We are approaching the second week of the 2017 football season – preparing for a new and improved McDaniel College Green Terror. They opened their season with a big 30-10 win at home last week.
This is a team that has shown improvement in their program over these past two seasons. The Hounds are regrouping and preparing for a tough battle this weekend.
***But, what the heck is a “Green Terror?” Well, we will deal with that later.***
On offense McDaniel wants to play a physical game…so we have to be prepared to stop their running game. We will concentrate on shutting down their backs – trying to make them a one dimensional team.
Last weekend they had two runners rush for more that 100 yards each. That is a tremendous accomplishment in this day and age of throwing the ball all over the yard.
Both are short but powerful runners – they are veterans and saw significant time last season. They like to get downhill quickly with their shoulders square to the line.
Defensively we will rely upon the front to play solid “gap” defense with each player executing his assignment. You stop the run by filling each gap with shoulders parallel to the line of scrimmage. We have to be sure with our responsibilities and execute them decisively.
We pride ourselves on our hard tackling and overwhelming pursuit to the ball. We need to be on point up front and force them into a throwing game.
McDaniel also played some really strong defense as well. Their opponent Catholic University managed only 22 yards in the second half and no first downs. Now, I don’t care who you are playing against – that is some pretty stout defense.
***It’s not even the Green Terrors (as in plural for Terror) but “Green Terror!”***
The Green Terror also had the Centennial Conference defensive player of the week – Senior Ray Doh (2) had seven tackles (one for aloss) and two sacks. At 6-3 and 230 pounds we will have to be aware of him.
***Again with the “Green Terror?”***
OK – I am not making fun of this Green Terror nickname (I am a Konkrete Kid – the greatest nickname ever by the way!). Did you know that a Green Terror is an aggressive aquarium fish (fresh water and a Cichlid by the way). I actually have known this for many years being an aquarium aficionado (Seriously I am.)
I know that McDaniel is not using a fish as their mascot. So let’s delve deeper. Reading about this mysterious mascot and nickname one stumbles upon this tidbit….perhaps (and again I say just…. PERHAPS) once long ago the McDaniel team – clad in green – played like terrors during a win.
Or perhaps (again with the PERHAPS again) many years ago a coach tried to boost his players morale after a loss by saying they played like Terrors in that game. Well for whatever reason they are the “Green Terror!”
I know you all wanted to know that bit of useless trivia. But these are interesting things.
Back to serious matter like the game.
Despite some weather issues the guys have prepared well this week……because whatever their mascot is, and their nickname is…..the McDaniel players are the real deal. and they mean business. They are coming to play us on Saturday at one o’clock – and we have to be ready.
But, that’s what makes these games so exciting. Getting ready and then going out to show our skills!
Preparing the troops then sending them out on Saturday – watching them put it all out for the GREYHOUNDS. Now there is an awesome nickname and mascot!
GO HOUNDS!
OK here’s a little detour…..
Alright let’s take a peek at my high school. The Northampton H.S. Konkrete Kids. Once Voted as one of the top nicknames in the country by USA Today.
As most everyone knows I am a Konkrete Kid thru and thru (and if this spell check thing tells me that it is “concrete” one more time I may have another beer.) You won’t find a more loyal NHS grad.
Really looking forward to this Friday because the Kids are at home and I will get to watch them in person. I think they play Pleasant Valley – but it won’t matter because we will tear there lips off!
Pretty much everywhere that I go I spread the lore of Northampton. People all over the world know about the Orange and Black (yup I said “world” because I met another Konkrete – again with the spell check – Kid coaching in Lucerne Switzerland.)
But, here is a bit of history I learned just this week. 2017 is the 80th Anniversary of the Northampton High School “Wonder Team.”
Here is an article about that team written by Mark Wogenrich for the Morning Call. (By the way Wogenrich is a Northampton name!)
The Wonder Team During Their Undefeated 1937 Season, Northmapton’s Konkrete Kids Were Virtually Unstoppable — Scoring 58 Points A Game While Allowing Only 25.
They called it the short-punt formation. Coach Woody Ludwig imported it from his Ivy League days at the University of Pennsylvania. Behind it, the Northampton High football team was unstoppable.
The short-punt formation worked time after time.
“We really thought we could score every play,” Zirinsky said.
They nearly did. Blessed with size and a dazzling offense, the Northampton Konkrete Kids ruled high school football in 1937. To this day, the town remembers The Wonder Team.
Loaded with big, strong senior lettermen, Northampton went 9-0, overpowering opponents in the process. It scored 518 points — nearly 58 per game, almost one per minute. It also allowed only 25, shutting out five opponents.
The scores were outrageous: 75-6 over Palmerton, 73-0 over Stroudsburg, 86-0 over Slatington. The pinnacle had to be Thanksgiving Day, when the Konkrete Kids outran Catasauqua 85-0.
“It wasn’t a game,” said Donald Gillespie, Catasauqua High class of 1940. “It was a walkthrough.”
Most of the season was. The Konkrete Kids frightened opponents with their size, then jolted them with their skill.
For the 1930s, this was a big football team. Tackle John Yankovitch, a captain, was 6-foot-4, 200 pounds. Schneider, who played end, went 6-4, 190. George Gilly, the other end, was 6-2.
The backs also scooted behind the blocks of guards Robert Burkhardt and William Evans and tackles Daniel Newhart and Paul Leibensperger.
“Man, we were big,” said Steve Pritko, a 175-pound backup end who played behind Schneider. “We’d just block up front and throw to the beanpoles (Schneider and Gilly).”
And, unlike most other teams, Northampton loved to throw. Though primarily a running offense, the short-punt formation allowed for a variety of options.
In the formation, four backs lined up behind center John “Ginger” Chernansky. The quarterback, then primarily a blocker, hedged 2 yards behind right guard.
The three backs — two halfbacks and a fullback — lined up 4 yards behind him. The center could snap to any of the four.
“It made us real tricky,” Zirinsky said.
For instance, Zirinsky, a quarterback and halfback who scored 99 points, broke the big runs. Skok, the fullback, barreled behind the guards for a team-high 122 points. And halfbacks Onkotz (94 points), Alex Schur or Charles Heffner threw.
Schneider was their favorite target and culprit in the team’s most creative play. Upon catching a short pass, Schneider pitched a lateral to a guard, who lateraled to a halfback, perhaps even the halfback who threw the pass.
“That play almost always worked,” Zirinsky said.
Directing the whole package was Elwood “Woody” Ludwig, who played at Penn and coached Northampton for five seasons. He later coached at Bucknell and the Pennsylvania Military College (now Widener University).
One assistant was Al Erdosy, who took over for Ludwig in 1939 and coached for 32 years. Another was Mike Lisetski, who became an NFL official and had a Northampton street named for him.
“The coaches were great. Toughies, but great,” said right guard Andrew Kometic, who still lives in Northampton. “They wanted us in good shape, but what they wanted most was for us to get to class.”
Zirinsky said the 1937 team featured 18 seniors, a high school rarity then. The Depression had forced many teen-age boys from school and into jobs.
Most of the players were first-generation high school graduates in their family. Kometic was the only one of five brothers to finish school.
“That’s just how it was,” he said.
It was that way for Pritko, too. His parents, immigrants from Austria-Hungary, could not speak English. Pritko signed his father’s $30 paychecks from the slate quarry every two weeks.
But he graduated to a prep school in New Jersey, then to Villanova. A backup to Schneider in high school, Pritko bloomed thereafter.
“That’s when I got three squares a day,” he said.
Pritko played end and punted at Villanova before entering the Marines. After his discharge, Pritko signed with the Cleveland Rams. Having bulked to 235 pounds, Pritko became an All-Pro end who helped the Rams to the world championship in 1945.
When the Rams moved to California in 1946, Pritko went with them. Zirinsky didn’t.
After playing at Lafayette and flying blimps in the Navy during World War II, Zirinsky joined Cleveland two games into the 1945 season. He didn’t want to move to California, so the Rams traded Zirinsky to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Zirinsky, who splits his year between Catasauqua and Naples, Fla., later played a season with the Bethlehem Bulldogs in the American Football League. So did Schneider, who starred at Muhlenberg and whose name now graces Northampton’s gym.
When the season ended, they wanted to display it. On Thanksgiving Day, Zirinsky scored four touchdowns in the victory over Catasauqua. Before that, Northampton had scored just 64 total points in 14 games against Catasauqua.
As a reward, the unbeaten Konkrete Kids were invited to Chicago to play Austin High and its legend, Bill DeCorrevont.
A back who later played with Northwestern University and the Chicago Bears, DeCorrevont led Austin to an unbeaten season. More than 110,000 fans watched Austin win the city’s annual Prep Bowl.
The Northampton players itched to go, but their trip was canceled — “Couldn’t get any money,” Pritko said. The Kids were irked and, Zirinsky said, threatened a strike.
It never got off the ground.
“Mr. Ludwig also coached basketball, and he said, `Look, if you’re not here tomorrow, you’re through,'” Zirinsky said. “That stopped everything, because we all wanted to play basketball.
“We were pretty good in basketball, too.”
Pretty cool stuff! Many common Northampton names in that article! Onkotz, Schneider, Kometic, Pritko, Zirinski, Erdosy, Lisetski, Ludwig, Yankovitch, Gilly, Newhart, Burkhart, Leibersberger etc.
!HOTDOG FIGHT!
At work we just revved up the Yoccos vs. Potts controversy. We have hotdogs from Potts every Wednesday during the season.
OK it seems like Potts gets a few extra votes since the men’s Basketball coach at Moravian….hmmm….his name is Potts.
Have to admit, they are pretty good.
Maybe Mario’s tonite….Carvels……what more could you want.
The second luckiest man in the world has only this to say?…Hah, what a life!