6 man History

[Old Bearkat]

Some out-of-state 6 man history. I posted this in the original thread way back when....

North Dakota State University -- NDSU Agriculture Communication
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo ND, 58105-5655, Tel: 701-231-7881, Fax: 701-231-7044
[email protected]

Plains Folk: Six-man Football was a Part of Regional History
Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University

Stories of six-man football on the northern plains keep coming in, some of them collected into a paper by Nathan Sand, the fellow who started this line of discussion. It all affirms that this was a chapter in regional history full of meaning to participants, who sense they were part of something distinctive.

A key booster of the game in North Dakota and nation-wide was A.W. Larson, school superintendent at Sykeston. For the Athletic Journal he wrote that six-man "provides on a smaller scale all the thrills, fun, and excitement of the game."

American Boy magazine, published in Detroit, took a keen interest in the game, naming All-American teams in the early years, a form of recognition in which the Dakotans, pioneers of the six-man game, fared particularly well. In 1937, for instance, American Boy named Richard Beck, a halfback from Haynes, N.D., to its All-American squad. In 1938 Eugene Rothstein, a quarterback from Haynes, was so honored. The magazine also named the 1939 Starkweather team one of the top 10 in the nation.

Many local players and fans, once introduced to the six-man game, preferred it to the standard 11-man. Commenting on this trend in North Dakota, American Boy explained, "In the older game the center, guards and tackles carry much of the drudgery of the game while the ends and backs make the scores and get the cheers and headlines. In six-man there are no drudge jobs... Everybody carries the ball in six-man! Everybody scores! The glory and the fun are passed around."

Sometimes even reluctant participants got in on the action. Nathan Sand recounts a story told him by Duane Voigt about the 1951 state title game, Elbowoods versus New Salem. Elbowoods put the student manager into the game, even though he was terrified of being hit. He lined up where he thought he would be away from the action, but a pass bounced off another player's shoulder pad and into his hands. The startled boy then ran for a touchdown and kept right on going--off the field and out of the facility. Someone finally stopped him and brought him back, because he had the only available game ball.

Leo Reinbold, who played for Hebron, told Sand about the 1950 title game with Elgin. In the second quarter the team from Hebron already was ahead by 51 points. The team from Elgin, recognizing a hopeless situation, quit and went home. This was not an uncommon development in those days of high-scoring contests. Reinbold told Sand "he couldn't remember playing the second half of a game during his senior season."

Six-man also appealed to community boosters, because it brought people to town. "The playing of six-man has a tendency to hold people in our community rather than for them to go elsewhere for their entertainment and shopping," wrote Larson in 1938. "Local business, especially, is enthusiastic about the game. Our games are important events in community life."

In the long run football could not save a town doomed by larger economic forces and social desires, but six-man was great while it lasted, and it its partisans recall it with something more than nostalgia. Six-man football does not loom so large in regional myth as homesteading or the dust bowl, of course, but those who knew it claim for it a place in the regional story as a representation of prairie life--wide-open, full of opportunity, inventive, fun-loving.

Before me rests an inch-thick compilation entitled "The Glory Years: Six-Man Football in North Dakota (1936-1941)," by Neil Wenberg, formerly of Donnybrook, N.D., now of Harmony, Penn. This is an impressive and meticulous piece of research, which must inspire to the uninitiated the question, "Why?" And why have so many people written in with their recollections of the game? Because there is something in this experience that they know, even if they can't quite articulate it, defines them as plains folk.

###

Source: Tom Isern, (701) 799-2941, [email protected]
Editor: Gary Moran, (701) 231-7865, [email protected]

 

[Old Bearkat]

GC 1954 Season Opener article

 

[Old Bearkat]

1971 Miles Starting Lineup

 

[Old Bearkat]

1971 District 2B 6 man and 6B 8 man Previews

 

[Old Bearkat]

1971 Districts 6B, 7B, and 8B 6 man Previews

 

[Old Bearkat]

1971 District 3B 6 man Preview

 

[Old Bearkat]

1971 Highland Returning Lettermen

 

[Old Bearkat]

1971 Hobbs players

 

[Old Bearkat]

1971 Fluvanna Backfield

 

[Old Bearkat]

An article from the Big Spring Herald on the 1968 6 and 8 man coaches school and all star games. There are a few very recognizable names here like Larry Pruitt, Nelson Campbell, Rick Perry, and Jack Shely.

 

[Old Bearkat]

Another article from the Abilene paper on the 1968 all star games

 

[Old Bearkat]

I found the score for the 8 man all star game but not the 6 man. Looks like the long-time coach of Center Point Allen Kaiser who also played for the Pirates back then was the hero for the East.

 

[freeagent]

You know, Ol' Bearkat, I could deal with all this "six man history" stuff when it was the 40s and 50s.

Now that you're pulling out stuff from the late 60s and 70s, I gotta put my foot down. According to my then-grade and high school textbooks, that was what we then called "current events."

Gotta go. It's time to find my Geritol.

 

[coachbronk]

I love all this six-man history talk. I miss coaching six-man and have started to get that itch to get back in to six-man coaching and off the crowded field. Six-man football is an addiction and you don't realize it until you step away from it.

 

[Old Bearkat]

You know, Ol' Bearkat, I could deal with all this "six man history" stuff when it was the 40s and 50s.

Now that you're pulling out stuff from the late 60s and 70s, I gotta put my foot down. According to my then-grade and high school textbooks, that was what we then called "current events."

Gotta go. It's time to find my Geritol.

 

[Knowmystuff]

1968 All Star Weekend - Levelland, TX

Basketball Game (they only had boys I think back then)

West Coach-Don Johnson Darrouzett HS;
East Coach-Ronnie McGehee Moran HS

West 63 East 51

High Points: West- George Calvert (Flomot) 30, Monte Pillion (Blackwell) 8, Stanley Sadler (Whitharral) 7
East - Bobby Cottle (Rocksprings) 19, Ray Sommerfild (Jonesboro) 8, Danny Davis (Gustine) 8, Joe Mains (Harper) 8

Eight-Man Football Game

East Coaches-Jerry Moore Center Point HS, Assistants-John Clark assistant coach at Leakey HS;
West Coaches-Jerry Miller Klondike HS, Assistant-Bill Brown Klondike HS

East 24 West 8 ...score was 8-6 West going into the 4th quarter.

Scoring: East - Jimmy Lackey (Center Point) 6, Allen Kaiser (Center Point) 12, Maurice Pruitt (Center Point) 6
West - Roy Morris (Dawson) 6, Jesse Rodriquez (Dawson) 2

Six-Man Football Game

East Coaches-E. B Reeves Walnut Springs HS, Assistant Coaches-Jim Coleman assistant at Tolar HS
West Coaches-Bob Johnson Highland HS, Assistant Coach-Paul Gothard Highland HS

East 42 West 30

Scoring: East - Nicky Pruitt (Sidney) 12, Gary Hughes (Coolidge; PAT kicker) 12, Morris Popham (Milano) 6, Nelson Campbell (Gordon) 6, James Nichols (Jonesboro) 6, Sammy McAda (Venus) 6, Sammy Reese (Venus) 6
West - Terry Clark (Highland) 18 (2 TDs and 3 PAT Kicks), Stacy Mohler (Miles) 6, Stephen Beach (Paint Rock) 6

 

[Knowmystuff]

Monte Pillion was one of the greatest athletes from Blackwell, they have an award named after him...

 

[freeagent]

You know, Ol' Bearkat, I could deal with all this "six man history" stuff when it was the 40s and 50s.

Now that you're pulling out stuff from the late 60s and 70s, I gotta put my foot down. According to my then-grade and high school textbooks, that was what we then called "current events."

Gotta go. It's time to find my Geritol.

By the way, did you hear the Rolling Stones are doing a remake of "Get off of my Cloud." Since they're all older, it's going to be renamed "Get off of my Lawn."

 

[Old Bearkat]

You know, Ol' Bearkat, I could deal with all this "six man history" stuff when it was the 40s and 50s.

Now that you're pulling out stuff from the late 60s and 70s, I gotta put my foot down. According to my then-grade and high school textbooks, that was what we then called "current events."

Gotta go. It's time to find my Geritol.

By the way, did you hear the Rolling Stones are doing a remake of "Get off of my Cloud." Since they're all older, it's going to be renamed "Get off of my Lawn."

All of those guys, but especially Keith Richards outghta be dead, but I guess they have too much cockroach in them.

 

[Texlonghorn75]

I have been trying to post this picture of the 1964 Strawn Greyhounds. I believe they were Regional finalists that year.