Some of the memories may have faded a bit, but the fact that the undefeated Kidder High School football team of 1958 was named the South Dakota Six-Man Football State Champion is still crystal clear for players on that squad.
Expectations were pretty high for that 1958 team under Coach Laton Greeno. The Tigers had gone unbeaten the year before and also added a transfer from Britton, senior Rick Schiebe, who had been an 11-man standout for the Braves and for Groton.
Those expectations proved to be well-founded.
The Tigers dominated every game they played that season, beginning with a 40-13 season-opening win over Claremont, who a few years earlier (1947-52) had set a national record of 61 consecutive wins. Then came shutouts over Langford 47-0, Hecla 52-0, and Roslyn 56-0. Bristol fell 60-13, Pierpont 61-19, and Conde 53-6 in the season finale. In addition, most of those games were over at halftime due to a 40-point mercy rule in effect at that time.
Don Pitkin, who played varsity football as an eighth grader and was the starting quarterback for Kidder for four straight seasons, said it was all about good athletes and speed.
“I think the reason we dominated like we did was just good athletes more than anything, and good tough kids, too,” said Pitkin, who was a junior on that 1958 club and now resides in Sioux City, IA. “We never had water on the field in those days, there wasn’t such a thing as heat timeouts, and nothing beats a good ol’ farm kid.
“Of course speed was a big thing,” Pitkin added. “Six-man football is a racehorse game. If you have good speed you’re going to shine.”
And shine they did. Pitkin and Schliebe were named to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader’s Six-Man Football All-State First Team, while Don’s brother, Dick, was a second team selection. That meant that the Tigers had three of the 12 six-man All-State players in the state.
All three of those players went on to play college ball at Northern State. The Wolves lost just three games during Don Pitkin’s collegiate career, two of those being bowl games.
According to the 1958 Argus Leader story about the honor squad Coach Greeno credited Pitkin (6-0, 175) as one of the big reasons the Tigers posted back-to-back perfect seasons. He scored 99 points and “passed for many more.” He was also a second team All-State pick as a sophomore.
At 5-8 and 165 pounds Schliebe was a hard runner, preferring to run over people instead of around them. He scored 153 points in just seven games and also was a defensive stalwart.
Dick Pitkin played center for the Tigers, but in six-man football everybody on the team is eligible to catch a pass. He probably scored more from the center position than anybody else in the state with 91 points that 1958 season.
The addition of Schliebe heading into the 1958 campaign was icing on the cake for the Tigers.
“Our expectations were high simply because of what we had coming back from the year before,” recalled Pikin. “And with Rick joining our group we knew he was a pretty good football player that would add an extra dimension to our team.”
Schliebe, whose father passed away when he was a high school freshman, admitted he had some trouble finding his way, attending three different high schools. But he found a home in Kidder.
“Coach Greeno kind of designed the plays with Don and I in mind,” said Schliebe, a resident of Denver, CO. “Don was really a hard-nosed football player and put 100 percent into everything. And I didn’t juke too many people. I liked to run over them. In fact, in college Northern coach Clark Swisher called me into his office and asked, ‘Do you ever think of going around anybody?’’”
With that one-two punch and some top linemen to lead the way the Tigers pretty much ran over everybody.
“We ran the ball so well that we figured until they stopped us we would keep running the football,” remembered Pitkin. “We didn’t pass too much and a lot of our games only went until halftime because of the 40-point rule.”
Six-man football is known for its wide-open style with a few trick plays thrown in for good measure, but Schliebe said his club didn’t use much trickery.
“To tell you the truth, we didn’t have to do any of the trick stuff,” understated Schliebe. “Don averaged 11.1 yards per carry and I averaged 11.3.”
Larry Bosse, now of Britton, was also a member of that unbeaten team and played in a reserve role as a sophomore.
“I was just a little guy, graduating at 129 pounds,” said Bosse. “But I was good at roll blocking and the big guys would trip over me. Speed was the key. I remember Coach Greeno used to say, ‘Get outside and go like hell. We used to have two formations - the S or T - and it was just a matter of handing the ball off to Rick or Don. We were tough – no doubt about it.”
With the success that Kidder enjoyed, football obviously was at the top of people’s minds and probably the pinnacle of success in the history of the school.
“Our state championship year every boy in the school was out for football except for one, and he was our water boy,” said Pitkin. “It was definitely the highlight of my high school career and the athletic highlight of Kidder High School.”
“Everybody within 20 miles would come to the game,” said Schliebe. “They were pretty well packed., and it was like a big family. It was so much fun.”
There were other undefeated six-man football teams in that 1958 season but evidently not a lot of controversy over who was the number one team in the state that year.
“I think people thought we deserved what we got,” noted Pikin. “Even though they didn’t have playoffs back then, when we dominated teams like we did you can’t help but have people think we were halfway decent.”
Schliebe also would have loved to take his team a bit back in time and battled Claremont during the Honkers’ glory years.
“Gus Perkins was a back on those teams and I’ve always told him I thought the 1958 Kidder team against that record-setting Claremont squad would have been a hell of a game.”
