CHS 1987 football team to be honored
COSHOCTON – It might have been 30 years ago, but Bill Garbrandt remembers his Coshocton High School 1987 football season like it was yesterday.
“It was a big deal,” said the 1988 CHS graduate. “There was one other team that went undefeated, but there was no playoff system when they did it. We were the first to go undefeated and make the modern era playoff system and all types of records were set and broken.”
Garbrandt and his teammates accomplishments in 1987 will be celebrated and remembered at halftime of CHS’s first home varsity football game of the season on Friday, Aug. 25 at Stewart Field.
“I still get choked up talking about it,” he said. “John Kelley, our coach, instilled a lot of leadership in us that we carried into our adult lives. I run two businesses and I know I use lessons he taught me every day.”
Garbrandt also fondly remembers the support he and his teammates received from the community.
“When we were headed off to Ohio University for a playoff game and were on a coach bus, which was a big deal for us, we turned left at the library to go down Main Street and there were people lining both sides of the street all the way down to Second Street,” he said. “It seemed like the whole town was there and everyone followed us down to OU where they formed a human tunnel for us to run out of.”
Team unity and great coaching were keys to their success that season.
“The senior class all grew up together,” Garbrandt said. “We were so close knit and from the sixth grade up a lot of us played together. We were teammates for six to seven years and committed to the program. We were driven.”
He, Kirk Stenner, Kirk Mathay, and John Glasure have been working to gather members of the team, coaches and family of those who have passed on together for their reunion. Anyone who hasn’t been contacted yet is welcome to contact Garbrandt at 740-891-1820 or billgarbrandt@themarsnation.com.
“It’s kind of cool to think about what we did,” Garbrandt said. “We feel like we started something for this program and we hope we have an opportunity to talk to the kids playing today. I’m also looking forward to being back on the field and for us all to see each other.”
Category: High School, Sports
