Former players to gather in honor of North's first conference-winning championship team

There will be more to celebrate than just the kickoff to North’s 2024 high school football season at Carson Park Thursday night.

When the Huskies host Menomonie, there will be some very special North alumni in the bleachers rooting their gridiron brothers on as many of the football players from the 1974-75 team will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of North’s first conference football championship.

And just who did the Huskies beat to secure their first Big Rivers Conference championship five decades ago? You guessed it, the Mustangs.

Prior to the game many members of that conference-winning team will be gathering at the Pine Pavilion around 5 p.m. Later those same former players in attendance will be introduced at halftime of the game.

It’s an anniversary five decades in the making and an event that has been coming together for a while now.

“We expect about 30 to attend. It’s just something that we have been thinking about since our last class reunion,” said Mark Faanes, who was a quarterback on the team 50 years ago and the self-described “chief guy organizing the reunion with the help of some others.”

Even though he prefers to downplay his contributions to the event humbly saying that he “was a small part” of that conference-winning team and Faanes was the leader, one of the other former players who has helped organize the event, former North linebacker Jim Stolp, added that they actually started putting this specific event together in earnest about six months ago.

“It’s crunch time and things are looking great,” Stolp, who was injured halfway through that historic season and was then sidelined for the rest of the year, said.

To put that historic season into perspective, Faanes told the story of that squad and how they accomplished what had been seemingly impossible before that year.

First some background information. Back in the mid 70’s the Big Rivers Conference consisted of six schools: Eau Claire North and Memorial, La Crosse Central and Logan, Menomonie and Chippewa Falls, Faanes recounts.

“Besides non-conference games, each school played the other five then at the end of the year based on standings, the top two teams played, three and four played, five and six played to round out the season. There were no high school playoffs at that point so to win a conference championship game was a crown jewel,” Faanes said.

The former quarterback went on to document what led up to that historic season for the Huskies.

“In 1973, La Crosse Logan was first and undefeated and North was second. Logan beat North 14-13 in La Crosse in a dog fight to win the championship when North went for two after a late touchdown and the win rather than kicking the extra point for the tie (there were ties still back in the 70’s and no overtime).

Now, on to the 1974 season.

“The Huskies started fast with two impressive non-conference wins before losing a 7-0 defensive struggle to highly ranked Superior Senior at Carson Park in the final non-conference game. Along the way during the conference schedule the Huskies stamped their name as someone to be reckoned with by taking out La Crosse Logan 6-0 at Logan High School Field,” Faanes said.

That was just the beginning for a North squad that would go on to achieve the ultimate goal that they had set at the start of that now legendary season.

“A couple of weeks later, the Huskies lost a rain-soaked homecoming game to Menomonie at Carson Park 20-12. Heading into the playoff round both Menomonie and North finished 4-1 and a rematch in the conference championship game was set for Menomonie. Menomonie led by Head Coach Bob Bundy and the Huskies were led by third-year coach Bill Brehm,” Faanes remembers vividly just like it happened yesterday.

“With the possibility of the first football championship on the line, 13 busloads of students followed the Huskies to Menomonie for the game where the Huskies came from behind in the second half to win the game 31-17 and the first championship in school history. I believe the date was October 25, 1974,” he said.

While that conference-winning team is looking forward to gathering again, Eau Claire North High School’s current head football coach is also psyched to have the champions in the house, too for Thursday night’s season kickoff.

“It will be a ton of fun having the 1974 team around. North has always been a proud community so having people around that share that feeling with the kids will be a fun experience,” McGinnis told the Leader-Telegram Wednesday morning.

In addition to Thursday night’s gathering, the anniversary team will be holding a larger celebration social for the squad beginning at 3 p.m. Friday at the VFW Post 305, 1300 Starr Ave. in Eau Claire. Faanes said that all former classmates, other Huskies, families and the community at large are invited to celebrate with the team.

As for Thursday night’s celebration, Faanes is not sure if his team will get to interact with this year’s squad at all, but either way he had some sage words of advice and encouragement for this 2024 incarnation of Huskies football that he hopes the players will take to heart.

“Not sure yet if we will meet with them, but if we do we will tell them to wear the colors proudly and represent the school the way we did 50 years ago, win, lose or tie. Keep grinding in practice and good things will happen. Most importantly — we are proud of them and all the Husky football players over the last 50 years.”

Kickoff for Thursday night’s season opener is set for 7 p.m.