Inductees

In May of 1974, long before two-a-day football practices would get under way, folks in the mid-Missouri town of Boonville couldn’t believe their eyes.

There they were – business cards, and not just ordinary ones. Instead, the inscription touted the Pirates football team as the Class 3 1974 State Champs. Yes, for a season that hadn’t happened yet.

“That was kind of a motivator for us,” coach Gene Reagan said.

Or, as middle linebacker Rick Kempf put it, “That was wild.”

Then again, the business cards only underscored the Pirates’ budding confidence, and they certainly delivered that fall. That’s why the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame is proud to induct the 1974 Boonville High School Football State Championship Team with the Class of 2022.

A dominating defense and a high-powered offense led Boonville to a perfect, 11-0 season and the 1974 Class 3 state championship.

The 34-14 state championship victory against Washington on a snowy field in Rolla that November concluded a season that will never be forgotten in Cooper County.

This was a team that … dealt with one player falling ill and his legs eventually amputated a month into the season … was led by a coach who had moved up from Texas a few years earlier … balanced playing time in blowout wins … and wasn’t about to let a snowstorm cancel the state title game. More on all that in a second.

The starting point? The Pirates point to a first-round exit from the 1973 playoffs. And many started early in the offseason.

“We felt we had a good team coming back,” Reagan said. “A lot of seniors. A lot of talent.”

One player who would go on to be a motivational speaker years later, Tom Krause, got an early start on his career in the spring of 1974. He was the one who printed the business cards about Boonville already winning the 1974 state title for Class 3.

The Pirates sensed the talent among them.

“When I go back to Boonville, people are still talking about it,” tackle Don Neckerman said. “The community support … that was the beginning of the booster club. They got behind it.”

Reagan had arrived as an assistant in 1969  and was promoted to head coach in 1971. And he challenged players, just as he learned under the hot Texas sun years earlier. So you can imagine the rigor of two-a-days.

But once the Pirates survived that, they soon had to deal with a life gut punch. Tackle Mark Overstreet, a senior who kept everybody loose, was hospitalized, and soon needed both legs amputated.

Call it a rallying point, as the team only further revved up its engine.

Running out of a slot T offense with “belly series” plays, the Pirates averaged 49.6 points a game. The offense scored 50 or more points six times, and the defense was just as impressive. Employing the old Arkansas monster 5-2 scheme, Boonville yielded only 10.3 points a game and tossed a pair of shutouts. The Pirates also limited opponents to less than 10 points on five other occasions.

A total of 16 school records were set that season. Seven seniors and two juniors were selected First Team All-Conference, and six were chosen as All-Staters.

However, the state championship game almost never happened. With significant winter weather in the forecast, MSHSAA called Reagan the day before the game and asked if Boonville would consider a co-state championship.

Boonville’s reaction was an emphatic no.

In the newspaper story written by Jim Henry, “the opportunistic Pirates turned three Washington fumbles into touchdowns” and did so on a day when “a four-inch blanket of snow covered the field, except for the hash marks and every other yard line.”

Mark Thomas (MSHOF 2020) rushed for 130 yards on 14 carries, and quarterback Mark Hittner was 4-of-9 passing for 66 yards. Steve Bruce had 12 tackles, Neckerman had seven tackles, Kempf eight, Hittner eight, Jesse Hinton seven and Mike Dilse 10. Dave Trelc, Hittner and Terry Cooper each had interceptions.

After a scoreless and maddening first half, Boonville scored on Thomas’ 3-yard run five plays after Hittner and Dilse connected for a 44-yard pass play. Washington fumbled inside its own 20 on its next two possessions, setting up two Hittner TD passes.

The key to it all? Team chemistry.

“Everybody got along well with each other, and we did play as a team,” Kempf said. “We were focused the whole time.”