Linn-Mar honoring 1985 football team

Former Linn-Mar football coach Greg Purnell joked that he can't remember where he put his keys, but he remembers the 1985 and '86 Lion football seasons like it was yesterday.

'That '85 team set the bar and really established Linn-Mar with the right foundation to move into (Class) 4A,” he said, also mentioning state championships in boys' and girls' basketball during that time. 'We had some great kids and we had a heck of a run.”

The 1985 state championship team, along with the '86 state runner-up team, will be honored Friday during halftime of Linn-Mar's varsity football game against Cedar Rapids Kennedy. All former players, coaches, parents and cheerleaders then are invited to meet at Louie's Scoreboard in downtown Marion after the game for a celebration. Purnell, who retired from coaching before last season, will be back, along with more than 40 former players and coaches.

'We should have been back-to-back state champions,” Purnell said, recalling the 15-14 championship loss to Cedar Falls in '86 when two key players - Jim Albaugh and Jim Lancaster - were injured late. '(Cedar Falls) kicked a field goal that barely got over the crossbar.”

But it was the '85 team that got things rolling, a year after Linn-Mar was moved to Class 4A by the Iowa High School Athletic Association. Because it still played in the East Central Iowa Conference, predominantly a 2A and 3A league, 'the only way to get in the playoffs was go to undefeated.”

After a 7-0 start in '85, including a win over 4A Cedar Rapids Jefferson, Purnell said he started feeling the pressure. After a 12-6 win over Cedar Rapids Regis in Week 8, Purnell said 'I will never forget that week” leading into the finale - and ultimately win No. 9 - against Des Moines Roosevelt.

Linn-Mar opened the playoffs against a 'huge” Clinton team 'that looked like the Chicago Bears.” The Lions won, 35-6.

In the semifinals, Linn-Mar faced Cedar Rapids Washington and Purnell recalled former Warriors coach Wally Sheets wanting to move the game to the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.

'Our kids had been in the slop and mud for three weeks,” he said, telling Sheets he wanted the game at Kingston.

Linn-Mar won that game, 20-13, when Albaugh picked up a punt that was 'stuck in the mud” - despite screams from the sideline to stay away from it - and returned it for a touchdown with about four minutes left. In the state championship, Linn-Mar whipped Sioux City Heelan, 31-7.

'That ('85 team) was probably the quickest football team I had the pleasure of being around,” he said.

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