Leatherneck Nation

It was 64 consecutive victories- an Illinois record, not national. However, he did get national coverage for that. He began coaching this juggernaut at the age of 25. Give you an idea, in 1969 he outscored his opponents 371-8, and in 1970 341-0. One of the first high school coaches to have a huge weight lifting program, more than just having some free weights around.

No current player wears #73, so here's who has in the past:
Roy Macklin............................1948-50
Dick Underwood.....................1951-52
John Seeger...........................1953-56
Mel Deskin..............................1957-58
Rob Manock................................ 1966
Dave Hawkinson....................1969-70
Bob Sands................................... 1971
Ed Angeli................................1975-77
Jeff Ostrowski.........................1981-82
Brent Westemeyer....................... 1983
Steve Grimit............................1984-85
Adam Jones...........................1994-95
Rich Seubert...........................1999-00
Andre Reeves.............................. 2003
Mac Grathwohl.......................2006-07
Nate Adams................................. 2008
Matt Zobrist............................2013-15

Brent Westemeyer was a second-team all-conference O-lineman in 1986.

Rich Seubert was an all-conference honorable mention at TE in 1998 before moving to O-Line and getting another all-conference honorable mention in '99 and first-team in '00. He had one O-lineman of the week award each year from '98-'00. He was a FB Gazette Honorable Mention All-American in '99 and '00 and a Sports Network Second Team All-American in '00. Seubert was signed undrafted by the New York Giants in 2001 and he would end up playing in 104 games (starting 88) in his career as a guard for the Giants as well as winning a Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl XLII (for the 2007 season). He was inducted into the Leatherneck Athletics HOF in 2011.

Matt Zobrist was an all-conference honorable mention at O-line in 2014 and conference O-Lineman of the Week in October of 2014.

#72 is Senior Offensive Lineman Jordan Detweiler


Jordan is from Williamsburg, IA and is an Ag Business major. He's participated in 20 games as a Leatherneck over 3 years, including all 11 games last season.

Other #72's in our history include:
Stuart Smitzley.......................1952-55
Tom DiNardo..........................1959-61
Jay Rhodes............................1961-63
Jerry Cashmer............................. 1969
Joe Taylor...............................1970-72
John Callahan........................1973-74
Don Greco..............................1977-80
Jeff Fleming................................. 1982
Rick Pryor...............................1984-85
Tim Harper................................... 1987
Dan Oberbroeckling...............1991-93
Ian Muller..................................... 1995
Faifua Talapu..........................1996-97
Jim Gail........................................ 1998
Fred Layne.............................2001-04
Zack Howell............................2005-07
Alie Walker (83 in 2010 also)..2009-10
Nick Eversmeyer.................... 2011-12

Tom DiNardo was inducted into the Leatherneck Athletics Hall of Fame in 1989 as a member of the 1959 team (the entirety of which was inducted due to the completion of the only undefeated season in Leatherneck history: http://goleathernecks.com/hof.aspx?hof=278).

Joe Taylor - a 2001 inductee into the Leatherneck Athletics Hall of Fame, Taylor followed up a successful playing career at OT and Guard with a very successful coaching career in the HBCU ranks. He has a career HC record of 232-97-4 including three straight conference titles (twice) with Hampton (once at the DII level and once at the I-AA level). His Hampton teams won 4 Black College National Championships, including three straight from '04-'06. Following Hampton, he coached for 5 years at Florida A&M, retiring in 2012. At his retirement, he was tied for 33rd for all-time coaching victories and tied for third all-time for wins at HBCU programs (behind only the great Eddie Robinson, longtime Jackson State/Tennessee State coach John Merritt, and tied with Ace Mumford).

Don Greco - one of the greatest O-Linemen in Leatherneck history, Greco was all-conference in '79 and '80, an AP Second Team All-American in '79 and AP First Team, Kodak First Team, Pro FB Weekly First Team, and AFCA First Team All-American in '80. Greco was drafted in 1981 in the 3rd round of the NFL draft by the Detroit Lions. He would play in 45 games for the Lions from '82-'85 and was inducted into the Leatherneck Athletics Hall of Fame in 2000. He was also recently included on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame.

Tim Harper was a 2nd Team CoSIDA Academic All-American in 1978.

Fred Layne was an all-conference first team O-Lineman in '02, '03, and '04. He is one of only three players to receive three conference first-team awards (with Mike Scifres and Patrick Stoudamire). He was a Sports Network and AP 3rd Team All-American in '03 as well as Dopke.com and FB Gazette Second Team.

No current #71 on the roster. So, besides being 10 times the number of minutes that the Illinois politicians spent in session working on a budget deal today, here's some of the past #71's we've had on our roster.

Gene Strode...........................1957-58
Charles Giger.........................1968-69
Mike O’Neil.............................1970-71
Dan Klinginsmith......................... 1973
Mark Stevenson.......................... 1977
Mark Tigges................................. 1984
John Wisnosky.......................1985-87
Adam Love.................................. 1991
Drew Brandt................................ 1992
Daron Duke............................1993-96
Casey Honkomp.....................1997-99
Turner Nelson.............................. 2005
Victor Visoky...........................2007-10
Chip Holtschlag...................... 2011-14

F. Eugene "Gene" Strode - a 1991 inductee into the Leatherneck Athletics HOF. From his HOF bio "An IIAC All-Conference player and captain of the 1958 Leatherneck football squad, Gene has had a distinguished career as a teacher, coach, and athletic administrator at Hinsdale Central High School. In his 14 years as director of athletics, Hinsdale Central won 42 IHSA state trophies, including 15 state championships."

Mark Stevenson was an All-Conference O-Lineman in '79 and would play 2 games for the Detroit Lions in 1985.

Mark Tigges was a Second Team All-Conference O-Lineman in '84 and played in 3 games for the Cincinnati Bengals in 1987.

Adam Love was a FB Gazette and Sports Network Honorable Mention All-American as well as Second Team All-Conference O-Lineman in '94.

Daron Duke received a conference O-Line Player of the Week award in October of 1996.

Casey Honkomp was a Second Team All-Conference O-Lineman in '98 and First Team in '99. He won a conference O-Lineman of the Week award in October of 1999. He was also a Walter Camp First Team All-American in '98 and a FB Gazette Honorable Mention in '99.

Victor Visoky was a Second Team All-Conference D-Lineman in '07 and Honorable Mention in '08. In '07 he was also named to the conference All-Newcomer team, and was an Academic All-Conference Honorable Mention in 2010.

Chip Holtschlag is another of the 3 Holtschlag brothers to play for Western. Chip was an Academic All-Conference D-Lineman in 2013 and 2014, winning a President's Academic Excellence Award that second year. He is actually still competing on the field wearing purple and gold, although it's a slightly different sport now. Chip is currently attending Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport and plays on their highly competitive rugby team.

It is time for a little TTT (Throwback Thursday Trivia). The Darrell Mudra-led 1970 team had at least a couple of players who went on to very notable careers. One was Mike Wagner who had a long and successful stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Another also had a desire to play pro football but as a 5'10'' 195# offensive lineman, he realized that a different career might be a better aspiration. He apparently was pretty good at the football position as he did earn an All-state pick from the Peoria Journal Star newspaper that year. In his chosen career profession he also did fairly well, had a bump or two along the road, and ended up owning a mansion and a bunch of acres just outside of Atlanta, GA. So much land in fact that it was spread out over more than one city/district. That arrangement was a bit inconvenient for him, so he got the Georgia state legislature to pass a bill this year realigning the city boundaries so that all of his land could be in Sandy Springs. Your mission Mr. Phelps is to figure out the identity of this former Leatherneck offensive lineman.

Bob Nardelli?

rocki wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:51 amBob Nardelli?

Yep. In my picture, he is in 3rd row, last player on the right (#62 or #63?). You can click on my posted picture above to get a bigger view.
It came from the online WIU Courier archive for the year 1971.

sealhall74 wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:09 am

rocki wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:51 amBob Nardelli?

Yep. In my picture, he is in 3rd row, last player on the right (#62 or #63?). You can click on my posted picture above to get a bigger view.
It came from the online WIU Courier archive for the year 1971.

The image isn't working for me. I tried to edit your post to figure out the link address and when I went there, I got a "Forbidden, your client does not have permission..." error. Can you either send me the photo or post it to something like imgur.com and share the link?

ST_Lawson wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:54 am

sealhall74 wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 10:09 am

rocki wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:51 amBob Nardelli?

Yep. In my picture, he is in 3rd row, last player on the right (#62 or #63?). You can click on my posted picture above to get a bigger view.
It came from the online WIU Courier archive for the year 1971.

The image isn't working for me. I tried to edit your post to figure out the link address and when I went there, I got a "Forbidden, your client does not have permission..." error. Can you either send me the photo or post it to something like imgur.com and share the link?

Here is the link from imgur.com:

EDIT (from Scott):

Despite the #70 on the front page, we do actually have a #70 on our roster...just no photo of him wearing #70 yet.

Anyway #70 is Redshirt Freshman O-Lineman Myron Cunningham

Myron is from Warren, Ohio and is a LEJA major

Other #70's in our history include:
Jack Landis............................1947-50
Marshall Podell.......................1947-49
John Hilford............................1958-61
Jack Anderson........................1963-66
John Berry................................... 1966
Jay Wamsley..........................1969-71
John Passananti.....................1972-74
Fred Jegerlehner....................1975-78
Mark Landes...........................1984-86
Paul Weltha............................1989-91
Eric Tellefson..........................1992-93
Josh McCall............................1996-99
Mike Newman.........................2000-01
Steve Wolff.................................. 2005
Brandon Dixon........................2007-08
Mike Love...............................2012-13
Tyler Bode................................... 2014

Jack Landis was a 1976 inductee into the Leatherneck HOF (for multiple sports actually). Landis was the captain of the basketball team, played baseball well enough to continue on and play in the Baltimore Orioles organization, and was a phenomenal punter for his time. His career punting average of 38.9 yards per punt has him tied for the 7th best punting career in Leatherneck history.

John Hilford was another member of the 1959 football team that completed the only undefeated and untied season in Western history and were (as a team) inducted into the Leatherneck HOF in 1989.

John Passananti was inducted into the Leatherneck HOF in 1985. He was an AP Second Team All-American in 1973 and AP First Team, Kodak Second Team, and AFCA First Team in '74. He was drafted in the 9th round of the 1975 NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings, although did not see any playing time in his pro career. John is now a successful VP of a financial advising firm in the Chicago area.

Paul Weltha was an honorable mention All-Conference O-Lineman in 1990 and Second Team All-Conference in '91.

Josh McCall was a second team academic All-Conference O-Lineman in 1997 and '99 and first team academic all-conference in '98. Following his playing career, he coached for the Leathernecks from 2001-2011, finishing as an assistant coach (offensive line) under Coach Mark Hendrickson. He currently lives in the Madison, WI area with his wife and two kids and (last I heard) was coaching the Madison Blaze Women's (Tackle) football team. Josh is also a Macomb native and in addition to being a phenomenal offensive lineman on the football field, he was also excellent at track and field (shot put & discus), band (he was as good a tuba player as he was an O-Lineman...I should know, he was 1 year ahead of me and sat fairly close to me in the band room), and on the math team (yea...he did that really well too). His wife is also a Western grad and was a flute player in the Marching Leathernecks at the same time I was in the band.

Mike Newman was named to the conference all-newcomer team in 2000 (O-Line).