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Remembering the 1984 Team

Head coach, Ed Glass, remembers those Vikings as being “a true team.”
 
They had stars. Schick, Logan, quarterback Mike Braucher and linebacker Shawn Zimmerman represented them on The Repository’s All-Stark County team. But Glass said no one acted as if they had “star status.”
 
“That’s what made them good,” said Glass, Hoover’s coach from 1981-95. “No individual was larger than the group. … They cared about each other and still do.”
 
Hoover set the tone in 1984 with a 21-19 over GlenOak in Week 2 and a 19-8 win over McKinley in Week 4.
 
“I think we had to beat McKinley,” Glass said. “Hoover had never done that. We’d come close, but we had not beaten them. That was a big ballgame. Also Bob Comming’s GlenOak team was very good.”
 
Another defining win came in Week 6 with a 20-16 victory over Perry.
 
“They were the best team we played,” Schick said. “They came into our place and went up 16-0 before we could blink. … We all looked at each other and didn’t say anything. We knew we were better and had to win every single down from here on out.”
 
Hoover regrouped and dominated the rest of the game.
 
When the playoffs began, the Vikings destroyed Lorain Admiral King and Mayfield by a combined 70-6.
 
“Once we got out of the Federal League and away from teams that knew what we liked to do … we ripped into them,” Schick said.
 
A last-second field goal by Toledo St. Francis, though, ended their season with a loss at Ohio Stadium.
 
“We were bitter for five years that we didn’t win the state championship and didn’t play very well,” Schick said. “After you get away from it for 10, 12 years, you start to realize it was pretty darn special what we did.”
 
Hoover’s 1984 season, game-by-game
Hoover 20, Dover 0
Hoover 21, GlenOak 19
Hoover 24, Marlington 7
Hoover 19, McKinley 8
Hoover 27, Youngstown Wilson 0
Hoover 20, Perry 16
Hoover 19, Canton South 17
Hoover 24, Alliance 26
Hoover 10, Louisville 0
Hoover 21, Jackson 7
 
Division I playoffs
Hoover 40, Lorain Admiral King 6
Hoover 30, Mayfield 0
 
Division I state championship game
Hoover 14, Toledo St. Francis 17
 
Looking back at 1984
 
Hoover’s 1984 football team went 11-2 and finished as the Division I state runners-up. Here’s a look at some other odds and ends from that season:
 
• The Vikings shared the Federal League title that fall with Perry, both finishing 6-1 in the league.
 
• Four Vikings earned a spot on the 1984 Repository AAA All-Stark County football team — WR Steve Schick, QB Mike Braucher, LB Shawn Zimmerman and DB Andy Logan.
 
• Ed Glass was The Repository Coach of the Year.
 
• Schick was named first-team All-Ohio; Braucher and Logan made second-team All-Ohio.
 
• Braucher ran for a score and threw TD passes to Jim Wood and Doug Portman in the 30-0 state semifinal win over Mayfield at the Akron Rubber Bowl. Logan added a TD run and a 30-yard field goal.
 
• In the state finals, St. Francis took a quick 14-0 lead in the first quarter, then Hoover rallied. Short TD runs by Tim Kenville and Braucher combined with two Logan PATs tied the game by the late stages of the fourth quarter.
 
Almost perfect
 
Two plays at the end of games prevented Hoover from an unbeaten championship season in 1984. And coach Ed Glass vividly remembers each one.
 
“When you get older, you try to remember the wins, and we had a ton of them at North Canton,” he said. “But those losses stay with you for awhile. … And when people point to seasons, they want to go know about the games we lost. It’s human nature.”
 
A Week 8 loss to Alliance was the result of a tipped pass bouncing into the arms of an Aviator receiver as he walked into the end zone.
 
“It was the most unbelievable thing … a fluke thing,” Glass said.
 
Then came the loss to Toledo St. Francis in the state finals when Bill Burns hit a 26-yard field goal near the end of the game.
 
“He didn’t hit the ball very well,” said Glass, who already was planning for overtime. “It was a line drive hook … the doggone ball went over the crossbar by two feet.”
 
The players remember that kick well, too.
 
Andy Logan got two fingers on the kick, nearly blocking it. Eddie McClintock was near the middle of the field during the play.
 
“I still dream about watching that last field goal go up over my head,” said McClintock, who took four stitches in the chin at halftime during the game and later found out he had a concussion. “It was a tough game for all of us.”

1984 Hoover Vikings Squad
Back Row L – R: Scott Neilson, Kevin Wood, Mark Stroia, Scott Yoder, John Hudanick
Fourth Row L – R: Chris Powell, Brett Merritt, John Gimigliano, Rich Rodriguez, Brett Paschke, Mark Braucher, Bob Chufar, Jason Glass, Marc East, Doug Morris, Matt Murray
Third Row L – R: Mike Stroia, Steve Burch, Jeff Sprout, Derek Degenhard, Bryan Monastra, Mike Whitman, Tim DeMarco, Pat Simmons, James Mathie, Bob Fiadung, Phil Taylor, Chris Jones
Second Row L – R: Mike DeBenedictis, Eric VanDyke, Heath Ledger, Mark Weber, Steve Neff, Jeff Peters, Ted Betz, George Miller, Jim Zucal, Daren Miller, Steve Petrack, Shawn Texter, Todd Martz
First Row L – R: Doug Portmann, Jimmy Wood, Eddie McClintock, Steve Schick, Shawn Zimmerman, Randy Berg, Mike Braucher, Tim Kenville, Jerry Simms, Dave Gozdiff, Mitch Raebel, Mike Breckenridge