The Cadillac High School Vikings began the 1974 football season with big cleats to fill. The previous year's squad had gone 9-0, running the team's consecutive-game victory streak to 16. But the pressure to win proved too overwhelming and the gridders dropped their first two games.
Head coach Dave Brines knew his players needed a mental boost. He passed, however, on a win-one-for-the-Gipper speech, and handed off to assistant coach and avid rock 'n' roll fan Jim Neff.
"I had seen Kiss open for the New York Dolls in Flint, probably in 1973," says Neff, an English teacher at Cadillac High in northwest Michigan since 1971. "They were so dynamic and so different. They were a band you had to see."
"There's also a saying in football called 'K-I-S-S.' It stands for 'Keep it simple, stupid' and means coming up with a game plan that's easy for the players to learn and execute. It just all fell together."
No comments:
Post a Comment