STILWELL FOOTBALL'S FIRST YEAR COACHES
By Gregg Stilwell
Jeff Streun will become Stilwell's 35th head football coach in the high school programs 80 year history when Stilwell and Fort Gibson kickoff the final season of the 20th century Friday night at James Bradley Memorial Athletic Park.

First year head coaches have had only marginal success in their inaguaral campaigns at Stilwell. Of the 34 previous coaches, only 10 managed to end the season at least two games over .500. Seven of those coached prior to what is now known as the modern era of Stilwell football. The most successful of these was H.L. "Goob" Arnold, whose 1940 Indians posted a 8-1-1 record. In these early years, Stilwell did not participate in the state playoffs.

The very first SHS coach to record a winning season was Professor H.O. Lucas in 1922. Lucas' team went 3-1-1. The only blemishes on their record was a 6-0 loss at Poteau in September and a 6-6 stalemate at Sequoyah in November. The Sequoyah tie was avenged ten days later at Stilwell in a 26-0 win.

Ollie White coached SHS to it's only undefeated season in 1925. White's squad played only 5 games, but outscored their opponents 95-6. Wins over Sallisaw twice, Sequoyah twice and Westville in the first ever meeting between the Adair County schools, made up the perfect season.

The 1926,1927 and 1928 season's brought in three new coaches who boasted winning marks. Jim Gordon took the reigns of the 1926 team and guided Stilwell to an 8-3-1 record. Floyd Thompkins succeded Gordon in 1927 and coached the Indians to a 9-4-2 season that included a 136-6 win over Salina and a trio of 46-0 wins over Watts, Muldrow and Arkansas University High School. Stilwell's first professional football player, Emmett G. McLemore, who played for Jim Thorpe's Oorang Indians and Kansas City Blues of the old NFL, returned to town to coach the 1928 team. McLemore's troops were 6-1-2. The lone loss of the season occured in a 2-0 heartbreaker against Sallisaw. McLemore's Indians battled two perenial powers of the day, Stigler and Wagoner to 0-0 ties.

In 1933 Jerry Lewis was named as SHS' head man and he led the team to a 6-4-1 season. Two of the six wins were by forfeit however, earning Lewis' winning season an asterisk beside it.

In the "modern era" of Stilwell football only Pat Martin, Bob Ivins and Ron Etheridge have posted seasons better than two games over .500.

Martin's 1982 team finished 11-3 and fell just one game short of the Class 3A state championship game in his first and only season. The Indians finished second in district 3A-13, losing to undefeated and #1 ranked Wagoner 6-3 at Bradley Park in week eight. Stilwell downed 3A-14 champ Spiro 28-19 and Antlers 19-6 in the first two rounds of the playoffs, setting up a rematch with Wagoner at Odom Field. On a rainy, windy night, the two Eastern Oklahoma powerhouses battled to a scoreless tie until 6:40 remained in the game. Wagoner took a 6-0 lead on an 82 yard touchdown pass in which the Stilwell defender slipped down in the mud. With only 1:55 left on the clock the Indians began what could possibly be the most historical drive in SHS history. Starting at the Wagoner 39 and driving into the wind, quarterback Steve Barton completed a 10 yard pass to Bub Johnson, scrambled for a 9 yard gain and passed to Mike Rust for seven yards to advance to the Bulldog 12 yard line. An interference call on Wagoner moved the ball to the 6, and Barton connected with Manuel Neale with :24 seconds left in regulation to tie the game. The wet field led to a bad snap on the conversion try however, and the game moved to overtime. A Ronnie Littlejohn interception ended the Bulldogs first overtime possession and a 15 yard loss as a result of a Bedford Neale sack sealed Wagoner's doom in the second overtime. Martin turned to Senior kicker Randy Holiman to end the game and Holiman came through with a 23 yard field goal that sent the Indians back home to Bradley Park to host the State Semi-Finals against SHS' alum Bill Scott's Bristow Purple Pirates.

As was the case the week before, rain and wind greeted the teams and the defenses dominated, and, also like the previous week, the visitor's walked away victorious, with Scott's Pirates eaking out a 9-6 win.

Bob Ivins 1985 team recorded a 6-4 record. The Indians lost in the final minute of the first two games of the season, 13-9 at Van Buren, Arkansas and 14-12 at Spiro. The Indians then went on a six game winning streak that included a 28-7 victory over Westville in the final edition of the "Battle for Baron Fork", and impressive wins over Poteau 36-0, Grove 33-0 and Wagoner 24-0. Ivins' team fell victim to the old playoff format which saw only the top two teams in each district advancing to the playoffs, and missed out on postseason play by dropping the final two games of the season 8-3 to Sallisaw and 13-0 to Fort Gibson.

Etheridge returned to his alma mater in 1988 and led the school to an undefeated regular season and their first # 1 ranking in football. The powerful Option-I attack was led by the terrific trio of Quarterback Lance Goodwin, Fullback Bill McGee and All-State Tailback Jason Capps. Tight End Tim McNac also earned All-State honors as the Indians rolled to a 12-0 record before losing to eventual State runner-up Broken Bow in a game plagued by torrential rain, frequent dangerous lightning and two tornado warnings for the area, none of which was enough, according to the game officials, to suspend play. With the Savage's power running attack better suited to operate on the water logged field than Stilwell's finese offense, which relied on quick cuts and speed, the Indians undefeated season and championship hopes came crashing down in a 26-6 loss.

Four coaches have led Stilwell to finishes of one game above .500 in their first year as head coach.

Larry Lautenbach's 1936 team began the season 4-1-0 but slumped in the second half of the schedule to finish at 6-5-1. With the United States having just entered World War II a few months earlier, Stilwell superintendent of schools G.N. Mounger was forced to step in as head coach at the beginning of the 1942 season. Mounger would fill in as the Indian's coach for the next four years, until tW.W. II ended at which time the school would be able to employ full time coaches. Mounger was very successful during his tenure posting a 21-8-2 record, but his inexperience as a coach showed somewhat in his first year. The 1942 Indian's started off the season 1-2-1 but finished strong, winning three of four to post a 4-3-1 record.

Stilwell's first 1,000 yard rusher Jim McGee took over for Joe White in 1971 and guided the Indians to the school's first district championship and playoff appearance since 1955, McGee's Junior season. Thing's didn't look good for McGee's team as the fifth week kicked off. The Indians stood at 0-4 having been soundly beaten by Tahlequah, Checotah, Sallisaw, and Catoosa. An 0-5 start seemed likely as the opponent that night at Bradley Park was defending state champion Nowata. Stilwell used some of their homecoming night magic, mixed in with a good portion of sound defense to record a 7-0 upset victory that propelled the Indians into a six game winning streak that saw wins over Westville 34-6, Vinita 7-6, Jay 15-0, Locust Grove 47-20, and Wagoner, in the final week of the season with the winner claiming the district championship and playoff berth, 8-0. The Indians winning streak was snapped by Jenks in the Class 2A state-quarterfinals at Trojan Field 28-8. Senior Bill Goodwin earned All-State honors for his play in the title winning season.

1974 graduate and former Oklahoma Sooner and San Diego Charger Sam Claphan came home in 1998 and led the Indians to a 6-4 regular season which included impressive wins over Fort Gibson 34-7 in the season opener and a 13-0 upset of district favorite Idabel in week six. Stilwell's 5-1 start was their best since 1990, but the Indians lost three of their next four and barely held on to claim the fourth playoff spot which they earned thanks to a Checotah upset of Muldrow, the Wildcats lone victory of 1998, in the final week of the regular season. Playing without the services of injured quarterback Payton Nelson who had set a school record for most passing yards in a game just three weeks earlier, the Indians failed to manage enough of an offense to survive the first round of the Class 4A playoffs, losing 21-6 at Coweta to finish at 6-5, Stilwell's only winning season of the nineties.

Four first year coaches have finished with records of 5-5. Jack Stogner's 1964 team crossed the finish line at .500 thanks to an 8-6 win over the Henryetta Hens in the final week. Jerry Panter, Stilwell's youngest football head coach, took over for Stogner the next season. The 1965 teams 5-5 mark may have been only average, but Panter's team accomplished a feat that no other SHS squad has matched since that time...they won at Sallisaw. The 14-8 win came against Perry F. Lattimore, whose name now graces the gates of the Black Diamond's home field.

Ken Rader's 1974 team had a powerful offense, led by All-American running back Mike Deason, but lacked a solid defense. Rader's first of only two seasons as SHS coach got off to an inauspiscious debut, with Stilwell dropping a 31-18 decision to former Indian head man Joe White's Westville Yellowjackets. The Yellowjacket's win was their last ever over Stilwell. The Indians fell to 4-4 after being destroyed 60-14 at Bradley park by Eufaula. Stilwell's defense was picked apart by the Ironheads Junior quarterback, a young man whose Christian name was Julius Caesar, but preferred to be known by his initials. J.C. Watts rushed for five touchdowns, scored another on the receiving end of a halfback pass and tallied another on a punt return in the game. The Indians dropped their next game 39-0 to Poteau to fall to 4-5 but managed to upset # 2 ranked Spiro in the season finale 19-14.

Jim Frazier's 1978 team jumped out to a 5-2 start. Frazier's tribe shutout Westville 22-0 and Tulsa Central "B" 43-0, lost two weeks in a row to future Stilwell coaches Bob Ivins of Tahlequah 12-0 and Ron Etheridge of Sallisaw 57-0, then went on a three game winning streak. The Indians' seemed to be on the verge of the schools first back-to-back playoff berths, but went into a tailspin and lost three straight to end the season.

1921 head coach Paul Hale also coached the Indians to a .500 season, however that years team only played two games, losing the first ever football game played by Stilwell high school 20-17 on September 23, and recording the first ever win one week later, a 12-6 victory over Sallisaw. Not much information remains about the 1921 season or those two games. One paper from that time noted however, that " the local boys looked grand in their new red and white uniforms."

Only one coach has finished his inaguaral season one game below .500, G.R. Hurd posted a 4-5-2 mark in 1930.

Three coaches were 4-6 in their first year. Joe White in 1966, Larry Ledbetter in the Bicentennial season of 1976, and Bill Farney in 1990. Farney's team will long be remembered for their remarkable upset of Broken Bow in the season finale. After starting the season at 3-0, Stilwell stumbled through a six game losing streak that included frustrating losses in the final minutes at Grove 15-12 and at Bradley Park against Sallisaw 13-12. Broken Bow came into week ten boasting the state's longest winning streak, 24 games, and Class 4A's # 1 ranking. The Indian's shocked the defending state champions behind the smart quarterbacking of Senior Tye Mitchem, the swift feet of 1,000 yard rusher Keith Watkins and a suddenly immovable defense. Stilwell's big red machine rolled to a 23-6 win, earning Oklahoma coach of the week and player of the week for Farney and Mitchem.

Four coaches won only three games in their first season. The first was Billy Joe Cagle in 1950. Cagle's club finished 3-5-1. Cagle's successor Norvel Trask recorded a 3-7 mark in 1954. Trask was quick to turn the program around though, with Stilwell winning the school's first district championship the next season. Louis McGee's 1981 team ranks among the best ever defensively, but could only manage a 3-7 record. David Bethel had the unenviable task of following Pat Martin's successful 1982 campaign. Bethel's charges, which were heavy on Junior and Sophomore starters, could muster only a 3-7 season. That record could have been easily reversed had the ball rolled the right way in four key games. Stilwell stood at 2-1 before dropping four heartbreakers in a row, 19-14 to Sallisaw, 17-14 to Poteau, 7-0 to Jay and 36-32 to the Roland Rangers, coached by Bill Farney.

Five coaches won only two games in their first season. Bill Bynum, a member of the Northeastern State University Athletic Hall of Fame, posted a 2-6-1 mark in his only season at Stilwell in 1937. An Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Famer, Kester "Tractor" Trent went 2-9 in 1938. Pete Forrest's 1946 tribe ended at 2-9. Two more Oklahoma Coaches Hall of Fame members finished with only two wins, Frank Mobra in 1957 and Bill Scott in 1994. Although the '57 team could only manage a 2-8 mark, Mobra would stay in the head coaches chair until the 1964 season. His seven year tenure as SHS head coach is the longest reign in school history. Scott's 2-8 debut team in 1994 was probably better than their record indicated. The team lost a pair of close games 15-12 to Tulsa Kelley and 30-28 to Tulsa Edison, and had the disadvantage of playing in a district that boasted three teams, Broken Bow, McAlester and Tulsa East Central, who finished the regular season ranked in the top ten of Class 5A.

Only two coaches have ever posted seasons of only one win in their first year. Al Rhoads and Marshall von Bieberstein accomplished the feat in back to back seasons. Rhoads' team went 1-8 in 1947, with von Bieberstein posting the same mark in 1948. To his credit, von Bieberstein was able to rebound quickly and recorded a 6-4 season in 1949. Stilwell has a historical record of 157 wins 166 losses and 14 ties in the first year under a new coach. This averages out to a record of 5 wins and 5 losses. Will Jeff Streun's first season be above or below par ? The next ten weeks will decide.