SOUTH WAYNE — In 1967, Quinten Rood laced up his cleats and shoulder pads in the first football game to feature the Black Hawk Warriors.
This year, 52 seasons later, Rood’s grandson Cayden Milz, a junior, will be on the last team.
“Some of us that were on that first team have grandsons on this last team. There’s some symmetry there. It’s very unique,” Rood said.
Today’s Black Hawk Homecoming game against Belmont will be the final homecoming before a co-op with Warren High School just south of the border in Illinois takes effect. Both schools are nicknamed “Warriors,” so many of the cheers from the stands won’t need to be edited.
In 1967, however, a co-op threw the cheer squads of the two schools through a loop. That’s when the South Wayne Spartans and the Gratiot Golden Eagles joined forces — not just on the gridiron but as a school district — and became known as the Black Hawk Warriors.
“I don’t know of a co-op that worked better than South Wayne and Gratiot,” said Dennis Murphy, who coached Black Hawk football for 37 years. “The two towns are only eight miles apart – the kids new each other and both were talented in all sports. I would say we’ve been very successful at Black Hawk.”
The football team has had many accolades to its name over the years, which includes three state appearances (1998, 2013, 2018) and one title (2013). Even more notable, however, is that the program has had only two head coaches — Murphy from 1967-2002 and Cory Milz, 2003-present.
“When you’ve got that consistency, kids come into the program knowing what to expect and how hard to work,” Murphy said. “Sometimes new coaches will bring in a new offense to make the kids happy, but I think kids are just happy when they win. At Black Hawk, they’ll do whatever it takes to win. Those kids are hard workers from hard-working families.”
Murphy said that he felt comfortable leaving the program in the hands of Milz, a former player.
“I’ll credit Cory for being there and being able to step into the shoes that I was leaving behind. I didn’t want to leave the program bare and starting over without a replacement. I wouldn’t have left when I did, but Cory was ready,” Murphy said. “He’s been able to take the program to another level.”
Six Rivers Conference
Of the 14 schools in the Six Rivers East and West conferences, only five currently play football without a co-op — Black Hawk, Belmont, Highland, Shullsburg and River Ridge.
Next year Shullsburg moves to 8-man football. Juda co-ops with Brodhead in the Rock Valley, which is also the conference that Albany resides in partnership with Evansville; Monticello joins New Glarus in the Capitol South; Barneveld moves up to Division 3 from 7 in a co-op with Mount Horeb; Pecatonica and Argyle have joined forces in the Six Rivers, as have Potosi and Cassville; and Benton and Scales Mound, Illinois, joined forces more than a decade ago to play a Wisconsin schedule in the Six Rivers. Southwestern is scheduled to join the Six Rivers next year as well.
When South Wayne and Gratiot combined forces 52 seasons ago, many of the players already knew each other and became good friends, which helped with early success.
“The players got along together and were friends from Day One,” Rood said. “And we all looked up to Coach Murphy. Whatever he wanted done we took it to heart.”
Gratiot had played 8-man football while South Wayne played 11. The joining of the two schools allowed each a better chance to compete in conference play with the larger schools in the Stateline League, and next year’s move with Warren will do that again for the Six Rivers.
“It’s history repeating itself,” Murphy said, “Our school is unable to compete numbers-wise. It’s not because of talent or ability, but to stay even with the other teams in our conference. And with realignment coming in two years, something had to be done.”
Football enrollments
Pecatonica-Argyle 216 (D6)
Potosi-Cassville 192 (D7)
River Ridge 171 (D7)
Benton-Scales Mound 149 (D7)
Shullsburg 117 (D7)
Black Hawk 99 (D7)
^Belmont 99 (D7)
^Highland 82 (D7)
*Southwestern 167 (D7)
*Boscobel 233 (D7)
* scheduled to join Six Rivers in 2019
^ scheduled to join Ridge & Valley in 2019
Note: Black Hawk, Belmont and Highland have the three lowest enrollments for football teams in the state
A proposed realignment by the WIAA would affect the Six Rivers as Pecatonica-Argyle would vacate the conference for the SWAL and Southwestern and Iowa-Grant would join the league. Shullsburg is dropping to 8-man football in 2019 and will already leave the conference.
What wouldn’t change, however, is the tradition of homecoming.
In years past, homecoming was held on a Friday night like many other high schools around the region and country. Rood said that Murphy “didn’t like the parade interrupting the football game,” but that Milz, Rood’s son-in-law, has since changed course and homecoming games are now on a Saturday afternoon.
“Everybody likes Saturday games. It makes it a much bigger event,” Rood said.
At today’s game, all former teams will be acknowledged, especially the three state teams.
“The success rate we’ve had — winning teams, playoff teams, teams above .500 — our football teams just keep getting better and better. And we’ve done it with only two head coaches,” Rood said.
