I believe my freshman year was when enrollment was at its peak. We started with about 260 my freshman year and I graduated with over 200 boys in our class. Enrollment fell while I was there. Each class was a little smaller than the previous one. There were a little under 200 freshmen my senior year. SFA's enrollment in 1990 when they merged was significantly lower than JCHS.Are you sure? That seems too high.
1977 - 1980 I'm pretty sure JC was steady about 630-640 boys. My class was 158 boys (80/81). In 1990 they merged JCHS & St Francis because enrollment had dropped too far to keep both schools open.
At least that's what I remembered. My class I'm sure (Maybe!)was only 156-158 with a couple comings and goings.
EDIT: I also remember a number of about 720 total boys. IDK
Bye weeks blow chucks
- Thread starter McCaravan
- Start date
1980 it went to 6 classes & 1985 the playoffs expanded. 1979 CPS teams were allowed in
For us dinosaurs you had to go 9-0 or 8-1 when it was only 16 teams per class for the playoffs.... Many damn good teams back in the day had to watch the playoffs... That sucked... Hell, my Jr year we went 7-2 and the two losses were by 2 and 8 (OT)...I don't remember the reason why, it was the 6-3 era to get in so maybe that was it, but it just stuck out that a lot of these players back then, especially in the era of big featured running back, took a lot of punishment that week. They never complained though, until years later
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One lucky sob by the sounds of it...
Edit: Nope, Chunks got the hand, Chucks is the lucky one...
I was gonna stop at Blows but I didn't know if that would cross the on3 line so I went with Chunks which was a great saying back in the 80's that I'm sure has not been used often since
79 was the first season where coach Gillespie decided to take on 2 of the best CCL teams as non-con games. St Laurence & Mount Carmel, I believe St Laurence won the biggest class state championship in 79 & then Mt Carmel won it in 80. That's from an Old Guy fuzzy memory, needs checking.
But anyway starting out with 2 close loses for non-conference games was not a good formula for JC to win their 5th straight championship. After losing a fairly close game to a very good Lockport team, JC would not even make the playoffs with their 6-3 (6-1 conference) records.
A team that was good enough to win JC's 5th state title in a row, never got a shot at the playoffs.
EDITS: I keep finding grammar errors. I'm just going to stop looking and accept them.
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St Laurence lost to East St Louis in the championship game in 79-i admit, I had to look it up for confirmation.
Thanks for looking.
How you guy's find this stuff so fast is beyond me. I could probably find the same information, but it would take WAY longer.
You can seek out a 2-7 team who just lost their 6th straight or another who lost a 4th straight all by running clock. These 2 teams exist in the playoff field.
In 1978, even 8-1 was no guarantee. I know for a fact of a team that lost its only game of the season in Week 9 in OT and sat home. They were beat by another 8-0 team from their league who qualified as the conference champ rep.
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You guys are better than Artificial Intelligence (AI). I just type something in here and within a very short minute, I have either confirmation or new more accurate information.
EDIT: I meant to quote a couple of the OldFan123's posts from page 1 also, but it didn't work. @oldfan123
Lets see if that @ thingy works for me. YES!!!! OMG I'm shocked. The old dog learned a new trick.
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20-14 & the Flyers had a bunch of future NFL players. Vikes were driving at the end to tie or win but were picked off
Late 70's to early/mid 80's St Laurence had some really good teams.
I think Wed/Sat format started in 1985 when they expanded from 16 teams to 32 in each class.They only had those for 2 years??? Or was it longer?
I know I played in year 1 of that format. I only played 1 way as a DB so it was easy for me. I don't recall any complaints but then again we didn't have internet at that time.
Edit: AI says from 1974 through 1993 for Wed/Sat playoff format. but I don't think that's accurate. I thought year 1 was the 1986 football season?
Most college coaches love bye weeks. These coaches will figure it out, it ain't rocket science.
I don’t understand how they came up with tiebreakers. I just read the article & the IHSA it says awarded Central a playoff bid & they chose to be a at large so the coaches did a vote on who would be conference champ since Central was a guarantee. So they voted Joliet Catholic. Now Steelmen great team in 76 but I think Marian Catholic would have beat Lake Park & had a quarterfinal rematch with Joliet Catholic who they beat earlier. I just checked the scores. Joliet Catholic beat Central 22-8. Marian Catholic beat Joliet Catholic 16-6 & Joliet Central beat Marian Catholic 16-14 in OT. In regulation Marian fumbled the snap on a field goal at the end on 3rd down. They had time to retry the kicked but were confused by the rule & let the clock run out in regulation. Joliet Central got them in the ot.By the 3 team head to head Marian should have been champs & Joliet Catholic at large. Each conference did different. I know in 1980 Kankakee Eastridge lost to Rich South but they were guaranteed a playoff spot by the IHSA so Rich South got the at large bid I think & they gave Eastridge the Sica South title.You guys are better than Artificial Intelligence (AI). I just type something in here and within a very short minute, I have either confirmation or new more accurate information.
EDIT: I meant to quote a couple of the OldFan123's posts from page 1 also, but it didn't work. @oldfan123
Lets see if that @ thingy works for me. YES!!!! OMG I'm shocked. The old dog learned a new trick.
See, Better than AI !!!!!!!
But I have to ask: Where in the @#$% did you get all that information? It's not like there was an Internet back then. The Internet didn't really start until about 10+ years after that.
I know my Sica & Illini 8 stuff & a bunch of other NW Indiana & Illinois High Football
1981 Illini 8 football was the last year it existed but it was crazy too but I won’t bore ppl with my stories
