Coach Edgar "Mutt" Ford had his Westwood High boys seeing purple throughout the 1964 season.

Ford, a high school football coaching legend in Arizona, coached Mesa High, a Westwood rival, to a state championship in 1960. When Ford arrived at Westwood he often wore a Mesa High purple sweater as a motivational ploy, said Bill Bailey, a running back on Westwood's 1964 team.

Ford promised his Westwood players he wouldn't wear the sweater ever again if Westwood won a championship in 1964. That was a lot to ask for from a program playing with its first ever senior class and in its second varsity season.

But by the end of the 1964 season, Ford's players had their coach seeing a lot of Westwood's orange and royal blue school colors. Westwood punished teams with its ground attack and defense during that memorable 1964 season, which ended with a goal line stand near the end of the Class 5A title game to clinch Westwood's 10-7 win over Camelback in front of more than 18,000.

That game was held at Arizona State Sun Devil Stadium. On Nov. 28, Westwood's 1964 team will reunite at University of Phoenix Stadium for its 50^th anniversary celebration.

Every year, the Arizona Interscholastic Association honors the championship football teams that are celebrating their 50^th anniversary by inviting them to the AIA's state football championship games. The 1964 Westwood team will be honored at halftime of the Division I title game at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Westwood actually had two goal line stands in that 1964 title game, allowing it to cap a 12-0 season.

"Our whole defense needs a pat on the back," Ford told The Arizona Republic after the 1964 championship game. "It played like pros down on the goal line. And it had to. Camelback's the best overall team we've played this year."

Besides Ford, Westwood also had some accomplished assistants on the team, including former Westwood head coach Dave Gates, former Gilbert High athletic director Joe Pico and Willie Peete, a former NFL assistant and the father of Sahuaro High great Rodney Peete, a quarterback who played at USC and in the NFL.  

Westwood won the 1964 title game despite playing with several injured players. Quarterback David Cummard didn't tell his coaches he was playing with a separated shoulder, Bailey said.

But two-way All-American tackle Richard Griffin and his defensive crew stymied Camelback's ground attack throughout the game.

"We had a bunch of bruisers on that team," said Bailey about the team that brought home Westwood's first football championship. 

 

 

McNary High's 1964 football team was more than just a football team.

It was a family. Their high school, a lumber mill and football united the team.

The high school and the McNary Lumber Mill no longer are open, but the bond is as strong as ever with the living members of the 1964 team. Nine former players along with more than 40 family members are expected to attend the Division I football title game (Nov. 28  at University of Phoenix Stadium) for a reunion and halftime celebration to honor the Class 1A 1964 McNary team.

Fifty years ago, McNary won its first state championship.

"We were a close knit community," said Billy Ward, a weapon on offense on that 1964 team. "We didn't have much, but we had each other and made the best out of it. We didn't complain."

The players on the team came from African-American, Latino and Native American communities.

They forged a bond on the gridiron and as they worked at the mill, which became a pseudo weight room for the players. They didn't have a weight training program or weight room, but working at the mill kept McNary's players in shape.

Their strength and speed was on display in 1964, when McNary averaged 45 points per game and gave up only about eight points per game.

They dominated but were challenged when McNary faced Patagonia in the Class 1A 6-man football title game in 1964. But with the game tied 13-13, the team's MVP, Bob Perez, returned a kickoff for a touchdown to put McNary up for good midway through the fourth quarter. 

McNary wound up winning 27-13 and helped propel the program to title game victories in the following two seasons. Head coach Pete Duca, who was 25 in 1964, and his right hand man, assistant Fred Roybal, guided the 1964 team to a 7-0 record in Duca's third season at the helm. 

Both coaches are planning to attend the reunion that will celebrate the team's 50^thanniversary and honor two former teammates. Eight of the 17 players on the 1964 McNary team joined the military.

Two of those players, Ernest Madrid and Johnny Sedillo, were killed in action in the Vietnam War. The 1964 team mourned the loss of their former teammates as if they lost two brothers.

"We always took care of each other," Ward said.

 (Johnny Sedillo)

 

(Ernest Madrid)