1968-75: Hudson Tigers win 72 straight games

If there were a list of top stories in Hudson over the last century, it would be  easy to pick number one. There can't be any doubt in anyone's mind that the 72-game unbeaten streak is the Hudson story of  the century.

 The Hudson Tigers lost their first game of the 1968 season, to Blissfield, but it would be 1975 before Tom Saylor's teams lost another game.

The first victim was Clinton, the next week, with Jim Sweigert scoring the first touchdown of the streak. Hudson managed another seven wins after that in the 1968 season.

In spite of the awesome record over the next eight years, which included 35 shutouts and a total point spread of 2,345 to 341, the Tigers of those years weren't always that that overpowering. There were close games each of the eight seasons of the streak.

In 1969, Hudson opened the season by beating Blissfield for the first time in ten years. One of the widest point spreads of the streak came that year, when Hudson beat Allendale, then in their first year of football, by a 72-6 margin. It was Hudson's first 9-0 season since 1957, when the team, including the 1956 state champions, were putting together a 27-game winning streak.

Everyone was up for the Onsted game in 1970. Hudson led 40-0 at the end of the first quarter on the way to an 82-6 victory, the largest margin of the streak. People were starting to pay attention, and  football crowds reached 3,500.

1971 was a year of close calls. Harper Woods Lutheran East gave the Tigers about all the opposition they wanted, and they were lucky to squeeze out an 8-0 victory. Other close games included Grass Lake (22-16), Manchester (12-6), Flat Rock (20-16), and Morenci fell 6-0 in front of over 4000 fans.

The 1972 Tigers were small but fast. The defense forced five shutouts over the course of the season, but the high point of the season for many was the last game, when Hudson beat Morenci, tying Morenci's 44-game state winning streak record. It proved to be an easy but emotional 42-0 win, that gave Hudson the Number 1 ranking in the state AP polls. For the first time in the streak, in those pre-playoff days, Hudson could claim the state championship, joining the 1956 Tigers as state champs.

In 1973, the Tigers were led in two games, by Addison and Onsted, but the Tigers held on to win, and once again they were picked as the state champions by the Associated Press.

By 1974, the streak was becoming a big thing. 4,500  fans showed up for the Addison game -- a huge battle that drew wide interest, as Addison was ranked #2 in the state to Hudson's #1. Hudson trailed 13-12 at the half, but managed a 26-21 victory in what Hal Schramm of the Detroit Free Press called one of the five greatest sporting events he ever covered. Also that year, Grass Lake gave the Tigers a  scare, with the score tied 8-8 with only seconds left and no time outs remaining, but the Tigers managed to score on the last play to keep the streak alive.

The 1975 regular season was almost routine. Hudson tied the old national record, then held by Jefferson City, Missouri, in the final game of the season against Hillsdale. Looming at the end of the season, though, was the first year of state playoff games, and the first game was against Kalamazoo Hackett. Media coverage was intense, and excitement built to a high level, with the record hunt appearing in many national publications and networks. Hackett gave the Tigers about all they wanted, but the Tigers managed the victory, 24-14. If the winning streak had to end, let it be at the state finals, where Ishpeming managed to do what no one else had done in eight years.

Following that, the Tigers went on to win their next 10 regular season games, and Coach Saylor compiled a 94-5-1 record before leaving Hudson after the 1976 season, with a reputation that every other Hudson coach is still compared to.

The record stood until 1997, when a California parochial school, Concord DeLaSalle, managed to take it, with some of the Hudson veterans from a quarter century before there to watch the DeLaSalle Spartans routinely destroy a badly overmatched opponent. Three years previously, two schools playing eight-man football also surpassed the record.

Hudson still holds the public school record for the longest winning streak in the country, holds the state record for longest winning streak, and for the longest winning streak not involving playoff games, at 81.

Right: Assistant coach Ray Curran, Team physician
Dr. Lowell Blanchard, and Tiger Head Coach Tom Saylor,
with trophy presented to the team by Dr. Blanchard.                                                                   


                                                              

 
Action during the "Glory Years" of Hudson football.

 
Left: Mark Monahan, Mark Duncan, Chris Caywood and Dan Rowley in action toward the middle of the streak.