Friday, September 10th the Bishop Kelly Knights have their home opener at Nick Ysursa Field against Boise High School.  For the two teams this game is their fourth meeting ever.  BK won the last two meetings that occurred in 2000 and 2001.  Boise won the first game, which was played many, many years ago — it happened so long ago that Richard Nixon was President.  It’s time for a look back, because it’s one of the most important games in BK history.

As the first meeting was in 1970 we can boast that it has been forty years since Boise High has beat BK.  Indeed the Braves’ 21-7 victory at Bronco Stadium stands as the last — and only — win by a Boise School District team over the Knights.  The 1970 game, despite the loss, stands as one of the more significant games in the history of the BK program.  First, it was the inaugural meeting of a Boise School District football team against BK and the first BK game at Bronco Stadium.  Second, the play on the field added to the BK legend  when the outnumbered and outmanned smaller school stood up unexpectedly to the Boise Braves — which resulted in a big payoff down the road.  The Idaho Statesman took note of the 1970 game when they covered the 2000 match up.  That story is cached at alumknights.org website.

In the late 1960s coach Chuck Forrestal led the Knights to several very successful campaigns and by 1969 BK enjoyed its first undefeated season and over three years amassed a 26-2 record.  It was time to raise the bar on the schedule so in 1970 BK sought out games against Boise High School and Highland High School of Pocatello, along with traditional opponent (and larger school) Meridian.

Many of the talented players on that undefeated 1969 team had graduated.  Nick Ysursa was off to Idaho State to play baseball and basketball for the Bengals.  Bob Bruce was a Boise State Bronco under Tony Knapp.  The 1970 team, not exactly an offensive juggernaut, had a difficult schedule to contend with, and the point was driven home when Highland High School visited BK in late September and handed the Knights the short end of a 69-0 loss. It was the second time the Knights had been shutout in the first four weeks of the season.

Two weeks later BK played Boise, and the Braves had defeated the high powered Highland earlier that season.  BK’s radio announcer Dave  Skinner played for the Knights that season.  He told the Idaho Statesman in 2000, “We’d lost to Highland 69-0 that year, and Boise beat ‘em, so we thought it was going to be a night of misery. We were decided underdogs in this game.”   But the BK boys rose to the occasion.  Legend has it that junior linebacker Bill Baril gave an inspiring pre game speech to teammates.  Once the game started an overconfident Boise High squad soon enough learned they had a fight on their hands.  The Knights’ offense made no headway but the defense held its own, anchored by linebacker Mike Brunelle’s 13 tackles (always a team player, he said a lot of them were gang tackles).  Momentum swung to the underdog Knights with a dramatic late second quarter goal line stand and they secured a 0-0 score into the halftime locker room.  Boise High coach John Giannandrea reportedly yelled so loud at his players at halftime it interrupted the discussions in the BK lockerroom.

Then midway through the 3rd quarter the unexpected happened when BK sophomore cornerback Kelly Baird picked off a Brave pass to the flat and scampered into the south end zone.  With the extra point tacked on by kicker Barry Zamzow the Knights took a 7-0 lead into the 4th quarter.

The magic spell was not to last.  The outnumbered Knights, many of whom went both ways while Boise platooned, were worn out.  The Braves put together three 4th quarter scores for a 21-7 victory.

Sitting in the stands that evening was a southern California businessman named Harry Daum. Mr. Daum had developed numerous retail properties across the west and was interested in the Sisyphean task of redeveloping Boise’s downtown with a retail shopping mall.  For whatever reason Mr. Daum was waylaid in Boise on a Friday night and decided to take in a high school football game.  He was so impressed with the underdog Knights — in their unmatched uniforms — putting on a courageous battle against a team from a much larger public high school, that he decided to make a major bequest to Bishop Kelly High School specifically for the athletic program.

The gift to Bishop Kelly ended up exceeding one million dollars.  The funds have been used to help with construction of sports facilities as well as land acquisition that allowed for more field space and ball fields – just as outlined in Mr. Daum’s bequest to Bishop Kelly.

Hard to believe that a two touchdown non conference loss for BK would result in such a payoff.  Yes, modern college football has its body bag games where an underdog program visits a powerhouse for a beating and a large paycheck.  Such mercenary decisions rarely raise an eyebrow.  But what happened one fall night 40 years ago has more to do with pluck and nerve on the field that touched the ideals of a man who could demonstrate his generosity.

So if you happen to be sitting in the stands at Nick Ysursa Field this Friday night, from your vantage point you will see just to the east and north of the field sits the Carley Center, south of it the lacrosse field, and further east the baseball diamond. The impressive set of facilities are there through the generosity of numerous donors like the Joe & Kathryn Albertson Foundation, the Carley family, and Harry Daum.  In the foreground on Nick Ysursa Field the Knights and Braves will be battling for the fourth time in 40 years, renewing a match-up where once, long ago, a gutsy performance on the gridiron inspired a stranger to make a gift.

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