JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) — There were flashing lights. A siren. A police escort. Canon fire. And, of course, a standing ovation in Jeffersonville Friday night.
All for the result of one high school football game.
A game that was played 50 years ago.
Jeffersonville 34, New Albany 0.
“A lot of people believed we would never beat New Albany,” said Jim Hickerson, a defensive tackle on the 1972 Jeffersonville team.
“Even if we had a good team and they had a bad team, New Albany would win. I never could understand it.”
“I remember people telling me that now that the streak was over they could die happy,” said Rick Leinhardt. “And I think they meant it.”
In 1972 Leinhardt was an offensive tackle on that team. In 2022, Leinhardt got into his convertible Friday morning and drove more than 5 hours from Lansing, Michigan for a reunion celebration with 18 former teammates and coaches of Jeffersonville’s first football victory over New Albany in 68 years.
It was The Streak that nobody could explain. Jeffersonville did not lack athletic talent. They produced guys who played college football at Louisville and Indiana. New Albany was not considered an overpowering football machine.
But it was also a streak Jeffersonville could not end. Not with pep talks. Or new coaching staffs. Or superior players. From 1904 through 1971, the rivals played 39 football games.
New Albany won 35.
The teams tied 4 times.
Jeffersonville won zero.
“I came here as an assistant coach (after playing for Bo Schembechler at the University of Michigan) in 1971 and when people started telling me about this steak I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’ “ said Jerry Dutcher.
“I’d never heard of such a thing. One of the first things I did as a coach was convince the players not to believe in stuff like jinxes or that another nonsense.”
All of that finally ended Oct. 28, 1972 at Buerk Field in New Albany. Led by speedy halfbacks Tony Winburn and Bill Barnett and powerful defensive lineman Joe Doggett, the Red Devils jumped ahead of the Bulldogs by a touchdown in the first quarter on a 70-yard punt return by Donnie Mitchell.
"We had a really good team and we just decided we weren't going to lose to them any more," said Brian Couch, the primary force in organizing the reunion.
They blitzed the Bulldogs for four quarters, igniting a celebration that brought hundreds of Jeff High students onto the field. The Red Devils received a police escort back to Jeffersonville High School, where the party resumed inside the basketball gymnasium.
Friday night they reminisced one more time. As they should. They gathered at the Kingfish Restaurant on the Ohio River in downtown Jeffersonville for dinner, pictures and stories. Lots of stories.
They watched a black-and-white game film of 2 1/2 quarters of the game. The final 1 1/2 quarters is missing. It must have been shot by a New Albany person to destroy the evidence of the victory, one of the players joked.
They were given another police escort to Jeff High for the Bulldogs’ game with New Albany. They watched from the first four rows at the 50-yard line. This time the Bulldogs scored in the final minute to win, 27-20.
But mostly the players from that 1972 Red Devils’ squad simply enjoyed seeing each other, thanking Couch for his determination in organizing the reunion, the first since 1992.
Dutcher was supposed to fly to Louisville from Florida, but his flight was canceled by Hurricane Ian. He drove the 11 hours instead. Even though Dutcher only coached at Jeff for three seasons before a long and successful career in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he was determined to see his former players. Once a coach and mentor, always a coach and mentor.
Randy Flynn lives in Corbin, Ky. He wanted to stay home with his wife, Nolia, to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary, which was Friday. His wife overruled him.
“We couldn’t miss this,” she said.
The public address announcer made certain the crowd gave them an extra cheer for their anniversary.
Nolia Flynn made the right call. She didn’t want her husband to miss the camaraderie.
They took time to remember missing teammates. The starting backfield has passed away. Winburn died in the tragic plane crash that killed the entire Evansville University men’s basketball team in 1977.
Bill Griffith, Jeff’s head coach, was unable to drive from Fort Wayne but called Couch to congratulate the team. Dutcher and Ralph Scales, who later became Jeff’s athletic director, represented the coaching staff.
Everybody had a story. Five of them told me they were convinced that New Albany watered its field all night before the game in an effort to create a muddy track and diminish the Red Devils’ advantage in speed.
“All that did was leave them muddy as hell,” Leinhardt said.
Three Jeff players told me the New Albany coaching staff was so steamed by the Jeffersonville victory that somebody turned off the cold water in the visiting locker room. Several players were nearly scalded during post-game showers.
“People were used to scheduling us for their homecoming opponent,” Flynn said, who brought his letterman’s jacket for the party.
“That was the old Jeffersonville. We had a great team that year.”
Indeed they did. This was in the era before the high school playoffs. In 1971, Jeff finished 1-9. Led by 18 seniors, the 1972 Red Devils finished 9-1, defeating everybody but powerful Bloomington High School.
But it was one game that brought everybody together again Friday night:
Jeffersonville 34, New Albany 0.
“It sounds just as good tonight as it did back then,” said Doggett.
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