Chasing Legends: A Road Trip to Steelville

Recently, I received a text message from schoolmate Dee Collins Corn about a WSHS alum who was approaching his 90th birthday. I immediately recognized the name: Ike Lovan, a member of the Class of 1953 and its famous football team. 

 

She sent a photograph and mentioned he was going to celebrate his birthday playing a mandolin in a bluegrass band. What? Of course, I would like to talk with him for an article. She got his telephone number, and I called and introduced myself. 

 

Ike agreed to a story and invited me to visit him at his home near Steelville. I’ve been to Steelville a few times and regularly drive past the exit to Highway 19 from I-44 at Cuba. I calculated it should be an easy hour and a half trip.

 

After exiting I-44, I pulled into a gas station and put his address into my car’s GPS. A cautionary alert went off in my mind. Readers may recall the confusion that happened when I used the GPS last fall on my trip to interview Father Cyprian at Ascension Monastery. Oh well, I thought, Steelville isn’t deepest Douglas County. It’s only one county away from St. Louis. 

 

The automated voice coming from the speakers in my car said, “Proceed eastward…left turn just ahead.” Sure enough, the road sign displayed the name of the street Ike had given me. My low-grade GPS anxiety started to subside, when another mental warning surfaced: Didn’t the map I perused earlier indicate a right turn off Highway 19? 

 

I ignored the thought and obeyed the voice coming from my radio speakers. As I drove along, I kept checking that the street was the right one, but the house numbers were considerably higher than the one in Ike’s address. After several miles, the pavement changed into gravel. My mind flashed back to the monastery trip. The rural roads had confused artificial intelligence again. 

 

Who says men won’t ask for directions? I called Ike and described my surroundings. “You’re on the wrong side of the Meramec River,” he said, and gave me directions to his house. I arrived a short time later. If I had continued to follow the GPS voice, I may have ended up in the Meramec River.

 

Ike stood in his front yard, looking calm and unperturbed at my tardiness. The photograph had not lied; he certainly did not look ninety. With his full head of dark hair and erect posture, he could have passed for someone from the Class of 1965 and could probably still put a spiral on a pigskin.

 

I felt immediately at ease in his presence. We shook hands, and he ushered me inside and introduced me to his radiant and charming wife, June. As the three of us chatted, June remarked that Ike did not color his hair.  

 

In my mind, Ike Lovan’s era at WSHS (1950-1953) must have been one of the most memorable and exciting. When I moved to Willow Springs in 1959, folks still raved about the glory days of Coach Speedo Harmon’s Bear football teams and 36 games without a loss. Players from those teams, Sonny Stringer, Junior Christopher, Neil Hanks, Archie Chaney, Bill Flood, and Forrest “Ike” Lovan were icons. 

 

Those teams loomed as the standard by which subsequent teams were measured and fell short. The large trophy from the Ozark Bowl the Bears won, with consecutive victories over Lockwood and Eldorado Springs in 1950 and 1951 etched on its base, sat high and in the center of the trophy case in the old high school building. Athletes from my generation stood in its shadow and held it in awe.

The Bears were undefeated in 1952 (10-0), and I wondered why Willow Springs wasn’t shown on the trophy a third time. When we were students, my classmate Truman Grogan told me because the Bears had won the Ozark Bowl three times the trophy was retired. But researching this article, I learned the Ozark Bowl was discontinued after 1951.

 

Those record-setting seasons for the Bears marked heady times, not just for the school. It seemed as if the whole town was involved. Regarding the trip to the Ozark Bowl, played at Southwest Missouri State College stadium in Springfield, the Willamizzou reported: “Business houses closed down in Willow Springs; the Bear Boosters chartered a special train; the marching band and the drum corps gave their instruments extra polish.” 

 

On Thursday, November 23, 1950, the Willow Springs News ran a front-page story with the headline: “Bears to the Ozark Bowl; Play Lockwood Dec. 1.” The article provided historical information that I have been curious about for years. “The Bears were picked as the SCA representative . . . in the 13th annual Junior Chamber of Commerce sponsored bowl game.” The selection resulted from the vote of an 11-person committee.

 

A bold sub headline (Special Train) announced, “A special Frisco train will run from Willow Springs to Springfield Friday afternoon, leaving here at 3:15. Round trip fare will be $2.70, provided there are 300 or more who buy fares.” The train would be at the Willow Springs depot “several hours prior to departing time so the coaches could be decorated . . .. 

 

“Persons wanting train tickets are requested to leave their name at Peoples or Ferguson Drug stores, State Bank, or K & J Café. Tickets will be delivered later. Reserve seat [game] tickets from the 30 to 60-yeard line are available at the school office and both drug stores.” 

 

A second bold sub headline (Stores May Close) alerted townsfolk that “A committee contacted business places and offices of the city council, Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce relative to the closing at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon to allow everyone the opportunity to attend the game.”

 

Excitement happened again the following year when the Bears were invited to the Ozark Bowl a second time. The Willow Springs News chronicled the event with two front-page articles on December 6, 1951.

 

“Nearly all of the residents of Willow Springs called a holiday last Friday afternoon as they closed shops and went out to support the Willow Springs Bears in the Ozark Bowl game. Most fans went on the special train . . . but several who couldn’t get away quite so early drove their cars later . . .. Springfield knew Willow Springs had arrived in full force when the snappy drum and bugle corps began stepping out toward town.”

 

The paper reported an early highlight of the game: “With a first period touchdown on a perfect reverse play, Forrest Lovan went 24 yards to score with the aid of a fine block by Neil Hanks.” In the end, the Bears defeated Eldorado Springs 19-9. 

 

Ike, a starter in the single-wing backfield his senior year, lamented that the Bears did not get to defend their trophy with a third appearance in the Ozark Bowl. However, he reminded me of another notable achievement in Springfield for the football team in 1952. 

 

With newspaper coverage and victories in the Ozark Bowl, the success of Speedo's teams spread beyond Howell County. This growing prominence likely bred resentment or dismissiveness from larger schools. Springfield High School (then, the city’s sole high school) angled to schedule Willow for a comeuppance clash. On November 21, 1952, the Bears travelled there and trounced Springfield 46-13. 

 

The 1986 movie Hoosiers, staring Gene Hackman and Barbara Hersey, was inspired by the high school in Milan, Indiana, a town of 1,150 residents, winning the 1954 state basketball championship. The excitement reflected in the film is how I imagine the atmosphere was in Willow Springs in the early 1950s, with the championship football teams and two Ozark Bowl victories. 

 

Willow Springs didn’t get a movie, but, perhaps, the 1952 football team is worthy of being in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Incidentally, some individuals with Willow Springs connections who have been selected are: Sonny Stringer (WSHS 1953), Coach Joe Scott, and Coach Gary Stansfield. Why not the 1952 Bears football team? 

 

More about Ike Lovan in a future column.