Last champs enjoy victory
The 1972 Burbank team, the last to capture a league crown, can finally pass the torch.
By Jeff Tully, Burbank Leader
Published: Monday, November 16, 2009
MEMORIAL FIELD — The Burbank High football team did something Friday that no other Bulldogs squad had been able to accomplish in more than three decades. By defeating Burroughs, 28-21, in the annual cross-town rivalry Big Game, Burbank won the program’s first league championship in 37 years. Although the Bulldogs had to share the Pacific League title with Burroughs, that didn’t make the accomplishment any less sweeter for Burbank.The championship marked only the third league title in school history, the other coming in 1956.
Huddled in a corner of Memorial Field Friday was a group from the winning 1972 team. They reminisced about their gridiron years and marveled that it had taken so many years for another Bulldogs team to win a crown.“There were just some great guys from our championship team,” said Dave Kemp, who was an assistant to Coach Pete LiPera in 1972. “They were just so competitive and they were so tenacious. It was a very special group.”With standout players like Kenny Walker, Loo Orange, Kirk Roberts, Bruce Smentek, Mick Flavin, Ron Warmhoff, Dave Clayton, Dave Cerbin and Mike Ballard, the Bulldogs defeated Burroughs, 14-0, in the 1972 Big Game to secure the title.“Everybody expected Burroughs to win the league that year,” Orange said. “Even when we went into the game with them undefeated in league, a lot of people thought they were going to kill us.”That didn’t happen.
Walker and Orange scored the game’s only touchdowns to boost the team to a victory.“That was a very big win for us,” Flavin said.
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