MSL Football: Zero Reasons for Perfect 1965 Palatine Team to Enter School's Athletic Hall of Fame
Pirates Did Not Allow a Point in First Year of Mid-Suburban League Play En Route to Title and 8-0 Overall Record
It’s not for nothing that one of the Mid-Suburban League’s major football awards is called the John Ellis Defensive Player of the Year.
Ellis was the head coach when Palatine made zero impact in its first year in the MSL in 1965. As in a team that allowed its opponents zero, zip, zilch, nada, nothing on the scoreboard in its five MSL games en route to winning the league title.
The Pirates allowed only 21 points overall to finish a season unbeaten for the first time in their history at 8-0. They had to settle for a final No. 7 state ranking by the Champaign News-Gazette since an IHSA football playoff was still nine years away. Seven players - tackles Duane Hosimer and Jeff Keller, guard John Blanchard, ends Denny Meyer and Bob Payne, quarterback-safety Ken Johnson and junior running back John Ekeberg - earned all-MSL honors.
The ‘65 team will be recognized before tonight’s 7 o’clock MSL West homecoming game with Conant at Chic Anderson Stadium as it is being inducted into the Palatine Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2023. Cross country and track standout Tricia Huber (Class of 1991) and the 1986-90 girls soccer teams that went to the state tournament four times and won the title in 1989 are also being inducted.
Palatine’s first football team to play in the MSL didn’t seem destined for the type of glory it is receiving this weekend. The Pirates went 2-5-1 in their first two seasons under Ellis as they finished sixth in their fifth and final year in the North Suburban Conference and tied for sixth in their only year in the Des Plaines Valley League. They had lost their entire backfield and offensive line and the feeling was it might be a rebuilding year for Ellis and his staff of defensive coordinator Arv Herstedt, Al Eck and Tom Hillesheim.
“We are green,” Ellis told Paddock Publications reporter Ken Knox in the preseason with an oft-used term in those days for inexperienced. “We will have to work hard.” But Ellis gave a hint of what was ahead when he said the biggest asset was the return of a “flock of defenders” that included Hosimer and Johnson.
There were concerns from the intrasquad scrimmage with blown assignments and other issues as the “Scarlet” team with most of the top defenders won 7-0. That was another omen for Palatine opponents.
“The brightest (spots), perhaps, was the performance of the Palatine defenders,” Knox wrote. “The defense continues to look like it may be the team’s forte and Ellis especially cited Paul Dolik, Duane Hosimer, Jeff Keller and Bob Salinas for moving fast and hitting hard.”
Palatine opened on a rainy, stormy and windy night at Rockford Boylan and won 6-0 on a 32-yard TD run by Bill Peterman, who was ineligible the year before, that was set up by Dolik’s fourth-and-2 stop at the 50. Payne, who played in the secondary on defense, ended one drive with an interception and had a touchdown-saving tackle near midfield with 1:56 to play.
A week later, the Pirates had to overcome a 7-point halftime deficit to edge Niles North 21-14 as Ekeberg rushed for 109 yards and 2 TDs and Meyer’s 2 completions on reverse passes for 61 yards to Payne included a 35-yard TD. Meyer also had 2 interceptions, Salinas had an interception and Hosimer recovered a fumble. Knox suggested that a halftime chat from the coaches made the difference.
Palatine followed it up with a 22-7 win over 2-0 Niles West as Ekeberg ran for 98 yards and 2 TDs and Keller returned 1 of his 2 interceptions 35 yards for a score and had 9 tackles and 6 assists. Special teams were also a big part of the success as Pat Kinsella kicked a field goal and Pete Lawson and Don Jones blocked punts. Niles West had run for a touchdown to get within 13-7 at halftime.
Little could anyone have imagined, especially going into its first MSL game against unbeaten perennial power Maine West, that Palatine wouldn’t surrender another point. The Pirates faced a big test against the single-wing and wing-T offenses of coach Ken Olson, who brought a 40-10-1 record since the school opened in 1959 into the game. The Warriors had also won the first MSL title in 1963.
But Palatine was up to the challenge as it won 12-0 when Johnson hit Bill Gill on a deflected 46-yard TD pass just before the end of the first half and Ekeberg ran for 94 yards and the clinching TD in the fourth quarter. Maine West came up empty on three trips inside the Palatine 13 - including one to the 9 on the game’s final play - and totaled 80 of its 213 yards of offense on the last five plays in what turned out to be its only loss in 8 games.
That set up an interesting matchup with the new school in District 211 named after James B. Conant, who was instrumental in the development of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to bring World War II to an end. Conant had lost its first 4 varsity games but there were a lot of connections as many players on both sides were teammates at Palatine in 1963. Herstedt and Conant head coach Ron Smith coached a 7-0 freshman team in 1962 that outscored opponents 196-6.
“You can take all the past records and throw them all aside for this game. They won’t matter,” Ellis said in the Paddock preview.
“It will be an 0-4 team against a 4-0 team. You can’t forget that,” Smith said. “But this means more than just another game to our boys.”
Nearly 4,000 people - which Palatine athletic director Earl Stutzman said was the best crowd the school had on record - saw the Pirates roll to 5-0 with a 35-0 romp. The defense forced 4 turnovers, allowed 54 total yards and had stops accounting for minus-36 yards. Jones blocked another punt that led to a safety. Ekeberg rushed for 118 yards and his 4 touchdowns included a 70-yard return of a free kick and a spectacular 13-yard run.
Now Ellis was concerned about complacency going into a Week 6 matchup with Wheeling.
“This team is due for a shakeup,” Ellis told Knox. “I don’t know just what the changes will be but this is the time.”
Ellis’ concerns were warranted as Palatine pulled out a mistake-filled 10-0 victory where it gained 111 of just 171 total yards between two teams that didn’t complete a pass in 15 attempts. Johnson’s interception set up his own TD run and his fumble recovery led to a Kinsella field goal. Hosimer, Larry Marchel and junior middle guard Joe Coffaro, who had an interception and fumble recovery, also stood out defensively.
The Pirates had been two steps from perfection before in 1954 when they lost to Genbrook 7-0 on a touchdown with a minute left. Eck and Hillesheim were all-too-familiar with how close they had been as players on that team along with future San Francisco 49ers ironman offensive lineman Len Rohde. And there were concerns because winless Prospect was coming off a 19-19 tie with Forest View and its offense had shown more life with the installation of future Cubs and Twins catcher Tom Lundstedt at quarterback.
The concerns were unwarranted as the Pirates’ defense allowed only 45 total yards (with minus-37 rushing) and got 2 interceptions from Payne in a 28-0 victory. Ekeberg continued to show he was one of the top backs in the Chicago area by rushing for 131 yards and 3 TDs and Johnson scored the other TD on a 1-yard run.
That set up the finale with Forest View and all-MSL standout Pat Dunnigan. Forest View coach Bob Scott said “by all rights they should beat us … but we’ll show up.” Ellis said “they really scare us … they are a very potent team.” The Falcons attempted an unheard of 44 passes for that era of football - with 33 by Dunnigan out of a shotgun formation - and completed 14 for 164 yards. Dunnigan also ran for 86 yards.
The Pirates fittingly got the only points they needed in an 8-0 win on a safety with 16 seconds left in the first quarter when a punt snap sailed over Dunnigan’s head and he was swarmed over in the end zone by Dolik and his teammates. Payne outfought a defender in the end zone for Meyer’s double-reverse pass after the free kick for the only touchdown.
Payne’s 2 interceptions included one at the goal line to preserve the shutout streak. Another drive to the Palatine 7 was stopped when Johnson nailed Dunnigan for a key loss. And Ekeberg had another big day with 100 yards rushing.
There was a bit of postgame acrimony as Palatine fans rushed the field to celebrate the perfect season. There were accusations of Palatine spying on Forest View’s pregame workout and a question of if the game was really over since a penalty was called on Palatine on the final play. But, under the rules of the day where you couldn’t get 2 points on a conversion run or pass, there was no chance for Forest View to tie the game and athletic director Bill Beckman said the final play wasn’t necessary - even though Ellis called his defenders back to the field.
All that remained were comparisons to the 1954 team that almost went undefeated from Paddock’s Ken Knox in his Knox Notes:
Stutzman, who was head coach from 1942-45: “Comparing teams from different periods is awfully hard to do. We’ve had better teams offensively but I don’t hesitate a minute in saying this is the best defensively we’ve ever had.”
Palatine assistant AD Dick Welty, who was head coach from 1946-52: “Defensively they were terrific. And for spirit and working together they were the best.”
Conant athletic director Charlie Feutz, the head coach of the 1954 team and Ellis’ predecessor: “That ‘54 team was probably better man-for-man. But there were only two of us handling the team. The coaching now is better and doesn’t come much better.”
Ellis said he was too close to rate them objectively.
“But I would rate them with the 1954 club,” he said. “There were not so many superstars this year as there were then, but that team didn’t have the balance of this one. We had no glaring weak spots on this team, no holes.”
Ekeberg rushed for 699 yards and 12 TDs and Payne set a school record with 7 of the team’s 17 interceptions. Coffaro had 4 of the 11 fumble recoveries. Keller received all-area honors by the Chicago Daily News, with Ekeberg receiving special mention and Meyer and Blanchard honorable mention.
Ellis, who had started Palatine’s wrestling program, would depart after his 14th year of coaching to devote himself solely to teaching science. He would come back to coach at Forest View and Rolling Meadows, was inducted into the Illinois Wrestling Coaches and Officials Association Hall of Fame in 1979 and passed away on January 3, 2007 at 80.
Herstedt took over as head coach for Ellis until 1977. After a 7-2 finish in 1975, Palatine would go through 10 consecutive losing seasons until making its first playoff appearance in 1986 under Joe Petricca. The Pirates had three unbeaten 9-game regular seasons with Petricca (1987, 1993, 1996), one under Bob Schuetz (1997) and one with Rick Splitt (2016).
Yes, eras are vastly different from an era when many coaches subscribed to the theory that three things can happen with a pass and two are bad. Gaining 200-plus yards in a game as a team would probably be comparable to 400-plus today.
But there is no denying what Palatine and its defense accomplished by keeping all five of its MSL opponents off the scoreboard.
“So good, better or best, there aren’t many teams at Palatine on a par with this one,” Knox wrote after the 1965 season. “And even if it wasn’t the best, it will in the succeeding years get the ultimate tribute. It will be the standard of comparison for the next Pirate 11 that approaches its standards.”
And one clearly worthy of its Palatine Hall of Fame honor.