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The football life

Rogers' Matt Jones drops back and tosses a pass during his time as quarterback of the Raiders. Jones is a member of the Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2011. Photo provided
Matt Jones - 2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame
By Drew White
Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 5:08 PM CDT
Editors note: Today’s profile of Matt Jones is the first in a series of five featuring the 2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame induction class. Jones, along with Oscar Lubke, Vic Overman, David Parry and Ken Schreiber will be honored at a golf outing next Monday at Pottawattomie Country Club.

By the time Matt Jones ever entered high school at Rogers in 1986, he had already spent more time at Raider football practices than most upperclassmen.

“Most people go to two-a-days the four years they are in high school,” Jones said. “I didn’t always do everything they did, but from 10-years-old on, I had gone to every two-a-day.”

Having been immersed in the sport of football by his family, including his father Pat who is a retired teacher and coach in the Michigan City Area Schools, it wasn’t hard to see that the game would play an important part in his life.

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The four-year Raider quarterback would become one of the Indiana high school’s most prolific passers before attending Nebraska and Southern Illinois on football scholarships.

More recently, Jones has served on the Michigan City coaching staffs of both Ken Bye and Craig Buzea, working with the Wolves’ quarterbacks. He is currently a pharmaceutical sales representative and lives in between Michigan City and La Porte with his wife and three children.

“I wish I had more ability and time to be able to commit to give a program what it needs to get better,” Jones said of his time returning to the sidelines as a coach. “It was enjoyable. I like being around it. Every coach’s goal should be to help the team and individual players improve and hopefully have a good time doing it.”

During his four years at Rogers, he threw for 5,297 yards and upon graduating in 1990 ranked 10th on Indiana’s all-time career passing list. He was named all-state after both his junior and senior seasons.

“We had some good wins in there and some great individual performances in that time and we were able to beat some of those teams we hadn’t beaten in a while,” Jones said. “From the coaches to the players, we wanted to be recognized as a successful football program. We had a lot of guys at that time that were willing to go above and beyond in order to achieve that.”

Jones’ favorite target was receiver Tim Nowatzke, who was inducted into the hall of fame last summer. The two would regularly meet up at Nowatzke’s house in the country and spend time practicing.

“I don’t think I ever threw to anybody who had better route-runnIng ability than Tim and certainly nobody had better hands,” said Jones of Nowatzke, who went on to a solid career at Brigham Young University. “A lot of that is God-given ability, but I like to say that for myself and everybody it comes to you when you put in the work. We did it together and we made each other better.”

Upon graduating, Jones accepted a scholarship to the University of Nebraska. His time with the Cornhuskers ended after his redshirt sophomore season when he was told he was still on the outside looking in for the starting quarterback position.

“I felt like I had a good spring game, I graded out the highest, and I thought I put myself in a good position for the next year,” Jones said. “(Coach Tom Osborne) was very complimentary of everything that had happened over spring practice and the spring game but when it came down to it, he still had me at No. 2 on the depth chart going into that season.

“It was decision time.”

Jones made the decision to transfer to Southern Illinois where he played under head coaches Bob Smith and Shawn Watson. On Oct. 2, 1993 he threw for 282 yards during a loss to Northern Illinois.

“When I transferred, I was recruited by (Smith) who was there for one year and then they brought in (Watson),” Jones said. “In the course of four years, I had to learn three different offenses and sets of terminology.

“It made it interesting.”

While he wasn’t able to mirror the success he had in high school, Jones has nothing but good things to say about his time spent at Nebraska and Southern Illinois.

“As I got older and was able to look back and reflect on what football meant to me, when it was all said and done, I had this great opportunity to play football at a pretty high level,” Jones said. “It didn’t propel me into the NFL, but when it was all said and done, I had a college education and zero debt. Someone thought enough of me to pay me to go to school and play a sport that I loved.

“I am grateful for the experience and I learned a lot of life lessons. Those are the things that are important.”

He credits his opportunity to play college football to all of the time he spent around his father and head coach Ron Lemon at those Rogers football practices.

“When you’re exposed to something and you see how things are done and see what expectations are, it raises your own level of expectations,” Jones said. “Being around it my whole life, because of my dad, was the single biggest influence I ever had. From the knowledge of the game and the mechanics, I’d say 90 percent of it came from the direct impact my dad had.”

Contact sports writer Drew White at dwhite@thenewsdispatch.com or 874-7211, Ext. 447.

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They called him 'Big O'

Oscar Lubke is shown during his time at Purdue. After spending two years in West Lafayette, the former Red Devil transferred to Ball State and became an All-American tackle for the Cardinals. He is among the Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2011. Photo courtesy of Purdue University Libraries
Oscar Lubke - 2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame
By Drew White
Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 5:43 PM CDT
Editor’s note: Today’s profile of Oscar Lubke is the second in a series of five featuring the 2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame induction class. Lubke, along with Matt Jones, Vic Overman, David Parry and Ken Schreiber will be honored at a golf outing next Monday at Pottawattomie Country Club.

Standing 6-foot-4, Oscar Lubke developed quite a following during his years as a student at Michigan City Elston High School.

“They called him ‘Big O’” says Oscar’s younger brother Doug. “We had a basketball court in between the houses where we lived and they would come over and play basketball and asking, ‘Where’s Big O?’

“They were a fan club, more or less.”

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Sharing the name of his father and former Michigan City Police Chief Oscar Lubke, the younger Oscar followed a solid high school career with the Red Devils with stops at both Purdue and Ball State and was eventually drafted by the New York Jets in the 1968 draft with the 182nd overall pick in the seventh round.

“Not only was he tall, he was strong. He was like a bull,” says Warren Foster, who played center for the Red Devils at the same time Oscar played tackle. “We ran a lot of plays to his side because he was so dominant.”

Doug Lubke was one of the bigger members of the ‘Big O’ fan club.

“He was always like a hero to me because he was so big,” Doug Lubke said. “He had a lot of respect from everybody. He was a very good-hearted person. He could get along with everybody.

“But when he played ball, he had one way of going about it. He wanted to win.”

Lubke played his high school football under the direction of Vic Overman, who is also entering the Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame this year. In Oscar’s junior and senior years, the Red Devils were 10-6-2.

During his 1962 senior season, he was an All-Northern Indiana Conference first team lineman and an honorable mention all-American.

After attending and playing football at Purdue for two years, Lubke would ultimately transfer to Ball State for his final two seasons of eligibility. His senior season resulted in a spot on the American Football Coaches Association’s All-American first team.

“It was the best move I ever made,” Oscar Lubke was quoted as saying of the move from Purdue to Ball State in a 1968 issue of The News-Dispatch.

Former N-D Sports Editor Bill Redfield reported that “Oscar found the Ball State campus more to his liking.”

Upon getting drafted by the Jets, Oscar would become the third Michigan City native with the opportunity to play professional football, following in the footsteps of Abe Gibron and Tom Nowatzke. Gibron and Nowatzke were both inducted into the Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame in 2009.

Unfortunately, Oscar never played for the Jets after a preseason concussion led doctors to advise Lubke against ever playing football again.

“Somebody came down and blindsided him and knocked him out,” Doug Lubke said. “They had him on the sidelines and he thought he was back at Ball State.

“The doctor checked him out and they told him that any more major concussions like that could kill him.”

Oscar took the advice and retired from football, a decision that Doug says weighed on him. To fuel his competitive spirit, Oscar competed in drag racing which was an activity he had enjoyed ever since his early days in Michigan City.

“It upset him because it is what he worked for his entire life,” Doug said. “When he got into drag racing, he had that same sort of competition about him and I think that really helped him out a lot.

“He loved that because he got that adrenaline rush.”

While racing proved an outlet for his competitive spirit, it also proved fatal. Oscar passed away as the result of injures sustained in an accident at Mooresville Drag Strip in Mooresville, N.C. on Sept. 28, 1991 at age 47.

Doug, who was younger than Oscar by 12 years, said he hung up his own football career shortly after Oscar had ended his football career.

“Here, my hero gets hurt and I’m nowhere even in the ballpark with him,” Doug said. “That’s when I quit doing it.”

Doug said that father Oscar Lubke never put any pressure on the younger Oscar to follow in his line of work to join the police force. He says it could have had something to do with the maturity of “Big O.”

“My dad didn’t want to stop him from doing what he wanted to do,” Doug said. “He had a very good attitude about him. A lot of people knew him and liked him.”

Oscar Lubke was inducted into the Ball State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1995.

Contact sports writer Drew White at dwhite@thenewsdispatch.com or 874-7211, ext. 447.

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Overman's legacy goes beyond City

Former Red Devil head coach Vic Overman directs his troops. Overman is part of the Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2011. Elstonian photo
2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame
By Drew White
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 10:20 PM CDT
Editors note: Today’s profile of Vic Overman is the third in a series of five featuring the 2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame induction class. Overman, along with Matt Jones, Oscar Lubke, David Parry and Ken Schreiber will be honored at a golf outing next Monday at Pottawattomie Country Club.

Phil Freese discovered how big the game of football was in the life of Vic Overman in quite a peculiar way.

“I remember we would go over to his house and watch game film,” said Freese, a quarterback at Elston during Overman’s 13-year tenure as head coach of the Red Devils. “One time I was using the bathroom and he had a roll of toilet paper but it was just like real paper because he had football plays written all over it.”

A native of Westfield, Ind., Overman was head coach of the Red Devils from 1955 until 1968, compiling a record of 58-60-5. In seven of his 13 seasons, his teams finished with a record of .500 or better including a 7-2 finish in 1956 and a 7-3 finish in 1960.

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Overman’s son Dan, who played quarterback under his father at Elston, confirmed his father’s penchant for “doodling in “X’s and ‘O’s.”

“The Sunday paper had ‘X’s and ‘O’s in all the margins, there were napkins, so I’m sure it’s true,” Dan said.

Having spent time as both a son and player to his father, Dan says Vic cared for his players as if they were his own son.

“Dad loved his kids,” Dan said. “Not just his children, but his players. He knew when to kick you in the butt, but he also knew when to put his arm around you and give you a hug.”

Among the players to play under Overman is fellow Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame Class of 2011 inductee Oscar Lubke as well as inaugural class inductee Tom Nowatzke. Coaches who coached under Overman included Jerry Karstens, Doug Adams, Dick Lamb, and former Red Devil quarterback Noel Schlegelmilch.

“He wasn’t so much a yeller and screamer at players,” Freese said. “He was just full of energy. I don’t know that he ever walked anywhere on the field.

“He always had new ideas that he wanted to try.”

Freese said that Overman gave him the ability to call his own plays behind center.

“He would send plays in once and a while but he usually let me call plays,” Freese said.

Overman left Michigan City in 1968 to become athletic director at Mishawaka High School. The man who replaced Overman at the helm of the Red Devils is Bill Karpinski, the father of new Michigan City head coach Michael Karpinski, who had spent two years as head coach at Mishawaka.

In 1972, Overman left Mishawaka and returned to the sidelines at Brownsburg where he would lead the Bulldogs to a 62-31 record, including a runner-up finish in the 1978 Class 2A state championship game.

The 10-acre Vic Overman Sports Field Park located in Brownsburg is named after Overman.

Despite leaving Michigan City more than four decades ago, Overman’s 13-year tenure as head coach was the second longest in Red Devil history, behind only Andy Gill who was inducted to the hall of fame last year. Ron Lemon holds the longest Michigan City tenure as head coach at Rogers for 22 years.

Currently 88 years old and living in Brownsburg, Overman is a member of both the Indiana Football Hall of Fame (Class of 1981) and the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame (Class of 1994).

Contact sports writer Drew White at dwhite@thenewsdispatch.com or 874-7211, Ext. 447.

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Parry's path unprecedented

David Parry keeps a keen eye on the action during a game in Houston during his 15 year career as an NFL official. Parry is among the inductees in the Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame Class of 2011. Photo courtesy of Wabash University website
2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame
By Drew White
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, July 20, 2011 10:20 PM CDT
Editors note: Today’s profile of David Parry is the fourth in a series of five featuring the 2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame induction class. Parry, along with Matt Jones, Oscar Lubke, Vic Overman and Ken Schreiber will be honored at a golf outing next Monday at Pottawattomie Country Club.

Weekends are generally a time when teachers and students recharge their batteries after a long week of school.

For David Parry, fall weekends didn’t provide much rest.

In a career that spanned four decades, the former teacher, coach, and athletic director within the Michigan City Area Schools became a national figurehead for football officiating at the professional and collegiate ranks, leaving his stamp on a game that he loved.

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After spending 15 seasons as an official in the National Football League from 1975 to 1990, Parry went on to become Supervisor of Football Officials for the Big Ten Conference beginning in 1990 and ultimately became the first ever National Coordinator of Collegiate Football Officiating, a position he held from 2008 until retiring from the position in February of this year.

In May, Parry passed away due to complications from Parkinson’s Disease at age 76.

“My dad would’ve worked until he was 80 if he could’ve mentally and physically produced something,” said son John Parry, who himself has followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an NFL official. “He loved it that much.”

Among the most notable NFL games Parry worked included serving as a side judge in Super Bowl XVII in 1983 and the 1988 NFC Divisional playoff game between the Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles at Soldier Field, commonly referred to as the “Fog Bowl.”

A 1953 graduate of Chesterton High School and a 1957 graduate of Wabash College, Parry began his time in Michigan City as a teacher and coach at Elston High School in 1958. Over the years, Parry taught english, speech, and physical education and coached football, basketball, baseball and tennis.

At the time of his retirement from the MCAS in 1990, Parry was the athletic director at Rogers High School.

The impact Parry had on officiating is immeasurable. Among his biggest accomplishments was overseeing the implementation of instant replay in the Big Ten Conference, the first conference in the nation to experiment with the new technology.

It was that leadership that led him to be the ideal candidate for the NCAA’s newly created coordinator position in 2008. The goal of the position was to standardize mechanics and philosophies throughout college football.

After his passing, John Parry said the family began to realize just how big of an impact his father had played on the officiating ranks.

“My mom (Pat) has received cards from as far away as Italy,” John said. “The common theme in the cards that I’ve received from people that I don’t know is them saying, ‘I didn’t know your dad well, but the one time I met him, he made it feel like we were friends forever.’

“There aren’t a lot of people who can do that.”

Playing a role in the lives of so many, John said his father always seemed to act with the best interests of the game of football in mind.

“I don’t think he ever did it with the intention of being a type of a mentor,” John said. “He did what he did for the love of the game. When you do things for the right reason, generally everybody is influenced in a positive manner.”

Parry could regularly be found providing insight on the subject of officiating on national telecasts. He even starred in a series of vignettes sponsored by State Farm called “The Rules of the Game” which was filmed at Michigan City’s Ames Field.

“I don’t think he went and searched for it, but he accepted that role,” John said of his father’s national notoriety. “I think he did enjoy it.”

Parry is a member of the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame, the Indiana Football Hall of Fame, and the Wabash College Athletic Hall of Fame.

John, who served as a side judge in Super Bowl XLI — the title game which pitted the Bears and Colts together in Miami — and has since been promoted to the role of referee, says his father’s character was instilled in each of his two sons and three daughters. John said his desire to become an official developed by watching his father.

“My brothers and sisters were the fortunate recipients of all of his attributes — integrity, honesty, communication, people skills, and keeping things simple,” John said. “There was a special relationship between the two of us because of officiating. Somehow or another I was bit by the bug.

“By some destiny of fate, I took hold of it and enjoyed it and have had good success with it. He certainly laid the foundation for that.”

Despite his dad’s national notoriety, he says Parry’s heart was never far away from his adopted hometown.

“He was very grounded,” John said. “His roots were Indiana and Michigan City. If you asked him where he wanted to go eat, he’d tell you Lindos.”

Contact sports writer Drew White at dwhite@thenewsdispatch.com or 874-7211, Ext. 447.

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'Once a Red Devil, always a Red Devil'

Ken Schreiber stretches out for maximum yardage during his time as a halfback at Elston. Schreiber is among the Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2011. Elstonian photo
By Drew White
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, July 21, 2011 10:29 PM CDT
Editors note: Today’s profile of Ken Schreiber is the final in a series of five featuring the 2011 Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame induction class. Schreiber, along with Matt Jones, Oscar Lubke, Vic Overman and David Parry will be honored at a golf outing next Monday at Pottawattomie Country Club.

Think La Porte, you have to think of baseball.

Think of La Porte baseball, and the name Ken Schreiber instantly comes to mind.

What is often overlooked is the fact that before he led the Slicer baseball program to 1,010 victories, 28 sectional titles, and seven state championships in 38 years, Schreiber was a three-sport athlete in football, basketball, and baseball at Elston High School.

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Schreiber is proud of his Michigan City roots.

“I’m extremely proud to have been a Red Devil,” Schreiber said. “I’m not afraid of telling that to people over here. Once a Red Devil, always a Red Devil.”

And while baseball is where Schreiber’s ultimate impact would come, his playing days on the gridiron hold a special place within Schreiber’s heart. As a three-year starter at halfback at Elston and then as a four-year starting halfback at Valparaiso University, Schreiber helped his teams to some big wins and garnered a few personal accolades along the way.

During his senior season in 1952, Schreiber was a captain and earned all-conference honors after helping the Red Devils snap a pair of lengthy win streaks — a 20-game win streak belonging to South Bend Central and an 11-game win streak held by La Porte.

In both games, the deciding play came in the form of a pass from Schreiber to classmate George Gondeck. Schreiber described the win over South Bend Central as the most memorable moment of his high school football career.

“Breaking South Bend Central’s win streak really meant something to us,” Schreiber said. “I remember it, but not too many others remember that Michigan City had good football back in the days of the Red Devils.”

Upon graduating from Elston, Schreiber moved on to a solid career at VU which saw him earn two All-Indiana Collegiate Conference honors, two team co-most valuable player honors, and co-captain designation in his final season. In 1955, he shared MVP honors with Fred “Fuzzy” Thurston, who went on to help the Green Bay Packers and Vince Lombardi win Super Bowl I and II.

Schreiber said the football knowledge he learned in Michigan City under head coach Wayne Plew helped him earn a starting position with the Crusaders from the moment classes started his freshman year.

“There was a limited substitution rule, so you had to be able to play both ways,” Schreiber said. “I had played in a single-wing system at Michigan City and you had to know how to block and how to tackle. When I went to VU, that really worked to my benefit.”

The compliment that meant the most to him had to do with his ability to avoid major injury. His first major injury didn’t occur until his senior season at Valpo when a hit from a Ball State defender tore cartilage in his left knee.

“The thing that really stands strong with me is that in our press guide at Valpo, they mentioned the fact that I was, ‘one of the most durable and reliable backs to ever wear the brown and gold,’” Schreiber said. “That really means a lot to me because of the competitiveness.”

He led the team in rushing in his freshman and junior seasons and still remains eighth in all-time rushing at Valpo. His junior season saw Schreiber finish 30th in the nation in rushing.

After graduating from Valpo, Schreiber returned to Michigan City and taught for one year before landing in La Porte. In addition to his prolific baseball career, Schreiber spent 17 years as an assistant football coach under head coach Stan Klimczak.

He said that he initially had ambitions of becoming a football head coach, but the opportunity that presented itself was on the diamond.

“Coming from the south side of Chicago, a half of a block from White Sox Park, baseball was embedded upon me,” Schreiber said. “I came over here and we had some success and I felt satisfied being an assistant coach under one of the greatest football guys I’ve ever run into.”

His accomplishments and contributions on the football field helped earn him spots in the Red Devil Athletic Hall of Fame, the Valparaiso University Athletics Hall of Fame and the La Porte High School Football Hall of Fame.

Now adding a spot in the Michigan City High School Football Hall of Fame, Schreiber is cherishing the moment to be able to think back to his pigskin days.

“What tickles me the most is that I’m very proud of my football playing career,” Schreiber said. “I was really proud of the fact that I was able to start for three years at Michigan City and all four years at Valparaiso. I am glad that I can reflect upon my old football playing days.”