Are these the final MVC football games ever?

CEDAR RAPIDS - It ruined Larry Brown's day.

The Iowa City High assistant coach, former longtime head coach and athletics director was asked earlier this week what his thoughts were about Friday possibly being the last set of football games ever in the Mississippi Valley Conference.

Brown, who also played at City High, said he hadn't realized this could be the end. Sorry to bring it up, Coach.

"I personally think it's a tragedy if the conference loses football," Brown said. "It's disappointing and frustrating that the rest of the state can't get its act together. It's difficult to understand how we got here."

Where they are is on the verge of district football, which would begin next season. Surveys sent out by the Iowa High School Athletic Association to Class 4A schools indicated a slight majority favor getting rid of conference play.

The assumption is the state is split on the issue: Central and Western Iowa schools are for districts, mostly to help scheduling issues. In Eastern Iowa, particularly the MVC, which was created in 1939 and even included Illinois schools at one point, district is a four-letter word, for sure.

"It would be kind of a sad thing, just for all of the tradition and quality," said Cedar Rapids Washington Athletics Director Paul James, who was a longtime head and assistant football coach at the school. "You hate to see those things going out the window."

"I am not very excited about losing my conference," said Cedar Rapids Jefferson Athletics Director Scott Kibby. "It doesn't bother me how fast this all has happened. What bothers me is how quickly they want to turn it around. People say 'Well, you'll still have a conference in basketball and track and all those other sports.' But the sport that pulls the wagon and is in the public eye most is football."

Most everyone contacted for this story had difficulty pinpointing a favorite MVC game they've been involved in. It was as if they didn't want to look back, for fear of what might happen going forward.

Legendary local broadcaster Bob Brooks was different, saying he has always remembered a late 1960s MVC game between Cedar Rapids Jefferson and Davenport Central that drew a capacity crowd at Kingston Stadium and even was televised locally on the old WMT.

"The game came right down to the end," Brooks said. "Jefferson had it on the 2-yard-line on the last play of the game. (Quarterback) Larry Lawrence ran a bootleg in for a touchdown,they kicked the extra point, and that was it."

Mississippi Valley Conference Commissioner Randy Krejci said Thursday the IHSAA has set up a meeting Nov. 3 in Boone to talk further about district football with 4A school officials.

The IHSAA Board of Control has created a two-person sub-committee to collect more input from schools about the subject. One of the sub-committee members is Cedar Rapids Xavier Principal Tom Keating.

"I am shedding a tear about Friday night. It's hard to believe," said Krejci, who officiated MVC games for years. "But I am mildly encouraged. November 3 ... I think that's a monumental meeting. I guess what I've learned is nothing is a done deal, yet.

"There are a lot of things people want to ask questions about. First of all, it's just good to have a meeting. That means they are really trying to get everyone's voice."

Kibby said he has even created mock schedules in which the MVC would at least keep divisional play and conference schools would help by playing a Marshalltown or Ames from the Central Iowa Metro League.

"This way we would save conference football and still have Western Iowa have some sort of district football," Kibby said. "We can be part of the solution. We've never been asked to, and maybe that's our fault for never bringing it up. We can build any schedule, any way we want."

What most of them really want is for this district talk to die, though that's not likely to happen anytime soon. So enjoy Thursday night's game between Cedar Rapids Washington and Waterloo West and the six conference games Friday night.

Keep your game program because it could become a collector's item. The final Mississippi Valley Conference football game your favorite school ever played.

Kind of sad.

"I'd just hate to see it end," Brown said.

"I, of course, wish they'd preserve the conferences in the state that have been been traditional," Brooks said. "But I also realize they already have done a lot of changes."

"I wish they'd just leave everything alone," Krejci said. "But I know I don't have a voice in this."

(From Jeff Johnson)

Went through a few old Iowa High School Football Yearbooks and found these MVC regular-season games that I thought were interesting or memorable covering in my 20-plus years at The Gazette. These are in no particular order.

2006 - C.R. Xavier 14, C.R. Prairie 3: This was the closest game the 4A state champion Saints had. Well, at least until that amazing playoff semifinal win over Bettendorf.

2004 - Linn-Mar 56, C.R. Washington 55 (OT): Probably the most amazing game I have ever covered. These teams literally went up and down the field offensively. Washington scored and went for the game-winning two-point conversion in OT. Running back Travis Rhone, who I want to say had over 300 yards rushing, was stopped inches shy of the goal line, if that.

2000- C.R. Jefferson 33, Linn-Mar 30: Jefferson finished off a 9-0 regular season and made a deep run in the playoffs. This was its closest game.

1998 - Iowa City West 18, Iowa City High 0: Top two teams in the MVC this year. West went 13-0 and won state championship. City High's lone losses were to West.

1992 - Iowa City High 21, Cedar Rapids Jefferson 14: These teams finished 10-1 and 10-2 overall. Tim Dwight was a junior for City High. Both were ousted in the playoffs by Tavian Banks-led and eventual state champion Bettendorf.

1990 - Linn-Mar 28, Kennedy 14: Linn-Mar won the first of back-to-back 4A state championship behind backs Jason Maloy and Mick Mulherin. Kennedy finished the regular season 8-1.

1980 - C.R. Washington 20, Dubuque Hempstead 0: There were no bigger coaching rivals than Wash's Wally Sheets and Hempstead's Bob Timmerman. Hempstead was the top-ranked team in 4A when Wash knocked it off. Hempstead got revenge in the playoffs, 22-21, and won the state championship.