Throwback: The '60s Boys of Fall

Minot Daily News

Saturday, Nov. 3, 1962 

It is a cause for considerable complimentary conversation when a city of nearly 2,200 citizens possesses a Class B high school football team that has compiled a lengthy winning streak over a three-year period.

Such a feat is, of course, outstanding and worthy of acclaim.

But unprecedented? By no means. Highly-unusual? Nope.

However, if this same city has produced a pair of Class B gridiron units that have achieved incredible success, well, the situation must be described in stronger terms than "outstanding" or noteworthy."

Fantastic? You betcha. Unprecedented? It could very well be.

But that is the case in New Rockford, a city of 2,177.

Together, Coach Ray Gellerman's St. James Academy and the Rockets of New Rockford Central High School, coached by Bob King, assembled 47 consecutive wins over the 1960, 1961 and 1962 football seasons before the Rockets were surprised by St. John's of Jamestown in their final game of the season.

The setback stopped the streak of King's team at 21, but when the 1963 season arrives, Gllerman's team will be endeavoring to extend their string of 26 straight wins.

And, Gellerman noted, the Aces' chances of continuing their win streak are very good. "A number of my players will be back."

As for the Rocket. The start of another extensive winning streak could be in store starting next year. "Oh year, we're going to be tough," King said. "We have eight seniors on a squad of 45."

Both clubs kicked off this business of flattening the opposition at the outset of the 1960 season.

St. James, which plays in the nine-man division of the Central North Dakota Conference, clicked for seven wins in 1960, nine in 1961, and 10 in 1962, while the Rockets is a member of the Central North Dakota Conference (CND) 11-man division of the CND.

The Aces piled up a point advantage of 1,037 to 241 over the three-year winning stretch, and the Rockets restricted their opponents to 97 points - 72 of them this year - while putting up 785 points on the scoreboard.

This season, St. James ground out 3,458 yards compared with 1,669 yards for their opponents.

Dave Schwinghamer, who completed 61 of 126 passes, charged 1,152 yards rushing and passing. Steve Lies ran for and caught passes for 1,190 yards. John Gaffrey registered 14 touchdowns and snared more than 40 passes.

In 1961, the Rockets roared for an average of 454 yards per game. The output in 1962 was 354 yards per game.

Ace backfield performer Lowell Linderman scored 38 points in 1960, 124 in 1961, and 149 in 1962 for a sparkling career mark of 311. He carried the ball 111 times in 1962 for 1,135 yards, or an average of 10.2 yards per carry. Last year, he lugged the ball 61 times for 665 yards for an average of 10.9 yards per run.

Nothing the overall balance and depth, St. James coach Gellerman, a 1958 graduate of St. John's University who is in his fifth year at St. James, tabs his 1962 team the best he has coached.

"I was able to substitute more," he pointed out.

"I would hate to make a comparison, but my 1961 team had more balance."

Sound coaching techniques and a steady flow of physically-capable athletes are, no doubt, largely responsible for this football success in New Rockford, but such items as desire and pride also prominently enter into the picture.

"Winning has a carryover effect," Gellerman said. "The boys work hard to duplicate feats of previous teams."

"Also, our boys really 'get a bang' out of the game. Most of them really love it. After our final game against Michigan, they wanted to schedule another game... they wanted to play the undefeated Lidgerwood team."

In order to stack a large number of wins, it is necessary, according to Coach King, to have "a bunch of boys who love the game."

"And," he added, "their pride really 'builds up' during a winning streak."

When we got dumped, it was difficult to talk to the team. There were plenty of tears in the dressing room. The players felt they let down the coaching staff and the town. In fact, two seniors apologized to me after the loss."

The pressure over continuing a string of victories is "tremendous," disclosed the Rockets' coach, a 1956 graduate of Valley City State Teachers College who coached for three years at Milnor and a year at Pelican Rapids, Minn., before coming to New Rockford in 1960.

"No town or school pressure is involved, but you just like to keep winning," said King, who referred to himself as an "ulcer-breeder".

There are 31 boys at St. James High School, and 25 of them played football for this year's team, which was lacking in size but owned a great deal of speed.

"We ran multiple offenses," stated Gellerman, "and we did quite a bit of passing (153 passes in 10 games). We like to go wide, utilizing a lot of quick pitches."

Three teams came within two touchdowns of the powerful Aces during the 26-in-a-row achievement. The 1960 Drake team was stopped 13-0, the 1961 Glenfield team was overcome 24-12, and the 1962 Glenfield team was bested 19-7.

Only eight men were on each side in the tests against Glenfield, which was unbeaten this year after its bout with St. James.

Two of Gellerman's performers Jim Lies and Tom Schwinghamer have advanced to college competition, while six of King's athletes - Bob Sundberg, Bob Johnson, Jim Johnson, Bill Johnson, Roy Nielson, and Tom Holmgren have progressed to combat on the college gridirons.

The Rockets' closest game during the 21-game stretch was a 13-7 win over Missouri Basin Conference Champion Underwood, which was tabbed by the New Rockford players as being the "toughest team they played this year."

A stingy defense, one which allowed only six points in 1960 and 1961, is one of the main trademarks of the Rockets.

"You can always run into a night when you can't move the ball because of rain or snow, but if you have got that good defense, you're still in good shape," he said. "We spend over 50 %of our practice time on defense."

This year the Rockets surrendered 72 points, but 28 of them came in the streak stopper against St. John's, one of two teams over the three years to net as many as two touchdowns against the New Rockford Rockets defensive contingent. The other team was the 1962 Southeastern Conference champion Enderlin team, who the Rockets defeated 34-12.

"Getting beat wasn't so bad as the fact that we gave up 28 points," said King, shaking his head.

The opportunity to give a large number of boys experience, something made possible through the grabbing of early leads, has been helpful to the team's continued success, it is King's opinion. About 35 boys were used in each game.

"Also, if reserves get a chance to play in the games, they don't feel so bad about getting kicked around in practice."

The last time the Aces met defeat was a clash against the Rockets in 1959 when both schools had eight-man teams, and naturally, the coaches were requested to compare the strength of the current teams.

Gellerman: "We feel that we could have given Central a good game."

King: "It is difficult to make a comparison. Nine-man and eleven-man football are two different games."

Although there is bound to be some conflict and a certain amount of rivalry, discussions with enthusiastic New Rockford football fans revealed that there is an extremely healthy relationship between the two teams and coaches.

As one fan said, "They root for each other."

And if the two schools could combine their talent on one team? "That," said King with a smile, "would be quite a football team."

Editor's Note: With so little sports news we hope you enjoy this little throwback.

It's also worthwhile to note that the following two seasons (1963 and 1964), both teams were undefeated. Thank you to Tubby Bymoen and Bruce Anderson for sharing this with us.