Broncos help Bucks win first state football championship in 1969

Most who know me are thinking, “What is this guy doing commenting on sports? He barely knows the difference between a football and a basketball, and he certainly wasn’t any good at either game!”
Yep, right on both counts, but I have a perspective on the last game of that 1969 season not shared by anyone else.
Fifty-five years ago, this November, the Buckaroos won their first ever state football championship by defeating the highly favored Beaver Beavers.
This was HUGE!
Back then, there were only two classes in the UHSAA—A and B. A was for the big schools on the Wasatch Front who considered it cruel and unusual punishment for teams, fans and families to have to drive more than 30 minutes to a game. B was for those of us blessed to live in the hinterlands where our souls were toughened by regular four-hour trips just to play ball.
I watched that championship game from the bench and remember only three plays. Curtis Redd scampering 55 yards to the end-zone past all the Beaver defenders who stood with hands on their knees, not seeing him until he crossed the goal line. Next was Stevie Maughan’s kick that cleared the crossbar by no more than 1. 627 inches for the extra point. Finally, I remember Steve Redd planting his helmet square in the chest of the mammoth Beaver fullback, Steve Myers with all 10 of the remaining Buckaroos stacked up behind him to stop their 2-point conversion attempt. Final score 7, 6—Bucks win!
So how do the Broncos fit into this story?
The win/loss record that year was nothing special--three wins and four losses in regular season play. With that record you wonder how we ended up in the title game. I really don’t care, nor did anyone else. The only game of those seven that anyone remembers was the last, against the Broncos, in Blanding—final score Broncos 28, Buckaroos 27. To add drama, the score at the start of the fourth quarter was Buckaroos 27 Broncos 6. Somehow the Buckaroos managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I didn’t play that game either, but I’ll never forget two things from it, the final score and our coach’s response.
Our coach was Ray Odette, whose memory commands an unmatched level of respect from his players. Ray was not a man of large physical stature but to his players, he was the largest force in their lives at the time.
We all crawled back on the bus, helmets in hand and heads bowed, no sound was heard. The last to board was Coach Odette. He entered the bus, took a few steps and before saying a word clenched his fist and with all his might smacked the roof of the bus so hard it made a small dent and a sound loud enough to be heard 20 miles away on Main Street in Monticello. The sound jerked us all out of our stupor of self-pity to hear him deliver a short, but very effective message about playing with all your heart until the final buzzer.
Without the wisdom gained from the loss handed us by the Broncos, the outcome of the title game could well have been different.
Twenty-five years to the day following that state championship game my small family arrived in Beaver where we lived for the next 17 years. Three of our four children call Beaver High School their alma-mater. In fact, my twin daughters ran against each other for Beaver High student body president—that was an interesting week.
In those 17 years, I got to know many of the Beaver players from long ago. I didn’t meet one of them who wouldn’t be welcome at my campfire.
But the sweetest memory of all was when I was introduced to long-time Beaver coach Al Marshall. When he learned where I was from, he began to grumble, spit and spout whining about how the Beavers had twice as many total yards as the Buckaroos. I laid my hand on his shoulder, smiled and said, “You know Al, the last I checked the only statistic anyone cares about at the final buzzer are points on the board.”
Thanks to the Broncos, I knew more than he realized about losing close games.