When debating best teams in history in a given sport, no matter the level of competition, one of the unsaid prerequisites is usually a state, national or league championship.
To many, that signifies the basis of what a top team is – the only team left standing at the conclusion of a season.
Yet in regards to high school football in northeast Indiana, there is a team many consider tops of all time that didn’t hold aloft the big trophy in the shape of the state over Thanksgiving weekend.
To say the 2004 Snider Panthers rolled through the Summit Athletic Conference would be an understatement. It saw the team outscore league opponents 478-30, one SAC foe refuse to play them and a run to the state finals that still brings up questions of “What if?”
It all started with a risky move.
As Snider prepped to play Penn in the playoffs in 2003, it needed someone to run the scout team to prep for the Kingsmen’s running quarterback. In stepped Terrance Hayden, who was a running back. His performance that week was so impressive that heading into 2004, with no clear-cut QB1, the coaching staff decided Hayden would be the guy.
“Terrance wasn’t a natural quarterback, but he fit perfectly into what we wanted to do,” said Russ Isaacs, who was the head coach in 2004. “We didn’t need him to throw the ball all over the field.”
Snider coaches spent the entire off-season developing an offense that fit Hayden’s skill set. Centered around the option, Hayden merely needed to be a threat to pass on occasion to keep defenses honest.
“He was an exceptional athlete,” said current Carroll coach and former Snider offensive coordinator Doug Dinan. “Terrance took his running skills and became just another weapon for us.”
Three different players rushed for 1,000 yards for the Panthers in 2004 – Hayden at 1,164 yards, LCJ Martin at 1,343 yards and Miquale Lewis at 1,330 yards. Combined, the trio amassed 64 rushing touchdowns on the year.
The 2003 season ended in bitter fashion, a 62-27 beatdown at the hands of Penn in semistate. With a wealth of experience returning, Snider was primed for another deep postseason run.
But first, it had to handle business in the SAC.
The season started off with a 65-7 victory over Harding, followed by a 51-0 blanking of Bishop Luers. The lopsided scores continued through the season – 72-0 over Northrop, 66-0 over North Side, 66-10 over Bishop Dwenger. Elmhurst didn’t even appear on Snider’s schedule in 2003 and 2004. The Panthers beat up on a good Lafayette Jeff team 55-14 instead in Week 4 on the road.
All told, Snider outscored its eight league opponents a combined score of 478-30.
“I don’t know if anyone (in the SAC) has put up points like we did in 2004,” said Kurt Tippmann, current Snider head coach and defensive coordinator that season. “Even the great Dwenger teams of the early 90s weren’t putting up points like that.”
Everything seemed to be going Snider’s way, until Week 9 against Wayne.
The game went as expected, a 74-6 demolition at the hands of the Generals at Northrop’s Spuller Stadium. Entering the week, Lewis was leading the entire state in rushing. As he broke away downfield for another big gain, he was pulled down from behind.
“I can see it now,” Tippmann said. “It was a horse collar tackle, which is outlawed now. He was going to score and the defender pulled him down and his ankle got snapped.”
It was silence at Spuller as Lewis, the dynamic playmaker that was a threat to go the distance every time he touched the ball, was done for the season.
“It was one of those things that happens, but it was so unfortunate,” Isaacs said. “He showed his worth in college when he went and shattered rushing records at Ball State. He was the catalyst of our team, and when he went down it hurt us.”
As the playoffs loomed, the Panthers had to find a way to keep on with its star offensive player out. But Snider was more than just Lewis. That defense that allowed just 30 points the entirety of the conference season? It was laden with stars.
Defensive end Travis Craven had a program-record 18 sacks.
Interior lineman Jordan Applegate amassed 87 tackles, nine sacks and an interception.
Defensive back Artis Chambers, then a sophomore starting in the secondary who would eventually go to Michigan, finished the year with eight interceptions. Fellow defensive back Jakeem Gregory went on to play in the MAC, while the offensive line – guys like Josh Le Duc, Travis Arnold, Andrew Ollis, Andrew Gregory, John Purdy and Jared Evans – were equal parts massive and technically sound.
“We won the 4×100 relay at state in track that year, and all four of those guys were on the roster,” Tippmann said. “With Quayle out, Dameon Talley was big for us at running back in the playoffs.”
Snider kept it rolling in the postseason, beating Carroll 51-0 in the Chargers’ first foray into Class 5A football. The Panthers knocked off Huntington North by 60 and Homestead 49-21 to win the sectional championship.
The first challenge of the playoffs was at Carmel in the regional round, a game still etched in many a memory.
The Panthers struggled through the first half and trailed 14-9 at halftime. In the locker room at the break, players and coaches alike witnessed one of the greatest “Coach Ike” speeches of all time.
“We couldn’t do anything right in that first half, and in legendary Ike fashion, the paint could have come off the walls of the visiting locker room with a Coach Isaacs dress down of what we weren’t doing right,” said Tippmann.
The specifics of the speech vary, but a reference to “cold burgers, soggy french fries and watered-down orange drink” as the only thing to look forward to that night is a stalwart of the story. Whatever the exact words, Ike’s speech worked, perhaps in a way that even he didn’t anticipate.
“Everybody brings that speech up, although I didn’t think it was that particularly motivating,” said Isaacs. “But the turnaround was amazing.”
Described by Tippmann as “the best quarter of football I have ever seen a team play,” the Panthers scored 24 points in the third quarter and rallied for a 40-22 win, setting up a rematch with Penn in semistate.
To motivate his squad, Isaacs put up the 2003 semistate final score – 62-27 – on the scoreboard at Bowser Field on Snider’s campus. The score stayed lit 24/7 all week long.
“The coaches and kids saw that every day, a reminder for the year before,” Tippmann said. “It was definitely sending a message.
The Panthers then sent a message of their own, beating up on Penn 49-7 to advance to the state championship.
The fact that Snider had been able to showcase such domination without Lewis was a testament to how deep the team was. Nobody could stop the option game. If it wasn’t Hayden, it was Martin. If it wasn’t Martin, it was Talley.
And the defense? Complete domination. For the season, Tippmann’s unit amassed 45.5 sacks, 24 interceptions and 21 fumble recoveries.
The final challenge was a big one. Warren Central in the midst of its unprecedented run of four straight state championships. Snider competed, had some bounces go against it, and dropped a 35-23 decision on Nov. 27, 2004.
“As a staff we could have coached better and the players could have played better, but we just couldn’t finish the deal,” Isaacs said. “But it was as fun of a group to coach as I ever had.”
And if Lewis did not get hurt against Wayne and was available for the Warren Central game? Who knows.
Other Snider teams are thrown around as the program’s best ever. It is tough to argue against the 1992 squad that went undefeated and knocked off Ben Davis 24-21 to win state. Members of the 1997 team can also make a case, with an overtime loss to Penn in semistate the only blemish.
But the 2004 Snider team is recognized by a lot of SAC coaches and players of the day as the toughest, biggest and most skilled squad they ever took the field against.
“Dominant is an understatement,” said Casey Kolkman, who coached North Side in 2004. “Hands down the best team I have ever coached against. Full of college talent with that coaching staff, they were unstoppable.”
They saw memories last a lifetime. Sure, the state championship hardware would have been nice, but the dominance displayed 20 years ago in northeast Indiana and beyond by that Snider team is still foremost on the mind of many – whether they were inside the program or had to face it.
For Coach Isaacs, it was a perfect storm.
“We had a really talented team and good kids everywhere you looked,” Isaacs said. “I was so fortunate to coach with a lot of great guys on that team, with (Tippmann and Dinan) as coordinators and what they have done as head coaches, John Houser as special teams coordinator and eventually the principal at Wayne. Just tremendous people.
“I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be a part of that. That 2004 team was as good as it gets.”
Be the first to comment