Final Wayne-Medina football game a wild affair on a wild night
Kirk Miller (35) was a linebacker from Triway who played in the 1994 Wayne-Medina football game. The game was marred by a second-half fight, and it was the final installment of the series.
June 17, 1994, should have been an otherwise insignificant date, both in this area and anywhere else, especially where high school sports were concerned. It was, after all, the offseason.
That year, though, as the summer solstice approached, things were different.
In Wadsworth on what was a steamy Friday night, the final installment of the all-star high school football game between teams from Medina and Wayne counties was underway inside Art Wright Stadium.
For half the game, things were business as usual for a high school game. The Wayne all-stars, who hadn’t won in the first four installments of the series, led 14-0 at halftime and were in control.
They took the second-half kickoff and drove for a third TD and a 21-0 lead. Then things got out of control.
Less than four minutes into the second half, things took a violent turn. Buckeye’s Dave Kucharski returned the ensuing kickoff, after which, for reasons nobody could define then and nobody still can — in fact, most seem to have a different answer — a brawl broke out, with benches clearing, some students coming onto the field to “help,” and adults and one reporter who is now an ESPN national personality whooping and hollering and urging the combatants.
“Every play it got more ticky-tack, more pushing and shoving,” said Kirk Miller, a Triway graduate who played for Wayne County that night. “The officials were just letting us have our fun. Next thing you knew, it escalated.”
The brawl caused a 15-minute break in play and, thus far, a 30-year break in the all-star game, which most believe was done away with because of the on-field shenanigans that night.
“I think that was the reason,” said longtime Wadsworth multi-sport coach Mike Schmeltzer, longer ago a Rittman product who that night was an offensive assistant for the Medina squad, coached by Ramizi Shepherd. “I know for a fact that was said.”
Everyone interviewed for this project including people from both sides had a different idea of why the fight started. Chances are if everyone involved still among the living were asked, as many different ideas would emerge.
Miller, who might be as qualified as anyone to talk about it because he has a video of the game — though it cuts out after each play, so what started the fight is no clearer there — said it was just brewing throughout the night.
“If you watch a college game, they allow a lot more pushing and trash talking than they do in a high school game,” he said. “In that particular game, they were letting stuff go. Everyone that played was an all-star, and they were the big blocker or hitter on their team. So there were some hard hits.”
Cloverleaf graduate Scott Malarkey, who scored the only touchdown for the Medina side in a 28-10 Wayne County victory, remembers it starting to brew at a barbecue held for the two teams in the days leading up to the game. It spawned from typical kids stuff — boys being boys, as they say. By game time a bunch of kids who had no reason to be rivals suddenly loathed each other.
Factor in sweltering heat, a bunch of recent graduates not really afraid of getting in trouble, adults acting like juveniles and, well, football, and the powder keg was just waiting for a match.
“It wasn’t really anyone’s fault,” Malarkey said at the time. “It was just one of those football things that happens.”
It’s possible there was just something in the air that night, not just in Wadsworth but everywhere. The all-star game and its brawl, had anyone outside of Northeast Ohio known about it, might have had a minute or two dedicated to it in ESPN’s June 17, 1994 installment of the “30 for 30” series.
Because at the exact time Kirk, Malarkey and all their new friends were sparring with the seniors from opposing counties, Americans were glued to their televisions, watching one of the more sordid events in our nation’s history unfold live. O.J. Simpson was rolling down Southern California highways in his white Bronco at 30 mph.
After the brawl and ensuing break in play, the teams returned to the field. The teams managed to maintain their composure the rest of the night.
“After the fight it’s like everything calmed down and it just went back to being a regular football game,” said Cloverleaf graduate Scott Gasper, who quarterbacked the Medina County squad that night. “That was really weird.”
And like the events in Southern California that week, which caused a black eye on American culture, popular and otherwise, the backyard brawl at a meaningless football game left a black mark on two communities that otherwise never had any reason to dislike each other.
Schmeltzer played in, coached and watched thousands of high school events during his decades of involvement. He was part of the highest of highs as part of an assistant coach on a pair of girls basketball state championships.
And unwittingly and unexpectedly, he was part of the lowest of lows, a night everybody probably would like to forget but nobody can.
“That’s pretty as close as it comes to the bottom, I thought,” Schmeltzer said. “I thought it was embarrassing to high school athletics, to be honest with you.”