MAC football celebrates 45th birthday

Happy 45th birthday to Midwest Athletic Conference football.

On September 21, 1973, four battles unfolded throughout our area as MAC football lit the flame to their inaugural campaign on the gridiron. Marion Local traveled to Ansonia, New Bremen headed over to Bradford, Coldwater hosted St. Henry and Minster went to Parkway on an evening which no one in attendance had the slightest inkling of the path which their league was about to emblaze.

"At the time we felt that we potentially had something special, but obviously not to the magnitude that it eventually became," commented the MAC's first commissioner, Jon Sidenbender. "We were all very excited to have our new league get underway, and I truly credit our initial success to those eight schools and their administrators who were involved in the very beginning."

Over in Ansonia, head coach Mike McKirnan's Marion Local Flyers picked up their first victory of the season with a 35-0 shutout over the Tigers, led by a pair of touchdowns from running back Doug Fleck. The Parkway Panthers and head coach John Reed finished their evening by improving to 3-0 on the year as they edged Minster 14-8 in a remarkable defensive battle. Parkway quarterback Randy Hoffhines passed for a pair of touchdowns in his team's third victory in a season, which would eventually wind up a perfect 10-0. In Darke County, the Bradford Railroaders picked up their first win of the campaign by a 12-8 final over New Bremen.

The Coldwater-St. Henry rivalry kicked off in Coldwater, and head coach Bill Menchhofer's Cavaliers had little trouble with Gordon Shivley's Redskins as the home team rolled to the 34-3 victory. Larry Knapke led the Coldwater ground game, which accumulated more than 300 yards, with a pair of touchdowns in the battle.

"As the head coach at Coldwater, that was certainly one of my first and biggest 'must-win' games," recalled Menchhofer. "They were just starting football, but it was such a big rivalry for both schools in all sports. Had we not won that one, there's a pretty good chance I would have been without a job. Seriously, though, we had a tremendous respect for their athletes and we knew there were going to be plenty of battles with them and it all began that night."

Although the dozens of coaches on the sidelines that late September evening no longer coach and teams have come and gone from the conference over the course of the last four-and-a-half decades, plenty of similarities exist which are still witnessed in the league today just as they were in 1973.

"Obviously the game has changed, but so much of what we had back then is still what makes the league as special as it is today," remarked Menchhofer. "It begins with the families and the tight-knit communities and that special bond everyone has. There are so many relatives playing for all of the different schools and with that comes bragging rights at family get-togethers. The MAC is a very special place and always has been."

So many years later, much about the schematics of high school football has evolved, but Menchhofer was quick to point out another often overlooked aspect of what still makes the league, which has amassed 33 state football titles and 13 state runners-up trophies, unique all these decades later.

"The athletic directors and commissioners have always been top-notch," he emphasized. "We obviously didn't have any way of knowing how dominant the MAC would become in football, but a big part of that success starts at the top and we have always had tremendous leaders. Our start in 1973 was very simple and the league has just gotten stronger every year since. Unfortunately for those teams outside the league, I see it only getting better and better in the future."