Chaffee strives to move to 7-0 on the season

To find the secret of an unusual, eerily similar season in the history of Red Devils football, one may want to check an old Chaffee football roster and the streets of the town Friday night.

For whom and what? Later.

Why? Because for Charlie Vickery, his former teammates and many in Chaffee, Friday's game against Malden is a blip on the space-time continuum, the recreation of a narrative that played out for a previous generation of Red Devils.

Chaffee, ranked No. 9 in Class 1, will take a 6-0 record into Friday's home game against Malden.

It's the first such start for Chaffee since 1969, and the gridiron has yielded seasons to the extreme since. The school won a state championship in 1983, but the more abundant lean times included a 31-game winless streak as recently as 2006.

"We know where the valleys are, and it's kind of nice to find a mountain top every now and then," said Gary Proffer, who played on the 1969 team and has worked the chain gang during recent years.

The Chaffee seniors from the 1969 team that went 8-2: Back row, from left: Rick Smiley, Steve Rogers, Larry Daniels, Bill Daugherty, front, from left, Bill McFerron, Charlie Vickery, Steve Duniphan, Gary Proffer. (Submitted)

When 5-1 Malden visits, the Red Devils will try to move to 7-0, and it may seem like a step back in time. An unthinkable chance to rewrite history.

The last time a Red Devils team started 6-0, Malden was 6-0 and played the role of spoiler with a 16-9 victory.

Despite the 44-year gap in time, Chaffee's Charlie Vickery will be a common denominator for both encounters.

In 1969, Vickery was an all-state senior quarterback for a Chaffee team that ultimately finished 8-2. In 2013, Vickery will try to lead his alma mater past that stumbling block as Red Devils coach, a position he's held since 2005 in his second stint with the Red Devils.

Chaffee junior quarterback Peyton Montgomery will be wearing Vickery's "old shoes" this time around. Montgomery is a three-year starter and is at least a three-generation Red Devil in lineage. His brother Charlie is a standout senior running back/receiver with this year's team, their father, Monty, was an all-state defensive back who played for Vickery in 1976 and 1977 -- Vickery also coached the Red Devils from 1974 to 1977 -- while their grandfather, Morris, played for Chaffee's only undefeated team that went 9-0 in 1956.

Peyton Montgomery has gotten his Chaffee football education like most in the town of about 3,000 -- through first-hand experience, stories and unavoidable comparisons.

"A lot of the older generations, like my grandpa, and his friends, they kid around with us and tell us we're not going to be better than their team," Peyton Montgomery said. "It's all joking."

He knows the last time a Chaffee team won the SEMO South Conference championship was 1979 and a little about his coach's playing days.

"I knew coach Vickery was 6-0, and that's what we've been going on," Montgomery said about a feat that's inspired the Red Devils to this point.

Junior quarterback Peyton Montgomery has been a dual offensive threat, using his arm and legs to help Chaffee to a 6-0 start. (Fred Lynch)

That Montgomery doesn't know much beyond the 1969 team's hot start is not because he doesn't listen.

"I try to bring up history, but not from that year," Vickery said. "Even before that, Chaffee was really good. In the '50s and early '60s, we played Sikeston, Poplar Bluff, Cape Central, Perryville. We played some big schools."

According to those involved, the 1969 season was a magical one.

"I thought we were better the year before in '68, and we ended up being 5-4-1, and we went we went into '69 thinking 5-5 would be pretty good for us," Vickery said.

Vickery had higher expectations for the basketball team that year, and that anticipation was met with a 20-6 season.

Chaffee quarterback Peyton Montgomery runs on a keeper toward the end zone for a touchtown against Grandview during the second quarter Friday, Aug. 30, 2013 in Chaffee, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

But before the basketballs were rolled out, the football season unexpectedly etched fond memories.

Vickery threw for a school-record 28 touchdowns and more than 1,500 yards, with the bulk going to all-state receiver Steve Rogers, who went on to receive a football scholarship to Missouri.

"He was one of the fastest kids I've seen to this day," Vickery said about Rogers, who later transfered to Southeast Missouri State and starred for three seasons.

Jack Burnett was a junior tight end, among the troops of fourth-year coach Gary Glenzy, who was an excitable mentor.

"We had two or three leaders that led us through the struggles, and our coach was just super," said Burnett, who served on the chain gang at home games for decades before this year. "He would get more excited than us sometimes. We'd have to say, 'OK coach, it's all right now.'"

And there were quite a few of those moments that season.

The Red Devils opened with a 12-7 victory over Portageville, and followed with wins over East Prairie, Cairo (Ill.), Scott City and Hayti before reaching high tide with a 41-21 win over Jackson.

"It was a team we didn't think was going to do much, and we started winning and just started getting better and better and better," Burnett said. "I wouldn't have traded it for the world, because you learn a lot about life then."

Added Proffer, "We just had a lot of guys on our team that just loved sports in general -- football, basketball, baseball, whatever it was. We were kind of sports nuts and were a tight-knit group. We played well together and seemed to figure out ways to win."

Week 7 featured a matchup against Class 2 Malden, which also entered unbeaten. The Green Wave's wins were a bit more intimidating, including a 39-0 blanking of Portageville and a 32-0 victory over Jackson. Malden had not lost since a 28-7 setback to the Red Devils a year earlier and carried a nine-game winning streak.

"We went to Malden for the conference championship, and I would say there were between 3,000 to 4,000 people," Burnett said. "There was a crowd that was big for two schools that were that size."

Burnett estimated half the fans were from Chaffee, having made the trip of well over an hour.

The Red Devils did not disappoint their faithful by taking a 9-0 lead into halftime. The Red Devils clung to a 9-8 lead in the second half and appeared to have stopped a Malden possession, but a controversial call kept the drive alive that ultimately led to the go-ahead touchdown.

"We were as good as Malden," Burnett said. "There's no doubt about that. We played them tough, and it could have gone either way. We got a real bad call or two, but that's just part of it."

Proffer said Chaffee's game plan concentrated on stopping all-state running back Don Clayton, who ended up scoring both of Malden's touchdowns.

Malden went on to reach the Class 2A championship game, where it lost 13-6 to Aurora.

Meanwhile, Chaffee lost its final game of the season to another larger school, Fredericktown, and fell short of the four-team state playoff in which the field was decided by an archaic point system that excluded many worthy teams back in the day.

"If we would have had a playoff system like they do now, I think we would have ran it, but you had the points, and that's what kept us out," Burnett said. "Because we played the bigger schools, and a lot of the 1A schools around Springfield, all they played was 1A schools, so they had it a lot easier than we did."

While the point system was scrapped, there were more notable concepts that proved to have merit and endured. The 1969 team served as a good model for Vickery, who entered the coaching profession and returned to his alma mater in that capacity.

"The chemistry was really good," Vickery said. "Other than Rogers, we all were all kind of average, but everyone worked so well together."

It's the type of cohesiveness that he also finds in his current 6-0 team.

"I think the biggest thing is there is no individual stuff and everything is team oriented like we were back then, and the kids really get along good together."

The Red Devils may have a little more overall athleticism with its current roster, which includes the likes of running back Jimmy Golden and receivers Layton Tenkhoff and Devon Yahn, all seniors.

"It's fun. They've got more speed than I've ever seen," said Terry Glenzy, an assistant on the 1969 football team who took over the next season and served as athletic director from 1975 to 2010. "And they're good at the skill positions. They're great. They just have some very athletic kids. Charlie has them playing hard, and they're fun to watch."

Burnett has faith in the group, and knows first-hand they have a capable leader. His only advice for this 6-0 team is a simple one.

"I think if they just listen to Charlie and have fun and keep their heads, that they'll do fine," Burnett said.

A win against Malden, and maybe the Red Devils can step even further back in time.

The next year on the projected path of this odyssey? 1956.

What school did Chaffee defeat to cap its only unbeaten season at 9-0?

Check only as far as Chaffee's Week 9 opponent -- Charleston.

Then check an old Red Devils roster for an Emmett Brown, aka "Doc," or even better, check the Chaffee parking lot Friday for a Delorean with a "flux capacitor."