BV Hall of Fame -BV’s ‘74 football team ‘massacred’ the competition

The year was 1974 and under the guide of head coach Glenn Sellevold and his assistants, Gerry Leischner, Denny Halseth and Dick DeNeui, Brandon Valley racked up nine wins – and no losses – on the football field that season.

But again, this was 1974, and South Dakota didn’t have an organized high school playoff system in place. Instead, as Joe Swenson, a senior on the ’74 team, there was a “mythical championship” that was determined by sportswriters in the state. The writers, Swenson said, ranked the Lynx third behind teams from Sioux Falls and Yankton.

“We only had 110 kids in our senior class,” he said. “We didn’t have a stadium and we played football on the field next to Brandon Elementary. There were very limited bleachers and only four light poles for that whole field; it was pretty primitive.”

It was also bone dry.

“It was in the ‘70s and there was no rain,” Swenson said. “The practice field was terrible, just a few bits of brown grass and dirt. It was hot and dry. That’s what I remember about high school football. They would water the field, so when we’d get on the field, that was nice.”

Swenson also remembers the daily short haul the players had to make from the high school to the football field.

“We’d get dressed at the high school, then walk down the street through the neighborhood in our cleats, pads and helmets and stuff, and we’d go down and practice just north of that field, because there was a piece of grass there,” he said. 

By the time he was a senior, the team moved their practice sessions to where the discus pad is today.

“We didn’t have leather helmets,” he jokes. “There were a lot of things that we’re pretty primitive. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t today’s standards.”

The Lynx also did not have a weight room. Instead, their workouts involved “working for farmers and doing stuff like that,” he said. 

“When football started Aug. 15 or whatever, you’d have practice for two weeks and then start playing games, and by Halloween it was all over. And then, the next day you were thinking about basketball or wrestling, and after that you thought about track.”

Swenson said the Lynx dominated the competition week in and week out, giving up just 26 points in three of their nine games combined.

He credits much of that domination to the defense.

“We might have the best defensive record of all-time at Brandon,” Swenson said, noting how BV’s first-string defense gave up only two touchdowns that season.

“Beresford got one on a fluke play and I don’t remember how Garretson scored against us, but they scored a touchdown,” he said.

One of the more memorable games was against their rival, the Blue Dragons of Garretson. It was the last game of the season, and BV squeaked out the narrow 7-6 victory after Garretson missed an extra point.

“They were tough,” Swenson said, “and I don’t think we had our very best game that game. I think if we played them again, I think we would’ve beaten them worse.”

Mike Hegland was the quarterback that season and the star running back was a familiar name in BV Hall of Fame history, Jon Bly.

The Lynx also featured the likes of Perry Scott, who was listed at 230 pounds.

“He was like ‘the monster,’” Swenson said. “I mean, nobody had somebody that weighed 230 it seemed like. Almost everybody was less than 200 pounds, and now that’s just not that big anymore.”

When the ’74 season got underway, Swenson said the team had an inkling “we’d be good.”

“We were good the year before and only lost two or three games that year. … We had really good defense and we had Jon Bly, and we had a passing offense, too. But it was pretty simple passing compared to what they do now, but we scored a lot. We’d run and we were so tough to stop running, but then the coach would call a pass play and then, ‘boom,’ there’d be a touchdown,” Swenson said. “Everything is so sophisticated today. The football teams that we watch today – the Brandon Valley teams and the plays that they can run, the complexity – it’s just night and day compared to what we could do.”

Swenson said Coach Sellevold and staff worked the team hard.

“He expected a lot,” he remembers. “But he prepared us for games and we were always prepared. He’d usually lie to us about how tough somebody was going to be, so then we were scared and we’d go out and massacre them on the field.”

The team’s success that season had the community talking football, and Friday nights at BV’s dimly-lit football field was the place to be. Many of the town’s residents at that time worked at Morrell’s in Sioux Falls. 

“That was the big employer, and of course, for a lot of the families, the husband worked at Morrell’s and the wife stayed at home, and they could raise a whole family and have a boat and everything living in Brandon,” Swenson remembers. “Brandon was a big bedroom community for Morrell’s, and of course other towns had a lot of people working at Morrell’s, too. We had to play an undefeated Lennox team about half way through the season. They had some big guys on the team, and it turned out we beat them 44-0, we just smoked them.”

That game also instigated a number of bets between Brandon Valley and Lennox fans who worked at Morrell’s.

“That was the most excitement that I remember at a game was the Lennox and Brandon Valley game. We played at Brandon, and there were lots of people watching the game because the Lennox Morrell’s guys to watch their team, and it was a big deal, and we were fired up because we won by so much,” he said.

With no playoff system in place, there was no celebration to celebrate the team’s perfect season. After wrapping up their season on a Halloween night in Garretson, they didn’t find out for days who was named as “mythical” team champion.

“It was just that way,” Swenson said. “We didn’t know for maybe a week or two, whenever the paper came out.”

The team’s induction into BV’s Athletic Hall of Fame is finally the due celebration they deserve.

“It’s wonderful to be recognized, and we’re very thankful,” Swenson said. “When I was thinking about how much fun it is, our team would probably never get together again if wasn’t for this, and so now we’re going to talk about things we haven’t talked about for 48 years.”

1974 Brandon Valley Lynx Football

Coaching Staff: Glenn Sellevold, Gerry Leischner, Denny Halseth, Dick DeNeui

Team roster: Brad Archer, Doug Archer, Joel Assid, Dave Bader, Jack Bedessem, Jon Bly, Rick Bonander, Steve Clark, Kevin Dale, Jeff Eitreim, Jim Ellis, Jeff Emmons, Jason Emmons, Chuck Groseth, Dan Hanson, Mike Hegland, Doug House, Terry Kapsch, Bill Lambertz, Chuck Larsen, Jim McBreen, Dave Mendendorp, Curt Metz, Brian Mohr, Doug Ode, Bruce Ode, Gregg Ode, Mark Ode, Vance Peterson, Todd Peterson, Dan Reid, Dean Rippentrop, Kent Schmidt, Brian Scott, Perry Scott, Karlton Smith, Bob Smithback, Ted Swenson, Joe Swenson, Miles Symonds, Dave Versteeg, Jon Weidenaar 

Managers: Rodney Alexander, Brad Bosch, Jack Zimmel

Cheer Team: Darla Flaskey, JoAnn Gile, Kris Kreiter, Marlys McKenney, Mary O’Connor, Kris Voldseth

Season Record:  9 wins – 0 losses

Brandon Valley 23 Hamlin County 14

Brandon Valley 31 Dell Rapids 0

Brandon Valley 12 Flandreau 0

Brandon Valley 14 Canton 0 

Brandon Valley 47 Lennox 0

Brandon Valley 36 West Central 0

Brandon Valley 55 Elk Point 0

Brandon Valley 28 Beresford 6

Brandon Valley 7 Garretson 6