The Era of Six-Man Football in Ashland County

Six-man football was conceived by Stephen Epler in Chester, Neb. in 1934. The scaled-down version gave smaller rural schools a chance to play with lower equipment costs and smaller quick players. One coach said, “Just give me a bunch of 140-pounders with speed,” and a former player said, “It’s like a track meet.” Epler’s adaptation changed the field to 80-yards, and a first down to 15-yards, however all six players (three linemen and three backs) were all eligible to catch a pass. A key rule was that the first player receiving the ball from the center was not allowed to run with it. He had to either pass it or lateral it to another player. Thus the wide-open game put pressure on each defender where a missed tackle ended up in a TD.

Although the game was a product of The Great Depression, the Second World War with the draft and enlistments depleted the number of males in the rural high schools, and the combination spurred the growth of six-man football. The first six-man games in Ohio were played in 1938. OHSAA Commissioner H. R. Townsend had a list of 40 schools that sponsored the game that first year. They were mainly pockets of county schools with a limited schedule which began in late September. The one great dilemma was their choice over the very popular fall baseball programs in many of the small schools. Nevertheless, it was Commissioner Townsend’s opinion that the sport would more than double and possibly reached 100 by the second year.

Three schools developed notable reputations for six-man football in Ohio after 1940. Sharon (Center) in Medina County (now Medina Highland) laid claim to the state championship in 1941 with an undefeated season and a challenge to any takers in the State. At one period they had a winning streak of 30-plus games. In 1950 Six-Man Football Magazine ranked them first in Ohio. LaRue (now Elgin HS) of Marion County was found to be the only undefeated six-man team in Ohio in 1942. By the end of 1947 they had over 40 victories and two defeats. In the season finale they gave Howard (8-1) their only loss of the year. Over the next decade they dominated the M & M league (Marion and Morrow counties). The magazine, considered the Bible of six-man football, ranked the 1957 Indians sixth in the nation, and LaRue was even featured in Sports Illustrated. A third pioneer of the game was Howard in Knox County. The Bulldogs played their first game Sept. 20, 1940 under their lights against Homer. They played for three seasons until WWII caused a 4-year hiatus when Coach Hammond was in the service. In 1947 they began the return of six-man football and lost only two games in four seasons until LaRue ended their 18-game win streak in 1950 opener. Howard (now East Knox) was even called “the Massillon of Six-man football.”

The Howard coach Carl (Sam) Hammond invited representatives from Knox (Howard and Bladensburg), Holmes (Glenmont and Walnut Creek), and Ashland counties to form the Tri-County League on Sept. 11, 1950. The first three Ashland teams in were: Perrysville (1948), Hayesville (1949), and Jeromesville (1950). Sullivan joined the TCL in 1951, and in 1953 the four schools formed the Ashland County six-man football league. The league’s final game was played between Jeromesville and Hayesville in 1961 before their consolidation into Hillsdale HS.

The Ashland County coaches, who developed the game, were: at Perrysville: Merle Hunter (1948-52), Ronald Hornbeck (1949), and Jim Heiser (1953-60); at Hayesville: Herb Buck (1949-50), Owen Ostrander (1951-52), Bob Smith (1953-54), and Ellsworth Cox (1955-61); at Jeromesville: Bud Westcott (1950-51), Wesley Boals (1952-55), and Bob Valentine (1956-61); and at Sullivan: Earl Kilchenman (1951-54) and Ron Bowie (1955-57).

Perrysville played the first Ashland County six-man football game on Sept. 17, 1948 and defeated Lodi 38 to 6. The Admirals, also, had the first great team in Ashland County in 1951 and arguably by some the best team in the history of the county. The Tri-County champions (8-0) outscored their opponents 45.8 ppg to 5.5, plus ending the vaunted Howard’s 12-game win streak. Ed Applegate scored 144 points with 24 TDs and Gaylord Zody had 14 touchdowns. Marion ”Shine” Zody, a member of the Ashland County HOF, was the third member of probably their greatest backfield in school history.

1951 was the year of undefeated area teams: the Ashland High School Varsity and Jayees, New London (No. 1 ranked in Class B), Loudonville (ranked No. 4 in Class B), and the six-man Perrysville Admirals all finished without a loss. Nevertheless, the TCL champs did not take a back seat to the eleven-man teams when they challenged Jack Augenstein’s Redbirds with “bring your best six and see if you can play our game.”

In 1953 Coach Heiser, the former assistant coach, had only nine players out for his team, which averaged 51.6 ppg. Regardless, they lost only once to Jeromesville when the injured “Shine” Zody watched from the sidelines. Ed Applegate and Joe Brown tried to replace the injured Zody, but the Admirals could only tie Sullivan for the first County championship. The Bobcat’s Carl Pay scored 18 TDs the best against county opponents and topped the 12 touchdowns by Zody and Dave Straits of Jeromesville. The 7-1 Admirals beat Newark St. Francis, a school that eventually became Newark Catholic (the 8-time OHSAA state champs) with a 36-point 2nd half comeback while winning on the final play of the game.

The next two years the Jeromesville Blue Jays finished with back-to-back undefeated seasons. Their great back was Dave Straits, who was third in the nation with 163 points his sophomore year. (He trailed one Jack Pardee, who scored 320 points and became famous at Texas A & M and the NFL). In his senior year Co-Capt. Straits led the county with 141 points and finished with a four-year career total of 478 points even though he missed some games with injuries. Also, in 1954 Six-Man Football Magazine ranked Jack Messner, Larry Landman, and Co-Capt. Larry Paulin in the Nation’s top ten statistics.

In 1955 their win streak for Coach Wesley Boals was extended to 16-games, the longest in the Nation. Russ Cutlip set a national record with 213-points and had four other national records, and he was named to the Columbus Jaycee’s All-Ohio team. QB Jack Messner and End Jim McKinley had high national stats, and the Blue Jays record gave them a claim for the Ohio mythical six-man State championship. Eventually all three players were named to the Ashland County Hall of Fame.

The next year Hayesville under Coach Ellsworth Cox made the biggest turnaround in the history of the league from last place with one-win to a 7-1 championship. Dick Van Gilder (114 pts) and Dick Bracken (110 pts) led the Panthers in scoring but they trailed ACL leader Dick Marshall of Perrysville (152 pts). The Admirals were tied by Jeromesville, the only tie in league history, which prevented them from a co-championship with Hayesville. They exacted revenge on the Blue Jays with the highest scoring game in league history in a 95-64 win in which Dick Marshall scored 52 points in the final game of the season.

The next year (1957) was the last season for the four-team league because Sullivan was consolidated into Black River High School in the North Central Conference. The hottest gridiron hero was Dick Marshall of the winless Perrysville Admirals, who broke Russ Cutlip’s scoring record with 219 points. However the race for the title between the co-champs Hayesville and Jeromesville came down to single point in their second meeting. While the Asian flu impacted the season, the Panthers led by Dick Bracken and Ron Gruver kept the heat on the Blue Jays, who were led by Dick Stull and Dean Smith, until both teams finished with a 5-1 league record. Two Blue Jays led the nation in 6-man football stats: Stull in rushing yards and Jim Schweyer was the country’s top tackler.

The final four years belonged to Jeromesville and Coach Bob Valentine, when they won every league game and ran up a streak of 25-victories. Blue Jay backs led the league in scoring three of the four years. Dick Stull had 122 points in 1958. Bill Garn had 66 points in 1966 which tied Perrysville’s Lannie Pollard. Bob Rowland had 36 points in 1961. In 1959 Hayesville’s Terry Leatherow led the ACL scoring with 178 points. MVP honors went to a Jeromesville pair: Wendell Weikel in 1958 and Rowland in 1959, and the 1960 honor went to Hayesville’s Ken Strine.

The Blue Jays closed with a 30-2 record over their last four years. Their most memorable non-league win was against LaRue, the defending state champs and 6th in the nation the previous 1957 season. The Indians brought a 16-game win streak to the Blue Jay’s Homecoming game, but left with a 69-22 pounding. The Jay’s two losses were at the hands of non-league opponents from the M & M League: Caledonia the final game of 1960 and Johnsville in 1961. Perrysville came within one-point of the Blue Jays in their final season 1960 before they consolidated with Loudonville HS.

In 1961 only Jeromesville and Hayesville were left. Over the ten seasons of the ACL the two schools had won or shared nine of the ten titles. The Blue Jays swept the final seven games with their western neighbor, and the arch rivals played the final two league games. Both games were eight-man contests in preparation for 11-man football as Hillsdale Falcons.

Bob Valentine took over as the Hillsdale coach for the next four years, and the Falcons had a record of 6-28-1. For the first 40-years of Falcon football the winning percentage was less than 25-percent. Present day coach Tommy Williams became the first Blue & Gold coach with a winning percentage, back-to-back winning seasons, and a State playoff berth in 2009. Nevertheless, it can not be forgotten that the first glory years of Jeromesville/Hayesville football took place in era of six-man football.

Some of the pictures of the championship teams can be found on the drop down menu: Team Pictures: Boys.

In 2009 no high school in Ohio played a six-man football game. However the game is still played in western States. In fact Texas had 126-teams in a two-division playoff for their State championships last year. The game is still alive today and well remembered in the October 25, 2009 American Profile, a newspaper insert.

In 2010 The Jeromesville six-man football teams (1954-55) and (1957-60) were inducted into the Ashland County Sports Hall of Fame. The website is: www.ashlandcosportshof.org. Also, the Hillsdale Falcon's football team won their first Wayne County Athletic League football championship in the 41-year history of the WCAL. Their head coach is Tommy Williams.