Thirty-seven players and three coaches opened the 1966 season with an eye on the Missouri M-S State Championship. Forty years later, the ‘66 Bulldogs remain Trenton High School’s last state champion and only unbeaten team since 1946.
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“It was a magical season. We beat bigger schools, past champions and, of course our biggest rival, Chillicothe,” Terry Andereck, offensive and defensive lineman, said. “We dominated everyone and looking back at the coaching methods that were used then, well, frankly, they would probably be illegal today.”
When the Bulldogs reported to the opening practice on Aug. 16, 1966, 38 players showed. One player left the team before the first game. It was a somewhat smaller number than Head Coach Dewey Combs had hoped for, however, the Bulldogs were returning 17 letterwinners from the 1965 team.
Coach Combs noted in the Republican-Times that “We may be small, but we hope to make up for it with quickness and toughness.”
Looking back, several former players give much of the credit for the success of 1966 to Coach Combs.
“He was not a guy that you liked, especially during the season,” George Moore, running back, said. “But from the first meeting, when we molded our mouth pieces, he was talking about winning and, as the season wore on, we began to believe him.”
“His style (of coaching) helped bring us closer as a team,” Richard Griffith, tight end and defensive back, added. “It seemed like his answer for everything was ‘take a lap.’ A guy would get knocked out, coach would tell him to take a lap. Your shoulder was out of place, take a lap. It was the way things were; no one ever questioned the coach back then.”
Practices during the ‘66 season featured tough competition. Everyone on the team contributed and it was important to compete at a high level every day.
“Coach (Combs) gave out jerseys for starters and that was a big deal. One practice, Reebo (Jim Reeves) was having a bad practice and coach went and took his starting jersey from him,” John Hamilton, quarterback and defensive back, said. “Oh man, did that light a fire under Reebo. He was knocking’ knots on everyone’s head. I was across the field and I could hear him hittin’ guys. It wasn’t long before he got his jersey back and he never lost it again.”
Practices were a mix of sprints, repetition of plays and contact. By the season opener on Sept. 9, the Bulldogs were ready to hit someone else besides each other.
“I was so glad to get to games,” Andereck said. “Most of the season the games were easier than practice. For my part I was glad because I did not have to go against Reebo in the game.”
THS opened the season against Savannah, who had pounded the Bulldogs in 1965, 39-0.
“Coach had us believing by the first game,” Moore said. “As the season went along I think we got better and better.”
“One of the biggest differences between (1966) and some years we have had since was our sense of unity,” Griffith said. “We all liked each other. I cannot remember anyone not liking someone else on the team. Everyone was a part of the team.”
The Bulldogs thumped Savannah in the opener, 40-0. In their second contest, the Black and Gold handled Carrollton, 41-6.
“I was very lucky, I had praise heaped on me all season,” Hamilton said. “But anyone who knows football, knows that offensive success is all about the offensive line. We had a great group of guys up front that blocked their tails off. Everything I accomplished was a direct result of their hard work.”
The work done by Griffith, Andereck, Bert Swopes, John Carver, Bob Brown, Dennis Ratliff and Mike Costello was not lost on Moore.
“I honestly can only remember a handful of times all season that I was touched before I got to the line of scrimmage,” Moore noted. “Our execution (of plays) was amazing and it all started with our line play.”
After three weeks, the THS machine was in full gear as the Dogs romped past Macon, 48-6. The Tigers were ranked fifth before coming to Eastside Stadium, now C.F. Russell Stadium.
“Macon was a good team but we got off to a fast start,” Moore said. “Coach Combs would let our running back cheat up and many times he went through the line before the defense even knew who had the ball.”
THS scored on its first six possessions and took a 40-0 lead into halftime. Heading into the week four matchup with Kirksville, the Bulldogs had outscored their opponents 129-12. Nine different players had scored for THS.
“There really were not any stars on the team,” Moore said. “Everyone played for everyone else.”
Andereck echoed Moore’s thoughts and added, “Everything was more on a personal level. The coaches dealt with things in terms of individual success and failure and how those things either helped or hurt your teammates.”
Hamilton also chimed in on the team aspect of the ‘66 team.
“We bonded in a way that only happens in sports. It doesn’t matter how long it has been or how far apart we are, those guys on that team are my friends. Anytime we get into a room, it only takes a minute and we are all right back to being friends.”
Kirksville proved to be the toughest test for the Bulldogs to this point. The week four opponent bottled up Trenton’s running game and forced them to pass. THS scored twice through the air and won the contest by a final score of 20-0.
“Kirksville was a heck-of-a football team,” Andereck remembers.
“Their stacked 4-4 defense really gave us fits,” Hamilton added. “It was such a physical game.”
Despite the victory, Coach Combs was not at all pleased. Andereck remembers riding home in relative silence.
“Everyone was laughing and talking until coach told us all to be quiet,” Andereck remembers. “Combs no more than got sat down and Rich let out a duck call. I thought for sure we were going to leave him right there on the side of the road.”
“Rich about had to walk home,” Moore said.
Griffith, for his part, denies the incident, saying instead that teammate Mike Myrick was actually the guilty party.
The Bulldogs rolled through their next four opponents, thrashing Marceline, 48-7, and shutting out Unionville, Milan and Brookfield, 55-0, 60-0 and 45-0, respectfully.
“Honestly, we didn’t hardly ever play in the fourth quarter all year long,” Moore said.
Game nine featured the Bulldogs against Fort Osage, a school much larger than Trenton.
“They had as many kids in the school as we had people living in Trenton,” Andereck said.
The 31-7 victory set the stage for the final match-up of the season. While the Bulldogs were rolling through the competition, 22 miles to the south, Chillicothe had also swept through the season unbeaten.
“Chillicothe was the game we all looked to,” Griffith said. “They were our rivals and the team we most wanted to beat.”
Chillicothe Game
The Friday, Nov. 11 game marked the first time both Chillicothe and Trenton entered the game unbeaten and untied. Chillicothe was riding a 25-game winning streak that began with a win over Trenton in 1963.
The Hornets were winners of six of the last eight meetings with the Bulldogs and Chillicothe featured a defense that had not allowed more than two touchdowns in any single game in the previous three seasons.
“The Kansas City Star and St. Joseph News-Press came to the Chillicothe game,” Andereck said. “We made the front page of the sports section. To put the season into context was the movie ‘Hoosiers.’ In every sense of the word it was ‘Hoosiers’.”
Over 5,000 people attended the game at Eastside Stadium. The Hornets led the game heading into halftime, 3-0. It was the first time all season Trenton had trailed at intermission.
“The first play of the game we tried to run a quick-pitch to George and I was supposed to block Chillicothe’s defensive end,” Griffith recalls. “As soon as the ball was snapped, he took off running to the sideline. I was trying my best to catch up with him and then I saw their whole team running toward the sideline. I remember thinking, ‘sorry George’.”
“I got hit so hard. Their whole team was there waiting on me it seemed like,” Moore said of the play. “Back in those days it didn’t matter if you were out of bounds or not.”
“It looked like all 11 guys piled on George,” Griffith said. “We knew right then it was going to be a hard-fought game.”
Hamilton recalls the momentum swinging toward Trenton toward the middle of the second quarter.
“Midway through the second quarter, Dennis Ratliff came unglued. He went to every member of the defense and got in their face,” Hamilton recalls. “He slapped us around a little bit and that got us going.”
“It seemed like in the first half Chillicothe showed up to play and we were there to watch,” Hamilton said. “It was one dang fine game once both teams started to play.”
Trenton grabbed the lead in the third quarter, 7-3. Chillicothe regained the lead when the Hornets capitalized on one of five Trenton fumbles, taking a 10-7 advantage.
Trenton regained the lead with just over two minutes to play in the third, 14-10. Fittingly, the stars for Trenton were not the big names of Hamilton, Moore and Griffith. They were fullbacks Wayne Wendt and Bobby McCracken.
“I think a lot of people remember me, George and Richard, but I cannot tell you how important Wayne and Bobby were to us,” Hamilton said. “All year they ran so hard. It did not matter whether they had the ball or if they were carrying a fake or blocking. Everything they did they did full out.”
Trenton’s defense also shined behind the 15-tackle effort by Reeves. Mike Norton, Costello, Andereck, Ratliff, Brown and Wendt all helped contain the Hornets’ hard-running offense. The Bulldogs beat Chillicothe 27-10.
“I don’t think there has been a season like that in Trenton since then. In fact, I think it would be hard to find any small town in Missouri that had a season like that in their history,” Andereck said. “It would be very, very difficult for that magical season to repeat itself. I would hope that everyone would aspire to reach that goal, to have a season like that.”
Drawing comparisons between that season and more recent successes would be useless, according to Moore.
“There is no way to compare teams from different times. Football has changed; the players are different, the style is different,” Moore says.
Andereck agrees with Moore and added, “Every great team thinks they are the best, and they should.”
Griffith comments return to the bonding of the team.
“I cannot tell you which team was the best ever. But I know that the relationships we formed on that team were special,” he said.
Now retired, Hamilton wishes nothing but the best for current Bulldogs and Trenton as a community.
“I would love for Trenton to experience something like we did that year. Of course it is great when a team finishes .500 and plays above expectations,” Hamilton said. “But seasons like ‘66 are special. It is good for the program, for the school, for the community and especially for the kids. I think it would be great to see something like that happen there again.”
This story along with all the Trenton and area previews are availabe in the 2006 Fall Sports Preview.