‘Solid’ 1968 Guilford Vikings had remarkable run to state finals

Originally published Jan. 13, 2020

The groundwork for the first trip to the IHSA baseball championship game by a NIC-10 team was laid at the end of the 1967 season.

The Vikings were coming off a 7-9-1 campaign, but they were going to be a senior-dominated squad in 1968.

“We knew at the end of our junior year that we had the talent to really do something,” said Dick Dummer, the centerfielder. “Sam (Zeller) and I got together and wanted to put together a spring trip to start the season.”

The players approached coach Herb Sisler and the athletic department and the 1968 Vikings started out with a week of games in central Illinois.

“We’d play the game then stay at the house of the player who played our position from the other team,” Dummer said. “We bonded as a group. We had five games under our belt (Guilford went 4-1 on the trip) and when conference play started we were ready to go.”

The Vikings, indeed, were ready to roll and the roll wouldn’t end until the IHSA championship game in Peoria. The Guilford 1968 team remains the only Rockford School District team to make it to the baseball state finals and one of just two in NIC-10 history. The team is being inducted into the RPS Athletics Hall of Fame on Feb. 8.

Of course, in the 1960s, almost every boy grew up playing baseball and all teams were filled with experienced, three-sport athletes. The Vikings didn’t win a single conference game by the 10-run rule. The conference then was known as the Big Eight. Their championship season was built on a number of little plays at big moments in tight games.

The Vikings beat Harlem 1-0 on a seventh-inning home run by Don James. Dick Harvey, who has passed away, drew a bases loaded walk in the eight inning to edge East, 4-3. Nick Janicki’s home run and complete game led Guilford to a 3-2 win over West. And then there were the ties. Guilford had games against Freeport, West and Boylan end in ties because of rain or darkness.

“A lot of the credit deserves to go to coach Sisler because we practiced situational baseball all the time,” Dummer said. “We’d hit and take infield practice, but we spent the rest of our practice time on situational baseball. We were ready for all different things that come up in a game.”

“Other than Dick, who hit .405, we didn’t have anyone hit .300,” remembered Zeller, the starting catcher. “We all hit around .290, but we were a solid unit. We could all hit pretty well, we had good speed, good defense and we had really good pitching.”

Indeed, the Vikings were blessed with three aces in Glenn Nowicki, a curveball specialist, Ron Holmer, who favored his fastball and a forkball, and a hard-throwing but erratic Janicki. Once conference play started, those three were the only ones to pitch for the Vikings.

Dummer and Zeller said two games always stand out from that season. In the 1960s, the IHSA playoffs would begin before the conference season ended. It was the only way to get the playoffs done in a reasonable amount of time. On May 22, Guilford beat Freeport, 3-1, to win the IHSA regional. On May 24, the Vikings lost their only conference game to Belvidere, 5-1. Guilford had already clinched at least a share of the conference title but to win it outright, it needed to beat - or tie - Boylan on May 28. If Boylan won, the Titans would share the title.

Even though the IHSA sectional was scheduled for that week, Guilford went all out. The Vikings and Titans battled to a 17-inning, 6-6, tie. Nowicki started and went 13 innings and Holmer came in and pitched the final four.

“Boylan scored two runs in the 12th, but Mark Hunt came up and hit a two-run double in the bottom half,” Dummer remembered. “And then Ron (Holmer) shut them down.”

The next game was against DeKalb, who had a left-handed pitcher, Mark Voreis, waiting for them.

“He was a 6-7 lefty who threw 90 plus miles an hour and he threw sidearm,” Zeller said.

“(Voreis) only gave up two hits, but we scored a couple of unearned runs,” Dummer said. “(Zeller) squeezed in a run. (Holmer) pitched really well and we didn’t make any errors. That game could have gone either way and if we lose ... no one remembers us.”

Dummer said the rest of the playoffs was “easy” until they ran into Peoria Manual in the finals.

“The state tournament was down in Peoria at the Caterpillar complex and it was really hot,” Dummer said. “That affected us. That affected Ron (Holmer), who started the title game. He wasn’t the same down there.”

It might not have mattered. Peoria Manual finished second in the state in 1967 and returned most of its team.

“As a catcher, you can tell who the good hitters are,” Zeller said. “That was the only game where I had the feeling, ‘we’re in trouble here.’”

The Vikings trailed 5-0 after two innings, scored three in the fourth, but Manual put the game away with four runs in the fifth.

In general, spring sports aren’t as celebrated as the fall and winter sports. Perhaps it’s because it’s competing for attention with prom and graduation. Since Guilford made it to the title game, NIC-10 teams have reached state just six times. Only Boylan in 2003 repeated Guilford’s feat of getting to the finals. Still, the Guilford team isn’t discussed as often as Vikings’ football title team from 1982 or the basketball team that finished second in 1993. Part of it also could be that there were no transcendent players on that team. None of the Vikings went on to play professionally.

“We had some scouts who were talking to Holmer and Janicki,” Dummer remembered. “Ron went to Western and blew out his arm. Janicki played football at Illinois. Sam played at Rock Valley. Really, we were just a bunch of kids who grew up playing ball together and we just all kind of went on with our lives.”

History Lesson: Harlem-Belvidere shocker 25 years ago was a piece of a big turnaround puzzle

 Originally published Oct. 12, 2020

MACHESNEY PARK — Who says public schools don’t recruit — or at least recruit defensively?

In 1993, Gabe Pena was in the process of transferring from Harlem to Boylan after his freshman year because the Huskies were not only the worst football school in the NIC-9, but the entire state.

The 1992 team had just completed its second straight 0-9 season under coach Gary Heifner. The school hadn’t won a game since 1988 — a streak of 38 straight losses under three different coaches.

“We lived down the street from (Boylan coach Bill) Thumm and he told my dad that I’d be welcome there,” said Pena, who now works at the Fiat Chrysler plant and lives in Rockton. “Harlem had a new coach coming and we hadn’t won in so long. But then we got a call from (Brian) Benning.”

The new coach was Brian Benning, who had coached Orangeville to the 1989 1A state title and taken the Broncos to the playoffs in four of the prior five seasons. He had taken the Harlem job in May of 1993, telling the Rockford Register Star’s Ed Glennon, “I want to try to do something people say I can’t do.”

“My mom was a Harlem grad, and she was the intense one in the house, and Brian sold her hard,” Pena remembers. “After the meeting, she said we were going to give him a chance.”

So Pena stayed and watched the Huskies go 0-9 in Benning’s first year, tying the state record for losses in a row at 47.

The Huskies had one last chance to snap the streak before owning the record outright. Harlem was opening the 1994 season against East, which was coming off a 1-8 season with its win being over Harlem.

So Pena stayed and watched the Huskies go 0-9 in Benning’s first year, tying the state record for losses in a row at 47.

The Huskies had one last chance to snap the streak before owning the record outright. Harlem was opening the 1994 season against East, which was coming off a 1-8 season with its win being over Harlem.

Mark Ritchie, a safety for Harlem, remembers the build up to that game was intense.

“It went on all summer, at 7-on-7s, camps,” Ritchie remembers. “Everyone was focusing on that game.”

Harlem snapped the streak with a 7-6 win in overtime in a game that was beautiful only to the winners. Harlem then lost the next eight.

“Once we snapped the streak, it really became hard to motivate the kids,” Benning said. “The feeling was they’d accomplished what they set out to do.”

“We played Boylan the next week and they beat us by 60 or something,” Ritchie remembered. “That brought us back to reality real quick.”

Harlem ended up scoring just 54 points and giving up 312. At the end of the school year, Benning approached Pena with an idea.

“He wanted to know if I could get Scott (Henderson) to come here,” Pena said. “Scott had played at Harlem in middle school, but he went to Lutheran and he was killing it there.”

Indeed, Henderson was the leading rusher on the 1993 Crusaders who made the playoffs for the first time since 1988. He followed that up with 1,315 yards rushing for Lutheran in 1994. It’s not a stretch to say he was the best Lutheran running back until a kid named James Robinson came along.

“I hadn’t talked to Scott in a couple of years, but I reached out and worked on him,” Pena said. “We went to a party that summer and a couple of Boylan guys told him he couldn’t play in the NIC-9.”

In the 1990s, high school football still centered around the run and Harlem had never been a great running team. If you look at the records compiled in the NIC-10 History Book (shameless plug), since 1977 when fullback Al Navickis helped power Harlem to its first conference title and playoff appearance, Harlem had exactly one running back finish in the top 10 in rushing in the conference in a season where all the schools played. Eric Newble was seventh in 1987 with 651 yards.

Luckily, Henderson was looking for a bigger challenge, but he was reluctant.

“All of my friends said ‘are you crazy’ when I said I was thinking about going to Harlem,” Henderson said.

Benning, though, sold him, too.

“He came to my house and it felt like we were after the same thing,” Henderson said. “He was a guy who had had success at a small school and wanted to prove to himself that he could do it at a bigger school. That’s what I wanted.”

Ritchie said the news Henderson was coming to Harlem sent a jolt through the team.

“We were psyched,” Ritchie said. “Then practice started, I was captain of the defense, and we couldn’t tackle him.”

“Getting Scott was big. He gave us a foundation to build around,” Benning said.

Still, Harlem had a tough opening stretch. They opened against Boylan, the defending NIC-9 champions and lost 46-19. Henderson showed the Titans he belonged by getting 96 yards on seven carries. Then the Huskies lost, 18-16, at home to Beloit (Wis.) Memorial, which was a perennial playoff team at the time. Henderson had all 16 points. He scored on screen plays of 65 yards and 75 yards and followed up both with two-point conversions.

At that point, Benning had one win in 20 games as Harlem’s coach and the next week Harlem was playing Belvidere, the two-time defending state champions, in Belvidere.

“There was a different feeling that week,” Henderson remembered. “Benning was friends with (Belvidere coach Vern Pottinger), but I think they were also were rivals. And (offensive coordinator Jim) Morrow was a Belvidere grad. He wanted to win that game badly.”

“Morrow was always a pretty energetic guy. That week he was running around the field like a crazy person,” Ritchie said.

Belvidere was 2-0 and ranked No. 5 in the state, largely on the strength of the back-to-back state titles. Ritchie said he could tell the coaching staff was confident.

“Maybe it was because of Morrow’s ties to Belvidere, but you could feel they had a good idea on how to attack Belvidere’s wishbone,” Ritchie said. “That week, we put in a whole new defense. Changed all of our calls.”

That Friday night, the Huskies blasted Belvidere, 28-6, a result so shocking that it remains hard to describe.

“There was no turning point really. We just beat them up,” remembered Ritchie, who is a manufacturing engineer at The Gleason Works and now lives in Belvidere.

Ritchie said the plan was to really attack the Bucs on plays to the outside and force them to run up the middle. In the first quarter, Ritchie knocked Belvidere’s starting quarterback out of the game with a hit that caused a fumble, which he recovered.

On offense, Pena and Henderson ran wild. Harlem rushed for 306 yards. Henderson had 175. Pena had 94.

“That was a big game for me, personally,” Henderson said. “My best friend at Lutheran, Steve Matzl, had transferred to Belvidere so we were playing each other. We started running, running, running and they couldn’t stop us.”

Benning said the win meant a lot as well because of the coach on the other sideline.

“Vern Pottinger is someone I really respected, as a coach and as a man,” Benning said of Pottinger, who compiled a 146-69 record at Belvidere over 20 years. “When Harlem offered me the job, I talked to a lot of people and he was one of the only ones, really the only one, who said Harlem ….. could be a good job. If he hadn’t said that, I don’t think I would have said yes.”

The win didn’t lead to a fairytale playoff run. Harlem won again the next week, evening its record to 2-2 and people publicly began to speculate about the playoffs.

“There were a lot of things going on in our school that year, and a few of our guys got suspended and then expelled,” Ritchie said. “They were all on our defense and after that, we couldn’t stop anyone.”

Harlem lost its final five games, but Henderson shined. He became the first running back in Harlem history to gain 1,000 yards (1,056 with another 244 receiving) and win the conference rushing title.

The Huskies went 2-7 again in 1996. Then in 1997, the program turned the corner, winning the conference and qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 1977. Benning would lead Harlem to the playoffs again in 2001 and 2003 before leaving after that season to coach basketball in Dakota.

Morrow took over the program and led Harlem to the playoffs 13 times in 15 years. All anyone under the age of 40 knows about Harlem football is that it is a perennial winner. Ironically, this spring Morrow will be back at Belvidere as head coach. The Bucs have become almost as big of a turnaround project as Harlem was. Belvidere North opened in 2007, diluting the talent in Boone County. Belvidere has won just six games in the past five seasons.

Even though the change wasn’t immediate, all involved believe the seeds of Harlem’s long-term success were planted that day in Belvidere.

“It was validation of what we were trying to do,” said Benning, who lost a leg in a horrific car accident in 2011, retired from coaching in 2013 and has recovered sufficiently that he routinely shoots in the 70s in golf. “We started to get the multisport athletes to come out for football. They weren’t really interested before that game. They’d take football season off.”

“The stands at our next home game were packed,” said Henderson, who played at Rock Valley College for one year before going into the working world. He’s a supervisor now at Gunite, where he’s worked for 20 years. “You could see that the community really was hungry for success.”

2025 Girls Swimming

NIC-10 Swim Meet
Place	School	Points
1.	Rockton Hononegah	236
2.	Freeport	190
3.	Rockford Boylan	185
4.	Belvidere Co-Op	183
5.	Rockford Auburn	183
6.	Rockford Guilford	182
7.	Rockford Co-Op (Jeff./East)	74
8.	Machesney Park Harlem	71

Diving
Pl.	Diver	School	Class	Points
1.	Maddy Kiley	Boylan	Jr.	361.25
2.	Kate Kline	Hononegah	Fr.	344.90
3.	Eleanor Powell	Auburn	So.	338.55

200 Medley Relay
Pl.	Swimmers	School	Time
1.	Natalie Rumage, Joselyn Rumage, Avery Lovejoy, Peyton Hillabolt	Hononegah	1:59.91
2.	Camrynn Gorham, Eden Helm, Tori Buchla, Jadyn Phillips	Freeport	2:03.31
3.	Hannah King, Norah Carlson, Chloe Bojda, Alaina Wahler	Guilford	2:05.65

200 Freestyle
Pl.	Swimmer	School	Class	Time
1.	Lucy Fey	Boylan	Sr.	2:01.70
2.	Tori Buchla	Freeport	Sr.	2:06.51
3.	Brianne Mitchel	Auburn	Sr.	2:09.17

200 Individual Medley
Pl.	Swimmer	School	Class	Time
1.	Lucy Fey	Belv. Co-op	Sr.	2:21.48
2.	Natalie Rumage	Hononegah	So.	2:25.93
3.	Allie Hodge	Boylan	Fr.	2:26.02

50 Freestyle
Pl.	Swimmer	School	Class	Time
1.	Hannah King	Guilford	Sr.	:25.80
2.	Emma Reichwald	Boylan	Fr.	:26.41
3.	Joselyn Rumage	Hononegah	Sr.	:26.68

100 Butterfly
Pl.	Swimmer	School	Class	Time
1.	Allie Hodge	Boylan	Fr.	1:03.99
2.	Eden Helm	Freeport	So.	1:04.11
3.	Peyton Hillabolt	Hononegah	So.	1:04.34

100 Freestyle
Pl.	Swimmer	School	Class	Time
1.	Ellie Logli	Belv. Co-Op	Sr.	:57.94
2.	Camrynn Gorham	Freeport	Sr.	:58.88
3.	Brianne Mitchel	Auburn	Sr.	:59.03

500 Freestyle
Pl.	Swimmer	School	Class	Time
1.	Lucy Fey	Boylan	Sr.	5:28.40
2.	Tori Buchla	Freeport	Sr.	5:41.28
3.	Addison Ahlberg	Belv. Co-op	So.	5:49.47

200 Freestyle Relay
Pl.	Swimmers	School	Time
1.	Jocelyn Rumage, Avery Lovejoy, Natalie Rumage, Peyton Hillabolt	Hononegah	1:46.75
2.	Allie Hodge, Juliana Ladwig, Emma Reichwald, Lucy Fey	Boylan	1:51.14
3.	Brianne Mitchel, Ellie Wallheimer, Solveig Cartwright, Lily Hill	Auburn	1:56.63

100 Backstroke
Pl.	Swimmer	School	Class	Time
1.	Hannah King	Guilford	Sr.	1:01.07
2.	Emma Reichwald	Boylan	Fr.	1:02.26
3.	Peyton Hillabolt	Hononegah	So.	1:06.12

100 Breaststroke
Pl.	Swimmer	School	Class	Time
1.	Nadia Vilic	East/Jefferson Co-op	Fr.	1:10.52
2.	Jocelyn Rumage	Hononegah	Sr.	1:15.02
3.	Alaina Wahler	Guilford	So.	1:17.38

400 Freestyle Relay
Pl.	Swimmers	School	Time
1.	Allie Hodge, Juliana Ladwig, Emma Reichwald, Lucy Fey	Boylan	3:56.13
2.	Tori Buchla, Eden Helm, Jadyn Phillips, Camrynn Gorham	Freeport	3:56.31
3.	Addison Ahlberg, Ella Derry, Claire Hatch, Ellie Logli	Belvidere Co-op	4:06.00

NIC-10 Newswire: Jefferson accomplishes weird first in football

ROCKFORD - The Jefferson J-Hawwks started slow but pulled away late to beat Auburn, 30-0, Thursday night, ensuring the first winning season for the school since 1993. Wide receiver Mike Townsend scored three touchdowns, two on touchdown passes from quarterback Jaden Williams, and an 85-yard punt return to put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter. Williams added a touchdown run for the final score. De'Anglos Roby had 109 yards rushing. Jefferson's defense forced four turnovers and recorded its second shutout of the season. Jefferson's win Thursday marked an interesting first. Joe Blume was Jefferson's coach from 1975 to 1993 and he coached the J-Hawks to the playoffs to the playoffs eight times back when it took at least six wins to qualify. From 1994 until last night, Jefferson only reached as many as four wins in a season four times under 11 different coaches. Counting the three losing seasons before Blume took over, Jefferson had never had a winning record without Blume as head coach. Jefferson will find out if it made the playoffs and who it will play on Sunday.

2020 Football (played in the spring of 2021)

NIC-10 Football Standings
Team	Conf.	Overall	PF	PA
Machesney Park Harlem	5-0	6-0	245	135
Rockford Boylan	4-0	4-0	105	14
Rockford East	4-2	4-2	228	109
Rockton Hononegah	3-2	3-2	195	61
Rockford Guilford	2-1	2-1	50	66
Freeport	2-3	2-3	96	168
Belvidere North	1-3	1-3	97	146
Rockford Auburn	1-3	1-3	77	101
Belvidere	1-5	1-5	65	209
Rockford Jefferson	0-4	0-4	34	182

Rushing Leaders
Player	G	Att.	Yards	Avg.	TD
CJ Berry, East	6	91	953	10.5	12
Javius Catlin, East	6	39	423	10.8	4
Dylan Collins, Hononegah	5	77	414	5.4	4
Ky'Ree Shirley, Freeport	5	35	352	10.1	1
Benito Jass, Boylan	3	40	320	8.0	6
Tyron Brakes, North	4	51	314	6.2	6
Jake Tapia, North	4	45	298	6.6	3
Adrian Palos, Harlem	6	54	282	5.2	4
Tarrone Jackson, Freeport	5	59	268	4.5	4
Almarion Bell, Jefferson	4	58	258	4.4	0
Javarrie Reynolds, Guilford	3	53	234	4.4	1

Passing Leaders
Player	G	Comp.	Att.	Pct.	Yards	TD	Int.
James Cooper Jr., Harlem	6	123	214	57.5%	1,833	23	4
Isaac Whisenand, Hono.	5	50	77	64.9%	641	7	5
Benito Jass, Boylan	3	18	30	60.0%	333	3	0
Xzaveon Segner, Freeport	5	22	51	43.1%	235	4	4
Jaquan Brady, Auburn	3	29	64	45.3%	244	4	2
Nick James, Jefferson	4	30	64	46.9%	234	2	3
Stuart Hale, Hononegah	5	10	21	47.6%	133	1	0
Mason Weckler, Belv. North	4	4	5	80.0%	129	2	0

Receiving Leaders
Player	G	Rec.	Yards	Avg.	TD
Dominic McCarren, Harlem	6	43	647	15.0	10
Lezzerick Ishmon, Harlem	6	34	285	8.4	1
Dezzion Jordan, Harlem	6	28	642	22.9	9
Braden Sayles, Hononegah	5	13	311	23.9	2
Xavier Bryant, Boylan	3	4	143	35.8	2
Ky'Ree Shirley, Freeport	5	13	134	10.3	2
Bryce Goodwine, Hononegah	5	14	126	9.0	4
Aaron Winters, Belv. North	4	3	109	36.3	2
De-Arious Maxey, Auburn	3	10	117	11.7	3
Jarrett Strate-Lutzow, Hono.	5	8	102	12.8	1

All-NIC-10 Team
Offense
Pos.	Player	School	Class
WR	Ky'ree Shirley	Freeport	Sr.
WR	Dezzion Jordan	Harlem	Sr.
RB	Tyron Brakes	Belvidere North	Sr.
RB	CJ Berry	Rockford East	Sr.
QB	James Cooper Jr.	Harlem	Sr.
C	Abe Hall	Boylan	Sr.
OL	Hunter Olejnik	Belvidere North	Sr.
OL	Mat Logan	Boylan	Jr.
OL	Caden Geiser	Freeport	Sr.
OL	Jason Stroberg	East	Sr.
TE	Dominic McCarren	Harlem	Sr.
K	Zack Hollister	Boylan	Sr.
At large
WR	Xavier Bryant	Boylan	Sr.
OL	Nate Smith	Harlem	Jr.
WR	Braden Sayles	Hononegah	Sr.
QB	Benny Jass	Boylan	Sr.
Offensive MVP - James Cooper Jr., Harlem

All-NIC-10 Team
Defense
Pos.	Player	School	Class
DB	Joey Appino	Boylan	Jr.
DB	Daquavian Oaks	Auburn	Jr.
DB	Bryce Goodwine	Hononegah	Jr.
DB	Shamar Holt	East	Jr.
DL	Max Caltagerone	Boylan	Sr.
DL	Keshawn Harrington-McKinney	Harlem	So.
DL	Aidan Peters	Hononegah	Jr.
DL	Nick Fehrle	Boylan	Sr.
DL	Nathan Tracy	Belvidere	Sr.
LB	Dan Contreras	Boylan	Sr.
LB	Adrian Palos	Harlem	Jr.
LB	Dylan Sayles	Hononegah	Jr.
P	Joe Namio	Freeport	Sr.
At large
LB	Aaron Winters	Belvidere North	Jr.
DB	A'tiq Muhammad	Guilford	Sr.
DL	Alex Escamilla	Hononegah	Jr.
DL	Tyress Cunningham-Smart	East	Jr.
Defensive MVP - Adrian Palos, Harlem
Coach of the Year - Gary Griffin, East

All-NIC-10 Team
Honorable Mention
Pos.	Player	School	Class
RB	Tristen Gille	Boylan	Sr.
DB	Brady Dolan	Boylan	Sr.
DB	Ethan Taylor	Harlem	Jr.
OL	Brennan McCoy	Harlem	Jr.
OL	Ethan LaRue	Auburn	Sr.
WR	De-Arious Maxey	Auburn	Sr.
RB	Javius Catline	East	Fr.
DB	Jaden Davis	East	Jr.
QB	Jake Tapia	Belvidere North	Sr.
DL	Justino Benitez	Belvidere North	Jr.
OL	Clayton Walls	Hononegah	Jr.
OL	Jacob Klink	Hononegah	So.
QB	Nick James	Jefferson	So.
OL	Calvin Cardenas	Jefferson	Jr.
LB	Aiden Kerr	Freeport	Sr.
LB	Trent Strohecker	Freeport	Sr.
OL	Bryan Sandoval	Guilford	Sr.
OL	Nate Johnson	Guilford	Sr.
LB	Jonathan Urbieta	Belvidere	Sr.
DB	Jonathan Fettes	Belvidere	Sr.

NIC-10 Newswire: East great, former Harlem coach Jerry Stalcup dies at 86

Jerry Stalcup, the former East lineman and linebacker who went on to play in the 1960 Rose Bowl for Wisconsin and then in the NFL and AFL for three seasons, died Sunday at the age of 86.

Stalcup had been out of the public eye for several years because he suffered from CTE - chronic traumatic encephalopathy - a chronic brain condition from his years in football.

Despite that, in 2018, when he was inducted into the Rockford Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame, Stalcup said he wouldn't change a thing.

"Football is the greatest team sport. How many times do you have 11 guys lined up and all come together?"

After his playing days were over, Stalcup spent decades in Rockford and Machesney Park teaching and training the oncoming generations of players. He was talked out of an insurance career to become a teacher and assistant coach at East, where he was the defensive coordinator for the famed 1973 and 1974 E-Rabs teams that went 22-0 over two seasons, including winning the 4A IHSA state title in the first year the state held playoffs.

He then was hired away by Harlem in 1975 where he coached the school to its first conference title in 1977. He couldn't sustain the success at Harlem. The Huskies would win as many as three games in a season only one more time before stepping down after the 1986 season.

His effectiveness as a coach could be judged by what happened after. In 1987, under Ed Gavigan, Harlem went 3-6. From 1988 through 1993, under four different coaches, Harlem went 1-41.

The program began to turn around when Brian Benning took over in 1993. In 1997, when Benning was in need of a defensive coordinator, he was encouraged to ask Stalcup, who was still at Harlem as a teacher. Jerry agreed and the Huskies went 9-2, winning the first conference title since his 1977 squad.

Stalcup stepped down after the 1998 season and retired from teaching in 1999.

There will be a visitation Friday night from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Zion Lutheran Church and funeral services at Zion at 11 a.m. on Saturday.

NIC-10 Newswire: Sanders nears rushing-receiving record at Auburn

Auburn  has just one win this season, but running back Gavin Sanders has had one of the best-dual threat seasons in school history.

Heading into Thursday night's game against Jefferson, Sanders has 629 yards rushing and eight touchdowns and 632 yards receiving with another five touchdown catches.

If you include his 725 yards on punt and kick returns, he has 1,986 all-purpose yards this season for Auburn.

It is impossible to calculate an all-purpose record that includes receiving yards back more than a few years because the Rockford Register Star did not include that statistic in its yearly leaders lists.

Looking just at rushing and receiving and Sanders is likely about to set a school record.

The Knights have had just a handful of 1,000-yard rushers and none of those were featured receivers.

* In 1990, Craig Rideout led the NIC-9 with 1,334 yards rushing, but he had less than 202 yards receiving. That was the lowest published total on the conference receivers leaders list.
* In 1997, Terrell Goldsmith led the NIC-9 with 1,228 yards rushing, but he had less than 150 yards receiving.
* In 2016, Daquawn Bell had 1,213 yards rushing but less than 213 receiving.

Sanders is at 1,261 combined rushing and receiving yards.