MJC gets help from the Land of Goshen

For many years McCook Junior College fielded football teams made up of young men from Southwest Nebraska, Northwest Kansas and an occasional player from Colorado. McCook Junior College was the perennial "Big Dog" of the Nebraska Junior College League when all the Junior Colleges were pretty much on the same footing.

But after World War II some of the Nebraska Junior Colleges began to drop football. In order to fill a schedule with quality opponents MJC began to play some of the Kansas and Colorado Junior Colleges and in the late 1950s MJC was invited to join the Empire Junior College Conference, which was largely made up of Colorado schools. This was a tougher league than the Nebraska JC league, but McCook continued to compete pretty well in that conference as well.

Inevitably, I suppose, some of the Junior Colleges (notably Trinidad, Colo.) began to recruit players from outside their area, and those schools with the imported athletes began to dominate athletic events. In order to compete, the rest of the schools, including McCook, also began to recruit outside their area.

In the middle and late '60s, McCook developed a pipeline with the University of Wyoming, which used MJC as sort of maturing school for players who were not quite ready for football on a major University scale. Two of these players were Sherm ('65) and Caddy ('68 and '69) Memmelaar, of Goshen N.Y.

(Note: The Memmelaars were and are a remarkable family of nine boys and one girl. All of the boys played football for Goshen High School. Four of the boys played for the University of Wyoming. Two boys, Dale and Fred, played on Bob Devaney's Wyoming team which went to the Sun Bowl in 1958. Dale went on to play nine years in the pros. He was a member of the Super Bowl Championship Cleveland Browns in 1964.

For years the Memmelaar boys returned to Goshen in the fall to play in the H S vs Alums Thanksgiving Day football game. Most of the Memmelaar boys played at one time or another for the Alums, except Dale, the pro player. He was relegated to coach the alumni team.)

In 1965 Sherm Memmelaar, a Wyoming recruit, was sent to McCook for a year of JC experience under Coach Rex Grossart. He played on arguably the finest McCook Junior College team ever. That team went undefeated through the regular season before losing to Ferrum VA in a hard fought Junior College Championship game in the Juco Bowl in Savannah, VA.

Cadwell (Caddy) Memmelaar was the youngest of the Memmelaar clan, and the smallest. But like his brothers he had the heart for football. From early on he realized that his only hope for a college education lay in his ability to obtain a football scholarship somewhere. On the strength of his name alone, Wyoming expressed interest. Brother Sherm, three years older advised Caddy against trying for a scholarship to Wyoming. "You're too small for that type of competition." Sherm had liked his experience at McCook Junior College and advised his brother to play here for a couple of years while he matured in strength and stature. It turned out to be good advice. Caddy accepted a scholarship offer from MJC in 1968 for books, tuition and meals (Mon. through Fri.)

By 1968, when Caddy Memmelaar enrolled, the MJC football program was under the direction of Coach Larry Kramer. Kramer had been a standout lineman for Bob Devaney at NU. He had inherited a good program from Rex Grossaart and had continued McCook's winning ways, with one notable exception. Kramer had been unable to beat the NU Freshman team, losing 38-26 in Lincoln, in 1967. This loss was especially painful to Kramer, who was almost obsessive in his desire to defeat his Alma Mater. (Note: The players on the NU Freshmen Teams in '67, '68, '69 (including McCook's Jeff Kinney) played key roles in Devaney's National Championship NU teams of 1970 and 1971.)

At McCook Caddy was determined to make the MJC team, and earn his scholarship at offensive center, though, even for Junior College, he was small at 150#. He was a hard worker and quicker than most of the bigger linemen he faced. Initially, he decided to make his mark as the long snapper for punts. He put in countless hours after regular practices, centering the ball through a suspended tire 10-15 yards behind.

The 1968 season was difficult. The only two Nebraska JC schools still playing football were McCook and Fairbury. McCook's major competition was in the Colorado Empire Conference. Still, MJC went 6-4 that year, which was considered good. Not to Kramer, who still smarted under the loss to the NU Freshmen in 1967.

Caddy still remembers the week of that '68 MJC-NU game. Coach Kramer repeatedly told the team how much he wanted to win that game. He was determined that his charges would be prepared. Practices were long and brutal. In the mornings Caddy would literally roll out of bed, so stiff and sore that his muscles would not immediately respond. It was the same with his teammates. By game day they were worn out physically and mentally. The NU Freshmen had little trouble with MJC in a 42-7 romp in McCook.

It was a different story in 1969. Again Kramer repeated his desire to beat the NU Freshmen, but then turned the week of practices over to the Captains of the team. Their schedule called for heavy practices early in the week, and the team remained focused as the practices tapered off as game day approached. The players were rested and in good spirits for the game. The result, against a very good NU team, which included future Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers, was a MJC victory, 26-14. Caddy calls that victory his greatest moment in sports.

Caddy Memmelaar benefited greatly from his stint at MJC. Using his speed and leverage, he was very able to compete against larger opponents---so much so that he was able to parlay his football skills into another scholarship at (then) Kearney State College, where he finished out his football career and earned his College degree.

Success on the football field may have been among the lesser of Memmelaar's accomplishments at MJC. Here he met his future wife, the former Karen Schaffert, to whom he has been married for over 30 years. At MJC Caddy learned to set goals and acquired the discipline to accomplish his goals. And two tragedies, involving MJC teammates changed his life, causing him to look past sports, for an appreciation of life now, and in the hereafter.

One of Caddy's teammates, Dennis Wymore was drowned in a freak boating accident at Butler Lake. Two of his teammates, Greg "Huck" Finn, from Boston, and Kevin Gilmore, from New Jersey, accepted scholarships from Marshall U. after finishing their football careers at MJC.

On Nov. 14, 1970 the Marshall Football team flew aboard a chartered plane to North Carolina for a game with East Carolina. Both "Huck" Finn and Kevin Gilmore were members of the traveling team, but a knee injury caused Finn to be left off the traveling roster. He was devastated. He had looked forward to playing in that game. His injury saved his life.

From a press release from Marshall University: "On Nov. 14, 1970, a charted DC-9 left East Carolina on a return trip to Tri-State Airport in Huntington, W. VA, carrying 37 Marshall Football players (including former MJC Indian Kevin Gilmore), 8 members of the coaching staff, 25 loyal fans and supporters, and 5 crew members. Weather conditions and visibility were poor. As the jet approached the runway, it clipped a tree 65' above the ground and crashed into the hillside. Everyone was killed instantly."

Karen and Caddy still live in this area. They are the parents of a grown daughter, Bonnie and a son, Joshua, who is still in high school. For a number of years they have lived in Atwood KS, where Caddy owns the PTL Machine shop and Karen works as a paraprofessional at the Rawlins Co. Elementary School. Caddy still rues the day that McCook College dropped the football program, which he notes was the passport to a college education for countless young men, like himself who, without an athletic scholarship, would never have been able to attend.

-- Source: Gazette Centennial Edition, 1882-1982, Memmelaar Family photos and documents.