Published: November 28, 2009 12:58 am      

Lancers own spot in Logansport football history

Amateur team was started out of the love for the game

In the 1970s, three friends started an amateur football team in Logansport because of their love of the game.

Tim Wilson, Jim Zimmerman and Don Brown have been close friends since 1963, while Brown and Zimmerman have known each other since 1946. After their high school years were over these friends got together weekly with others at Memorial Hospital, Riverside Park or even Corso’s Field for a friendly game of sandlot football.

Problem was, few of these games were ever friendly with many marred by injuries and fights. The frustration from these games led the friends on a search for a more organized game. The three had heard of a team in Lafayette that played in a league based around the Indianapolis area. Contact was made with the Lafayette club and the seed for a Logansport team had been planted.

Wilson, Brown, and Zimmerman began working with local merchants and city officials to bring football to town. The trio initially had to organize and establish a Logansport football club. Once the club was in place fundraisers were held to help with the start up cost of equipment.

“D&R and Sanburn’s really helped us out each year, but it was individual people that were huge in helping us,” Wilson said. “The local merchants bought ad space in our programs and individual people that bought tickets to games and tickets for raffles were the key.”

Zimmerman added that a couple nearby colleges also helped get things off the ground.

“Manchester College and Purdue really helped us start things up. Manchester donated a bunch of pads and Purdue gave us all our black pants.”

Once the club had been established, the three friends spent an entire year traveling to Indianapolis once a month to attend meetings of the National Amateur Football League. During this year Jim Hollibaugh was named head coach of the team and a community wide contest was held to come up with a name for the team. The winner was selected and the Logansport Lancers were born. The summer of 1973 saw the football dream become a reality when the Lancers hosted a jamboree against the Indianapolis Bears and came away 2-0 winners.

As a way of giving back to the community the Lancers were active throughout the year with various community service projects. This was a rough game being played by big guys, but their hearts were bigger when helping the Salvation Army deliver Christmas baskets. Or when providing Easter dinners and entertainment to the folks at the County Home. Each home game found various team members providing free tickets to the kids at the Children’s Home and team members giving their time, making fundraising appearances for organizations such as the kidney foundation. The Lancers even established college scholarships with Rick Siddell and Don Zinsmaster being named the first two recipients.

The trio of friends recently shared their memories from their days with the Lancers. They also had some good-natured ribbing to share amongst each other. Wilson remembered many of Zimmerman’s patented “look-out!” blocks.

“Zimmy was supposed to pull my way and block on several plays. A lot of times though you’d hear him yell, ‘Look out!’” he said.

“I knew then he’d missed his block and I was about to get nailed.”

Zimmerman was quick to add that the team only threw to Wilson because they had to.

“Tim was the only one that remembered the plays, we had no choice.”

They also shared the story of traveling to different cities to play games. Brown recalled one time playing in Columbus, Ohio.

“This was before we began using the motor bus from the old Bus Plus. I think it was a church in Twelve Mile that provided a bus and driver for that trip. We get there and as we start unloading. We felt like everyone was laughing at us because we were getting off a bus with Happy Day Express painted on the side of it.”

When asked about individual memories, Brown regretted he had but a few. Though one of the charter members of the Lancers, Brown never played in a single game.

“After we’d formed the team I hurt my knee in practice before our first game and was done. Shortly after the knee healed I became a police officer and due to insurance risks I wasn’t allowed to play anymore. I really loved the game and I just loved hitting people,” he said.

Zimmerman recalled suiting up for the first time as one of his fondest memories.

“To this day I remember the feeling I had coming out of the locker room for the first time. The hair was standing up on the back of my neck, the adrenaline was pumping, and I was more proud than I’d ever been playing ball because everyone had told us that we couldn’t get it done,” he said.

Wilson added that he’d never played football until he started with the Lancers at age 28.

“During my time with the team I thought I’d done OK. I had never played before and I remember always feeling happy and proud that I’d gotten the chance to play football.”

Ron Goforth was a running back for the Lancers in their later years. He remembers enjoying the road trips and going to places like Chicago and seeing how much bigger they were and how different their playing styles were.

“We were just a bunch of guys that enjoyed playing football. We all had different skill levels but we went out and did the best that we could with what we had,” he said. “There were several of us from the Caston area as well as the Pioneer area. But we drew from all over. Just a lot of guys that loved playing football.”

One of the first scholarship recipients was Zinsmaster. After graduating from Logansport in 1975 Zinsmaster went away to junior college for a year. Upon returning he began playing for the Lancers. He fondly remembers one of the first games with the Lancers.

“We went to play at Lafayette. I had a pretty good game against them and so did Rick Siddell,” he said. “After the game we were approached by coaches from St. Joseph College and were offered scholarships to play football at St. Joe. I ended up going as a linebacker and Rick went as a punter.

“When I came back from school I played a couple more years with the Lancers before moving to California. We had some pretty good times playing back then.”

The love of the game stayed with Zinsmaster for many years. He just recently retired from playing with the Kokomo Mustangs at the young age of 51.

The Lancers started out with good numbers to field a team. The crowds were big and the interest was there for a successful club. Unfortunately, after a nine-year run, the numbers dwindled and the Lancers were forced to disband due to that. But speaking for many, thanks Lancers for the memories.