Peninsula High 1978 state title football team has reunion

For many that attended and cheered for Peninsula High School in the 1978-79 school year, it was one to remember.

Two of the school’s athletic programs won a state championship during that academic year: Girls’ basketball and boys football.

Earlier this year, members of that basketball team returned to the school for a ceremony that celebrated the 40th anniversary of their win and retired the jersey of Mary Ann O’Dell (then Stoican), now a teacher at Peninsula.

“I was part of the state championship basketball team for the girls team that year. We had an awesome reunion last January for celebrating our 40th anniversary,” she said.

Not long after their celebration, the idea to do something similar for the football team came to O’Dell who collaborated on the idea with current head football coach Ross Filkins.

“All along, I was talking to coach Filkins about doing this for our guys. They’re an amazing group of guys,” she said. “They were second [in 1977] at state, and then they won it in 1978. We started talking last spring and Filkins said ‘let’s do homecoming.’”

The event became a reality as the many Facebook invites were sent out and everything was carefully planned. The food, the location, and even shirts were made up to celebrate the victory that happened nearly 41 years ago.

As many students had already left the school grounds Friday afternoon, several members of that championship football team returned to their old stomping grounds and gathered in the library.

Scattered throughout were photocopied pages of the yearbooks that had the team’s photo in it. On the projector, video clips of the title game were playing to serve as a backdrop for the gathering.

“Some guys look exactly the same, and some look completely different,” said Bill Glover, a junior safety at the time of their championship. “For those three years, we lost three of four games total and played in the Kingdome a couple times. We got to do a lot of cool things.”

Also in attendance for the reunion was the team’s former coach, Larry Lunke.

Lunke had a special way to connect with his players, bringing in motivational speakers and teaching them loyalty and respect to one another.

“That was a big thing, we brought in Frosty Westering who was at PLU,” he said. “He was a positive speaker. He comes in with his shorts and a dirty t-shirt and a jar full of beans. He starts shaking this ball and this gold nugget comes to the top. The theme was if you keep working at it, the cream will come to the top.”

Speakers like Westering were part of Lunke’s coaching philosophy: teaching the players how to be respectful and good members of the community, as well as role models.

And according to their former principal, Dele Gunnerson, they were exactly that.

“The neat thing about these kids, some of them are retired now, is that they are all good kids,” he said. “They’ve all gone on to do wonderful things in life. The way coach Lunke embraced the kids and putting things together was bar none.”

Lunke and Gunnerson had a great understanding of one another as well. Lunke knew how important it was to have someone above him in the administration that was in his corner.

“I’ll always remember my second year and we were going to play our last game and we needed that to win the championship,” Lunke said. “Our field was about six inches of mud. I asked is it possible to move this field, move our team to a better field? What do I have to do?

“He said ‘You have nothing to do. I’ll get it done.’”

That team of young men meant a great deal to the community. This was before there were two high schools in Gig Harbor, so those games meant more to the supporters.

When the state championship was played at the Kingdome, over 6,000 tickets were sold for fans of the Seahawks to come watch them play.

“It was amazing. We traveled all over the state,” Gunnerson said. “The whole community just embraced these kids… We had games all over and no matter where we went, everyone was there.”

The community definitely embraced the team as the level of enthusiasm was sky high for the Seahawks. Even if they were traveling to as short of a distance as Tacoma, fans wanted to show their appreciation for the team.

“It was a different time then. I remember the whole town would be there, sending us off [on busses],” Glover said. “Gig Harbor was a lot different and with one high school, it was a lot different. The whole community was behind one school.”

All of those elements lined up perfectly for the Seahawks as they defeated Pullman 35-34 for the state championship in early December 1978, cementing their legacy of respect and loyalty to one another.

“It was great connecting with the community [after the state win],” Lunke said. “I always felt after I came here that it was waiting to happen, but it hadn’t happened yet. All the pieces fell in together.”

After the reunion in the library, the 1978 state championship team were led to the stadium and gathered as honorary captains at the center of Roy Anderson Field.

The community that they gave so much to back then cheered them on one more time as Lunke and his team walked off the field to take their seats in the crowd.

Finally, the current iteration of the Seahawks took to the field for their homecoming game against Shelton, capping the night with a 55-0 victory of their own.