MSL Football Playoffs: Looking Back at the Start of the IHSA Postseason in 1974
Glenbrook North Celebrating 50th Anniversary of Title; Barrington, Schaumburg and St. Viator Were Also Part of First Playoff Party
Seeing the news that Glenbrook North is having a 50th reunion tonight of its team that won a Class 5A title in the first year of the state playoffs in 1974 brought back memories of this story I wrote for the Daily Herald on October 22, 2004 for the 30th anniversary of the playoffs. Glenbrook North was a charter member of the Mid-Suburban League but left after just two years with suburban conferences in a significant growth and transition period.
Glenbrook North wouldn’t win another playoff game after its title until 2000. Title-game running star Greg Woodsum would see his alma mater stopped in the second round by Buffalo Grove in 2001 and 2002. The second time his son Mark was a sophomore running back for the Bison who went on to become a scholarship “superback” (cross between fullback, tight end and H-back) at Northwestern.
Joliet Catholic and East St. Louis have added four more titles apiece since this was written 20 years ago and now have 15 and 10 respectively. Barrington joined the MSL in 1977 and also made the semifinals in 1983, 1998 when it finished second in the state, and last year. Frank Shellenback’s single-season rushing record of 1,843 yards was broken in 2006 by Andre Anderson with 2,131. Barrington will be celebrating 100 years of football at its homecoming game on Saturday, September 28 vs. Conant.
St. Viator is still looking for an elusive trip back to the quarterfinals, which required only one win in 1974. Schaumburg lost in the first round again in 1975 to Glenbard West but got its first 2 playoff wins in 1985 when it reached the quarterfinals under the late Tom Cerasani Sr. The state playoffs also meant the end of the MSL Super Bowl between division champions (with the exception of the COVID-shortened spring 2021 season) to ensure the league got two teams into the postseason.
As for WYCC-TV (Channel 20), which broadcast the playoff pairings in 2004? The channel no longer exists!
Playoffs Pass the Test of Time
It All Began 30 Years Ago … And the Novelty Hasn’t Worn Off
Sometimes a lack of knowledge is not so bad.
Just ask Greg Woodsum and Frank Shellenback if they knew now what they couldn’t necessarily grasp as high school football players 30 years ago.
Both were standout running backs - Woodsum at Glenbrook North and Shellenback at Barrington - in the first year the IHSA adopted a postseason for football.
“I wouldn’t want to play them again,” Woodsum laughed of a 19-13 overtime win for the Class 5A state title against an East St. Louis Senior program that went on to win six championships.
Would Barrington want a rematch of a 28-20 Class 4A quarterfinal win over a Joliet Catholic program that won state titles next four years and now has a state-record 11?
“I remember saying to myself 10 years after beating Joliet Catholic,” Shellenback said, “that if we knew how good they were we never would have beaten them. They were stacked but we just didn’t know. We had no idea how good they were.”
No one really did as the IHSA embarked into uncharted territory after years of “mythical” state champions determined by media polls.
A select field of 80 teams - almost all conference champions with a runner-ups and independents sprinkled in - now could settle who was best on the field with championships in five classes determined in Illinois State University’s Hancock Stadium.
“To now have this playoff in place,” said Bob Ferguson, who coached Schaumburg to berths in 1974 and ‘75, “to really determine who the champions were was very exciting.
“You had the mythical state champions, which were always kind of suspect. Now you’ve got something finite and exact with the playoff system. Our school went absolutely stark-raving mad with excitement and the community got really involved.”
Now everything is geared toward being part of a 256-team field in eight classes from the time the previous season ends. Players, coaches, fans and media have ideas about teams with realistic shots to contend for state titles.
And this weekend has become one of the biggest high school events of the year. Teams that have known they’re in for weeks have pizza parties and get-togethers in anticipation of the Saturday night announcement of the pairings on TV (WYCC Ch. 20) or on the internet (www.ihsa.org).
Teams on the bubble of making the field will be closely monitoring scores from schools in distant parts of the state that would usually be of no concern.
“Now you think of it in eighth grade to be in the state tournament,” said Shellenback, who set Barrington single-season records for rushing yards (1,843) and touchdowns (36) in 1974 that still stand.
It wasn’t that way 30 years ago as teams scrambled to find out who they play and prepare for preliminary-round playoff openers the Wednesday after the regular season ended.
Woodsum knows since his son Mark, a senior running back and defensive tackle at Buffalo Grove, has played on playoff teams the last two years.
“Like many other things, the ability for the media to get involved so much more now made a significant different (from 1974),” Greg Woodsum said. “The first year was something new … and not all the teams participated in it.
“We were underdogs for every single game. We weren’t even a twinkle in anybody’s eye of making the playoffs, much less winning state.”
Woodsum had played up as a sophomore on a team that finished 7-2 the previous year. Barrington had one of the North Suburban Conference’s strongest programs before 1974 and St. Viator had become a power in the newly formed East Suburban Catholic Conference.
Schaumburg may have been the unlikeliest entry since it won just 7 games in its first three years of varsity football.
However, with standout junior quarterback Russ Zonca running the wishbone, the Saxons took off and won the Mid-Suburban South title. They earned their playoff berth as they edged Hersey 7-6 in the fifth and final MSL Super Bowl. The league title game was dropped so both division champions would be eligible for the playoffs in 1975.
St. Viator punter Greg Kay said his school’s playoff trip “was kind of a bizarre happening” that would likely not occur in today’s expanded format.
Viator, St. Francis deSales and Holy Cross finished in a tie for the ESCC title. Viator lost to deSales in overtime but beat Holy Cross, which had beaten deSales.
Viator had also beaten perennial power Evanston in the season opener. So when the ESCC coaches met on that final weekend of the regular season, Viator was chosen as the representative to face Deerfield, which went on to win the 5A title the next year.
“To be able to be a part of the state tournament was without a doubt one of the more exciting times around here,” said former Viator assistant coach Pat Mahoney.
“It was bananas,” Kay said. “It was the first time and the community and school and players felt highly about what kind of team we had and the potential to go on.”
Everyone scrambled to prepare for openers in just a few days. Because of the smaller numbers in the field, Ferguson said it wasn’t too difficult to get an idea of potential opponents.
It turned out the Saxons would face one very familiar to Ferguson. His alma mater, East Leyden, and his coach, Jack Leese, who ran the same wishbone attack.
“It was total excitement,” said Ferguson, who is retired and spends part of the year in Tucson, Ariz. “We won the Super Bowl and found out we were playing East Leyden, which was just phenomenal.
“It was so exciting but we had a very good game against them (14-8 loss).”
Viator, led by standout quarterback Bobby Walsh, future major league baseball player Pat Rooney and Division I defensive ends Scott Zettek and Dan Young, beat Deerfield 19-8 in its opener but lost 22-6 to Willowbrook in the quarterfinals.
Barrington and Glenbrook North kept plowing ahead.
“We were just kind of a small town, Barrington back in 1974, and we didn’t realize we were playing teams from all over the state,” said Shellenback, who lives in Wilmette. “The first year we weren’t thinking like that (state championship). We thought, ‘Oh great, we get to play another game.’”
After beating Joliet Catholic, Barrington lost 31-7 in the semifinals to eventual 4A champion Rockford East 31-7, which had three future NFL players in Ira Matthews, Jerry Holloway and Stuart Walker. Glenbrook North beat Evanston, East Leyden and Willowbrook to advance to ISU to face East St. Louis and future Pro Football Hall of Fame tight end Kellen Winslow.
Woodsum rushed for a game-high 112 yards and the Spartans pulled off the overtime stunner.
“One thing Sam (head coach Samorian) taught me and I still tell my son and everybody else,” Woodsum said, “is any team can beat any given team and we proved that through the whole playoffs.
“I still get chills when I think about it. Two years ago Mark had a good opportunity (with BG’s 7A quarterfinalist) to make it there and it was so exciting.”
The initial excitement of 30 years ago would only grow and prosper with the inclusion of more teams, more media and fan interest and the move of the title games to the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium.
“I tell you, it was most exciting to see where we started and had early success,” said Ferguson, a sophomore coach on the Saxons’ 1999 6A state runnerup. “Then Tom (Cerasani) took over and brought it to the next level.
“When we made it to the finals I was up in the press box with my old defensive coordinator Gary Marx and we were hugging each other and we were so excited. It was just unbelievable.”