Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

30 YEARS AGO • JANUARY 3, 1991

WEATHER PLAYED ROLE IN ANNUAL KEG BOWL

by John Hamilton

It didn’t matter that the thermometer was hovering around 25 degrees below zero, the calendar told all die-hard football players that it was time for the Keg Bowl.

The Silver Bullets downed the O No Boys 36-20 Saturday to win the 10th annual Keg Bowl Saturday.

The extreme cold and two feet of snow that blanketed frozen Ainsworth Field did not deter the hard-core participants, most of whom were former Blue Hawk gridders.

“This was by far the coldest weather we’ve ever had for the Keg Bowl,” Bullet coach Roger Willhite said, “but once you get out there and started playing it didn’t seem that bad.”

Willhite and several of his friends created this bowl game on a whim a decade ago. They had so much fun with it, they decided to play annually.

Now the game has become a yearly event for the town of Thompson Falls and for the men who wage battle for ownership of the keg.

This year Willhite’s Bullets made enough big plays to turn back the O No Boys and take home the keg.

“I have to take my hat off to the young guys,” Willhite said. “They won the game for us.”

T.J. Willhite, Roger’s cousin who was an all-star performer for Thompson Falls High School in 1989, won the Most Valuable Player award. He scored two touchdowns and caught a two-point conversion pass.

Shawn Allen of the Bullets, a state champion wrestler and football star for the Blue Hawks in the late 70s, was selected as the Most Valuable Lineman.

“Shawn was a force for us, nobody could handle him,” Roger Willhite said.

The Bullets captain also singled out the play of Chadd Laws, Sean Mahoney and Scott Pardee.

Laws caught one touchdown pass, threw an option pass to T.J. Willhite for another, and intercepted a pass to set up another score.

Mahoney made several acrobatic catchers including a touchdown in the second quarter. Pardee caught a 55-yard scoring toss from Roger Willhite, who threw for four touchdowns, in the third quarter to blow the game open, giving the Bullets a 30-14 lead.

The O No Boys, captained by Shawn Sorenson, had some stars of their own.

The strong-armed Sorenson threw two touchdown passes, one to Henry Kazmierczak for the first score of the game and another to Cody Neville on a 40-yard bomb, one of the game’s more spectacular plays.

Kazmierczak scored the O No Boys’ other touchdown on a run in the second quarter.

“Regardless of who wins the game,” Roger “Bulldog” Willhite said, “the main idea of the Keg Bowl is to get together with old friends and have some fun.”

The playing of this year’s game was dedicated to the men and women who are part of the Desert Shield maneuvers in the Middle East.

Proceeds from the game and a card signed by all participants will be sent to Saudi Arabia.

The Arctic-like weather did not stop the game, but it did cause some interesting problems along the way.

For one thing, the keg froze up and stopped flowing early in the game. Some quick thinking by the sideliners solved that as the keg was moved closer to the warming fire.

The football was more like a rock than a pigskin in the bitter cold. A layer of ice kept forming along the ball’s seams, making ball handling difficult.

The biggest impact of the cold was the fact that several long-time Keg Bowlers couldn’t get to the game.

“The weather and snow prevented getting all the regulars back,” the Bulldog said, “But we still had a good turnout.”

Randy Pirker, who was on the injured reserve list for this year’s Bowl, graciously volunteered to referee and employed an old, brightly-colored shoe as a penalty flag. Steve Clark was the one-man chain gang roving the sideline.

Following are the team rosters for the 1990 Keg Bowl:

Silver Bullets – Bulldog Willhite (captain), Allen, T.J. Willhite, Mike Doherty, Nelson Butler, Dale Peters, Wade Nichols, Ralph Cheney, Pardee, Laws and Mahoney.

O No Boys – Sorenson (captain), Jason Diehl, Kazmierczak, Neville, Brett Doyle, Rick Nelson, Jeff Wordell, Ken Commers, Scott Sharp, Greg Sharp, Russ Lawrence and Jason Torgrimson.

Bulldog Willhite is the only man to have played in all 10 Keg Bowls and he doesn’t plan on stopping.

“I would like to thank everybody concerned for making this event a success,” he said. “We’ll be back next year.”