June 06, 2025
Local NewsState & National

1971 Corning football team celebrates 50th anniversary of mythical championship

By JARED LARSON

From left: Paul Cantieri, Lyle Schrader-All State Center, Scott Parcher, Don Hinricher(white shirt), Randy Simmons, Marvin Mundt, Dan Jones, Rick Bissell, Dave Kragel(tall one), Beecher (light shirt), Rich Manke (partially hidden), Denny Redel, Howard Bergman, Gary Goldsmith(letter jacket), Tony Jennings, Jim Bergman. In the car coach Jim Redel is in the back seat nearest to the camera. coach Percy Stielow is in the background. The woman in front is Joanne Stielow, Percy's wife. (Contributed Photo)

CORNING – The 1971 Corning Red Raider football team will have been mythical state champions for 50 years next Tuesday, Nov. 9.

Chuck Burdick, a long time sports writer for the Des Moines Register, deemed the Red Raiders mythical state champions.

The Red Raiders were sound offensively and defensively, averaging over 400 total yards per game while allowing just about 120 yards per game. Additionally, Corning out scored their 1971 slate of opponents 318 to 33.

Before Corning reached their peak in 1971, Coach Redel took Corning from a bottom tier team in the Hawkeye Seven to a team that found their stride in the Tall Corn Conference.

“Redel’s first season was 1969 and Corning was still in the Hawkeye Seven,” Burdick’s article said. The result was one-sided as 60-8 (Atlantic), 61-12 (Shenandoah), 74-0 Clarinda and 51-12 (Red Oak).”

“Fall season of ‘69 that was the first year I was at Corning,” 1971 Corning head coach Jim Redel said. “I think they won one game in the prior three years. We played five sophomores that year and so we had a good returning nucleus the next two years.”

Those then sophomores were Lyle Schrader, Denny Redel, Jim Swain, Jim Bergman and Tom Nolan.

From left are Jim Swain, Coach Redel, Jim Bergman, Denny Redel, Lyle Schrader and Tom Nolan. Photo is from the 1971 season. (Des Moines Register photo)

The 1969 Red Raider team finished .500 with a record of 5-5, and they won three of their last four games including 16-14 wins over Creston and a then undefeated Lenox.

In 1970, the Red Raiders went 8-1.

“We knew the ‘70 team was going to be good, they stumbled only once when they lost 8-0 to Greenfield,” Redel said.

According to senior of the 1970 team Dan Jones, having the National Farmers Organization in Corning was a benefit in regards to having a good number of students out for football.

“The NFO’s national headquarters was there and the population of Corning was probably the largest it had been in some time,” Jones said. “We got kids in from Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin.”

Back then, the Red Raiders played at the Adams County Fairgrounds.

“Enthusiasm was high, something that I really remember was how the community got behind us,” Jones said. “We played at where the stock car races are held now and we practiced right to the north of there. It was a pretty neat atmosphere.”

Corning opened the season with a 30-8 victory over Griswold. The following week, the Red Raiders took on a solid Bedford team.

“The story goes, the game was supposed to start at 7:30 p.m. but it didn’t start until 8 p.m. because traffic was delayed with all the Corning people going to the game,” Jones said.

Corning won 12-6 with a fourth quarter score.

Glenwood, a then Hawkeye Eight team, provided the Red Raiders with another challenge.

“Again we had to score in the fourth quarter to win that one, we won 12-7,” Redel said. “We struggled with extra points and we did. That’s kind of funny because I was a kicker in college and we just didn’t have a punter or a kicker.”

With the Red Raiders going 17-1 in two seasons, teams tried their best to beat Corning’s rush heavy offense.

In 1971, Corning had 3,700 yards from scrimmage with 2,988 of those yards came from rushing the ball.

“Everybody points to you on their schedule and it’s like you’ve got a target on your back,” Redel said.

The Red Raiders had eight players on the all-league offensive team and six on the defense that season.

Coach Redel had a defensive coordinator by the name of Percy Stielow.

“Those two made a great pair,” Jones said.

Stielow is also a IHSAA Class of 1989 hall of fame basketball coach.

“I always said Percy is a darn good basketball coach, but he’s a better football coach,” Redel said. “He was the best assistant coach I ever had.”

Coach Stielow recalled a “neat” play that Coach Redel would run during the fall of 1971.

“One of his plays involved a six foot seven inch offensive end (Dave Kragel) who would run down and have him stop, turn around and the quarterback would throw him the ball,” Stielow said. “Then he had a speedster (Denny Redel) running down the sideline and the tall kid would give it to the speedster, which was one of his neat plays I thought.”

Members of the 1971 team returned to Corning in September for Homecoming.

“Seeing a lot of players I hadn’t seen for quite awhile, it was really rewarding,” Stielow said.