Friday night during halftime of the Allen-Parkland football game, the undefeated 1966 Parkland Trojan team will be honored.

The team is the first of only two undefeated football teams in the history of the school. State and district playoffs were not held back then, so the team finished the season after its 10th win.

Fifty years ago, in August of 1966, the team began summer practice coming off a 7-3 season in 1965. With only one returning offensive lineman, there was little optimism about the team heading into the season. However, one bright spot was a backfield featuring three returning players.

The team was coached by Joe Gerenscer, along with assistants Lou Wolf, brothers John and Frank Miksits, Dieter Wentz and Ed Davis. They ran what was termed a short punt offense, which featured direct snaps to one of the three backs. The offense was based on deception and relied almost solely on the ground game.

When practice began in August of 1966, coaches were hopeful the returning backs, which included co-captains Jack Roth and Mike Herb, along with Nevin DeLong, and new quarterback Bob Evans would have enough experience to carry the team to a few victories.

The offensive line, which included Curt Friebolin, Don Spielman, Dan Koren, Al Herhal, Dave and Hank Kunkel, and Ernie Steigler, came together for the team and led it to a great season.

The team’s defense was led by Jonathan Warke, Randy Poole, Frank Wirth, Joe Albrecht, Jack Jacoby and Harry Brown.

The team opened the season with a 32-26 victory over Emmaus. Herhal was injured and lost for the season, but John Balliet and Wirth filled in.

The next three games set the tone for the season. Wins against Bangor (37-14), Slatington (20-7) and Central Catholic (13-6) showed the team had a strong, gritty defense.

In the close win over Central, DeLong scored both Trojan touchdowns and Mike Schlegel made a game-saving tackle on special teams.

The Trojans pulled out a 7-0 over Nazareth to get to the midway point in the season. A rare pass from Evans to Herb accounted for the game’s only score on the last play of the contest.

The team moved on to beat East Stroudsburg 52-12 as Roth and Herb both ran for over 100 yards in the game. The Trojans got to 7-0 with a 33-6 win over Hellertown to set up a matchup with Panther Valley, which was also 7-0 and had several Division I-bound college players on its roster.

The game was played in front of over 6,000 fans at Parkland and the Panthers, which brought a large contingent of supporters down from the coal region, came in looking to avenge losses to the Trojans in each of the past two seasons.

Parkland hung on for a 33-26 victory, with its defense holding strong at the end of the game to earn the win. Panther Valley erased a 27-13 halftime deficit tie the game 27-27 in the third quarter.

The Trojans answered with a 47-yard pass from Evans to Steigler that proved to be the game-winner. Panther Valley and Pitt-bound Bill Pilconis drove to the 10-yard line before the Trojans stopped their drive to earn their eighth straight win.

Parkland capped the season with wins over Wilson (228-0) and Pen Argyl (26-13) to seal the Lehigh-Northampton League title, the school’s first outright league title in history.

Many players contributed to the success of the team that season. Other important contributors to the team who have not been mentioned include Doug Petri, Bruce Adams, Danny Wallace, Don Chaplin, Duane Oldt, Keith Krause, Bruce Stettler, Mike Dobil, Dave Weslosky, Scott Troxel, Bruce Krasley, Bob Krimmel, Sam Raub, Mark Gernerd, Ed Bechtel and Jerry Best, along with Fred Folland, Harry Miracle and Brian Kunkle.

The team’s kicking game was led by Spielman and Steigler, who both consistently pinned opponents and helped keep their team in good field position.

Individual yardage for the players was not kept for the season.

The team rushed for 3,200 yards and Roth and Herb had more than 1,000 each and DeLong wasn’t far behind them. Herb led the league in scoring two years in a row.

Many of the 1966 Trojans went on to play in college. Roth went on to play at Army. Wirth was an All-ACC defensive player at Clemson. Steigler played at Maryland. Petri was co-captain of his team at Kutztown. Warke, Evans and Hank Kunkel went to play at East Stroudsburg where Kunkel was a captain.

The season was played at the height of the Vietnam War. After graduation, 16 of the team’s 36 players entered military service.

The team as finally inducted into the Parkland Sport Hall of Fame this year.

A year after the undefeated season, William Allen High School agreed to put Parkland on its schedule, a sign the team had pulled the program into the upper echelon of local high school football.