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Pride of the WestSide

Elder Football brings home state title in very first championship game appearance

This article also appears in the December 18th edition of Westsider Magazine 

By Matt McGowan

    I can still remember when my dad took me and my brother to our first football game.  He wanted to make sure his boys’ first game would be one to remember, and since he was an Elder grad, he decided to take us to the capital of high-school football on the Westside of Cincinnati, The Pit, to see the Elder Panthers.

    The game that night was between Elder and their heated rival, the Moeller Crusaders, and had I not known better, I would have thought this was at least a college game, if not pro.  The Pit was a frenzied sea of purple-painted faces screaming their heads off in support of their team, and there wasn’t an empty seat to be found anywhere.  Though the game ended up being a lopsided Moeller victory (as did just about all of Moeller’s games during the early 80’s), I remember the place seemed just as packed and frenzied at the end of the game as it was in the beginning, and the team played just as hard.  There was not one ounce of quit in anyone wearing purple that night, player or fan.  For a young, impressionable football fan, it was truly a sight to behold.

    No doubt about it, Elder fans love their football team, and it shows.

    The Elder Panthers began playing football in 1923, and in all the years since, the one thing that had eluded the school was the chance to play for a state championship in football.  Elder has won 11 state championships in baseball, five in cross country, three in basketball and two in volleyball; but in football the Panthers' best showing was making it to the state semifinals in 1996.  In each of the past four seasons, they have been able to make it to the regional finals, but that final step had eluded them.  This season, however, all of that would change.

    November 30^th 2002 was a night that seemed custom made for football. With a cold wind blowing and heavy snow falling on the 22,375 fans that packed Canton's Fawcett Stadium, the Elder Panthers took the field against a Warren Harding team that was ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 11 in the nation.  The school's first crack at a Division I state football title hung in the balance, and the game that followed was everything you’d expect a matchup of that magnitude to be.

    Elder jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead, thanks to an 11 yard run by junior QB Rob Florian and a 51 yard pass from Florian to Ian Steidel.  After a Warren Harding touchdown cut the lead to seven, Florian gave the Panthers all the points they would need on a one yard touchdown dive set up by his 41 yard scamper on the play before.  Harding rallied to score two touchdowns in the final 3:34 of the game, but after missing an extra point following the first touchdown, they were forced to go for a two point conversion to attempt to tie the game.

    With the capacity crowd on it’s feet and the snow falling harder than it had fallen at any point that night, Elder's Kevin Harnist was able to break through the line on the two point conversion try and hit Harding quarterback Mike Kokal as he threw, forcing his pass to fall incomplete and preserving the Panthers’ lead.  With one last gasp, Harding then tried an onside kick, but since the kick did not travel the required 10 yards, Elder gained possession.  All that was left for the Panthers to do then was to kill the clock, and begin the celebration.

    The Purple “Pride of the WestSide” brought the Cincinnati area it’s first Division I football title since 1987.  The fatigue of a 240-mile one-way trip to Canton, which some cite as a possible reason for previous failures by teams from the Cincinnati area, didn’t seem to phase the Panthers at all.  (They had already traveled to Cleveland earlier in the season and defeated defending state champion Cleveland-St. Ignatius 45-35.)  One can be certain that the 10,000 plus Elder fans who made the long trip with the team didn’t mind the journey either. 

    After all, it’s a journey that has been 79 years in the making.   Congratulations Elder!  Once again, you’ve done Cincinnati proud.  GO PANTHERS!!!

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