黑料福利社

YAKIMA, Wash. - Once every half century or so, an athletic event can so dominate a community's attention that it seems like nothing else matters.

The magnitude of the contest becomes so profound, in fact, that many who would otherwise have no interest in the specific sport or game suddenly become die-hard fans.

And so it was 50 years ago for Yakima and vicinity when Davis and Eisenhower squared off for an annual matchup of football rivals that on this occasion became many times more meaningful because both teams were unbeaten and, for all practical purposes, a state championship was at stake.

It was the ninth meeting of the city's two public high schools, the NFL-AFL merger was still two years away and high school football playoffs in Washington were nine years from becoming a reality.

So from a Yakima perspective, Ike-Davis IX might as well have been Super Bowl I.

"I remember just the atmosphere and environment that night," said Spud Edmondson, who starred in Ike's 14-7 victory, one which vaulted the Cadets past Davis in both the Associated Press and United Press International polls for the mythical state championship. "There was so much energy and electricity."

And there was so much talent.

In this instance we're talking actual, legitimate NCAA Division I talent.

Often, when high-powered teams collide in a community this size, the true abilities of those involved become inflated. Already the athletes have attained status local legend, and word of their capabilities expands with each assessment from barbershop to barstool.

Not this time.

Eisenhower had no fewer than six - SIX - players receive D-I football scholarships, and the University of Idaho was said to have offered full rides to all 11 senior starters if the players would commit en mass.

Two Davis players got D-I football scholarships with two more accepting similar awards to play basketball.

Ike running back Steve Dale and the Pirates' end Ted Wierman were among the West Coast's most heavily-recruited athletes, with Dale accepting a football scholarship to Southern Cal and Wierman taking a basketball ride to Washington State.

No wonder they all seemed like Johnny Unitas to yours truly, then a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Tieton Junior High. I was one of the lucky ones, part of an overflow crowd estimated at more than 7,500 to pack what was then called Yakima (now Zaepfel) Stadium.

"Not just the two best teams in the Valley," my dad said on the way to the game on Friday, Nov. 13, 1964, "but probably the two best teams in the state."

The pollsters clearly agreed, with Davis coming into the game ranked No. 1 by both AP and UPI, and Ike No. 2. The Pirates, coached by Dutch Schulz, had outscored their eight opponents 270-46 while the Cadets, coached by Clayton Frazier, had dispatched their foes by a collective 334-36.

So athletic and skilled was Ike's secondary, in fact, that the Cadets intercepted more passes than their opponents completed.

Not that high school football teams threw much back then. This was an era of the old T-formation, usually with a quarterback, fullback, a right halfback and a left halfback.

But just because the teams didn't run out of spread offenses with four wideouts doesn't mean they didn't deploy some serious razzle dazzle.

The first touchdown, in fact, came on a triple reverse in which Ike quarterback Dave Cook handed off to right-halfback Steve Dale, who then handed off to left-halfback Glenn Shaw, who in turn gave the ball to Edmondson, coming around from his position at right end.

"I would just continue to run around the right side and then go downfield," said Cook, currently the Yakima County assessor, "and Spud would throw me the ball. We ran that play twice during the year and scored both times."

Davis' Dave Allen, whose older brother Lennie was a senior standout, had the play well defended but went for an interception instead of tackling Cook after the catch.

"I knew Dave was there," Cook said, "and I remember thinking, 'He's going to hit me, and this is going to hurt. Fortunately, he tried to go up and intercept, I pulled it down and scored pretty easily."

The play, which covered 67 yards, gave the Cadets a 7-0 halftime lead. Shaw's 65-yard interception return made it 14-0 in the third quarter, though Del Carmichael's 2-yard plunge made it a one-score game with 9:56 to play.

"In retrospect," said Cook, "I'm not sure it was the best game we ever played, and I'm not sure it was the best game Davis ever played. We were just a bunch of 16, 17-year-old high school kids doing what we all did."

But added to what both teams had already done that season, and given the star power on each side, it made for indelible images.

Edmondson, for example, arrived at the stadium at his usual pregame time and found nowhere to park, so he drove home and then walked back.

Cook recalled marveling at a photo in his high school yearbook of the Cadets storming through the stadium gate, and then applied the time element to it all.

"That's what's hard to believe, that it was 50 years ago," he said. "Most of us who are still around and see each other on a regular basis don't brag about it because it was just part of the deal. But I gave a seminar in Everett once, and we all had to tell something about ourselves that we thought no one else knew. And I told them I was the starting quarterback on a state championship football team.

"And that game - it was pretty cool. As you and your dad would never forget watching it, we'll never forget playing it."

Roger Underwood's Under The Radar blog can be found at . He can be reached at runderwood@yakimaherald.com, or at 509-577-7694.

Players from the 1964 Davis-Ike football game who received NCAA Division I football scholarships and their respective schools:

Eisenhower: Terry Antles (Washington State), Dave Cook (Weber State), Steve Dale (Southern California), Spud Edmondson (Oregon), Mark Miller (Washington), Glenn Shaw (Washington State).

Davis: Del Carmichael (Washington State), Mike Carr (Oregon State).

Other Division-I scholarship recipients:

Davis: Ted Wierman (Washington State basketball), Lennie Allen (Washington State basketball).

Also: Dave Allen, a junior during the 1964-65 school year, went to Central Washington State College and became an NAIA All-American basketball guard for coach Dean Nicholson. He was a three-time winner of the Wildcats' coveted Hustle Award.