There is a common football adage that says "no line, no shine."
Despite having to replace its entire offensive and defensive lines, the St. Helena High School football program went 9-0 for the fifth straight year and extended its win streak to 45 games under head coach George Davis.
All five teams involved in that run will be inducted into the SHHS Athletic Hall of Fame in the Greatest Teams category on Nov. 1 at Native Sons Hall.
The 1963 Saints' starting offensive line of Roger Trinchero, Greg Lines, Bill Johnston, Dennis Rutherford and Mike Milat graduated. Moving into their spots were center Pat Morgan, left guard Buster Rutherford, left tackle Bob Milat, right guard Mike Forni and right tackle Larry Pina.
Not only did the line need to be replaced, but quarterback Jim Sculatti also graduated. The good news for the Saints was they had ample quality skill position players, such as Chris Schuh, Norm Wilkins, Mike Norman, Dan Heflin, Andy Vanderschoot and Jeffrey Warren. Vanderschoot and Warren were the ends, sometimes in line and other times split out wide.
"Andy and I raced to see who would be the split end," Warren said. "We were both pretty slow. My story was that I won it, and he says he won it. Davis couldn't come up with a solution, so he said 'We'll have the right end and the left end; Vanderschoot will be right end and you'll be on the left end.'"
Before the season, Davis made alterations to the nomenclature of the offense and implemented the unbalanced line.
In this offensive formation, more linemen are shifted to one side of center to create a stronger blocking scheme on that side. This is often achieved by moving a tackle to line up on the same side as the tight end, a move called a "tackle over," or by positioning extra linemen and backs on one side of the ball. This imbalance is designed to create a numerical advantage for blocking in a specific area for running plays or to confuse the defense.
An example of a play call would be "Right I Moshawa 345 Cross," which meant the right side of the line was unbalanced and the wingback was going in motion away from the ball. The 3 meant the 300 series. The 4 meant that the 4 back would run through the 5 hole.
"That was the first year under Coach Davis where the quarterback was calling the blocking assignments and unbalanced line," Warren said. "The line seemed to jell right away. Everyone who replaced them was smaller. That should have been cause for concern, but I don't remember being concerned. That also translates into the defensive line changing. We had good defensive backs and linebackers."
Warren recalled that the Saints also ran with a super-unbalanced line, creating a lopsided surface to one side of the center by moving a tackle to the weak side to act as a tight end. These formations force the defense to adjust its alignment, usually creating confusion, and favorable matchups for the offense.
"Teams knew how to play an unbalanced line, but never knew how to play a super-unbalanced line. There was always a vacant hole," Warren said. "I remember a game when (Joe) Beitler kept calling 'Red 18' on two. It was a quarterback sweep. They tried to fill the middle, but the outside was wide open."
By this point, it was readily apparent Davis had built a program instead of a team. Vanderschoot felt that when his classmates were going to Saints games before high school.
"Walter Raymond and Tom Blanchfield were gods to us. Then they're gone," Vanderschoot said. "But you get guys like Ray Myers. Now we're starting to think something really special is going on. Maybe the biggest thing that happened was that we all started playing with each other in fourth and fifth grade. Al Carpy taught us the fundamentals. When we got to high school, we knew how to get into a three-point stance, make a tackle, get into a huddle, and break a huddle."
Warren recalled how other teams would ask how some of Davis' unorthodox ways worked, including his defensive line being in a stand-up position as opposed to a three-point stance, and punting for field position.
"Our defensive line was standing up because they were willing to bend but not break," Warren explained. "On offense, Coach Davis was always about 'When in doubt, punt,' because Steve Reed was a great punter. I remember a game when we kept losing yards and got back to the 16-yard line. The field was so wet, and the ball was heavy. I was the center, so I was the first one downfield because they never had anyone over me. Steve punted and I downed the ball on the 5-yard line."
The first defining moment of 1964 came in the second week of the season. After lambasting Fort Bragg 32-0 in the season opener, the Saints defeated Vanden 39-14 in a game much closer than the final score suggested. St. Helena trailed 7-0 after one quarter and 14-7 at halftime.
"They threw a pass over Chris Schuh for a touchdown," Vanderschoot recalled. "We go in at halftime, Davis starts talking about what a better team that is, they are better coached and have better players. He was motivating us to raise our level of play. As we were going out for the second half, he turned to Chris Schuh and said, 'and you owe us one.'"
The Saints tied the game at 14-14 on Schuh's 4-yard touchdown run, which was set up by a 20-yard completion from Beitler to Wilkins to the 4. The Saints broke the tie with a 25-point explosion in the fourth quarter. Schuh scored on a 50-yard run after a Vanderschoot fumble recovery. Heflin, Wilkins and Warren followed with interception returns for touchdowns.
Warren recalled a cultural dynamic when playing Vanden.
"We'd never played against Black players before," Warren said. "I remember their defensive end saying, 'I'm going to kill you No. 81.' I thought, 'I'm going to die.' It turned out to be nothing, but it was an experience we never had before."
The Saints also twice dominated Cloverdale, which was normally a perceived threat to the Saints. The first win was in the nonleague fifth game, 20-0. The second was in the league and season finale, 26-0, with Associated Press writer Robert Wood on hand for a national story. Heading into a high-leverage game against Willits, St. Helena blanked Potter Valley 18-0 with mostly vanilla playcalling as the Wolverines were on hand to scout.
Willits entered the game on a 13-game win streak, but the Saints brought that run to a screeching halt while extending their streak to 43 games with a 20-8 win that was more dominant than the final score.
"I remember us being picked to lose," Warren said. "If we won, we would set a state record. Davis had us leave on Friday night to stay at a motel so we would be rested for the game because we had never played on Saturday afternoon before.
"I remember a play when Willits had it fourth-and-one. They had Bob Reinhart, whose dad was an All-American at Cal in the 1930s. Bob went to Stanford. On the play, I got blown back but Andy stopped Reinhardt. They assumed they were going to run right over us, and that changed the momentum."
Schuh connected with Vanderschoot for a touchdown on a fullback option. Beitler also hit Warren and Wilkins for touchdown passes. The Wolverines' offense reached the Saints' 10-yard line before turning the ball over on downs. Willits scored late in the contest to avert the shutout.
"We never talked about the streak, but it was very much on our minds because we felt that we didn't have the athletes that other teams had," Vanderschoot said. "We had a bunch of guys who were like 5-10, 160 pounds. Everybody knew what they were supposed to do.
"I remember Mike Forni was playing outside linebacker. Davis walked up to him in practice and said, 'Your job is to never let someone get around you. Turn the runner back inside so that the pursuit can help you. I don't care if you make a tackle.' Forni allowed a guy to get outside of him twice. He felt so bad that he felt that he hadn't done his job. We always had guys hustling."
Davis was also outside-the-box in that he allowed players to vote on starting lineups. In practice, players wore pullover jerseys. The starters wore red, the second team wore blue, and the third team wore white. Players could move up or down the depth chart during the week.
"If a starter had a bad game, on Monday they might have a blue or white jersey. The ones with the red jerseys were voted on Thursday to start," Warren explained. "If he wanted to make someone work harder, he'd put them lower on the depth chart. You could earn it back in practice.
"You could tell the coach that you wanted to challenge somebody for a spot. He'd put you on a chalk line, and the idea was to move the other person off the line. If you were a blue or white challenging a red and moved them off the line, you got the red jersey. It was such a meritocracy that anyone could move up or down."
Davis resigned in February 1965 to replace Calistoga native Dick Vermeil as head coach at Napa Junior College. Vermeil, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2022, left Napa to become the head coach of Stanford University's freshmen team. Though St. Helena Superintendent of Schools Richard Roche said glowing things about Davis in the St. Helena Star, Warren recalled there being internal friction.
"We were written up in various papers because of the football team," Warren said. "Before jealousy came into play, they didn't want to lose him, so they made him the principal of the high school. Within one year, he quit. He took a salary cut to become the English teacher and head coach. He was a brilliant teacher. They had a teacher evaluation, and they ranked him as the lowest teacher in the school, but anyone who had his class said he was the best teacher they ever had. That's why he quit."
George McCormick took over and coached for four seasons. While his 25-10 record was good, replacing Davis put him in an unforgiving position.
The Saints extended their win streak to 46 in 1965 with a 19-6 win over El Molino. The following week, Vanden turned it into an unbeaten streak by playing St. Helena to a scoreless tie. The Saints would lose 12-7 to Cloverdale in the season finale to end the streak without a loss at 53 games.
"I have this yearbook and I'm on the page of 'Farewell to George Davis.' They asked me to write something for the yearbook," Vanderschoot said. "We were all shocked. He did not get along with the superintendent. His grading structure was A, B or F. If you got a C in his class, that means you failed in college. He had a plan and wanted you to improve.
"The second quarter came, but then went A, B, C, D, and F, so he put your semester grade, which is the one that counts. He never flunked another in the semester grade. Everyone was angry, but he said that his job was to prepare everyone to write when they got into college."