'Once a Phantom, always a Phantom': Remembering West De Pere's 1973 conference title football team
The West De Pere football team will play for a Fox River Classic Conference-North title when it hosts Bay Port on Friday night, hoping to add another championship to a trophy case filled with them.
It won 19 league titles as a member of the Bay Conference from 1970 to 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its debut in the FRCC until 2021.
The Phantoms have become one of the most successful local programs the past five decades, which includes WIAA Division 3 state championships in 2010 and 2011 and five appearances in D2 and D3 title games.
Two years before legendary coach Bill Turnquist took over and stayed for the next 39, the 1973 Phantoms helped put the program on the football map.
It was 50 years ago this month West De Pere won the Bay title with an 8-0-1 mark, its second championship in the first four years of the league and the last time it finished a season without a loss until going 14-0 in 2010.
The Phantoms were led by Bob Barron, a former St. Norbert College standout from 1954 to 1957 who started his coaching career at West De Pere as an assistant under Robert Hoerning.
Barron was selected by the Chicago Bears in the 25th round of the 1958 draft, although playing in the NFL wasn’t nearly the lucrative job it is now. He passed on the opportunity to instead help raise a young family with his wife, Doris, who he married in 1956.
He landed at West De Pere and spent his entire career at the school, serving as both a coach and teacher before retiring as the assistant principal in 1995.
Barron was a rather enthusiastic coach. If a player missed an assignment or did something wrong, all they had to do was look at his face or a bald head that would start to turn red to know he wasn’t happy.
They developed into a stellar team under his tutelage. It never was as obvious as that 1973 squad, which dominated teams on both sides of the ball.
The Phantoms outscored opponents a combined 200-35 and posted five shutouts in nine games while holding every team to fewer than 200 total yards.
Tim Wilmet rushed for 491 yards and scored seven touchdowns during his senior year, while the junior duo of Allen Hill (364 yards and 12 TDs) and Dan Van Gompel (243 yards, two TDs) gave West De Pere plenty of options in the backfield.
Van Gompel also was an all-state defensive back who handled kicking and punting duties.
Tom Berken, the father of future pro baseball player Jason Berken, was the starting quarterback as a junior and threw for 563 yards and eight TDs.
Steven Thiry was a prep all-American at guard, and Barron was the metro coach of the year.
Everyone contributed that season. Sophomores. Juniors. Seniors. Everybody.
“We were a team,” said Mark Barron, who was the starting center while playing for his father. “We didn’t really have anybody that stuck out or an individual that wanted the accolades. We played for ourselves and each other. We played for the high school. We played for the town. It was one of those things where it was pride.”
There were some memorable games. Like the scoreless tie against Bay Port and a showdown against Pulaski that started on a Friday and resumed on a Saturday after inclement weather suspended play. It forced everyone to get on the bus in the morning wearing uniforms that still had not dried.
“But the results were good,” Barron said.
Nobody is certain how good. There were no playoffs in 1973. The season simply ended after the final conference game.
West De Pere did appear in some state rankings, but there was no way to test itself against other top teams outside the area.
“It’s something you didn’t really think about because it didn’t exist,” Barron said. “Now, you can think back, but at the end of the season you were either the conference champions or you weren’t.
“To win your conference championship, that means you were the best there was.”
Barron thinks back fondly about the title season. How it started with two practices a day in training camp during the hot summer, and how everyone seemed to come together with the same goal in mind.
Winning conference almost was like getting his college degree years later at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Once you earn either one, nobody can take it away.
Barron followed in his father’s footsteps and became a teacher after graduation, spending almost four decades in the Somerset School District.
He has done his best to stay in touch with former teammates, although it tends to get more difficult as time goes on.
There was a reunion 20 or 25 years ago in which the team was introduced at halftime of a football game. Some of the players and coaches have died in the years that followed, including his father in 2015.
But the memories remain strong, and Barron still follows the team by watching games on his computer.
There is a chance he might be watching Friday.
“It is cool to be part of it, the early days,” Barron said. “I kind of go back once in while and look at the West De Pere website and go, ‘I remember walking the halls and doing that.’ I became a teacher myself. Just some special days and special times and special people. That’s for sure.
“Once a Phantom, always a Phantom.”
West De Pere ready for Bay Port
The Phantoms (7-1) are hoping to make another memory against the Pirates (6-2).
They are seeking their first conference title since winning the Bay in 2019.
West De Pere came close last season, falling one game short to Bay Port after a loss to the Pirates in Week 9.
The Phantoms have outscored opponents 293-82 this season, including 194-33 in the first half.
“It’s a big game,” West De Pere coach Chris Greisen said. “We were in the same situation last year. We are excited. Any time you get a big game like this, it’s exciting. As a coach, you look at what you have and what they have. You look at some of the other factors. It looks like it’s going to be a downpour. You are just trying to put together the best game plan you can and give yourself a chance.
“Offensively, defensively, I like our chances. We have to play well. We have to block well. We have to tackle well, execute our plays. It’s not like we are sitting here thinking, ‘Can we play with these guys?’ Of course, we can. They are confident, they beat us the last two years, but they have been close games. It should be a great one.”
If it does become a game played in the rain, it might be a big disadvantage for West De Pere.
The Phantoms have one of the best throwing quarterbacks in the league in senior Duke Shovald, who has led a passing attack averaging 234.9 yards per game.
Shovald is 21st in the state with 1,586 yards.
“Well, you know, it hurts it a little bit,” Greisen said about inclement weather. “We do pass quite a bit. We will just have to see how it plays out. As a player, I played in many of these games. You can’t control it. All you can control is what you can control.
“We will be ready. I’m looking forward to it.”
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: A look back at West De Pere football's 1973 Bay Conference title team
