30 years gone: Looking back at the Indian Valley Conference

Has it really been 30 years since the Indian Valley Conference played its last football game?

The Indian Valley Conference was one of the top small-school conferences in the state, producing a multitude of playoff teams in its 28-year run from 1976-94.

Over its course, the Indian Valley saw 15 different schools and 21 teams, including co-ops, play football.

Charter members for football in 1976 were Annawan, Atkinson, Bradford, DePue, LaMoille, Manlius, Tampico, Tiskilwa, Walnut and Western, the inaugural league champ. Ohio and Wyanet came aboard for football in 1978, with the Bulldogs lasting just three seasons before dropping its program.

The landscape changed over time with the conference split between East and West divisions from 1979 through 1988.

There were seven teams in the last season of Indian Valley Conference football in 1994, with four co-ops - league champ Manlius-Tampico, Western-DePue-Wyanet, Bradford-Tiskilwa and Walnut/LaMoille joined by holdover Annawan and newcomers Peoria Heights and Princeville.

The consolidation of Bureau Valley, which took in the Manlius, Walnut, Western and Wyanet, and the annexation of Tiskilwa to Princeton led to the fall of the Indian Valley Conference football in 1995.

The last IVC team to play a football game was Manlius-Tampico, which reached the second-round of the 1994 Class 1A playoffs, falling to Durand 20-8.

Indian Valley memories

Clay Haurberg, a 1991 Walnut graduate who played two years as a Blue Raider for Mick Peterson and two years in the LaMoille-Walnut co-op and now is head football and basketball coach at Argenta-Oreana, vividly remembers the excitement that surrounded nearly every game around the IVC.

“Our players, coaches and the entire community would get so into the entire event,” he said. “Fans were arriving at the field, both home and away, before the team. It was like MLB game day batting practice. Our fans loved the team so much that they didn’t even want to miss the Raiders warming up.”

He said the rivalries in the IVC made it special.

“When I was a little kid (late 70′s & early 80′s), our rival was Tiskilwa. The IVC East title was always on the line when we faced them,” he said. “In the mid-80′s, Tiskilwa began to slip a bit and LaMoille was becoming a contender. We had some great battles with them for the IVC East crown and in the playoffs, right up until the beginning of co-ops in the IVC. Somewhat ironically, they became our co-op partner and I played with those guys.

“The thing I loved about the IVC was the fact that all the towns were so close to one another geographically, so we had a familiarity with each other from crossing paths off the field. You really had more of a stake in the outcomes, because you wanted bragging rights when you saw those other guys later.”

John McKenzie also played in the Indian Valley at Bradford and coached at Bradford, Bradford-Tiskilwa and Walnut-LaMoille. He remembers not only the players and teams, but also the great coaches of the Indian Valley – naming Kenny Bourquin of Manlius, Jim Frankenreider of Annawan, Mick Peterson of Walnut (who won a state title at Pontiac), Dave Moore of Manlius (who won a state title at BV), Rick Odgers, Greg Sarver of Tiskilwa (who took L-P to the state semis), Greg Christakos of Atkinson (who had success at both Wethersfield and Kewanee) and Gary Johnson (who had great success at both Wyoming and Stark County).

“As a coach, the things that stand out in my mind were the number of great coaches that were in the conference and the friendships that we had with each other. As good as coaches as they all were, they were really good people and friends,” McKenzie said.

For McKenzie, his fondest memory as a coach, was his first year as head coach at Bradford in 1987, which won the West Division in the last game of the year against Manlius 26-20 on a 70-yard TD pass in the last 30 seconds from Eric Horack to Will Bumphrey.

Jeff Prusator, who played quarterback for Tiskilwa, graduating in 1986, said Indian Valley Conference football was special, especially the rivalries.

“The IVC was very competitive with so many talented players, good programs and quality coaches. For small schools, it was good, quality football,” he said. “The teams knew each other so well. We had grown up competing against each other from little league through junior high and into high school. We just didn’t compete in football. It was all sports, which led to us knowing each other so well and wanting to win.

“Friday nights were awesome no matter where we played. Every community took pride in their school, and that showed on Friday nights. I can’t imagine a better time to play high school football.”

Craig Johnson came to Western High School in the fall and joined the Rams’ staff a year later. He said he learned a lot from the veteran coaches like Bourquin and Tom Bruna of Princeville. Their friendships made it easier when Bureau Valley formed in 1995 with Bourquin as head coach and Moore, McKenzie and Johnson on staff.

“Kenny, Dave, Tom and I used to go ISU to football championships together the day after Thanksgiving. Kenny and Tom had coached against each other for years and played against each other in college. Their stories were always fun to listen to, both love football,” Johnson said.

League champions

Annawan and Walnut top the list of IVC champions with eight championship apiece. Bradford and Western check in next in line with four each.

Other schools to claim IVC championships were Manlius/Tampico (2), Tiskilwa (2), Atkinson (1), Bradford-Tiskilwa (1) and Wyoming (1).

Annawan won the most league games, going 84-26 (.724), and most games overall at 147-38 (.795).

Walnut had the best winning percentage (.857) in league play with a 66-11 record as well as for overall play (.817) with a 116-26 record.

Playoff teams

Annawan topped the IVC with 12 playoff berths as a league member, making semifinal appearances in 1986 and 1990 and a quarterfinal in 1991 and 1993.

Walnut reached the state finals in 1982 followed by a quarterfinal appearance in 1983 and a four-year quarterfinal run from 1985-89 under Mick Peterson.

Peterson, who went 50-9 in five years at Walnut, shared a story about a moment in a way only he can tell during the Blue Raiders’ 14-7 second-round playoff win over LaMoille in 1986.

“We had a fourth-and-1 from our own 19-yard line,” he said. “I told Dave McFadden, who was my spotter upstairs, that we were going for it, rather than punt. He responded, ‘Well, OK. ... I can see a moving van from up here that’s heading towards your house right now.’

“Kemper Westfall ran a QB sneak, and we got the first down. Dave followed with, ‘It’s OK now. The moving van kept on going past your house.’ ”

The Blue Raiders had a 15-11 playoff record.

Manlius made one playoff appearance on its own (1987) and five more in a co-op with Tampico, topped by a quarterfinal appearance in 1992, finishing with a 6-6 record.

Other schools and their playoff records in order of wins are LaMoille (3-3), Bradford (3-6), Atkinson (2-1), Tiskilwa (2-2), Tampico (0-1), Wyanet (0-1) and Western (0-4).

Division I talent

The Indian Valley produced the talents of at least five future Big Ten players, including Ron Bohm (1982), who played for Walnut’s 1982 state runner-up, the Schertz brothers of Tiskilwa, Todd (1982) and Tom (1983), and Mike Suarez of DePue (1990), who all played for the Fighting Illini. Suarez and DePue finished in a co-op with neighboring Hall.

Atkinson’s Tony Wancket (1980) was a defensive end/team captain for Hayden Fry’s Iowa Hawkeyes.

Ted VanHyfte (1989) of Annawan, Wancket’s future brother-in-law, went on to play for Wake Forest.

“Pretty rare that you would see a small public school conference that had that many Division I players in it,” McKenzie said.