We Wore Leather Helmets

In 1952 I was ten years old and in the fifth grade. We were in the old building on the Iowa State Teachers College campus which is now Sabin Hall. My teacher was Dr. Randall Bebb. Dr. Bebb was a tall, thin man with a reputation of being a stern teacher. He was a World War Two veteran and had spent a most of his military service in India supporting the airmen who were flying supplies to troops in China. We were all a little bit frightened of Dr. Bebb, but we all respected and revered him. We knew he was a very good teacher. He was my first male teacher.

We also had a new physical education teacher by the name of Bill Burke. Mr. Burke was a stalky burly kind of man whom I sure was also a war veteran. Mr. Burke was also the high school football coach. So, while the girls were with Ms. Schools, we boys learned about the game of football. We learned the football stance, how to hike a ball, how to carry the ball, how to kick the ball how to block and most of all teamwork. Most of us loved playing football and we couldn’t wait to play high school football.

We mostly played touch football, so we weren’t allowed to tackle and weren’t taught how to how to tackle. But that didn’t mean that we didn’t tackle when Mr. Burke wasn’t looking.

As a ten-year-old my parents allowed me to attend the high school games at O.R. Latham Stadium on the college campus. Usually I would walk to the games with my friends Chuck Sanders and Gerry Gress and sometimes with my best friend, Bill.

Mr. Burke and his high school team had pretty good season in 1952. In fact they went undefeated. But that wasn’t to last. After that school year Coach Burke moved to Oregon State University in Corvallis where he coached wrestling.

Mr. Burke’s replacement was big burly guy with a short butch haircut and intense eyes by the name of Carmen Ness. That year’s team did not do very well. After two years, Mr. Ness left to places unknown.

The new coach, who arrived in the fall 1955, was a guy with a southern accent who had played college football at the University of Rhode Island, by the name of John Aldrich. Coach Aldrich was to become a legend in his own time.

But his first season at Teachers College High School was a complete disaster. The team was not very talented and many of the players did not take the game seriously. All four of their football seasons did not go well. However they did do well in basketball and wrestling.

By that time I was in junior high school and I went to all of the home football games. I wanted to learn as much as I could about football. My best friend Bill and I played a lot of street football on Walnut Street with who ever wanted to play with us. A lot of time was taken up just choosing sides and establishing the boundaries. By the time the game started we would get called to supper

But I learned a lot playing street football, and I was really looking forward to playing high school football the next season.

My best friend Bill was a great athlete. He was excellent at every sport he played: baseball, basketball, football and most of all, tennis. I tried to do everything Bill could do, but he was always better. I tried to rationalize by reminding myself that he was two years older than me.
But that wasn’t it, and I had to admit it. Bill was simply the better athlete.

I really looked forward to playing high school football with Bill, but it was not to be. Bill kept breaking his foot. That ended his football career and we never got to play high school football together.

During my freshman and sophomore years I learned a lot and did well, playing on the junior varsity team. On two occasions I actually suited up and played in a couple varsity games.

During my freshman season most of our equipment and uniforms were old hand-me-downs from the college team. Our pads and helmets were ill fitting. The pants and jerseys had seen their better days. Sometimes they didn’t even match. My helmet didn’t have a face bar and I was constantly getting nosebleeds. Then I look up one day and saw my best friend Bill limping across the field. He had found a better helmet for me. No more nosebleeds.

The season of 1956 was beyond expectations, especially since they had won only one game the previous year. That was John Aldrich’s first year as coach and he took the team to five wins, two losses and one tie. It was also a very young team with tremendous expectations for the coming season.

During the off season I lifted some weights, ran on the track team, grew several inches taller and gained about ten pounds. I was excited about the 1957 football season.

When fall practices started every thing had changed. Coach Aldrich had installed a completely new offense: The Single Wing Offense with a Spinning Fullback. It was to change TCHS football for a number of years to come.

Along with the new playbooks Coach Aldrich handed out new practice jerseys, new game uniforms, new low-cut football shoes, and new helmets – leather helmets. Leather helmets hadn’t been used for years. But these were brand new helmets with full faceguards and I wore mine for three seasons and my brother more his for at least three more years. Today we would call them throwback helmets.

At home I spent a great deal of time studying the playbook. At practice time I became a living blocking dummy. It paid off for me because I learned a lot about the offense and that made me a better defensive player. During games I sat on the bench and had very little playing time, or should I say no playing time at all.

After the first game we all thought we had a pretty good team. After the second game we were convinced. The team won seven games in a row. With one game to go against Traer High School we were sure we could go undefeated.

In the fall of 1957 the entire state was hit with an awful flu epidemic. Schools were closed and our last football game was cancelled. Since we had the best win/loss record in the North Iowa Cedar League we won the championship. Not only that, the Teachers College High School Panthers was named Iowa state champions.

We thought we would have a pretty good team when practice started in 1958. We were big, we were fast, but we were inexperienced. It showed right away. There is not much we could say about the season of 1958, except that we got better as the season progressed. We ended up winning four games and losing four. We were disappointed and we had a lot yet to learn.

I joined the track team again just to stay in shape for football. I ended up placing second in the conference track meet and the district championships. For that I qualified for the state championships. That was the morning after the prom, so needless to say I didn’t do very well. I liked running track and I lettered three years, but I couldn’t wait for football to start again in the fall.

When football practice started in the fall of 1959 we were really excited. Were all experienced and by then we knew the offense well. We all believed we could go undefeated and out do the 1957 team that won the state championship by winning all eight games.






Our athletic director, Dr. Happ said, “We have a lot of big buys. We’re going to need a lot of toilet paper.” We also had a lot of returning lettermen who knew both offense and defense.

We beat St. Edmonds of Fort Dodge 31 to 6 in the opener, but we got a little cocky in game two and lost to Ackley 14 to 6. Three touchdowns were called back on penalties. We had a new player on our team who had moved from Ackley High to TCHS. He just happened to have been the one who committed the penalties. Of course no one could prove what we all suspected.

We put that loss behind us and went on to six consecutive wins. We beat Grundy Center 7 to 0 at Grundy in a driving rain and mud storm. Jerry Gross scored on the opening kickoff and that was it. We spent the rest of the game in the mud. We had never played in a better defensive game.

We won the last game against Traer. But the best thing was that Grundy Center beat Ackley. Ackley had lost two games. Grundy ended up with a 7 and 1 record. We had ended up with a 7 and 1 record but we won the championship because we had beaten Grundy Center.

It has been nearly fifty years since I put on my leather helmet for the last time. As my brother, Hugh, was five years younger than me he played football for Coach John Aldrich four more years winning several championships.

For several more years John Aldrich’s Panthers dominated the North Iowa Cedar League. He changed high school football in Northeast Iowa for many years to come.

Coach Aldrich wrote the book on The Single Wing Offence With a Spinning Fullback. The last time I saw Coach Aldrich was in 1995 when he stopped by my parents’ home in Cedar Falls and presented both my brother and me an autographed copy of his book. I have read it several times since then. Recently he and his book were mentioned in a Sports Illustrated feature article,.

Ethan,

Sports have been a big part of my life both as an athlete and as a fan. I am so happy that you are playing T-Ball. I hope you keep up your interest in sports. The more sports you do, baseball, soccer, swimming, fishing, running like your mother and Aunt Cheney do, golf, tennis and many, many more the better your life will be.

I hope you and your dad have enjoyed this story.

Love, Grampa