NJCAA Championship 40th Anniversary: Two easy mid-season victories

2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the 1970 Fort Scott Community College NJCAA National Champion football team and in remembrance of this squad and its 11-0 season, the FSCC Sports Information Department will be preparing a series of articles about the games, the players, the coaches, and the program from that year. Some of the articles and game notes are taken from stories that ran in the Fort Scott Tribune that season

After consecutive blow-out victories for the No. 7- ranked Fort Scott Community College Greyhounds -- 50-0 against El Dorado College (now known as Butler) and 64-0 against Independence -- -- the 'Hounds returned home to celebrate Homecoming 1970 against the 4-0 and No. 2-ranked Hutchinson Blue Dragons.

Against El Dorado, it was defense, defense, and more defense for the undefeated Greyhounds. The remarkable defense held the Grizzlies to 8 total offensive yards for the whole game and 0-for-17 passing.

Coming into the game as a highly touted team, the Grizzlies started off the game by making three first downs but a 19-yard field goal attempt was blocked by linebacker John Johnson who took off for a apparent 80-yard touchdown for the Greyhounds. Even though the play was nullified by a penalty, it set the tone for what the Greyhounds had in store for the Grizzlies.

That was the end to the Grizzlies' offense for the night as they spent the rest of the evening on the ground behind their own line of scrimmage.

Running Back Tommie Reamon led all Greyhounds on the ground with 76 yards on 20 attempts and also caught 2 passes for another 59 yards. The Greyhounds finished the game with 315 total yards from scrimmage.

Quarterback Kurt Nieman had another nice game throwing the ball as the freshman from Topeka went 8-for-16 for 174 yards.

The only close football game played at Independence the following week was at halftime when the local junior high teams put on a football exhibition. At halftime, Fort Scott already led the Pirates 50-0, then cruised in the second half to a 64-0 victory.

Fort Scott outgained the Pirates 528 yards to 120 in total offense and had 13 more first downs than the hometown Pirates.

Reamon and Nieman again led the 'Hounds in the offensive categories: Reamon with 172 yards rushing on 20 attempts and Nieman with 221 yards passing on perfect 11-for-11 passing.

Nieman's top weapons for the game were freshmen Matthew Brown (2 catches for 82 yards) and Mike Thompson (5 catches for 69 yards). Fort Scott's own Bill Zimmerman caught 1 pass for 21 yards.

But it was the defense play that had Greyhound's head coach Dick Foster talking.

"Our defense again was just tremendous, they kept the Pirates in a hole all nigh," Foster said.

The defensive unit held opponents scoreless in the 10 consecutive quarters of play over the last three games, including one against Arkansas City earlier in the season..

The first quarter told the story as the 'Hounds controlled the ball for 10 out of the 15 minutes of the opening stanza and scored five touchdowns against the Pirates.

The Greyhounds defense was led by defensive tackle Mitch Sutton, defensive back Terry Stoughton, linebacker John Johnson, linebacker Jack Milligan, defensive lineman Jack Garrett, and several others who made key defensive stops during the first three games.

The Greyhounds' head defensive coach was Fort Scott native Bob Shores. He was assisted by Larry Dalton and Denny Hutchinson.