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Champions without playoffs
Jenks, Pawnee among schools left wondering who was the best in 1954.

Jerry Clark (from left), Johnnie Walton and J.D. Newland were members of the Jenks 1954 football team that went 10-0, but was not allowed to play for a state championship. Stephen Pingry/Tulsa World
 
By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 7/31/2009  2:22 AM
Last Modified: 7/31/2009  8:38 AM

 A fresh batch of graduates will wrap up their high school football careers in Friday's All-State game.

Meanwhile, more than half a century after playing their last high school game, J.D. Newland and his old Jenks teammates would like a little closure. They still wonder if they could have won a state championship.

Jenks, led by All-State tackle Bob Sams, was 10-0 in 1954. The Trojans didn't get a chance to play for a gold ball because that was the season high school football playoffs were banned.

Playoffs were held prior to 1954 — and every year afterward — but only regular season games were played in '54. Because Friday Night Lights got turned off early, kids anticlimactically turned in pads and moved on.

Who had the state's best team that season?

Newland is disgusted that players didn't get an opportunity to decide it on the field. The unfinished business will remain unfinished — unless Newland wants to get the guys together for a game against Pawnee.

Newland appreciates the offer. "But to actually go out on the field and play a game, I'm afraid we would have to have six ambulances there."

The decision to do away with playoffs in 1954 was based on a belief that there was too much football, according to published reports. Allegedly, seasons lasted too long and playoffs put too much pressure on coaches.

Anti-playoff forces were more organized than playoff proponents, who never really expected a no-playoff rule to pass, according to Oklahoma sports historian Ray Soldan. Playoff supporters came armed for battle the next year and playoffs were reinstated.

Among those who passionately pleaded for restoration was Morris superintendent John B. Turner, who described playoffs as "a full expression of democratic process" and said "manly competition in football stops juvenile delinquency."

So, problem solved — except that players with championship dreams in 1954 missed a chance of a lifetime.

State champs that season were crowned by sportswriter polls. Undefeated Pawnee, which beat every opponent by at least 12 points, was ranked No. 1 in Class B, while Jenks and Wilburton (8-0-2) also ranked high.

Jenks has won 12 football crowns, all since 1979. But former running back Jerry Clark believes the Trojans could have won their first championship in '54.

While attending college at Northeastern State, Clark met someone with an opposing viewpoint. Johnny Allen, Pawnee's quarterback during the non-playoff season, later guided NSU to a national title. Allen died in 2008.

"We were real good friends, but we used to argue about who was the best," Clark said. "Of course, they thought they were the best and we thought we were the best."

Former Jenks quarterback Johnny Walton said the Trojans had a heck of a defense (they allowed 6.6 points per game), but said it might have been difficult to win state with a 17-player roster.

Debate about the best team also raged in Class A. Undefeated Ada and Muskogee (whose lone blemish was a scoreless tie against Rogers) shared first place in the Associated Press postseason poll. Former Muskogee player Ernest Day said he has a "co-champions" patch on his high school letter jacket.

"I would say probably co-champs is fair," Day said. "We would have liked to have played them and settled it, but we didn't get that opportunity."

Muskogee missed more than just the '54 playoffs because teams in the Oklahoma Six Conference elected not to take part in postseason play from the early 1950s until more than a decade later. Oklahoma Six teams and schools in other large-school leagues were content to play regular season games back in the day.

Former Rougher Joe Rector said he didn't really think anything about missing the playoffs when he was in high school. As he got older, he regretted not taking part in a postseason. Thanks to knee replacements and an ailing shoulder, he has no interest in staging a throwback game against 1954 co-champ Ada.

Legendary Roughers coach Paul Young once said the '54 team was one of the best he ever coached. Almost every starter wound up on a college campus, including quarterback Olen Treadway, who played at Iowa.

Treadway said he doesn't remember being aggravated by not having playoffs.

"We thought we were pretty good, I guess," he said. "And that was good enough for us."

jimmie tramel 581-8389
jimmie.tramel@tulsaworld.com
By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer

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3 comments have been made for this team so far. Tell us what you think below!
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Arbythree, Tulsa (7/31/2009 3:07:15 PM)
Give them Championship Rings!
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dr. diamond, brazil (7/31/2009 8:49:07 PM)
In 1958 and 1959 Muskogee Rougher teams were co-champs of the Oklahoma 6 Conferecnce. Which was considered the best and toughest Conference in the state of Oklahoma. Most of the larger Tulsa schools, made up this conference. Coach Paul Young went to see the state championship games in 58 and 59, he said that the Oklahoma six had 4 teams that could have beaten either of the two teams that played for the state championship those two years.
In those days the coaches of the Oklahoma six teams considered which ever team won the conference was the best team in the state.
In 1959 Muskogee played Parkview High of Springfield Missouri
who at the time was the number one team in class "A" in Missouri, and had beat the number one team in Illinois two weeks before. Muskogee beat them 14-0. Scored two more touchdowns that didn't count. Springfield's all-state tackle Newt Burton, decided to sign and play Oklahoma University
after that game. Orville Pottinger, the Springfield coach, started the football program the following season at Southwest Missouri State and tried to recruit most of the Muskogee team.
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seksports, fort scott (8/5/2009 11:24:26 AM)
YOU LIST CLASS A ANN B CHAMPS IN ARTICLE BUT WHO WERE THE CHAMPS IN THE OTHER 2 CLASSES. CLASS C AND 2A. I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND THIS OUT FOR ABOUT 6 YEARS.
 

 
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