MCJ Football -- The Merle Confer era

Note: For many years McCook High football was not the most popular pastime in the fall. That honor went to McCook JC football, The college had a series of good football coaches, who produced really fine football teams. Their games were wildly popular, to the extent that on a number of occasions extra bleachers were brought into Weiland Stadium to try to accommodate unusually large crowds. Among the best of these MJC coaches was Merle Confer. His best was the MJC Indians team of 1947.

McCook Junior College was able to field a football team the very first year (1926) that the College was in existence. They finished with a 2-1 season. However that was the last winning season until 1934 -- no team in 1933 for lack of numbers. Things picked up a bit in the late 30s and by 1940 McCook teams were consistently respectable -- only to be stopped once more by the start of WW II. The MJC '44 and '45 seasons were canceled altogether.

World War II ended in August 1945 and Veterans began to return from the Services -- too late to salvage a football season, but in time to bolster the 1946 basketball roster. Probably the most important Veteran to return to McCook Junior College after the war was Merle Confer.

Merle Confer had been a coach at McCook High School, where he coached Football, Basketball, and Track! In 1942 he went into the Navy. Upon his discharge, Merle accepted a job to coach Football, Basketball and Track at McCook Junior College.

In 1946 veterans started to return to college to take advantage of the GI Bill, and MJC football looked forward to being respectable once more.

Merle bonded well with the returning veterans, whom he called, "Just good old Southwest Nebraska boys". The '46 schedule was incomplete. Some of their games even came along as the season progressed. MJC finished 6-2.

On their first '46 road trip, to Norfolk to play NJC, Confer recognized that his team was not just older high school boys. They were veterans of war, and they had been around.

McCook won their game, and after a minor celebration everyone went to bed. Merle made the rounds to be sure that everyone was in bed before he, himself retired. About 3 am he was awakened by red and green flashes on the ceiling of his room. He looked out the window to see two police cars herding his entire football team up the middle of the street. They were very happy -- singing loudly, if not exactly in tune.

Next morning Merle had a long talk with his team after boarding the bus. If such ever happened again offenders would be left to find their own ride home. "Do I make myself clear?" That situation never happened again, to his knowledge. During Confer's tenure at MJC the team played Norfolk 13 times. Norfolk just won once.

Scottsbluff JC was one of McCook's great rivals. One year they had a really outstanding player, Dick "Night Train" Lane. (After but one year of College football, Lane went into the Army, then straight to the NFL. A perennial All-Pro, with the LA Rams and Detroit Lions, Lane was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974. In the Pros, Lane was a defensive back, known for his vicious tackles, especially the forearm around the head of the runner, known as the "Night Train Necktie". Lane was also responsible for that tackle being declared illegal.)

In the McCook / Scottsbluff game, McCook scored very near the end of the game, which put McCook ahead by less than one touchdown. McCook kicked off and Night Train returned the kick. He was apparently trapped near his goal line, but reversed his field three or four times, and against all odds, broke into the clear, with just one McCook player, the Center (not the fastest man on the McCook team), in any position to catch him. Under normal conditions, Lane would have easily outdistanced any McCook lineman, but his run, back and forth across the field, had exhausted him, and at the 10-yard line he simply "ran out of gas", and collapsed, the McCook Center fell on top of him. Time expired and McCook won the game. Confer's record against Scottsbluff was 7-3-3.

The games with Fairbury Junior College were fan favorites, largely because of their fiery red-headed coach, who spent much of his time on the sideline waving his fist and swearing at the McCook fans. McCook usually had its way with Fairbury (Confer record 9-3-1).

Lloyd Benjamin, McCook, was a blocking back on two of Confer's teams. He described Confer as a "Builder of Men". As a coach he was strict, and he was precise. No nonsense about T-formations. Confer believed that football was meant to be a game of power -- "The Single-Wing Formation", with a minimum of passing, was the system he taught at MJC.

Benjamin remembers a time when Fairbury had a good team, and their coach had made a statement to the World-Herald that this was the year they would beat McCook. Confer took exception to that statement and sent the Fairbury coach a letter, enclosing three plays. McCook would be using just those three plays, and Confer still predicted a McCook win.

When the game began, using one of the plays -- an end sweep, where both guards pulled and both halfbacks and the fullback blocked for the quarterback who carried the ball. McCook scored repeatedly, first around one end, then the other. It completely demoralized the Fairbury team and they were forced to wait yet another year for a team victory.

Confer's best team at MJC was his 1947 team, bolstered not only by vets home from the war, but also by former members of the McCook High School team -- Class "A Champs in 1946. The team was undefeated in the regular season, though they did have 7-7 ties with Sterling (Co) JC and Scottsbluff JC.

The team played consistently well in victories over Norfolk JC, Dana College, Nebraska Central, and Fort Hayes State B team, and Concordia. The best game of the season, when everything came together for the team, was a 13-0 victory over an unusually strong Fairbury JC. (Following the Fairbury game McCook JC held its first ever Homecoming Dance.)

The Indians' 6-0-2 record was enough to qualify the team for a post season game, in the Salt Bowl against highly rated, undefeated Hutchinson Junior College on Thanksgiving Day.

Hutchinson surely did have a very fine, fast, team and rightly deserved to be favored in the contest. However, there is no doubt that competing in the school's first ever postseason game led to McCook jitters, especially a very shaky first half. In the second half McCook played the Kansans on an even basis. But the damage had been done and McCook went down to defeat, for their first and only loss of the season, 44-7.

Never-the-less, it had been an outstanding season for the Indians. They were the first in the college's history to go undefeated in the regular season. They won two Championships -- the Nebraska Junior College Conference, and the Nebraska Inter-collegiate Championship. Their total points were double that of their opponents. Four members of the team were honored by being selected to the All-Nebraska Inter-collegiate and All-Nebraska Junior College teams, tackle Bill Hill, Chuck Smith, fullback, Jack Burton, guard, and Gene Morris at end.

During Confer's tenure, McCook Junior College dominated the Nebraska Junior College Conference. Confer's Football record at McCook Junior College, from 1946-1958 was 85 wins, 25 losses, and 5 ties. This record was achieved in the heyday of Nebraska Junior College Football when all the teams were fielded with local and area boys. An enviable record indeed!

Source: Unpublished Confer manuscript, Gazette Centennial, Conversations with Lloyd Benjamin