By the time Northern High’s football team took the field for its first game in 1960, the Vikings were confident there wasn’t a team in Michigan that could beat them.
They had already squared off against some of the best competition anywhere thanks to a preseason scrimmage
against a group of former Northern players, some of whom had won a state title five years earlier and went on to play in college.
“We had an old-timers games with no pads,” said defensive lineman Jim Mawdsley, one of the Vikings cocaptains.
“It was supposed to be flag (football) but that lasted about two plays. The next thing you knew, it was tackle. Every play almost resulted in a fight. We held our own against them.
“The game broke up when I caught Ellis Duckett at the line. I tackled him and his foot came up and hit me in the head and I had to go to Hurley hospital and get 17 stitches over my left eyebrow.”
That backyard brawl set the tone for a magical season that ranks as one of the best in Northern’s storied history.
The Vikings outscored their opponents 243-65, never trailed in the fourth quarter of any game and pitched three shutouts en route to a 9-0 record and the school’s second Class A state championship in five years.
Now, that achievement is sending the ’60 Vikings into the Greater Flint Sports Area Hall of Fame. When inducted Dec. 3, they’ll be joining a group of teams that includes
Northern’s 1956 state champions, some of whom played in that aforementioned scrimmage against the 1960 squad.
“The guys were dedicated that year,” said Mawdsley, 69. “We worked out in the summer together. We became very, very close. A tight-knit group, very different than the previous two years. A lot of us have stayed close throughout the years.
“Now, we’re pushing 70 years old and when we get together, you can still feel the closeness. That team deserves this.”
The Vikings had high hopes after posting a 6-3 record in 1959.
Coach Andy MacDonald had a veteran corps that included two-way ends Herb Cleaves and Willie Dent; tackle Jerry Horcha; running backs Craig Norse, Hue Edwards, Ray Brown and Ed Johnson; linebacker Jim Reid; and guard Leroy McFadden, the other co-captain.
The quarterback was Marv Rettenmund, a scrappy 5-foot-8, 150-pound senior who played his way up the depth chart after being third string on the junior varsity as a sophomore and taking a half-dozen snaps as a junior.
The Vikings won their season opener 21-0 over Mt. Clemens, racking up 323 yards rushing while holding the opposition to 23, and they made people take notice of them in the second week of the season by thumping crosstown rival Southwestern.
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