SPORTS

1979 Wildcats finished 6-4, but it was so much more

Dave Weidig
Reporter
  • Joe Gleason went on to play center at Denison and anchored Newark’s offensive line.
  • The Wildcats were also the only Newark team to win at Middletown, prevailing 8-7

NEWARK – Newark’s 2015 football team will be the first on White Field’s new turf.

The 1979 Wildcats also hold a distinction at the venerable facility: “The Flood.”

While the current players have it pretty good, their elder brethren wouldn’t trade any of the experiences from what at first might seem like a non-descript 6-4 season. A closer look reveals something more, as is often the case with football teams.

Thirty-five years after the fact, they got together recently at Red Oak Pub in celebration of their 1980 class reunion. This was a group that obviously enjoyed being together, no matter what the circumstances.

“The Flood” refers to the Week 3 game against visiting Toledo Whitmer, when the remnants of Hurricane Frederick swamped Licking County. It was so bad, White Field was underwater and fish were spotted there.

“They told us to go home and wait for a phone call, and we ended up busing to Heath for the game,” said defensive lineman Neil Cowen, a Central Ohio League wrestling champion and 15-year head wrestling coach at Licking Valley. “We lost 15-8. After the flood, we couldn’t practice there for over a week, but the guys hung together.”

They did so often in a season that saw all four losses come in close games to teams ranked in Class AAA top 10: Wintersville, Zanesville, Whitmer and, in the season finale, Upper Arlington in a contest where Newark still had a chance to win the COL title.

In another “flood” game at Wintersville, with ankle deep water on the field, the Wildcats led late in the game when Penn State-bound tailback Chris Collaros broke through the slop for a game-winning 35-yard TD run. “We had a blitz called, and I got a hand around his ankle and held him up for a second,” Cowen recalled. “But when he got away, there were no linebackers there. That’s just football.”

The Wildcats were also the only Newark team to win at Middletown, prevailing 8-7 when they used the “swinging gate” for the two-point PAT. Their junior quarterback, Brian Moore, went on to play at Baldwin-Wallace and coached at Youngstown State under Jim Tressel.

“Coach Bill Biggers said, ‘We were the best 6-4 team in the state.’ And we probably were,” said Rob Romine, part of the Wildcats’ tailback by committee.

As juniors, Newark got off to a 7-0 start and was ranked third in the state, but finished 8-2 and lost a winner-take-all final game at Zanesville, when the survivor made the playoffs and the loser stayed home. Back then, only the regional champion made it.

There was a lot of close calls for this close-knit team. They spent much of their time at Red Oak Pub praising each other. Perhaps no one appreciated the team more than Cowen, who wore a Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon” T-shirt and now lives in the small Athens County community Coolville.

“Tyler Johnson came back for this from North Carolina,” Romine said. “He was the hardest-hitting defensive back I ever saw. He smacked people. He had no regard.”

Joe Gleason, who went on to play center at Denison and anchored Newark’s offensive line, came home from Indiana. Another offensive lineman, Greg Wise, came home for the reunion from Michigan. Wise played for Ashland University.

“Rob (Romine) was extremely fast,” Gleason said. “I weighed 190 as a junior and was our smallest offensive lineman. I was 195 as a senior and was our biggest. Defense was our strength.”

Offensive line coach John Brown said the Wildcats were often out-manned up front.

“But they were smart kids who did what they were supposed to do,” he said. “They were smaller, but they were great on technique.”

The Wildcats also recalled teammates who couldn’t be there. Thorla Winston played football, wrestled and ran track at Wittenberg, and died of brain cancer at age 25. Fullback Greg Rowland is also deceased.

As Newark prepares to play on its new turf, the ‘79 Cats harkened back to when White Field was in great shape.

“It was one of the best grass fields I’ve ever played on,” Romine said. “Steve Harper did a great job taking care of it.”

The current Cats can learn a valuable lesson from their elders. Appreciate what you have, your teammates and the memories you’ll be making, and hopefully still talking about, 35 years from now.

dweidig@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8557

Twitter: @noz75