2024
Northern Illinois High School football has produced 11 state champions in the last 10 years in Class 1A, 2A or 3AA (Lena-Winslow 5, Forreston 3, Byron 2, Stillman Valley 1). In the 10 years prior to 1984, there were two (Genoa in 1977 and Freeport Aquin in 1981). To say that Northern Illinois has developed into the hotbed center of small-town football in Illinois is a huge understatement.
Three northern Illinois fathers who played in the 1984 season and their three sons from the current era have definitely bridged the gap.
Eric Badertscher, Todd Gentz and Mike Carr have sons that wear four state championship rings on their fingers: Garrett Badertscher (Forreston 2016 & 2018), Sam Gentz (Byron 2023 and currently the favorite to repeat in 2024), and Aidan Carr (Forreston 2014).
Perhaps, for these three sons, the road to success started 40 years ago with their fathers; in a town that no longer has a football team or a school.
1984
40 years ago this October, these three fathers and 12 of their friends were on a (very) small town 11-man football team in its last year of existence; the football program would fold after the 1984 season and the school would soon follow in 1989.
The Leaf River High School Demons football team in 1984 ended that season with an 11-man varsity football team consisting of three seniors, six juniors, three sophomores and three freshmen. They had one player over 200 pounds They finished one game with only 10 healthy players on the field.
They had to forfeit two games because the school board wouldn’t let them start a game with only 11 players. Because of the low number of players, coaches would bring in alumni all padded up to practices so they could run a full 11-on-11 scrimmage. It is rumored that a few coaches actually suited up too.
27-game losing streak
Leaf River High School Football had not tasted victory in any fashion since the infamous 3-0 1981 victory over Pearl City when Barry “The Toe” Maxwell kicked them to their only win of the season (footnote: Pearl City had the majority of their team suspended for some kind of homecoming shenanigans, so a 3-0 win for Leaf River was probably a very generous win).
The 1984 season started with the team riding a 21-game losing streak, and the next nine games didn’t look very promising after three different coaches in five years and dwindling participation while playing in a very competitive Northwest 8 conference. But they had two non-conference games.
A glimmer of hope
Somewhere in the halls of power in Leaf River, in 1983 or 1984, some wise and forward-thinking person decided to try and get the football team a win by scheduling one of the non-conference games with Lake Forest Academy, a similarly situated program on a 20+ game losing streak of their own. This second game of the season was dubbed “The Oh Bowl” as in Zero wins for either program. Some of the rather nasty fans called it “The Toilet Bowl”.
After a relatively close first game of the season against Kirkland, a 22-8 loss where they were tied going into the fourth quarter, the Leaf River team braced themselves to go after that ever-elusive win in week two. Although the score went back and forth a few times on this rare Saturday game, the Demons ended up on the losing end 18-8. Euphoria reigned in Lake Forest. In Leaf River, it just rained. 0-23.
Seven games remained on the schedule amid the ever-present cloud of questions that swirled about the town and school: “Would they (should they) even play the rest of the games?” “What if the kids get hurt?” “This is probably the last year anyway for football in Leaf River, what does it matter?”
It wasn’t like these kids weren’t athletic. They fielded excellent baseball and track teams in Leaf River every year. One townsperson was heard to exclaim “they’re not the fastest football team in the conference, but they are the smallest.” There were some bright spots though.
Two close games to start the season definitely was better than the previous three seasons; blowouts all. The team had good skill players at quarterback, running back and receivers and the defense (in the first three quarters of each game) was pretty good. Since most of the players never, ever stepped off the field during games, running out of steam in the fourth quarter was a foregone conclusion, even though half of all practice time consisted of conditioning for that very reason.
More disappointment
The third game brought back memories of the previous season(s). A 52-0 loss at the hands of Pearl City, with the Leaf River team finishing the game with only 10 players on the field. Then came the hammer from the school board: If they couldn’t field at least 15 players to start the next game, they would have to forfeit.
They couldn’t. Injuries and a few academic ineligibilities saw the next two games evaporate – Mt. Carroll and Durand would have most likely been competitive games. For two weeks, the remaining players held practice, but to practice with no promise of a game tested their spirits. And spirits were lower than ever. Had they already played their last game?
As injured players rebounded and players with school issues brought their grades back up, they started the next week optimistic and excited that they would play, but knowing they would be playing the best team in the area – Milledgeville. Milledgeville pounded everybody and routinely won the conference title. They were undefeated and the Demons were going to play on Milledgeville’s home field.
Turning the corner
During pre-game activities, one of the Milledgeville players yelled to the team as they were warming up, well within earshot of their coaches, "You should have forfeited this one too so we could play a real team!".
Coach Bob Nelson, in the huddle in the locker room just before going out onto the field was completely unhinged at the comment. "Go out and play harder than you’ve ever played before. Make them remember you." And remember them, they would. With some amazing offensive plays and a swarming defense, Leaf River played them extremely close through three quarters, ultimately succumbing to their 70-man roster in the fourth quarter losing 37-14.
But it was a very competitive game until the mid-fourth quarter and Milledgeville was forced to compete in a close game. To the exhausted Demons, that loss was as close to a win as they’d had to that point. And they celebrated like they won. But they hadn’t. 0-6 with two forfeits, one blowout, and three close games. The last three games wouldn’t be any easier.
Homecoming saw Ashton run all over the Demons 33-0 for their second blowout of the season. Nothing went right and it wasn’t even close. Two games left and hope was waning.
Parent’s Night
For the last home game, and what turned out to be the last game ever played on Leaf River’s field, the Demons played their second non-conference game against a Chicago school named Mooseheart.
As legend has it: in a stunningly rude gesture, this game was scheduled as Leaf River’s Parent’s Night, and Mooseheart was an orphanage founded by the Moose Lodge in 1913. Yes, they had ‘orphans’ that went there, but it was/is a place for any child in need. To their credit, some of the Leaf River players went to the athletic director and said they were concerned with this – would they please tell Mooseheart they would schedule Parent’s Night for a different game but Mooseheart said “no, go ahead with it”.
Oh well, it was and still is legendary. Orphans or not, Mooseheart was a perennial winning team in their conference, going to the playoffs in the following two seasons. They came into the game with a record of 4-2.
There wasn’t the pressure and excitement of playing Lake Forest earlier in the year; knowing their opponent hadn’t won in three years either. The Demons prepared like they did all season and were grateful they had 15 healthy guys to play that night.
From the start of the game, the two teams somehow looked evenly matched. What was going on here? Mooseheart had a great quarterback who liked to take off and run with it, but the Leaf River patented 8-1-2 defense (eight players on the defensive line, which included two linebackers who could blitz or shift anytime they wanted to, one middle linebacker, and two defensive backs) held their offense in check and managed to go into halftime down 6-0.
Could this be the night? Could this be another major disappointment? Was someone going to jinx it? Would the Demons run out of gas in the fourth quarter again? Or was the great football coach in the sky going to let these boys have one? Just one. Pretty please.
After the halftime Parent’s Night festivities, the Demons scored on a long touchdown run to tie it up but on the very next play Mooseheart returned the kickoff for a touchdown. It was now 14-6 at the start of the fourth quarter. With a short catch and long touchdown run by senior receiver Jeff McKinley, the Demons tied it up 14-14 and the fourth quarter was starting to look like a track meet.
After forcing Mooseheart to punt on the ensuing possession, the Demons burned up over five minutes of clock on a long drive all the way down to the Mooseheart 1-yard line and had three chances to punch it in. Run stuffed. Pass broken up.
And, finally…..finally…..another run stuffed on fourth down. Ugh! One yard. One yard! Jinx engaged? Poor Demons on the short end again? Not tonight, providence would prevail in a big way.
For some reason, the Mooseheart coaching staff called a pass from their own endzone on their first play. Out of nowhere, defensive tackle Scott Gentz (all 175 pounds of him) crushed their quarterback and caused a fumble in the endzone with linebacker Mickey Badertscher falling on the fumble for a touchdown. Leaf River had a 20-14 lead with just four minutes to go.
The Demons were actually leading a game. How would they handle this since they hadn’t led in a game in over three years? Still a lot of work to do and ghosts to tackle.
After the kickoff, Mooseheart quickly got the ball down to the Leaf River 40-yard line, ultimately stalling out and they elected to punt to pin the Demons back and hopefully get a stop and the ball back with some time left on the clock. The Demons came out with a vengeance. They got two first downs on the first two plays and got the ball all the way out to midfield.
With 90 seconds to go, all they had to do was continue to eat up yards and keep the ball out of Mooseheart’s hands. Mooseheart stopped the clock twice with their final timeouts, and then came a Demon third down and two yards to go. Make the first down and it was over. It was right there in front of them for the taking. Two yards to the promised land.
Leaf River’s most reliable running back had carried 20 times already that night for over 100 yards and was one of the senior co-captains. Quarterback Mic Badertscher called his number (the coach let Mic call all his own plays, mainly because the team had no written playbook). He took the hand-off, got hit at the line of scrimmage, spun out of it, stretched out for the first down and…… got hit right on the football.
Fumble. Recovered by Mooseheart with 32 seconds to go. The air went out of the team, out of the field, out of the fans, out of the town, out of the universe.
This can’t be happening.
Mooseheart lined up to start taking shots at getting closer to the endzone for a few last-ditch plays. Defensive backs were giving 10-yard cushions, linebackers were already in a drop zone and the defensive lineman knew it would be a pass. Mooseheart’s play was a slant pass across the middle to a slot receiver. The pass was a bit high but the receiver came down with it, took two steps and then was flat-backed by the same running back (now linebacker) who fumbled the ball one play earlier.
The ball pops out. Fumble. The Demons recover and run out the clock.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!
Bedlam ensued for the more than 50 or so fans who attended. The players tried to lift up their coach and carry him off the field. They got close.
For the Leaf River Demons, it was the Super Bowl, the World Series and an Olympic Gold Medal all wrapped into one. There were tears, prayers, jumping, and hugging. They had finally won. And it happened in the last football game ever to be played in Leaf River.
Aftermath
The players were (very) minor celebrities for about five days as all the newspapers featured the win. When asked how they were looking forward to the last game against Franklin Center, one player simply said “they better watch out for us”. Unfortunately, they lost the last game of the season at Ashton 27-6, a close game until the fourth quarter, but they didn’t care. To them, they were already world champions.
That 1984 Leaf River team put five players on the All-Conference Team; more than any Leaf River team in recent memory. Mike Carr – kicker (unanimous first team), Mic Badertscher – punter, Jeff Sundberg – offensive line, Mike Wickam – running back & linebacker, and Todd Gentz – defensive line. They also believed if their coaches hadn’t been late to the all-conference meeting (they got lost), they would have landed their two receivers Todd Gentz and Jeff McKinley on that team as well. The coaches felt bad about that.
Five of Leaf River’s players went on to play college football with Division III schools and one played semi-professionally in Europe and in the US: Mic Badertscher – Rock Valley, Eric Badertscher – Rockford College / Europe, Bert Fry – Luther College (IA), Mike Wickam – Monmouth College and Bethel University (MN), and Brett Fry – Manchester College (IN).
Bridging the years
For these three 1984 players and their sons, their football experiences are similar in some instances and very different in others.
Todd Gentz highlighted the difference in opportunities available now: “The opportunity to play at such a younger age was something we never had. My son is on his ninth year playing football. That is a big difference. We never played until we got to high school. I have also taken the perspective that I was going to push him harder to achieve his sports goals than I was pushed by my father.”
Gentz fondly remembered the close-knit nature of his sports community. “I grew up with these guys and we were like family, so it had its special moments I will always remember. Regardless of our record, I loved every single second of practice and the games. It was the other players and just the sport, I guess, I was passionate about. I didn’t really think about all the drama at our school around football, I just wanted to play, and to win a game. And we did.”
Another bridge from the past is that Brad Miller, current assistant coach at Byron High School where Sam Gentz is a senior, had his first coaching job in 1981 at Leaf River, coaching the 1984 seniors when they were freshmen.
For Eric Badertscher, just a sophomore on the 1984 team, that season was his only high school football experience. “Not having a lot of players definitely hurt us, but I think we played as well as we could have. From forfeiting, which was tough, to ultimately winning, which was the highlight of the year, after that, I felt my dream of playing football was over.”
But he came back to it quickly and for a long time after serving in the US Air Force and Operation Desert Storm. After the service he played at Rockford College and then the Belvidere Rush for 14 more years, playing one of those years alongside his oldest son Erik when he was over 40 years old. Badertscher played on semi-pro teams while stationed in England and Belgium in multiple leagues among high-level talent from the US and Europe.
“For me the 1984 season was a catalyst for the 25 years of football I would eventually play," he said.
Mike Carr drew comparisons between past and present sports cultures. “My son and I had experiences that were very similar. We both put forth a lot of hard work but with opposite results. I was glad to have played with my best friends. So was he. The culture of sports has definitely changed from my childhood to his. Sports are more of a business and go on 12 months a year. There are a lot more opportunities for kids to be involved in camps and leagues.”
Carr also shared his perspective on the changes. “I remember always feeling far outnumbered by the opponent, which we were, but was glad to be a part of something with my best friends, knowing that the odds were stacked against us. We were winners, regardless of the score. I was glad that I was part of something. That’s pretty special.”
Years pass, memories fade and life gets filled up with family, work and other pursuits. What happened that cold October night 40 years ago in Leaf River will remain with the players and the town. The legend lives on.
By the way, I was the running back who fumbled at the end of the game.
1984 Leaf River Demons. 1 win, 27 losses. World Champions.
This story was written by Mike Wickam, senior co-captain, 1984 Leaf River Demons. Mike is a partner and president of Proprietors Capital Holdings, a private equity firm in St. Paul, Minnesota.
