule). !965's group had high hopes and Hayden's first meeting with prestige opponent Lawrence. This game brought a  huge crowd to Hayden Field and the game was at least competitive. The real let down was losing to Seaman and Highland Park that eliminated Hayden from Centennial League title contention. Hayden showed it's true talent in defeating League champion Leavenworth in final game of the year. Bill Glenn and Steve Gibbs were All-League performers. In 1966 the team matched the record of 1965, but blow-out losses to Lawrence and Atchison were demoralizing. Coach Orth's final year (1967) produced another 4-5 finish with the help of a forfeit by Highland Park. Ron Cappocia  and Tom Theis from the class of 1968 were leaders of this squad. 

BEST GAMES

1965 TDC Poll State Champions:  Wichita West (Class AA)  Mulvane (Class A)  Victoria (Class B)

************************************************************************************************************************

1966 TDC Poll State Champions: Lawrence Lions (Class AA)  Osawatomie (Class A)  Centralia (Class B)

      The recent reunion of the Class of 1967 brought back memories, good and bad, of this football season. Our coach, Bill Orth, became a well respected Kansas high school football coach at several other locations in the state. He was a stubborn  *** to some and a happy warrior to others. He was set on running a fairly complicated offense that was built around QB Dale Bennett's talents. A few days before the first game of the year, Bennett suffered a knee injury in practice and Cecil Kohake (JR) was thrown into the action. The team played well enough on defense to hold off Washburn. 

       The Seaman game exposed the lack of offense that would punish Hayden through most of our games in 1966. Kohake tried to execute the offense that called for play action passing but could only connect on 2 of 17 through the air. Still, Hayden was only down 6-2 at half time. Eventually the defense caved in the 3rd quarter when they gave up 20 points - but one of those scores was on a pass interception. It was after this game that we lost a couple of Seniors that were demoted from their starting positions. They could not live with that decision by Coach Orth - if I had possesed any sense, I should have joined them. I was not a starter and it should have been clear that Coach was not going to play Pat Macfee. But, I still thought I might get a chance and was not ready to give up. My junior season was washed out early by a severely separated shoulder injury and I had struggled with the decision to even come out for football in my Senior year.

        Anyway, the scheduling miscalculation of A.D. Ken Bueltel shattered the team's confidence as we were pummeled by Lawrence in Haskell stadium. Truthfully, we could have had Knute Rockne on the sidelines and would still have been skinned alive in that game. Lawrence reserves played most of the second half. At one point in the game, the Lawrence chain gang snagged Coach Orth's foot in a loop and then flipped him up in the air. Stifled laughter from the bench was rewarded with long and hard practices the next week. 

       The team recovered their senses against Highland Park. Coach played a variety of the roster in this game - this game was a throw back to the games our class had played when we were Freshman and Sophmores. Then, against Shawnee Heights, we finally got some offense going with Greg Zeigler  breaking the 100 yard mark. Dale Bennett was able to play a little bit in the second half. 

        Then came the bomb. Atchison blasted us 49-0. Our offense collected 2 first downs, 20 yards rushing, 0 yards passing on 12 attempts. Our lack of speed on defense was exploited by Atchison's fast backs to build a 13-0 half time lead. Our lack of offense kept our defense out on the field for most of the second half. Coach let everybody play in this game. In general, more of the same followed against Shawnee Mission South and Miege-K.C. 

        Our final game of the year was the team's best outing. I think everybody wanted to end with a win and celebrate that the season was finally over. Bennett showed why Coach Orth and the team were so optimistic in our pre-season practices. Greg Zeiglar broke a 100 yards again and we threw Coach Orth in the shower after the game. My memory says that he put up quite a bit of resistance and there was both love and hate involved with the ritualistic hosing that was administered to Coach Bill Orth.

        All in all, we won about as many games as was possible that year. If we could have replaced Lawrence and Shawnee Mission South with Topeka High and Topeka West, I think we would have posted a 6-3 record. We might have even beat Seaman if Dale Bennett had not been injured. Coach Orth always stressed optimism in our attitude and we might have been able to have made the score a little closer against Lawrence if we had entered that contest 2-0. And so it goes with re-hashing the re-hash of old high school football days.

       Coach Orth regrouped after he left Hayden. He went back to the small town football where he had great success before coming to Hayden. He won consecutive 1A championships with Little River and eventually moved up to coach large school programs at Winfield, Goddard and Liberal. He made several play-off appearances with those schools. And if he had lived long enough to come back to our reunion we would probably have been able to work out all the differences that existed back then. If not, we would have had to throw him in the shower again.

*************************************************************************************************************************

1967 TDC Poll State Champions:  Shawnee Mission North (Class AA)  Pratt (Class A)  Osborne (Class B)

*************************************************************************************************************************

     Leroy Brungardt took over as head coach and squeaked out a winning season in 1968. Shawnee Mission South was dropped from the schedule and no replacement could be found - so only 8 games were played. The program took a step backward in 1969 before advancing with winning records in the early 1970's.

1968      TDC Poll Kansas Champions:  Lawrence Lions (5A) Junction City Blue Jays (4A) Mulvane (3A) Baldwin (2A) Garden Plain (1A)          

             Coach Brungardt started his first season at Hayden by running "the old straight T" and stressing the running game on offense. The team's defense shut out Washburn Rural and Seaman but the offense sputtered in both games.  Lawrence finished out an agreed 4 game series against  Hayden with a 55-0 blowout in Lawrence.

                  It was a passing game - Greg Custenborder to John Gibbs - that helped the Wildcats come back against Highland Park.  Hayden was down 20-13 when Gibbs returned a punt to the Highland Park 25.  This set-up a TD and PAT that tied the score with 1:32 left in the game.  John Artzer intercepted a pass on the next  Scotsmen possession. Then Custenborder hit Gibbs for a 45 yard TD to win the game.  The defense held off Shawnee Heights top running backs Dan Bryant and Bill Dinkel long enough to allow Custenborder, Gibbs and Mike Hunninghake to provide 2 TD's - John Artzer kicked a field goal to complete the scoring. 

                 Atchison had some powerful teams in the late 1960's. George Ross was an extremely quick halfback and Reggie Ballew was a strong rushing fullback. They combined for 240 yards rushing that ate up most of the clock in this one-sided game. Hayden had the ball for only 4 plays in the last quarter.  Coach Brungardt' s initial thoughts about a strong rushing offense changed due to the strong passing arm of Custenborder for the final two games of the season. Custenborder targeted Hunninghake, Gibbs and Steve Huston for a total of 167 yards in the game against Miege.  Some costly mistakes (fumble and an interception)  set-up 2 TDs for Miege in the first half and their steady rushing game carried the Stags to the win.  Custenborder's passing definitely carried the Wildcats in their final game against Leavenworth. He was 14 out of 17 passing for 212 yards. Gibbs threw a half back pass to Custenborder for another 40 yards. Other players not already mentioned that contributed this year were Greg Meyer, Gary Lindsay, Terry McVay, Gary Hugg, Richard Lindsay, Doug Dennis, Nick Otto, Steve Wren, Mike Dowling, Steve Glotzbach and Ken Latshaw.  

**********************************************************************************************************************

1969       Kansas Champions: SM North (5A)  Junction City (4A)  Wellington (3A)  Salina-Sacred Heart  (2A)  Clifton (1A)

                Hayden was a pre-season favorite with Highland Park to compete for the league championship. A review of the games of this period describe a pretty good defensive effort in most games - but a sluggish offense for most of the season.  Coach Brungardt knew that the unknown for this season was the quarterback. He first tried Rick Meier and then Ed Clark at the position. Clark seemed to get better at the passing game as the season wore on and at the least gained experience for next year.  Rick Meier continued to contribute on the defensive side.

                      This team played all Centennial League games closely - Seaman  (the eventual champion)  dominated with a 289-95 total offense advantage - but some big plays by Hayden kept the game close. Gary Lindsay blocked a punt to set up one TD and Shane Coughlin set the table for another with a long kick-off return. Highland Park also dominated on the offensive side - but Hayden hung on for several defensive stops on the wet Hayden field.  Leavenworth finished third behind Seaman and Highland Park and Hayden really thought the game was won when Clark hit Greg Meyer for a TD with 4 minutes left in the game.  Then the defense stopped the Pioneers and Hayden had the ball with 3 minutes left. A fumble gave the ball back to Leavenworth and , despite a game saving tackle by Rick Meier , John Flynn finally connected with a TD pass with only 55 seconds left. Mike Hunninghake caught 2 passes from Clark to put Hayden on Leavenworth's 21 with 11 seconds left - but John Artzer's field goal try was short. A penalty gave Hayden another shot at the field goal that sailed right. 

                      The best thing accomplished this season was the experience gained by Juniors and some Sophomores that helped Coach Brungardt to have his best 2 seasons as Hayden coach in 1970 and 1971.  1969 saw the beginning of  the KSHSAA football play-offs. The system was complicated and Hayden had  several wild finishes in the coming decade to gain entry to the post-season.