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.