[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 155 (Saturday, December 19, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2366-E2367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            TRIBUTE TO THE MIGHTY MENOMINEE MAROONS OF 1998

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BART STUPAK

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Saturday, December 19, 1998

  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, in the near future several signs will be 
erected along the main highways entering my home town of Menominee 
Michigan. Those signs will advise travelers that they are entering the 
community whose high school has won the 1998 Class BB state football 
title. Those signs will be a lasting legacy of the Menominee High 
School team's accomplishment, but they won't begin to reveal to the 
passing motorist the wonderful, personal stories bound with the season-
long march to the championship.
  Menominee is a football town, Mr. Speaker, with a gridiron tradition 
reaching back 105 years. Larry Ebsch, a former local newspaper editor 
and an inveterate sports fan, has calculated that the Menominee Maroons 
have played 810 games, with a winning percentage of 61.6--but not one 
state championship. Thousands of young men have taken the field wearing 
the maroon jersey, and those signs on the edge of town don't give a 
glimpse of those thousands of personal memories of more than 100 
seasons of football. I'm sure every one of those former players had a 
lump in his throat and tears in his eyes thinking of the joyous welcome 
given to the 1998 Maroon team after their 10-hour bus ride from the 
Silverdome in Pontiac back to Menominee.
  Another great story is that of the coach himself. Ken Hofer, by Larry 
Ebsch's reckoning, has coached 277 of Menominee's 810 games in a career 
going back to 1966. His own winning percentage is 68.2, and his teams, 
running the 1930s-style offense known as the single wing, have averaged 
17 points per game.
  None of those statistics reveal the great memories of great games 
that Ken Hofer and his teams have given Menominee fans, particularly 
memories ofthe rivalry between Coach Ken and his son, Coach Chris Hofer 
of Kingsford. The powerful Kingsford Flivvers served as an obstacle 
that the Maroons for years could never quite overcome. When Ken's team 
finally defeated Chris's team last year and Menominee advanced into the 
playoffs, it was evident that the Menominee team had taken the measure 
of its most difficult adversary and was well on its way to a 
championship year. That promise was fulfilled in 1998.
  Coach Hofer says the seeds for final victory were planted early in 
the season, when the team pledged itself to reach the playoffs. It was 
a team supremely suited to become a championship team, Mr. Speaker, 
because it was built around a team ego, not individual egos. This 
collective ego made the 1998 Maroons a team of destiny. On the first 
play of the first playoff game, Josh Tarbox returned the opening 
kickoff for a touchdown. Then the Maroon team made a quick run of 27 
points in the first five minutes, signaling clearly this team was on 
its way to the state championship.
  Many Menominee residents were on hand in Pontiac for the fulfillment 
of the championship dream. Along with teh cheerleaders and 113 members 
of the marching band, a steady procession of vehicles sporting ``Go 
Maroons!''

[[Page E2367]]

stickers made the drive across to the Mackinac Bridge and the long haul 
down the full length of the state of Michigan to the city of Pontiac. 
Menominee's hallmark stong fan base was out to make an expression of 
confidence, love, joy, and not just a little pride in showing that a 
team and a town from Michigan's Upper Peninsula were a match for any 
downstate opponent.
  Here, Mr. Speaker, is the full roster of the 1998 Michigan Class BB 
football champions, the Menominee Maroons: Head Coach Ken Hofer, 
Assistant Coach ``Satch'' Englund, Assistant Coach Dale Vanduinen, 
Assistant Coach Joe Noha, Manager Bob Anderson, and players Jim 
Anderla, Adam Bebo, Jordan Beck, Andrew Bray, Nick Brukardt, Drew 
Buyarski, Bromley Carlson, Adam Clark, Scott Demille, Nick Dessart, 
Matt Dionne, David Eaton, Tom Emmes, Bob Fifarek, Charles Hanson, Mike 
Hubert, Isaac Johnson, Doug Kamin, Mike Klitzke, Kris, Lavigne, Brandon 
Lemery, David Lescelius, Byron Lundquist, Aron Mars, Allan Mars, Mike 
Merrill, Jesse Miller, Shane Mundt, Nash Myers, Nick Nerat, Dale Olsen, 
C. J. Paasch, Pat Palmquist, Nathan Parrette, Nathan Patzke, Scott 
Polzin, Adam Racine, Scott Ries, Todd Roach, Randy Ruleau, Jeremy 
Sallgren, Mike Schultz, Rich Shatusky, Kevin Smith, Richie Smith, Josh 
Tarbox, Trevor Thomas, Nick Thompson, Erich Voigt, Tim Vojcihoski and 
Justin Wozniak.

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