Portage County athletics lost a giant when Stan Parrish died April 3 at age 75.
The football world at large knew Parrish as a quarterbacks guru who mentored, among others during his nearly 40 years at the college and NFL level, none other than Tom Brady back when Parrish served as QB coach at the University of Michigan in the late 1990s. Parrish also helped turn journeyman signal-caller Brad Johnson into a Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2002 season.
But before Parrish made a national name for himself as a quarterback whisperer, he coached the Windham High School football team to its first state-playoff berth in 1974. Parrish arrived at Windham as an assistant under John Lowry in 1969 — his first coaching job after graduating from Heidelberg College, where he played defensive back — and became the Bombers’ head coach in 1972.
Embed from Getty ImagesIn his third and final season as head coach at Windham, Parrish guided the Bombers to a 9-0-1 record in the regular season, qualifying for the 1974 Class A state playoffs by virtue of finishing first in Region 9, nearly 13 computer points ahead of runner-up McDonald. At that time, the OHSAA playoffs, still in their infancy after beginning in 1972, consisted of just three classifications of schools (Class AAA-AA-A), and only the first-place team in each of the four regions of each class made the playoffs.
In other words, every team in the playoffs from 1972-79 was a regional champion just by getting there, and Parrish’s 1974 squad remains Windham’s only regional championship football team.
The Bombers’ run came to an end in the state semifinals — which, due to the format at that time, was actually the first round of the playoffs — with a 6-0 loss to Fremont St. Joseph Central Catholic. Senior Dave Flegal made the Associated Press Class A First Team All-Ohio squad at linebacker and was voted the Class A Lineman of the Year, while senior Rob Garrett made AP First Team All-Ohio on offense as an end. Mike Hagans was a Second Team All-Ohioan on offense at guard.
Following that memorable season with the Bombers, Parrish embarked on a highly successful collegiate and NFL coaching career that included stops at Michigan from 1996-2001 and with the Buccaneers in the NFL in 2002 and ’03. Parrish was the Wolverines’ QB coach in 1997 when they won the Associated Press national championship, a team led by Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson and quarterbacked by Brian Griese under Parrish’s tutelage.
Five seasons later, Parrish held the same position with the Buccaneers when they routed the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII.
Head coaching stops for Parrish included Division III Wabash College from 1978-1982, leading the Little Giants to a 42-3-1 record in his five seasons; Marshall University from 1984-85, including a 6-5 record in ’84 that represented the Thundering Herd’s first winning season since the tragic 1970 plane crash that killed 37 Marshall football players, eight coaches and 25 boosters; Kansas State from 1986-88; and Ball State from 2008-10. Parrish is a member of the Wabash College Athletic Hall of Fame.
A national championship ring. A Super Bowl ring. A hall of fame enshrinement.
And it all started in Portage County at Windham High School.
RIP, coach.
Flegal parlayed his Associated Press Class A Lineman of the Year honors in high school into a standout career as a defensive tackle at the University of Akron, lettering for the Zips from 1977-79. He culminated his career by being named UA’s Outstanding Lineman by the Akron Touchdown Club as a senior in 1979.
Flegal later served as an assistant at Akron in 1981 and ’82, coaching under the man who coached him as a player, Jim Dennison.
More Bombers nostalgia
The just-completed high school basketball season marked the 40th anniversary of coach Marty Hill’s 1982 Class A state semifinalist Windham boys basketball team.
It was Hill’s second team to reach the state final four, following his 1975-76 club, which also advanced to the Class A semis in his first season as Bombers head coach.
Hill’s seventh edition of Bombers finished the 1981-82 season with a 24-3 record. The Bombers won 18 consecutive games at one point before falling to Racine Southern 74-66 in the state semifinals at The Ohio State University’s St. John Arena.
It was the most points Windham had given up all season, topping the output of Mogadore in the Bombers’ 75-73 win over the Wildcats in the regular season finale — but it took an overtime session for Mogadore to reach that total.
Racine Southern’s offensive showing that night in Columbus came courtesy of Kent Wolfe, a 5-foot-10 senior guard and Third Team All-Ohioan who averaged 21 points a game. Wolfe had a night to remember — or forget, depending on which school colors you were wearing — going off for 39 points to derail Windham’s dreams of a state championship.
I was in the stands in St. John Arena that night with my dad, and the word “unconscious” kept going through my mind watching Wolfe’s scoring display. It seemed like he just couldn’t miss, especially when the Bombers really needed him to most. And they weren’t easy shots, either. Windham played a solid brand of defense all season, but Wolfe hit shots that night he probably didn’t make the entire year. On some shots, it seemed like Wolfe wasn’t even looking at the rim when he put them up — and they still went in.
If not for running into the red-hot hand of Wolfe, the Bombers would have had a date in the Class A title game against Middletown Fenwick, which blasted Racine Southern in the final, 74-44. Wolfe and the Tornadoes had apparently left it all on the floor the night before against Marty Hill’s club.
The Bombers had nearly rolled into the state tournament undefeated, their only losses coming by 61-59 to Waterloo in overtime and 69-66 to Rootstown. They avenged both defeats later in the season, edging the Vikings 53-51 and outlasting the Rovers 64-58.
Most of Windham’s other games that season weren’t close, and the Bomber juggernaut picked up steam in the postseason tournaments, pounding Vienna Mathews 93-50 and Jackson-Milton 75-50 in the sectionals and South Range 77-42 in the district semifinals. Those lopsided victories were followed by a harrowing 52-51 win over Sebring for the district championship.
The Bombers then rolled past Lorain Catholic 81-60 in the regional semifinals, setting up a classic against New Washington Buckeye Central in the regional final, which saw Windham defeat the Bucks 60-57 in overtime to earn the trip to Columbus.
Windham’s 1981-82 team roster was comprised of seniors Gregg Isler, Bill Spencer, John Mizner and Terry Peterson; juniors Larry Mullenax, Mike Brown, Mike Fabry, Tim Duvall, Rob Bradley, Jeff Olson and Allen Knight; and sophomores Tim Mulhern and Randy Moore. Isler, Mizner, Spencer and Peterson were the team captains, with Peterson earning Honorable Mention honors on the AP Class A All-Ohio Team.
Happy 40th, Bombers!
Tom Hardesty is a Portager sports columnist. He was formerly assistant sports editor at the Record-Courier and author of the book Glimpses of Heaven.