RSS
 

Archive for the ‘General Sports’ Category

Grand Island Central Catholic’s Gary Schmidt…Standing Alone at the Top?

14 Sep
 
 
 

GICC's Gary Schmidt

Gary Schmidt-GICC – 1968-1971. Reads like an epitaph, doesn’t it? Anyone out there remember this guy? Have his accomplishments faded into the vast, wide open spaces of forgotten high school sports heroes? Where is this man today? Is he sitting alone in some one room apartment in a big city without a soul in the world to care about him? Has he suffered for years knowing how good he was although very rarely being mentioned these days? Well, high school sports fans, I am here to proclaim that Mr. Schmidt is alive and well, thank you very much, highly successful in life and may very well have been the one of the finest athletes to ever don any type of athletic uniform at Grand Island Central Catholic High School.
My family moved to Grand Island from Columbus in 1958. I was 10 years old at the time and grew up idolizing my gridiron heroes from Columbus St. Bonaventure (now Scotus). We lived on the corner of Vine and Meves directly across the street from Dodge school. That huge, one block playground at Dodge served as a learning ground for many future star athletes in Grand Island that lived on the South side. It took awhile, but I had to let go of my Columbus Scotus heroes and start looking for a Grand Island idol. GICC quarterback Jerry Pittman was the first to catch my eye. He would walk by 505 East Meves on his way to Pier park with a football in one hand and a tennis racket in the other. Pittman would toss dozens of passes a day in that Dodge school lot, trying to throw it a city block. He then would proceed to the tennis courts at Pier Park and hit hundreds of tennis shots, it seemed. He was a star in both sports at GICC later and paved the way for future quarterbacks at that “new” Class B school in GI. But there was always young lad that would later follow in his footsteps past my house. His dad or brother were not too far behind. The young kid with curly hair. Always doing track events. Throwing the discus or shot put, broad or triple jumping, running sprints. Kicking a football. The kid couldn’t have been more than 6 years old.
Jerry Pittman came and went, but the young lad with the curly locks never stopped walking by. One day the dad was no longer with him, I heard he had passed away. The lad was 15 by that time, but he never failed to hit that playground at Dodge school whether it was to run track, do field events, play baseball, shoot hoops, or kick a football. The youngster could kick the pigskin as far as Jerry Pittman could throw it….and then some…a lot more. Sometimes he would just run with the ball under his arm, juking imaginary tacklers, cutting on a dime, leaving the transparent figures grabbing thin air. Never thought much about it at the time. I was all wrapped up setting up tackling dummies in my side yard, bowling them over for hours at a time…….but the lad never stopped coming.
******************************************************************************

When Gary Schmidt finally arrived at Central Catholic high school, he appeared to be far ahead of his peers….I wonder why. He was just one of those young players that could pick up a ball in any sport and excel. Schmidt set almost every junior high track and field record that ever existed at Central Catholic. He ran the wind and jumped like a gazelle. He was the star of the Crusader Jr. high basketball teams also. The young wizard only missed football in junior high because he suffered from Osgood-Schlatters disease of the knee, a debilitating knee disorder. In those days, freshman were not allowed to compete at the varsity at GICC, but by the time Gary Schmidt was a sophomore, the lad with the locks was ready to hit the athletic surfaces like he was fired from a cannon.   Standing Alone at the Top?

Gary Schmidt didn’t make a splash at running back his first varsity season because he backed up one of GICC‘s best runners of all time, Paul Janky. Coach Bob Ley knew Gary had a “leg” so in addition to starting at safety, Gary handled all the punting and kicking chores. In fact, I made the trek to Cozad to see one of the finest Class B football teams ever to play high school football. The Haymakers ended that season undefeated, untied and when all was said and done, no team had crossed their goal line in 1969. The only thing that ruined their “perfect” season was a 26 yard field goal by GICC kicker, Gary Schmidt. The next season, Schmidt stepped into the featured back role at GICC and had sprinted his way to 400+ yards and 5 touchdowns in his first 3 games before going down with a knee injury. Schmidt’s injury didn’t keep him from starting at safety, but the injury became so severe he could not play RB, and he missed the last two games altogether. It would dog him the rest of his career, but one would hardly have known it with what was to follow.

Gary Schmidt had chosen #32 for his uniform number. You see, a RB from the Buffalo Bills by the name of O.J. Simpson wore that number, and GICC’s number 32 would look like a high school version of that man before it was all said and done. Schmidt had a season to remember in 1970. Matter of fact, it has been firmly entrenched in my mind ever since. My mother and I never missed a game the “curly haired kid from somewhere down the block” played that season. Head coach Mike Fitzpatrick had the Crusaders looking like an NFL team when they lined up on offense. The line raised up and came down like the old Dallas Cowboys did. They lined up in every formation imaginable, no defense being able to prepare for the “GICC Flying Circus” a name given to them by a Gothenburg newspaper. Gary Schmidt was the key figure in the “Flying Circus” and what he carved in stone for Grand Island Central Catholic will probably never be equaled, and yet was never properly acknowledged.   Standing Alone at the Top?

Schmidt’s senior football season (1970) was outstanding to say the least. He rushed for 1,696 yards, a school record that to my knowledge, has never been recognized. 1,696 yards in 1970 was not common place by any means. Schmidt also set a Nebraska high school single game rushing mark by rambling for 316 yards against Superior. He averaged 188 yards a game. He averaged an amazing 45.8 yards a punt that season, and intercepted 14 passes (20 for his career). Schmidt’s rushing total may have been considerably higher had he not been sacked while attempting 20 to 30 passes out of one of those many formations the Crusaders ran. His rushing yards, interceptions, rushing yards per game and punting average led the State that year and what floors you is that a guy named Tom Kropp played for Aurora that season. Not only was Schmidt named to the World-Herald and Journal Star All-State Class B squads, but was named to the “Coach’s and Athlete-Sunkist Magazine” All-American team as a RB/Punter. Gary Schmidt played in the 1971 Shrine Bowl and led his team in both catches and yards.

In basketball, Schmidt set a Crusader the single game scoring record by scoring 38 points against Central City in 1971. He scored 515 points that season, 783 for his career. He averaged 24.5 points that year and the Crusaders played only 20 games. For a career, Gary averaged 22.4 per game. In 70/71, only Tom Kropp scored points in Class B than Gary Schmidt and remember, there was no 3-point shot at the time.

In 1971, Schmidt set 8 Track & Field Records at Central Catholic. He established records in the 60 and 120 yard high hurdles, 100 & 180 yard low hurdles, long jump, triple jump, discus, and Pentathlon. In fact he led the entire state in the Pentathlon with 5070 points, an event rarely done at the high school level in Nebraska these days. I’m doubting that record has ever been eclipsed. Schmidt pulled a groin in districts and was hobbled at the State Track Meet, but when he departed GICC he had established TEN track and field marks including scoring 297½ points in a single season.

In 1969 and 1970, Central Catholic fielded a baseball team in the spring. Yes, you could do BOTH track and baseball , a practice that has since been banned by the NSAA. In 1970, Gary Schmidt led the Crusaders to the Class B Championship game where they were defeated by Wayne. Gary pitched a one hit, 12 strikeout semifinal win over #1 Arlington and later the SAME day took the loss in that championship game. He batted .393 for the season and was 7-1 for the year. The State Final loss was the only set back in Schmidt’s 2 year high school career as a pitcher.

As a three year starter for the Grand Island American legion baseball player, Gary led his team to one state championship and state runner-up. According to most baseball aficionados, he was arguably the best player statewide as he led the Islanders in batting average (twice hitting over .450), home runs, RBI’s and numerous other categories. He lost only one game as a pitcher in three years and as a 15 year old led the American Legion Midgets to the state championship with a 7-0 pitching record and a perfect 0.00 earned run average.  He Stands Alone at the Top?

Gary Schmidt was on the Nebraska football team for 2 seasons as a reserve wingback and punter before injuries forced him to call it a football career. In the following years, Schmidt never lost the competitive fire and continued to compete and excel in semi pro baseball, AAU basketball, and track & field. At age 30, Gary moved to Santa Rosa, California and started competing in Masters Track and Field. He sprinted, jumped, hurdled, threw and competed in decathlons at the national level, medalling in several national meets. At age 38, Gary’s knee told him it was time to quit. But in 2003 at age 50, Gary decided he could still throw. That year he placed in the shot, discus and javelin at the National meet. Just last year (2009), he won the USATF Masters National Throws Pentathlon in Portland, Oregon, six months after undergoing surgery on his throwing shoulder. The Throws Pentathlon includes hammer, shot, discus, javelin and weight throws. Schmidt just missed defending his title in Chicago August 7th of this year. He was holding a 203 point lead going into the final event, but threw three sector fouls in the weight throw and was shut out (point-wise) in the event and finished as runner-up in the National event. This year Gary earned All-American status in five throwing events.

******************************************************************************

Much of Gary Schmidt’s high school career was crammed into one magic athletic season, in 1970/71. That was 40 years ago and the young athletes of today probably very rarely hear his name mentioned when great athletes of Nebraska high school sports conversations spring up. Ironically, some of Schmidt’s feats are not recorded in the record books for one reason or another. Who is at fault? I personally cannot answer that question, but what I do know is I witnessed many of this player’s shining moments. Gary Schmidt was one of the finest high school running backs I have ever seen and in my 50 years of observing. There have been names like Gale Sayers, Roger Sayers, Tom Kropp, Kent McCloughan, Danny Woodhead, Mike Brower, Ahman Green, Dale Van Housen and so many others. Gary Schmidt ranks somewhere in that company or certainly close. This “curly haired kid from somewhere down the block was one of the most gifted athletes I’ve seen in the past 40 seasons of high school sports. Where does that place him in the annals of GICC’s athletic history…………

……………………………Standing Alone at the Top?

 
6 Comments

Posted in General Sports, High School Sports, Uncategorized