DARLINGTON — The Darlington Redbirds faced the Edgar Wildcats for the 2025 Division 6 state football championship last Thursday at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. The Redbirds and the Wildcats met for a state championship once before, in 1991, with the Redbirds winning 22-14.
Darlington has won four state championships in their previous 13 tournament appearances. Doug McArthur was the coach of the Redbirds for all four title games. In 1987, Darlington went to the state championship in a season in which the Redbirds lost their first game of the season, then won 12 straight games to capture the title.
“What comes to mind, I was young, naïve, yet so excited that nerves weren’t much of a factor, so we didn’t do anything out of the ordinary,” said McArthur. “However, in warmups, Pat McGettigan sprained his ankle, and it was then I got a little nervous. I also remember Pat Quinn blocked a punt and Dean Wagner, who was a cornerstone of our offense, got hurt, but Tommy Steger stepped into the fullback spot and did great. That could’ve been a negative but it didn’t affect us.”
Darlington beat Florence that day, 28-17, to win the Division 5 Championship.
Just two years before that, McArthur remembered being at Camp Randall Stadium with his assistant coaches looking down on the field before a state championship game and telling his coaches, “we can be here.”
In 1990, Darlington won a sectional final game 35-34 in triple overtime over Cambridge to keep their season alive. The next week, they beat Pittsville to set up a state championship game against Elk Mound, which they would win 21-17. Chad Chellevold scored two touchdowns and Scott Wedig scored on a 23-yard touchdown run in the third quarter which proved to be the winning score.
“We had lost to Hilbert in the state semifinal the previous year,” said McArthur. “We had a bad taste in our mouths and we didn’t want to experience that again.”
The Redbirds finished 12-1 that season and won their second Division 5 state championship.
The 1991 state championship game pitted the Redbirds against Edgar, just like this year. Jerry Sinz was the head coach at Edgar just as he is now.
“They played physical, the same kind of football we played,” McArthur said. “Matt Crist was a freshman fullback for us and the fullback was critical to the success of the Wing-T offense.”
Crist paved the way for Doug Chellevold to score two touchdowns and Jason Rowe rushed for 106 yards to lead the Redbirds to a 22-14 win over the Wildcats and the state title in Division 5.
Four years later, Darlington faced the Hurley Midgets for the 1995 state championship.
“Leading up to the game, I was nervous,” McArthur said. Hurley was 11-1 and had a fast team that could benefit from playing on the artificial turf at Camp Randall Stadium. “I was afraid we’d give up some big plays.”
Instead, the Redbirds won 63-6 in a record-breaking performance. The 63 points and nine touchdowns were a Division 5 state tournament record. Darlington racked up 387 yards rushing. Doug McGowan rushed for 130 yards and four touchdowns. Travis Crist ran for 110 yards and a touchdown. David Leu added 61 yards rushing.
“The thing that stands out was how selfless those three running backs were,” McArthur said. Each running back rushed for over 1000 yards that season.
McArthur coached at Darlington for 13 years and achieved a record of 117-37 including a record of 4-3 in state championship games.
