It has now been 40 years since the Churubusco Eagles football team went 11-3 and made its first and only appearance in the IHSAA State Finals.
The head coach at the time was none other than Rick Lightfoot, who coached the program from 1982-84. Lightfoot is the father of current Leo girls’ basketball coach Carrie Shappell and father-in law to the current head softball coach, Ben Shappell.
Lightfoot, who played collegiately at Anderson University, began his coaching career as an assistant
football and head track coach at DeKalb High School. He then accepted a coaching position at Anderson
University to reunite with his teammate, Kevin Donley – who built the University of Saint Francis football program from the ground up.
When Donley accepted a head coaching position at Georgetown College in Kentucky, Lightfoot and his family decided to move back to northeast Indiana, where he had the choice of either going to Lakeland or Churubusco. He chose ‘Busco, and Superintendent Dr. Roger Thornton (father of Norwell girls basketball coach Eric Thornton) and the Smith-Green Community School administration welcomed him into the Turtle Town community.
The 1983 season began with a sense of hope after just a single win the year before. Lightfoot said the
pieces were there to make it a successful season, but not a lot of people realized what was to come.
“It was a magical season, especially coming back from being 1-9,” said Lightfoot reflecting on the 1983
team. “We knew we would be better, but I don’t think our assistant coaches ever thought we would
have the season that we had.
“The biggest thing was the offensive line had a lot more experience, and then we added Jerry Lange onto our staff. That was a big bonus.”
The season began on Aug. 20, when Churubusco defeated ACAC rival Carroll 8-0 at home. It was the initial sign that the year was not going to be an ordinary one, as the Eagles had not beaten Carroll since 1972.
Four weeks later, Busco hosted a strong Lakeland team that was coached by Myron Moriarty. The Eagles
won 14-10, highlighted by Paul Sade Sr., the father of current Churubusco head coach Paul Sade Jr., making a critical tackle at the “one-foot-yard line.”
“We felt real good about ourselves” heading into the postseason,” Lightfoot said.
The Eagles clinched their first ever postseason berth in the IHSAA’s old cluster format, where only 16 teams from each of the four classes played for a chance to win a state championship. The Eagles’ 1A sectional championship game came at home against Northfield, a 16-3 dub.
In the regional, the team had to make a two-and-a-half hour drive to Frontier, where the Eagles won 22-6. By that point, the community was embracing the special postseason run that the team was on.
Churubusco is known profoundly as one of the more tighter-knit communities in the area with a
strong tradition in football.
“That community got behind us,” said Lightfoot. “After the Frontier game, the town was still open at 2 a.m. People were on the streets, people were on the sidewalks and there were people in cars everywhere. It was a truly awesome experience.”
To further understand the excitement that the community felt for their Eagles, it even provided
additional buses for students to be a part of the unprecedented postseason run. Thirteen loads of buses filled with students went to see the semistate game, a number that grew to 18 buses by the time they
made it to state.
Busco’s semistate opponent was Jimtown, which went 11-2 that season and won its first-ever sectional and regional championships. Many people did not think the Churubusco Eagles had much of a chance at upsetting the high-octane Jimmies and their prolific offense on the road; except for Rick Lightfoot and his team.
Sophomore Virgil Fulk, the team’s top offensive performer that season as a running back, scored the game’s lone touchdown as ‘Busco won its first and only semistate championship with a 6-0 victory. The Eagles were going to Indianapolis to play for a Class 1A State Championship vs Fountain Central.
The excitement was building up for the moment. Lightfoot, who was also the school’s athletic director,
was sorting out tickets for fans to attend, and there were a lot of distractions leading up to the
game, which kicked off on Nov. 18 at Lawrence North High School.
The Eagles took a 3-0 lead into halftime on a field goal by Todd Rehrer. However, Churubusco’s depth took a major hit when its all-state linebacker, Chris Grieve, suffered a foot injury and was unable to finish the game.
For a program that only had 27 players on their roster, the loss of Grieve was a hurdle that became too difficult to overcome. Fountain Central would go on to win12-3, thus ending the magical 1983 season
for the Eagles.
But the legacy of that year has never faded. When reflecting on that 1983 team, Lightfoot stated that it was the hardest-working and most coachable group of kids he had ever been a part of in his 35 years of coaching football.
“They just played football; The kids just wanted to play,” said Lightfoot when describing the team’s work
ethic. “The ‘Busco kids were coachable and great to work with -and the same went with the parents. Win
or lose, the kids went back on Monday, taking it easy and got to work.”
Lightfoot referenced one player that rode his bike to school from his home in Green Center and back
just to get off of the farm. That exemplified the amount of dedication, hard work and commitment
that group of Churubusco Eagles had to making a memorable season.
After his stint at ‘Busco, Lightfoot went on to coach at Shelbyville for two seasons before becoming
Leo’s head coach from 1987-1998. Last year, he finished his 35th and final season coaching football as a junior high coach.
Churubusco hosted the 40-year reunion of that team a few weeks ago against West Noble. While Lightfoot wasn’t able to attend, he is pleased that the community took time to appreciate the team’s
success.
“I taught social studies, and I have always learned that we can’t live on the past, but we can enjoy it,”
said Lightfoot. “I think it’s awesome they (Churubusco) still enjoy that. They need to celebrate that.”
His hope is that he lives long enough to take part in the team’s 50-year reunion.
Be the first to comment