BEATING THE BRICKIES – Article #2 /

A Bone To Be Chewed

Panthers Power Past Hobart as the Doors Close on Brickies Dominance

By Brian Waddle, RSN Contributor

EDITOR’S NOTE: The meaning of “a bone to be chewed” – a problem, issue or subject that requires serious consideration, deep thought and/or prolonged effort to correct, overcome or defeat. As you are about to read, for the Griffith Panthers that bone was Hobart. They were the problem, issue and subject that required serious consideration, deep thought and prolonged effort to correct, overcome and defeat.

Russ Radtke was the mad scientist. His players were the lab rats. But these Griffith Panthers in 1997 weren’t tiny, timid, little mice.

Preparing for mighty Hobart back on November 14, 1997 wasn’t a week-long experiment.

Russ Radtke put his scientific method to test. For weeks … and months.

After a Week 2 loss to Hobart, 21-6 at the historic Brickie Bowl on August 29, Radtke knew the Panthers would see the Brickies again in the Class 4A regional. It wasn’t a matter of if, it was matter of when – and where.

“(After that loss) we committed to breaking down every film we had on them, scouting them throughout the rest of the year and started putting stuff in a computer,” recalled Radtke. “Today you put stuff in a computer and get about a five-page readout – back then it was like going to the moon and about 75 pages of information. It took a lot of time. It took a lot of preparation. We’d spend 15-20 minutes each practice committed to Hobart.”

If anyone knows Radtke well, 15-20 minutes is probably an extreme understatement. More like an hour or longer – each and every practice that season.

The Panthers ended up slaying the dragon on November 14, 1997 on the way to the program’s first and only state championship.

Final score: Griffith 35, Hobart 21.

“The key for that entire season was playing Hobart in Week 2; it was 21-6, but they kicked the sh*t out of us,” said Shane Radtke, Russ’ son and the team’s starting quarterback that season. “That was a real, real wake-up call because we couldn’t get past Hobart. The Mud Bowl, that 14-13 loss at the Brickie Bowl, Don Howell, that legendary program. Did Griffith even beat Hobart before that game, maybe in the 1950s? We thought 1997 was going to be our year, but we rolled into Hobart Week 2 and they punched us in the face.”

Without the mad scientist and his test subjects, it would have never happened.

Think about it as his secret lab. Russ Radtke mixing and matching his beakers and game-planning for the Brickies. He would have never admitted what the team was doing behind the scenes for that Hobart rematch – you’d get the “one game at a time” speech – but Radtke and his staff were getting ready for the Brickies.

Each and every day.

This was a Hobart team that was 12-0 coming into the regional matchup, going 7-0 in the loaded Duneland Athletic Conference – against the likes of Crown Point, Merrillville, and Valparaiso.

“I think we were (in) the LAC Blue – playing Whiting, Calumet, Gavit, regardless – and they were the outright Duneland champs, undefeated,” Shane Radtke said. “I mean we went into that Hobart game in Week 2 with some swagger, but they punched us in the face.

“That game changed history – it changed the tone of the whole season.”

And that rematch in the regional in mid-November had the Panthers as big underdogs, and rightfully so. Hobart had all the advantages going into the showdown.

“We were not the top athletic team, we were not the most physical team – we were just the best that night in the conditioning of the mind,” Russ Radtke said. “We were able to overcome the ‘Hobart matter’ with knowledge. It was 8 to 9 weeks of repetition because it was Hobart and we practiced every day on Hobart stuff.”

Griffith running back Shawn Andriessen lamented the emphasis on Hobart.

“Hobart was always in the back of our minds,” Andriessen said. “We carried a brick around all season after that second game knowing that we would see them again.

“That loss, though, gave us something to think about and what we had to do to win state – we had to get past Hobart.”

Russ Radtke, who’s moved on to Knox and turned the program into a stellar Class 3A juggernaut, is the first to admit you can’t get away with what his Griffith team did back in the day for preparing for a team like Hobart.

The Panthers practiced on the baseball field that season. The outfield was painted. There were no lights. Some nights it was so dark players had to read their Hobart keys and you’d hear them yelling when they found the ball or the player carrying it.

“I was out there like a crazy man with this stupid miner’s hat on,” Russ Radtke said. “Mother Nature forced us into reading assignments in the darkness. We knew we had one opportunity and one last chance to make it phenomenal.

“I don’t think you could do that with kids today without someone rebelling or a parent questioning like, ‘What the heck are they doing out there in the dark?’”

Russ Radtke will be the first to tell you how much he appreciated those days, those players, and especially those Griffith parents.

“We had parents, we had kids, almost like Hobart – mill people, blue collar folks working shifts and overtime, and nobody was whining or complaining,” Radtke said. “It was different and what we did in 1997 – I don’t know if you can do that in 2024. I really don’t.”

That Griffith-Hobart rematch is still talked about today – in both towns. A crowd at the Boneyard of more than 7,000 and the hoopla building up all week. Coach Radtke is quick to point out the Brickies were the No. 1 team in Class 4A heading into the showdown.

And what does the mad scientist do on the first play of the game? He calls for an onside kick.

Junior David Lopez, a soccer player by trade, pulled off the trick play to perfection. Nobody saw it coming for Hobart – and believe it or not – Griffith, either.

“Only two coaches, including me, and maybe two players knew about the onside kick,” Coach Radtke said. “We actually anticipated winning the toss, so we wanted to set the tone right away – that this is do or die and we’re going for everything. We scouted their special teams and felt we could do it.

“We actually practiced it under the bleachers right after we won the toss. Lopez being a soccer player could do it with his left foot, too. He told me he could get it done and sure enough he placed it right there on that sideline.”

The Panthers actually went 3-and-out after recovering the kick, but ask any player or coach – man to a man – it provided confidence for the black and gold.

The Boneyard was electric that night, especially with the Panthers up three scores at halftime. Defensive coaches huddling at halftime knowing they had a big lead on Goliath and trying to make sure they were ready for anything and everything when the Brickies came out in the second half.

Coach Radtke recalls defensive coordinator Dan McCoy, linebackers coach Travis Walls, and defensive backs coach Brian Tomson huddled and hollering in a meeting at halftime, knowing they had a big lead but it was big bad mighty Hobart on the opposite sideline.

“We’re in the heat of the battle and all I remember is feeling this tug on my shoulder and then a tap,” Coach Radtke said. “It was one of the concession stand ladies and with a straight face she tells we: ‘we’re running out of pop.’ So here we are in the thick of a regional championship game at halftime and she’s telling me this. I remember grabbing three freshmen, myself and some dollies and went back into the storage room and we had to bring out another 15 to 20 cases of pop. That’s what I was doing at halftime.

“I can still see her face in my mind and when I turned around she wasn’t startled one bit. She went right at me: ‘We’re running out of pop. I don’t have pop.’ I was like, ‘We’ll get it right now.’”

To add to this timeless turf war, the final score 35-21 went down in history that night for the Panthers.

That number “56” ended up being the same number for three postseason victories as the Panthers went on to win the Class 4A state championship.

The following week – in a classic ice bowl win over host Fort Wayne Dwenger – the Panthers prevailed 35-21.

The following week they dismantled Hamilton Southeastern 49-7 in the Class 4A state championship game. The Panthers rushed for 340 yards — a state single-season record that day.

Griffith finished the season with a 5,540 rushing yards – the most since Lake Central ran for 5,394 in 1993 when it finished as the Class 5A state runner-up.

Shane Radtke, the star QB, directed the wishbone offense like a well-oiled machine. In the state title game alone, Shane rushed for a game-high 161 yards and a touchdown and added 133 yards passing and three TDs through the air.

That 1997 Griffith squad had a four-headed monster (known as the “Four Horsemen”) in the backfield with three 1,000-yard rushers and almost a fourth.

Tom Grasha (1,431 rushing yards), Shane Radtke (1,073), Shawn Andriessen (1,073) and Dennis Palucki (931) spearheaded an explosive wishbone offense that was nearly impossible to slow down.

Grasha, the fullback, actually led the team in rushing that season.

Griffith scored an eye-popping 636 points that season (42.4 points per game), including 252 in six tournament games.

And much like the movie “Hoosiers”, you can still here the whispers at the Boneyard. And it would have never happened without a loss to Hobart in Week 2.

“We never ever heard of Hamilton Southeastern until we beat Hobart,” Shane Radtke said. “We were too busy watching every game, scouting every line, dedicating time at the end of every practice to Hobart.

“We knew we were going through Hobart – there’s no question about it.”