First row from left: Larry Smith, trainer: Jimmy Jackson, assistant coach; Leonard Neely, Denick Johnson, Tony Sprague, Gerald Conway, John Harvey, Don Nard, John Russell, Booker Moore, Rodney Graham, Don Leach, Fred Ringo, Dino Costa, Isaiah Charles, Jim Buterakos, Rodney Feaster, Marv Rettenmund, assistant coach; Tom Elias, assistant coach.
Second row from left: Dennis Margoni, assistant coach: Bob LintJer, assistant coach; Curtis Jones, Ruben Luna, Pete Andersen, Paul Johnson, Risto Nicevski, Greg Kennedy, Gary Lee, Brian Carpenter, Ken Hitts, Graiin Washington, Bob Krepp, Craig Fields, Greg Walters, Keith Houston, Fred Jackson, assistant coach; Dar Christiansen, head coach.
Third row from left: Arthur Reynolds, Tim Lamb, Leroy Briggs, Don Adams, Randy Lane, Don Schmidt, John Johnson, Chris Ward, Randy TaiHarro, Arthur Boyd, John Veasley, Brian Sutton, Reggie Mitcheil, Greg Dawson, Randy Epps, Marcus Butler
Not pictured: assistant coaches Garth Frost and George Cook.
Only a Computer Could Stop These Colts
Nothing human could beat Southwestern High on a football field in 1976.
The Colts simply had two many offensive weapons, no apparent weaknesses and a supreme confidence that they could not lose.
It took a computer in Lansing and a young, imperfect playoff system to prematurely sideline one of the best prep football teams in Michigan history.
“That’s the only year in my coaching career I never thought anyone could beat us, no matter who it was,” said Dar Christiansen, who coached Southwestern to seven straight City Series championships.
“There were other years when you’d go into a game and you knew you had to be on top of your game to win. But that team was so talented and so fast, l thought we could have played pretty well against some of the smaller colleges in the state.”
Nearly everyone else agreed, and Southwestern was ranked No. 1 in Class A by all four polls in the state, going wire to wire in the Associated Press writers’ poll.
But the 2-year-old playoff format allowed only four teams per class into the postseason, one per region. Southwestern’s 9-0 record was matched by Midland Dow, and the Chargers edged out the Colts by 2.5 points in Region 4.
Dow, ranked seventh in the AP poll and dubbed “Southwestern’s proxy in the playoffs” by one Flint Journal article, won both its playoff games 34-27 over Lincoln Park and 36-27 over Farmington Hills Harrison – and claimed the Class A championship.
The frustrated Colts, ranked fourth in the nation by at least one magazine, could only watch.
“I’m still depressed about it because we were far and away the best team in the state, ” said Booker Moore, Southwestern’s All-State running back who went on to play with Penn State University and the Buffalo Bills.
“I don’t think I’ll ever shake it. When you know you’re the best and don’t get a chance to prove it, you feel like something was taken from you.”
Dow had dropped out of the competitive Saginaw Valley Conference after the 1975 season and played an independent schedule, which included two Class B schools. The Chargers and Colts had two common opponents in ’76, and both of them beat Midland and Saginaw Arthur Hill by similar scores.
But Southwestern never had any burning desire to get a shot at Dow.
“I didn’t have any hard feelings,” said Christiansen. “I just wish they’d stayed in the Valley and hammered it out there.”
“We just wanted to play the top teams,” said Moore. “We even scrimmaged against the best and beat them – teams like East Lansing and Traverse City.”
Quarterback Jim Buterakos had a dream game in mind.
l wanted the Saginaw Arthur Hill team of ’73 that was un-scored on,” he said. “I think that would have been a better match up than Dow – great defense against a great offense.”
With Moore, Buterakos and split end Rodney Feaster leading Christiansen’s wide-open attack, the Colts trampled the Flint record book and scored 400 points, an average of 44 a game.
Among the City records:
- Moore’s 21 touchdowns, 138 points and 1,263 rushing yards
- Feaster’s 44 catches, 906 yards and 14 TDs
- Buterakos’ 61.9-percent pass completion mark
- Reggie Mitchell led the City in rush
