In the 1961-62 football season I tried JC football at Fort Scott, Kan., for the Greyhounds, a Top Ten nationally ranked team,, as compiled by the JC Grid-Wire. My position was offensive end (that was what we called receivers then), and defensive end, a position where I was adept at knocking out quarterbacks. I went out for football and college because I had no other plans.
My coach at Fort Scott, Howard Mahanes, in his first year there, had been my high school coach. I attended Fort Scott Junior College the full 1961-62 school term. I went through the three-a-day week of football drills in blistering heat (I can lose five pounds just thinking about it), and the two-a-day weeks and the others that followed. Finally, with one more week of practice ahead and with game week after that, I bowed out for personal and family reasons. I had made the team and was in line for brand new gear.
In high school I lettered in track (100-yard and 50-yard dashes, discus, long jump) basketball, baseball and football. I played centerfield in baseball, and could catch anything that was catchable. I think that helped me as an offensive end in football, as far as judging trajectories, ball speeds, arrival areas, and knowing immediately when and how to turn my hips in going back on a ball.
Our halfback soon ended up with the Detroit Lions, Pat Batten.
Batten, the next year went to Hardin-Simmons on his way to a pro football career with the Detroit Lions, Montreal Alouettes, and Orlando Panthers. He was born December 5, 1941, in Indianola, Iowa. His hometown: Eldora, Iowa; high school, New Providence. At 6'2", 225 lbs., he checked all the boxes.
Some of Batten's teammates on the 1964 Lions: Dick LeBeau, Yale Lary, Alex Karras, Earl Morrall, Night Train Lane, Hugh McElhenny, Pat Studstill, Milt Plum. It was Coach George Wilson's last year,
A halfback at Hardin-Simmons, Batten was named team captain, a halfback for the Detroit Lions in 1964, a fullback/kicker in 1965 for the Montreal Alouettes, and a fullback for the Orlando Panthers, starting in 1966.
A host of knowledgable football people support the claim that the 1968 Orlando Panthers, with Batten, was the greatest minor-league football team of All-Time.
Batten was the Detroit Lions' third pick of the 1964 NFL draft, following USC quarterback Pete Beathard and Michigan State end Matt Snorton. Wichita State tackle Bill Parcells was taken seventh. Batten was the 30th overall pick in the draft. He appeared in three games with the Lions.
In late November of 1961, Fort Scott, Interstate Conference football champions, placed nine players on the league all-star squad: ends Dave Molloy (Galena High School), Tim Szenderski; tackle Delbert Ayers; guard Bill Van Cleave; center Jim Meisner; backs Pat Batten, Jerry Seigel, Dennis Jones, John Putnam.
A teammate of Putnam's at Macomber High in Toledo was Tim Szenderski. They were both basketball and grid standouts. Surprisingly, though, Szenderski did not play football until 1958 when he was a senior at Macomber. The huge end played so well the Toledo Blade newspaper named him to the all-city team. Putnam, meanwhile, sprained a knee in Toledo and was on crutches much of the football season.
Putnam, a Fred Flintstone-like character, and at 6-foot, 2-inches, 245-pounds he was a Sherman tank on cleats, fast and a load to handle. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 1965 NFL Draft Records indicate he did not land a roster spot with the Pack.
The Greyhounds were 3-0 leading into their tilt with the Tulsa Golden Gales. The Gales ran what was considered a "pro-type offense" with ends split wide and halfbacks in the slot. The freshman Gales were a less potent version of the varsity Tulsa Hurricanes. Several all-staters were on the Gales roster.
Even at the small junior college level football was a sea change compared to high school. Batten was a transfer from Drake University, Szenderski from Ohio State, and Molloy from Kansas University. A freshman looking to knock any one of those from the starting lineup would have a small chance at best.
It seems natural for some to point out any oddness, slight or otherwise, in a person’s facial features or physicality. Mahanes’ jutting jaw spawned the whispered-only nickname of “Hogjaw.” No one would have dared saying it to his face, not so much from fear, though that would be a valid consideration, but from respect. If from respect, why such a nickname to begin with? As I said, “some people.”
Like the man then presiding in the Oval Office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Mahanes had charisma. Whatever it was he had it. He was our JFK and his Judy was our Jacqueline. While not Camelot, it was a hermetic world created and overseen by Mahanes.
They came from small towns, nearly all did, suggesting they held small town values, holding to dignity and perseverance as core principals. The assemblage of athletes was amazing, especially considering Mahanes, as a first-year coach at the college level, had no real experience recruiting. The willing came from such diversely different states as Oklahoma and New Jersey. In fact, those two states had the highest concentration of recruits. Kansas was represented, of course, as was California, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas. Seeing two players from Claremont, Fla., one looked familiar, Bert Canova. He strongly resembled Judy Canova, a comedienne. I had seen a movie or two of hers and even a comic book. “Cousin,” he said. That was about as close to having a celebrity on campus as we were going to get, although we did have a fire-plug running back who bragged about having played professionally in the Canadian football League. If so, and the word got out, it could cause a major rule violation for Mahanes and the program. The stocky one didn’t stick long enough for that to become an issue.
During the last few practices, the Land Inn, a popular hangout (when you had money) began an after-practice "training table" for all players. Great home-style meals had been rare for most of us. The short and sweet lady manager even promised free barbecue if we beat Joplin, the defending league champion.
Juco student Tom Stelle had previous boxing experience before taking on Juco footballer Leonard Nickerson, a big lineman from Amarillo, Tex., in the ring. The two students developed a dislike for each other while on campus. Both being big young men, were definite heavyweights.
I asked Stelle about his upcoming fight with Nickerson and he displayed nothing but confidence. Stelle said he was a Golden Gloves light heavyweight champion in Miami, Okla., in 1961. He had put on weight. Nickerson was a regular in Jacksboro Highway smokers in his home state of Texas. The bout took place on a Tuesday night, March 27, 1962, at Memorial Hall and Nickerson pummeled Stelle.
Virtually no one I knew of was rooting for Stelle, who seemed to enjoy rubbing others the wrong way. I had lost a large amount of weight and Stelle, seeing me in the hallway between classes, would often stop near me and say something like, "Man, you sure are a big son of a gun." Other times he was pleasant enough and demonstrated an engaging personality. However, I didn't mind at all seeing his bruised face and blackened eyes days after.
It was a big boxing card of about a dozen bouts, filled with local favorites paired against out of towners and some area matchups. Other Greyhound football players were also on the bill. Ayers, an undefeated heavyweight, took on Kansas City's highly touted Roy Rodrigue.
I had a lot of natural ability and was always among the hardest working players on the field, not because I had to be to be good but because that was the way it was supposed to work. And why not?
Postscripts -- Bill Van Cleave was from Lincoln, Nebr., where he had been an all-city tackle. He later was principal at Spring Grove Elementary — my alma mater — in Galena, Kansas, for 22 years. After Fort Scott he went to Northeastern State (Tahlequah, Okla.) — Mahanes’ college alma mater — where he attained NAIA All-America status and was voted Into the school’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Mahanes, from down the road in Vinita, played end and was co-captain on the football team while with the Redmen, under head coach “Tuffy” Stratton.
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Brutal, it Was
Sporting an amazing 16-game winning streak in 1959, with the last half dozen or so wins coming in convincing fashion, the Galena Bulldogs were set to travel to Vinita, Okla., for a tilt with Mahanes’ old high school team, also the Bulldogs. Vinita had twice the school enrollment as the visiting ‘Dogs. Vinita, however, though much improved, had endured an 0-4 start. Galena, meanwhile, was coming off a 41-7 pounding ladled to Girard. In previewing the contest with Vinita, the Joplin Globe newspaper published a glowing review lauding the Galena squad, the long winning streak and its tenacious battlers, complete with photos. Vinita drilled us, 36-0. Not only did they beat us they inflicted real body punishment in the mauling. Mahanes rallied the team back the next week, defeating main rival Baxter Springs 20-14.
The Big Day Arrives
The 1970 Greyhound squad completed an 11-0 season defeating Mesa College (Ariz.) by the score of 41-20 in the 14th Annual Shrine Bowl in Savannah, Ga. to capture the National Title.
The 1970 team was coached by second-year head coach Dick Foster, who was 19-2 in two years at FSCC.
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