Inductees

Looking at the old black-and-white team photo, it’s easy to be left in awe of the 1978 Mount Vernon football team.

See the guy on the front row wearing No. 60? That’s Michele McGehee, recruited by none other than coach Lou Holtz and the Arkansas Razorbacks. Look a bit to the left and wearing No. 42 is Steve Sater, a halfback who drew in-home visits from coach Tom Osborne of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Not that they were a two-man show on a small-town football squad. Far from it. In fact, on the 40^th anniversary of that season, the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame proudly inducted the 1978 Mount Vernon State Championship Football Team with the Class of 2018.

Those Mountaineers raged through the fall unbeaten for coach Pat Wozniak, finished 13-0 and captured the Class 2 state championship. Its offense averaged more than 35 points a game, while the defense yielded an average of only 5.6 points a game – and pitched four shutouts, partly because McGehee played as a stand-up nose guard.

As then-assistant coach Dan Breeden put it, “The stands were packed every game. At a lot of times at away games, we had more fans than the home team.”

When Wozniak, Breeden and assistant Doug Doss convened ahead of two-a-day practices, they were optimistic. After all, McGehee and Sater were among 10 seniors who had gained valuable playing time the previous season.

Plus, there was one wrinkle. A good wrinkle actually. Mid-Missouri Bank opened a branch in Mount Vernon and relocated an executive from Nevada, a town about an hour to the northwest. It turned out that the banker brought along a son, Jeff Walster, a senior quarterback with a big arm.

“It was one of those deals where I didn’t initially want to go,” Walster said. “But I knew right away what we had. I told people, ‘We’re going to be state champs.’ And it wasn’t being cocky.”

The Mountaineers tore through the schedule, and many sensed a special season was upon the town when Mount Vernon eked out a 21-13 win against Carthage in a battle of the No. 2-ranked teams in Class 2 and Class 3.

More than 6,000 ringed Carthage’s home field that night, made memorable by Terry Jensen’s play in neutralizing an opposing tight end.

“They were huge,” Breeden said of Carthage. “They probably outweighed us on the line by 50 to 100 pounds.”

From there, the Mountaineers stormed to the state title. In fact, they beat MICDS – St. Louis Country Day School 37-21 in rain-soaked state championship in St. Louis, rallying after MICDS scored first after recovering a fumble.

The key? Given the conditions, Wozniak adjusted the offense from an I-formation and option attacks to a smash-mouth power I so that two fullbacks plowed the way for Sater. In fact, he paired blocking back Steve Owens with guess who? Yes, McGehee.

McGehee, Sater, Walster, end Rick Kane, center Don Jennings, and linebacker Steve Owens earned All-State honors that fall.

The team also featured Rob Miller, Doug Wilks, Dave Kennedy, Jim Kennedy, Scott Schmidly, G.E. Cupps, Kent Rust, Kevin Young, Doug Blevins, Kevin Morris, Don Jennings, Kent Waggoner, Dan Garton, Danny Burlison, Alan McCoy, Jimmy Green, Scott Cloud, Tim Enlow, Randy Sallee, Shane Moore, David Watson, Kenneth Young, David Garoutte, Charles Gibson, Rex Liepins, Doug Williams, Paul Hood and Bill Petrus.

Owens, who played for Missouri State, led the team with 78 tackles, ahead of Watson’s 57 and McGehee’s 52.

Sater, who played at the University of Tulsa, rushed for 1,300 yards and scored 208 points. Walster, who played at Missouri Southern, threw for roughly 2,000 yards. Kane also went to Missouri  Southern.

The senior leadership paved the way.

“Besides being very good athletes and physical, they were very smart,” Breeden said. “They didn’t make dumb mistakes. When they lined up on defense, they didn’t get fooled. And they were disciplined on defense. Best of all, they enjoyed the season.”