The Loose Cannon: The Saints, and Soldiers, Marched In
Out of necessity, we have been spending lots of time in New Braunfels, Texas, over the past two years. For our most recent stay, I signed up at a local gym for the duration. I’m a morning person and was driving to the gym in the dark when I came to a stop sign by the cemetery. I was startled by something I caught out of the corner of my eye approaching from the right.
It was a large group of what appeared to be high school girls running in a tight formation. I estimate there were three columns of maybe eight to 10 girls. I was impressed. They all had gotten up very early on a weekend to get together and run as a group. It was inspiring and even a bit powerful.
I’m sure I was moved by it more than most people would have been because it inspired flashbacks and memories to two separate times in my life.
The Army Memories
The most recent flashback-memories (from 50 years ago) reminded me of running in formation for physical training in the Army at Fort Ord and Fort Bragg. During basic training, while running, the drill sergeant would lead us in various chants.
The first one to come to mind started with the drill sergeant saying, “I want to be an Airborne Ranger!” This was echoed by us, the troops.
“Living a life of guts and danger,” the drill sergeant said, and we repeated.
The following two YouTube videos are actually Army recruiting ads:
Wikipedia explains: “The phalanx was a rectangular mass military formation.”
This brings me to the other flashback-memories.
The St. Helena Saints Memories
The St. Helena Saints football team traveled to Willits for their Oct. 30, 1964 game. St. Helena Star coverage of the game said it appeared that half of the town of St. Helena was there, and I don’t think that was an exaggeration. The Saints always had a loyal following, and in their fifth year of winning, the locals would fill the stands and the sidelines at the home games. My dad and my uncles attended every game and were always walking up and down the sidelines following the movement of play.
The Saints fans would follow their team wherever they played. The town support of the football team reminded me of a scene in the movie Hoosiers where there is a long line of cars traveling country roads in the dark of night to get to a neighboring town for a basketball game.
My dad never missed a ball game or a wrestling match in which my brothers and I competed. Even during the long work days of harvest, my dad and mom would travel to all the games, even to Willits.
The front page of the St. Helena Star from Nov. 5, 1964 reported on the Willits vs. St. Helena football game from the previous week.
The full caption: THE SAINTS COME MARCHING IN. This tight phalanx, familiar to so many opposing teams, became painfully familiar to the Willits squad (background) as the St. Helenans rolled over the Wolverines last Saturday at Willits to establish a new Northern California record (43), for consecutive wins. The Phalanx will move again tomorrow night, here, as the Saints host Clear Lake.
The highly anticipated game was watched by an estimated 4,000 people. The Willits team had high hopes going into that game. They had a 13 game winning streak and were hoping to end the St. Helena winning streak of 42 games.
But the Saints prevailed with a score of 20 to 8 and were on the verge of scoring again when the final gun sounded.
When the Saints took the field before the start of all of their games, they would form into a block formation, a Phalanx, as the picture above shows. Then they would run in a uniform pace around the perimeter of gridiron passing before the stands and bleachers of both teams.
It was psychological warfare.
They would chant as they passed midfield in front of both of the rival stands: The chant was in time with their running, their step cadence. Hard to explain, but I’ll give it a try:
Sad to say, I don’t know that any video exists of the Saints running in their Phalanx formation. If anybody has video of that, please contact me and we’ll figure out a way to get it on YouTube.
Combined with their reputation of dominance on the football field, it was impressive and intimidating. Several years later, I had a roommate (Terry Hatanaka) at Cal Poly from Esparto, CA. St. Helena used to play Esparto in non-league games.
In their 1963 game, St. Helena rolled over Esparto 33-0, and I don’t think the Saints first string played much in the second half. Terry said that when the Saints took the field and marched around chanting in their Phalanx formation, the Esparto team was ready to surrender.
In February of 1965, only a few months after winning his 45th straight football game, George Davis submitted his resignation to the school board. He had accepted a coaching position at Napa Junior College, when they still had a football program. The college recruited Davis because their coach left to accept the position of freshman coach at Stanford University.
That coach had led Napa JC through its most successful season in years. Surely, many of you will know the name: Dick Vermeil.
Dick had earned the nickname “Calistoga Comet” during his Calistoga High School football days. That was long before he guided the Rams to a Super Bowl win in Super Bowl XXXIV.
After his record-setting 45 straight wins at St. Helena, Davis was asked how he was able to pull that off. Davis was humble in his response. He said he was blessed with an incredible number of gifted athletes while at St. Helena High School.
Now here is where the Davis story takes a turn.
Stay tuned for a future column dedicated to George Davis.
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