Can Leafs, Rocks continue histories?
By Keith Brake
Geneseo Current
As a kid, I grew up in Rock Island and along the way became quite a sports fan. Mostly high school football and basketball. Also softball and, when it came along, girls high school basketball.
I read Murray and Nolan Hurt in The Argus and Paul Carlson in The Dispatch and listened to Don Sharp on WHBF.
Well, didn't we all?
I remember a crisp fall evening in Public Schools Stadium, when Rocky quarterback Steve Wilson was lighting up the gridiron with dimes dropped on flanker Bryan Crompton and wide receiver Al Bream.
I marveled at how fast they could take the Rocks down the field.
Later, our family moved to Geneseo and I wondered how bored I might be watching a team “that couldn't throw” the football.
My first Geneseo game as a fan came about this time of year, when big, bad Rochelle came to town – and dazzled us with their power show. Fullback smash, off-tackle right. More of same. Then repeat.
But anything but boring. A Geneseo defensive player years later told me “I saw that sweep coming right at me and next thing I knew I was spitting out a couple teeth.”
Rochelle won that game, 18-13. The student sections which met behind the south goal posts were out shaking hands with, and not fists at, the other side.
Those were the days. And the games.
Jump ahead a few years. Geneseo's “Green Machine” had been born, that night against Rochelle went unbeaten in their next 52 games before losing another one. A local, regional and state institution was born and the problem now was how to keep feeding it.
But all this time, the state's 10th and 12th-winningest football progams – Geneseo and Rock Island – have been just a few wins apart, and they still are.
They haven't faced each other very often. That's because the schools have tended to be near the top (Rock Island) or lower (Geneseo) on the enrollment ladder.
But cities have grown and both schools are closer to the middle of the spread now.
They find themselves in the same WB6 Conference, and playing each other every fall.
Rock Island has had a rough start this season but one thing I expect will continue: If Rock Island can get the ball out in space to its speed people and; if Geneseo can stay disciplined with its blocking and tackling, this should remain an exciting and unpredictable series between two schools who have done their thing well for a long, long time.
And I am glad I have lived to see it happen!
