September 3, 2024 • 31 mins
Rewind to the epic battles of Ohio's high school football scene as we journey through the intense rivalry between Hamilton and Badin. Ever wondered how a mere merger of Hamilton's Garfield and Taft high schools in the 1980s could set the stage for a historic showdown? Join me, as we uncover the thrilling 1980 game led by Badin's legendary Tony Farquis and the defensive 1981 rematch.
Fast forward to 1999 and 2000, where athletes like Ryan King and David Huff became legends, setting records and dazzling fans. But nothing compares to Tommy Puma's awe-inspiring performance in the 2000 game, which single-handedly secured Badin's victory. The stakes are higher than ever as we anticipate the 2024 game in Fairfield. Could Hamilton finally turn the tide? Tune in to WDYM, and let's relive these unforgettable moments and gear up for the next chapter in this storied rivalry.
Be Apart of the Show!! Text and Talk!!
Get $10 off of Dr. Squatch soap right now!
Use the code WDYM
www.drsquatch.com/WDYM
Email me! Thewdympodcast@gmail.com
Intro by Kobeofei via Fiverr
Season 2 Artwork: Ishida1694 via Instagram
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
you're listening to the wdym, the what do you mean?
Podcast, hamilton's number onepodcast.
Now sit back and relax.
Here's hamilton's own, michaelgillespie, and welcome to the
WDYN Podcast.
I'm your host, michaelGillespie.
(00:25):
Hope all is good.
Hope all is well with you.
Guess what?
It is that great time of theyear?
It is football season Footballseason in Ohio.
So that means high schoolfootball is getting ready to
(00:46):
start.
The most purest form of football, in my opinion, is high school
football, and it gets no betterthan Hamilton versus Bain to
kick off the 2024 season.
So today we're going to go allthe way back to the 1980s, talk
about every game of the seriesand lead up to the 2024 game
(01:09):
which is being played infairfield.
Yeah, fairfield, we'll touch onthat when we uh, get to that.
But let's start this off withthe 1980s now.
Anytime we go back in the timemachine, we have to play the
time machine music.
Let's go back to the timemachine.
We have to play the timemachine music.
Let's go back to the 1980s.
Yes, the smell of the 1980s isin here.
(01:34):
I don't know where I was goingwith that, but yeah, 1980 starts
off with ending the Fairfieldversus Bates series.
They used to play each other,which was a shocker to me,
because you know you would playFairfield but you wouldn't play
Hamilton.
That's cool, that's all right.
Back in the day, before the gamelet up in the 1970s, hamilton
(01:58):
was two schools.
I guess there was a boom inpopulation back then.
Hamilton then at the timedecided to divide up into two
schools, one on the East side,garfield, one on the West side,
taft.
The Garfield Griffins and theTaft Tigers were the two
Hamilton schools.
Back in the seventies, in 1980,those schools decided to
(02:19):
re-merge or re-emerge, becomeHamilton again.
They decided to play the BatonRams.
Let me give you a little storyabout the Baton Rams and why
this rivalry is a thing.
Baton football is all aboutprestige, and who brought that
prestige to Baton is no otherthan Terry Malone.
(02:42):
Terry Malone is one of thegreatest coaches in Ohio
football history.
Let me repeat that.
Terry Malone is one of thegreatest coaches in Hamilton
football history.
He's the one that made Batongreat.
(03:03):
He's the one that put theprestige in Baton and it goes
for decades.
He was the coach when it wascalled Hamilton Catholic School.
When they transformed intoBaton he was still there.
But we will touch more aboutTerry Malone later.
So the game is so big that itcannot be played in Hamilton At
(03:30):
this juncture.
Hamilton only has the athleticfield in Garfield.
At Garfield and that can maybehost maybe 2,000, maybe 3,000
tops back then maybe 3,000 topsback then.
The magnitude of this game.
The first time Hamilton andBaton played they had to go to
Middletown, to Burnett Stadium.
(03:51):
Burnett Stadium could holdroughly, I think back in the day
, maybe 10,000, 12,000.
Maybe.
That had to hold the gamebecause it was so big for
Hamilton During this juncture,before the game, it was such a
buildup, it was even a buildupduring the summer.
People were pointing at thisgame.
They knew that.
You know one, this has neverhappened before.
(04:13):
And two, it's a big thing forHamilton.
Still to this day it's still abig thing for Hamilton.
So what happened in that 1980game?
It was the Farkas show.
Tony Farkas scores threetouchdowns in the second half to
propel Baton to beat Hamilton28 to 14 in the inaugural game.
(04:35):
And in fact Farkas fumbled onhis first play from scrimmage in
the third quarter he paved theway for Hamilton's to take the
14 to 7 lead and, and afterwardshe pointed to that that really
got me mad, farkas said Icouldn't stop thinking about it
and I wanted to get it back, andhe did it three times to
Hamilton.
So the notes in this section isoutstanding performance,
(04:58):
followed by baiting defense andkeep away.
Remember that because,according to the box score,
hamilton had nine yards passing.
Now again, this is the eightiesand I don't think they believed
in passing period.
But yeah, nine yards passingcompared to Bain 74.
(05:21):
So there you go.
So Bain won, hamilton zero.
Now I always like to like thinkdeeper, put some, put some
thought into this.
Like why did Hamilton lose hisgame?
Because they have two schoolsfull of talent, right With
(05:42):
Garfield and Taft of talentright With Garfield and Taft,
and Hamilton at the time had tomake a choice for who they
wanted to lead the newly formedHamilton.
Do you go with Dale Robinson,with one year of coaching
experience and went 5-5 at Taft,or Leonard Rush, who went 11-17
(06:05):
with three years at Garfield?
You've all seen the movie.
Remember the Titans?
This is the same thing thathappened.
In my opinion, the same thingmight have happened, but in
reverse, it wasn't successful,even though at the 1980 game,
both teams were undefeated atthe time, baton went on to win.
(06:27):
And that's two things thatcould happen, like people that
were loyal to Coach Rush atGarfield was like no, I ain't
playing, I ain't playing forCoach Robertson to tap, I'm a
Garfield guy.
That could happen.
Or two, terry Malone was justthat darn good, I don't know.
I mean one could lead to theother or the other, one could be
(06:47):
factual.
So we'll never know and I hatethat.
The only thing I don't likeabout this is that I can't find
these people to talk to, becausethat would be interesting to
talk to Leo Rush, to talk toDale Robertson to see their
opinion on the game.
But ah, can't do that.
(07:08):
So let's fast forward to 81.
The 1981 game.
It was a low-scoring defensivegame and the final score was 3-0
favor the Baden Rams.
Rick Sano, if you may know,he's a local guy who does
journalism and has his ownsports reporting page and
(07:31):
everything.
He kicked the lone field goal27 yards to beat Hamilton 3-0.
Game was a great game.
Hamilton defense, baten pride,a proud coach, a perplexed coach
and aplexed coach and a tingeof melancholy.
Written by Galen Dusky from theHamilton Journal.
(07:52):
The Hamilton defense wasliterally on the field the
entire first half as bait andmarch from 20 to 20.
The problem was the Ramscouldn't score.
The reason was the big bluedefense.
It's the kind of game Iexpected, said Coach Malone, and
while waiting to board a busback to Hamilton, it's a very,
very tough defensive game.
Obviously I'm pleased that wewon, but I have to give big blue
(08:14):
credit for the great defense.
To realize the magnitude ofeffort turned in by the big blue
defense, one would need toconsider the fact that Hamilton
ran nine offensive plays in thefirst half, nine offensive plays
Overall.
We had a good defensive effort,malone said as his team rang up
its third consecutive shutout,adding Hamilton to the list.
(08:36):
That includes Roger Bacon andFairfield.
Rams had Hamilton to two firstdowns, one by penalty and 21
yards of total offense.
So you see the formula to beator to have a moment between the
Hamilton-Bayton series, you gotto have an individual
performance and somethinglacking.
(08:59):
What was lacking in this gamewas the Hamilton offense.
The box score for this.
Get this.
First downs Baton 15, hamilton2.
Rushing yards 156, hamilton 19.
Passing yards Now again, we'rein the 80s.
(09:19):
People Remember Passing yards.
Baton baiting 79, hamilton five.
So you see the formula hereindividual performances followed
by a someone shutting somebodydown right and the first game,
(09:40):
baiting defense.
Second game, baiting defenseand hold on to the football that
, my friends, is Terry Malonefootball.
And the thing is that when thisgame happens like, I try my
best to reach out and just getan internet quote, an internet
(10:00):
question.
Rick Sano has a Twitter slash Xaccount account and I'm pretty
sure he's busy.
But I just reached out and saidcan you tell me about the 81
game Just a little bit, becausethat is your game, that is your
single handed performance thatgave Baton a 2-0 lead in the
Hamilton versus Baton series.
Yeah, he doesn't respond, butthat's cool.
(10:23):
I don't expect him to, but itwould be nice to, hopefully if
he would ever reach out.
20 years later, approximately1999 to be exact, the series
picks up.
Now we've had over 20 years of,you know, kids come in and out,
things change and we get thiscoach named Ed Minnery.
(10:47):
Ed Minnery has, I had manygraduated from Baton.
So that's the thing I loveabout this rival we're
intermixed, we are.
There's some Baton people thatare now Hamilton people,
hamilton people that are nowBain people.
That's what makes this rivalrybeautiful.
So in 1999, this young man, me,I'm a student at Hamilton high
(11:13):
and we all.
We all are energized about theHamilton Bain game.
You know, this has not happenedin our lifetime and we get to
witness this.
And I was close friends to alot of football players and that
year we were okay.
So I'm not saying we were bad,but we weren't terrible.
(11:36):
I would argue that the GMC isthe best football conference in
Ohio.
See, the thing about the GMC isthat it's dominated by great
teams, the Princetons of the 80sand 90s, the Colerains of the
(12:01):
2000s.
And then we have thosein-between years where we have,
like you know, hamilton winninga couple of GMC championships,
lakota winning a championshipand, to top it off, lakota
divided itself to East and West,lakota East and Lakota West.
Competition is the thing forthe GMC.
We used to play twoout-of-conference games.
(12:22):
Now we're down to one.
We get one out-of-conferencegame and you jump into GMC and
I'm telling you hands down, thetoughest conference in Ohio.
Look it up, look it up, look itup Back to 1999.
We are talking about the gameHamilton is.
I think they're 3-6.
(12:43):
I think Baton is like 7-2,getting ready to go to, or 7-2,
getting ready to go to theplayoffs, and the hype is all
too real.
First and foremost.
Now Hamilton has their ownfootball stadium at the school.
Virgil Swarm is built there.
Ok, so we have that going forus.
(13:05):
We have a stadium right outsidethe school.
The stadium could fit, I think,roughly seven, seven thousand,
maybe eight thousand Don't quoteme on that.
So the hype is there.
The Journal News is publishingarticles every day leading up to
this series because again wehave the 80s to talk about.
(13:27):
We have this inner-city rivalrythat's not been touched in
20-plus years.
Getting ready to go down thecity is hyped.
The thing that I'm talking tothe football players hey man,
what are we doing?
Are we going to win this game?
Are we going to win this gameor not?
I'm asking everybody, I'masking all the football players
hey man, hey, hey man, we'regonna be baiting.
(13:49):
They'll be like yeah, man, I'masking kevin, william, kevin, we
gonna, we gonna, we're gonna bebaiting man, they smalling us
man, we, we gonna beat them.
I said okay, but we, we threeand six man, that's a you three
and six man.
So what'd you say?
I said nothing, man.
I said nothing.
I'm asking my friend mo, man,we win, we win Like man, we
better win.
You know what I'm saying.
I'm like okay.
So I'm asking, I'm asking HuffDavid, huff, like Huff man, we
(14:14):
going to win?
He's the most relaxed cat I'veever seen.
He's just sleepy, relaxed.
Yeah, man, come on man.
What do you think we going tolose?
No, I'm just asking because youon the field, come on, man, we
playing the GMC bro, we going towin?
I said we going to win.
He said yes, we going to win.
(14:35):
What happened?
What happened?
Bane scores first.
And that is right about it.
It was the Ryan King, davididhuff show.
What do I mean by that?
What I mean is that ryan kingran everywhere he wanted to go.
He ran for 227 yards.
(15:00):
That at the time, was a singlegame record 271 all-purpose
yards add two touchdowns.
So I was like Ryan King, what'dyou do?
That's what he did.
He did that.
And on top of that, huff,remember the all chilly, chill,
(15:21):
relaxed, chillin' type Huff.
I said Huff, what'd you doafter the game?
He did that Relaxed, chillingtype Huff.
I said Huff, what did you doafter the game?
He did Wap, wap, wap, wap, wap,wap, wap, wap, wap, wap.
I'm going to do my stuff.
He did his stuff.
He scored by run reception,interception for touchdowns to
lead Hamilton to a 45-13 victory, the biggest margin of victory
(15:44):
in the series, to put Hamiltonon the board 2-1.
Now that's the formula forHamilton.
The formula is either gooddefense or superstar
performances.
Let's look back Tony Farkasthree touchdowns.
Rick Cassano only field goal.
This game had two superstarsRyan King 271 all day.
(16:05):
Huff three touchdowns all day.
So the formula is in.
The formula is in on how to bebaiting in the 90s it's
athleticism, right, 45-13 saysathleticism.
And in the 2000, the next year,because this is a two-year
thing, it should be the samething.
I know these people, man, I seethem all the time the jermaine
(16:29):
wells, the derrick wilkerson's,the taz morris I told you about
taz morris, like, hit people sohard, hit them two weeks in the
future.
It's loaded.
This is a loaded squad and nextyear is going to be the same
right.
So this should be second, uh,second verse, same as the first.
(16:49):
There's no way we're losing2000 game.
The formula is right there.
This is athleticism andindividual performances.
That cap.
That that makes a hamiltonvictory plain and simple.
And it's just for me.
Me it's jubilation becauseHamilton won.
So we're all playing the themesong, we're ready for 2000.
(17:10):
Let's go Right, but towards theend of that game, there's this
one guy, one guy, I don't evenwant to mention his name.
This is Tommy Puma.
Tom Puma Throws this littlerinky-dink touchdown at the end
(17:34):
to give Baton another touchdown45-13.
Tom Puma, tommy Puma, whateveryou want to call him.
He saw that.
He saw the 1990 game and said,hey, hold my burr.
He said hold my burr, we got2,000 to play.
I go to the 2,000 gameexpecting the same.
This is going to be cake.
It's going to be easy.
(17:54):
This is the same formula.
We got all the athleticism.
They don't have the athleticismto beat Hamilton.
They don't, they don't, theydon't.
Okay, there's just no way.
And both teams struggled thatyear.
They weren't top-tier teams.
This wasn't the same TerryMalone team.
(18:16):
So again, leading up to thegame, it's the same thing.
We know.
We say, hey, man, is Hamiltongoing to win?
There's no doubt.
There's no doubt in my mindthat this is going to happen.
Remember that guy I mentioned,tom Puma.
Tommy Puma, you know, he saidhold my bird.
He was not playing so before.
(18:40):
So I was like you know what?
Let me reach out to TV Hamilton.
You know what?
Let me reach out to TV Hamilton.
Tv Hamilton has beenadvertising showing clips on
Facebook of the game.
I was like, wow, they got clipsof the game.
Let me reach out to them.
Let me reach out to them andsay, hey, let me get that 2000
game on DVD.
They said no problem, so I gotit.
(19:01):
I got it.
So I go to the game and I, Iwatch the game and bait and wins
the game.
Six I believe it was 16 to 10at roger swarm stadium bait and
won the game.
Watching the game on dvd, Irealized bait and 12 is tom puma
.
Tom puma scores every point forbait.
(19:22):
He did it all.
I'm not playing when I say that, when I say Tommy Puma did
everything.
He did everything Kicking fieldgoal, extra point touchdown.
Tommy Puma I think his name isTommy B Puma.
The B stands for Baton, becausehe did it all for Baton, he did
(19:44):
it all.
Now again, as a person who lovesthis game, who loves this
rivalry, I I read about tonyfarka scoring three touchdowns,
but he didn't do it alone.
I read about rick casano'sfield goal he did it alone.
David huff, ryan kingcombination, put the whooping on
bait.
This performance by tommy pumahas and including the game, the
(20:09):
last, the last, the 1999 gamewhere he threw a touchdown, this
performance by tommy pumaarguably one of the best
performances in hamilton versusbait in history.
I'm serious about that.
I I would love to talk to TommyPuma First, give him a mean
(20:29):
look, because that was not cool.
At the same time, give this manhis flowers he put.
I want to know how he feltafter this game.
He did everything.
Now, watching the game, yes, hedid 90% of the work, but there
(20:49):
was two other people thatdeserve applause.
Okay, so while, yes, yes, tommyPuma did a lot, a lot of credit
goes to Drew Teekin and AndyFurman.
Those two also helped a lotwith the running game and
everything.
And despite Big Blue'sathleticism and a big shout-out
(21:10):
goes to Derek Wilkerson.
He had a run that set it off,man, I think he had 135 yards
that game.
And the thing that I question,looking back at the game, is why
did we quit feeding Derrick?
Like dude, he was the thingabout Derrick Derrick's.
(21:33):
Like my height, maybe a coupleinches taller than me, the man
could run, and it's like once wedid that, we got away from it.
Now, granted, the defense ofBaton was good that game, it was
great that game.
But now, in hindsight, I canwatch the game again.
Some of the play calling wasquestionable and and hold on, I
(21:56):
got a mystery for you thequarterback from Hamilton was
from Baton.
Was he sent there to purposelylose the game?
Maybe we'll never know, buteither way, that was the cap of
the series for another 20 years,fast forward to 2023.
(22:20):
You don't know what to thinkright now because, again, we've
had 20 years of up and downfootball for Hamilton.
We've had bad coaches after badcoaches after bad coaches, and
then we finally get some goodcoaches in, like Nate Mahon.
He was our coach, hamilton gradCoach Crouch Now he was here
(22:47):
before as an assistant coach.
It's like, okay, the momentumslowly, you know, going back,
getting back to a betterstandard of Hamilton football,
and Bain is still doing itsthing.
Despite Coach Malone retiring,the program is still at an
all-time high, which leads us tothe 2023 game.
Now, before I even dive into2023 game, let you know I don't
(23:10):
talk about kids.
Okay, I don't, I don't, I don'ttalk about kids.
The kids will be nameless andstuff.
I'm not going to talk about, nokids, it's not fair, it's not
right.
They, they, just the kids.
But leading up to the game, we,as hamiltonians, come together
to celebrate.
We had this whole prep rally atmarkham park and this is the
(23:34):
first time I get to openly boopeople in green and I'm doing it
.
I don't care, I don't care ifI'm older or not.
I see somebody in green, I'mbooing a boo, boo.
You stink boo.
Go back, go back to whereveryou came from, and the thing is
that nobody's like angry aboutit.
We're all laughing and see theperson that born us crossing the
street.
(23:54):
They're laughing and all thatstuff.
There is colors of blue, ofgreen, of people from Baton,
people from Hamilton, people ofHamilton are all together and
we're all at Markham Parkcelebrating this rivalry.
That's bringing us all together.
So it's a good time to see allthese people celebrating
(24:21):
Hamilton and that's what I loveabout this rivalry the series
that we are celebrating Hamilton.
Our kids are our people ofHamilton.
We're all together enjoyingourselves.
Right, and I get to boo peoplein public.
That's great.
Leading up to the game.
So we're at virgil swarmstadium.
(24:43):
It's weird.
The feeling is weird.
Now again, I have been to the1999 game as a student, the 2000
game as a, as a spectator whateveryone call it and a 2023 game
as a spectator and again, Idon't have no insight.
I don't have, you know, nothingbut the feeling that I got from
(25:03):
watching the game that it wasjust another game to the
Hamilton players.
I don't know, it just lookedthat way, it just came off that
way.
Needless to say that this gamewas played the first game of the
season.
How can you tell who you are inthe first game of the season?
These games previously wereplayed in the 80s, in the middle
(25:25):
of the season, and the 90s, thelast game of the season.
At the last game of the season,you know who you are.
I need to run it with king.
I need to give it to huff.
Uh, I need chris brunt to throwa touchdown pass.
That's who we are.
That is hamilton football.
Malone did the same thing.
We need to run the ball.
You need to give it to Tom Puma.
He will take care of the rest.
This game.
It's the only thing I don'tlike about this game.
(25:47):
It should never be played thefirst week of the season, never.
We don't know who we are, theydon't know who we are.
So, basically, it's all abouthow prepared you are and how
prepared you are, and I don'tthink Hamilton was prepared and
it showed because again,individual performances show.
(26:09):
As quarterback who's now left Ithink his name was Alex Ritzy
performed amazingly being agreat ball manager as
quarterback bait and beatHamilton 18-0 at the Swarm.
But that game was Hamilton'sworst game of the year, worst
game of the year.
(26:29):
After that they beat LakotaEast 21-0.
Mason 0 kills and if it wasn'tfor the quarterback getting hurt
at Princeton and a bad passinterference call, probably
would have beat Princeton.
We're talking GMC, possiblygetting a GMC championship where
(26:50):
we haven't had one since 1997.
And on top of that, we made theplayoffs, got our first playoff
win in the modern day history.
Let me say that modern dayhistory.
Let me say that Modern dayhistory.
And then we lose to Princetonagain Eight and four.
You can't tell me that's not asuccessful season.
You can't tell me that if thatwas played in the middle or end
(27:15):
of the season that outcome mighthave been different, don't know
.
But nevertheless, success forthe hamilton big blue football,
success for baiting football too.
They went on to go to theplayoffs as well, but that is a
regular for baiting.
So what I did, I did somethingto honor this, this tradition
(27:37):
right.
This, to me, is the greatestthing for hamilton when we get
together and play this game.
So I decided to make coins,bring this rivalry to a physical
form.
I made coins all the way up tothe.
I call them the 2024 coins,which basically each side of the
coin has one side hamilton, oneside baiton, and it lists the
(27:59):
years that they won theirrespective game, which leads me
to the 2024 game Again.
That game, the 2023 game waspossibly their worst game of the
year.
Hands down, it was their worstgame of the year and there was
flashes of great play, greatplayers on that Hamilton team.
(28:20):
They got to play the 2024 gameat Fairfield.
Now playing at another teamstadium that's nothing new to
the series, right?
We've done that in the 80s,playing in Middletown, and we're
playing the 2024 in Fairfield,and I would love to keep this in
Hamilton because this is ourthing.
We don't need to be going toFairfield to play Hamilton Bain.
(28:43):
This is our game.
If Bain wants to be on the homeside, we should let him.
We should let him Cause.
This is this is.
This is our game, this is.
This is how I feel.
This is our game and it shouldbe played on our field, on our
land.
It just makes sense to me.
So what does the 2024 game hold?
(29:05):
What, what, how is that goingto end With the 18?
And nothing loss in the mind.
I seen, I follow, I follow coach, I follow Hamilton and I follow
the report.
And the report is one of myfriends, chris.
He just covers high schooleverything.
Everything shout outs to Chris.
For that.
It seems like them boys arethirsty man.
(29:27):
I've never I've seen you know,I'm watching them on the X
Twitter, twitter XX, whatever,twitter X.
I watch them and again, I don'tknow.
They're young men.
I don't want to talk aboutyoung men, but they seem thirsty
from the clips I've seen.
I've seen thirsty.
I've seen thirsty.
I've seen Coach Crouch.
He's not like taking aninterview at the desk, he's in
there watching them drinkingwater, like, yeah, we thirsty.
(29:47):
And I believe that I believethat Hamilton is thirsty this
year for something great.
Okay.
So what does that say for thegame in 2024?
I'm going to say watch out now.
I'm going to say this.
This is what I'm going to say Ithink Hamilton's going to kill
him.
Just a feeling.
(30:09):
I just got a feeling that theyknow, I've seen too much on the
Twitter and everything thatHamilton's going to do their
thing.
Just my opinion.
I guess I'll have to do apodcast on that and see exactly
to do their thing.
Just my opinion.
I guess I'll have to do apodcast on that and see exactly
how the game went.
But that's the series, man.
It is right now 4-1.
(30:31):
4-1?
That's not cool.
You can't go down 5-1 againstyour rival that you only played
20 years.
I'm going to be dead by thetime they even the series.
We got to win this one.
I love talking about this.
I can talk about this all day,but that's it.
(30:52):
Thank you for listening to WDYM.
Thank you for listening to myHamilton vs Baton 2023 edition.
I guess I'm going to do the2024 edition after the game.
My name is Michael Espy.
I'll talk to you guys later.
Peace out.
you're listening to the wdym, the what do you mean?
Podcast, hamilton's number onepodcast.
Now sit back and relax.
Here's hamilton's own, michaelgillespie, and welcome to the
WDYN Podcast.
I'm your host, michaelGillespie.
(00:25):
Hope all is good.
Hope all is well with you.
Guess what?
It is that great time of theyear?
It is football season Footballseason in Ohio.
So that means high schoolfootball is getting ready to
(00:46):
start.
The most purest form of football, in my opinion, is high school
football, and it gets no betterthan Hamilton versus Bain to
kick off the 2024 season.
So today we're going to go allthe way back to the 1980s, talk
about every game of the seriesand lead up to the 2024 game
(01:09):
which is being played infairfield.
Yeah, fairfield, we'll touch onthat when we uh, get to that.
But let's start this off withthe 1980s now.
Anytime we go back in the timemachine, we have to play the
time machine music.
Let's go back to the timemachine.
We have to play the timemachine music.
Let's go back to the 1980s.
Yes, the smell of the 1980s isin here.
(01:34):
I don't know where I was goingwith that, but yeah, 1980 starts
off with ending the Fairfieldversus Bates series.
They used to play each other,which was a shocker to me,
because you know you would playFairfield but you wouldn't play
Hamilton.
That's cool, that's all right.
Back in the day, before the gamelet up in the 1970s, hamilton
(01:58):
was two schools.
I guess there was a boom inpopulation back then.
Hamilton then at the timedecided to divide up into two
schools, one on the East side,garfield, one on the West side,
taft.
The Garfield Griffins and theTaft Tigers were the two
Hamilton schools.
Back in the seventies, in 1980,those schools decided to
(02:19):
re-merge or re-emerge, becomeHamilton again.
They decided to play the BatonRams.
Let me give you a little storyabout the Baton Rams and why
this rivalry is a thing.
Baton football is all aboutprestige, and who brought that
prestige to Baton is no otherthan Terry Malone.
(02:42):
Terry Malone is one of thegreatest coaches in Ohio
football history.
Let me repeat that.
Terry Malone is one of thegreatest coaches in Hamilton
football history.
He's the one that made Batongreat.
(03:03):
He's the one that put theprestige in Baton and it goes
for decades.
He was the coach when it wascalled Hamilton Catholic School.
When they transformed intoBaton he was still there.
But we will touch more aboutTerry Malone later.
So the game is so big that itcannot be played in Hamilton At
(03:30):
this juncture.
Hamilton only has the athleticfield in Garfield.
At Garfield and that can maybehost maybe 2,000, maybe 3,000
tops back then maybe 3,000 topsback then.
The magnitude of this game.
The first time Hamilton andBaton played they had to go to
Middletown, to Burnett Stadium.
(03:51):
Burnett Stadium could holdroughly, I think back in the day
, maybe 10,000, 12,000.
Maybe.
That had to hold the gamebecause it was so big for
Hamilton During this juncture,before the game, it was such a
buildup, it was even a buildupduring the summer.
People were pointing at thisgame.
They knew that.
You know one, this has neverhappened before.
(04:13):
And two, it's a big thing forHamilton.
Still to this day it's still abig thing for Hamilton.
So what happened in that 1980game?
It was the Farkas show.
Tony Farkas scores threetouchdowns in the second half to
propel Baton to beat Hamilton28 to 14 in the inaugural game.
(04:35):
And in fact Farkas fumbled onhis first play from scrimmage in
the third quarter he paved theway for Hamilton's to take the
14 to 7 lead and, and afterwardshe pointed to that that really
got me mad, farkas said Icouldn't stop thinking about it
and I wanted to get it back, andhe did it three times to
Hamilton.
So the notes in this section isoutstanding performance,
(04:58):
followed by baiting defense andkeep away.
Remember that because,according to the box score,
hamilton had nine yards passing.
Now again, this is the eightiesand I don't think they believed
in passing period.
But yeah, nine yards passingcompared to Bain 74.
(05:21):
So there you go.
So Bain won, hamilton zero.
Now I always like to like thinkdeeper, put some, put some
thought into this.
Like why did Hamilton lose hisgame?
Because they have two schoolsfull of talent, right With
(05:42):
Garfield and Taft of talentright With Garfield and Taft,
and Hamilton at the time had tomake a choice for who they
wanted to lead the newly formedHamilton.
Do you go with Dale Robinson,with one year of coaching
experience and went 5-5 at Taft,or Leonard Rush, who went 11-17
(06:05):
with three years at Garfield?
You've all seen the movie.
Remember the Titans?
This is the same thing thathappened.
In my opinion, the same thingmight have happened, but in
reverse, it wasn't successful,even though at the 1980 game,
both teams were undefeated atthe time, baton went on to win.
(06:27):
And that's two things thatcould happen, like people that
were loyal to Coach Rush atGarfield was like no, I ain't
playing, I ain't playing forCoach Robertson to tap, I'm a
Garfield guy.
That could happen.
Or two, terry Malone was justthat darn good, I don't know.
I mean one could lead to theother or the other, one could be
(06:47):
factual.
So we'll never know and I hatethat.
The only thing I don't likeabout this is that I can't find
these people to talk to, becausethat would be interesting to
talk to Leo Rush, to talk toDale Robertson to see their
opinion on the game.
But ah, can't do that.
(07:08):
So let's fast forward to 81.
The 1981 game.
It was a low-scoring defensivegame and the final score was 3-0
favor the Baden Rams.
Rick Sano, if you may know,he's a local guy who does
journalism and has his ownsports reporting page and
(07:31):
everything.
He kicked the lone field goal27 yards to beat Hamilton 3-0.
Game was a great game.
Hamilton defense, baten pride,a proud coach, a perplexed coach
and aplexed coach and a tingeof melancholy.
Written by Galen Dusky from theHamilton Journal.
(07:52):
The Hamilton defense wasliterally on the field the
entire first half as bait andmarch from 20 to 20.
The problem was the Ramscouldn't score.
The reason was the big bluedefense.
It's the kind of game Iexpected, said Coach Malone, and
while waiting to board a busback to Hamilton, it's a very,
very tough defensive game.
Obviously I'm pleased that wewon, but I have to give big blue
(08:14):
credit for the great defense.
To realize the magnitude ofeffort turned in by the big blue
defense, one would need toconsider the fact that Hamilton
ran nine offensive plays in thefirst half, nine offensive plays
Overall.
We had a good defensive effort,malone said as his team rang up
its third consecutive shutout,adding Hamilton to the list.
(08:36):
That includes Roger Bacon andFairfield.
Rams had Hamilton to two firstdowns, one by penalty and 21
yards of total offense.
So you see the formula to beator to have a moment between the
Hamilton-Bayton series, you gotto have an individual
performance and somethinglacking.
(08:59):
What was lacking in this gamewas the Hamilton offense.
The box score for this.
Get this.
First downs Baton 15, hamilton2.
Rushing yards 156, hamilton 19.
Passing yards Now again, we'rein the 80s.
(09:19):
People Remember Passing yards.
Baton baiting 79, hamilton five.
So you see the formula hereindividual performances followed
by a someone shutting somebodydown right and the first game,
(09:40):
baiting defense.
Second game, baiting defenseand hold on to the football that
, my friends, is Terry Malonefootball.
And the thing is that when thisgame happens like, I try my
best to reach out and just getan internet quote, an internet
(10:00):
question.
Rick Sano has a Twitter slash Xaccount account and I'm pretty
sure he's busy.
But I just reached out and saidcan you tell me about the 81
game Just a little bit, becausethat is your game, that is your
single handed performance thatgave Baton a 2-0 lead in the
Hamilton versus Baton series.
Yeah, he doesn't respond, butthat's cool.
(10:23):
I don't expect him to, but itwould be nice to, hopefully if
he would ever reach out.
20 years later, approximately1999 to be exact, the series
picks up.
Now we've had over 20 years of,you know, kids come in and out,
things change and we get thiscoach named Ed Minnery.
(10:47):
Ed Minnery has, I had manygraduated from Baton.
So that's the thing I loveabout this rival we're
intermixed, we are.
There's some Baton people thatare now Hamilton people,
hamilton people that are nowBain people.
That's what makes this rivalrybeautiful.
So in 1999, this young man, me,I'm a student at Hamilton high
(11:13):
and we all.
We all are energized about theHamilton Bain game.
You know, this has not happenedin our lifetime and we get to
witness this.
And I was close friends to alot of football players and that
year we were okay.
So I'm not saying we were bad,but we weren't terrible.
(11:36):
I would argue that the GMC isthe best football conference in
Ohio.
See, the thing about the GMC isthat it's dominated by great
teams, the Princetons of the 80sand 90s, the Colerains of the
(12:01):
2000s.
And then we have thosein-between years where we have,
like you know, hamilton winninga couple of GMC championships,
lakota winning a championshipand, to top it off, lakota
divided itself to East and West,lakota East and Lakota West.
Competition is the thing forthe GMC.
We used to play twoout-of-conference games.
(12:22):
Now we're down to one.
We get one out-of-conferencegame and you jump into GMC and
I'm telling you hands down, thetoughest conference in Ohio.
Look it up, look it up, look itup Back to 1999.
We are talking about the gameHamilton is.
I think they're 3-6.
(12:43):
I think Baton is like 7-2,getting ready to go to, or 7-2,
getting ready to go to theplayoffs, and the hype is all
too real.
First and foremost.
Now Hamilton has their ownfootball stadium at the school.
Virgil Swarm is built there.
Ok, so we have that going forus.
(13:05):
We have a stadium right outsidethe school.
The stadium could fit, I think,roughly seven, seven thousand,
maybe eight thousand Don't quoteme on that.
So the hype is there.
The Journal News is publishingarticles every day leading up to
this series because again wehave the 80s to talk about.
(13:27):
We have this inner-city rivalrythat's not been touched in
20-plus years.
Getting ready to go down thecity is hyped.
The thing that I'm talking tothe football players hey man,
what are we doing?
Are we going to win this game?
Are we going to win this gameor not?
I'm asking everybody, I'masking all the football players
hey man, hey, hey man, we'regonna be baiting.
(13:49):
They'll be like yeah, man, I'masking kevin, william, kevin, we
gonna, we gonna, we're gonna bebaiting man, they smalling us
man, we, we gonna beat them.
I said okay, but we, we threeand six man, that's a you three
and six man.
So what'd you say?
I said nothing, man.
I said nothing.
I'm asking my friend mo, man,we win, we win Like man, we
better win.
You know what I'm saying.
I'm like okay.
So I'm asking, I'm asking HuffDavid, huff, like Huff man, we
(14:14):
going to win?
He's the most relaxed cat I'veever seen.
He's just sleepy, relaxed.
Yeah, man, come on man.
What do you think we going tolose?
No, I'm just asking because youon the field, come on, man, we
playing the GMC bro, we going towin?
I said we going to win.
He said yes, we going to win.
(14:35):
What happened?
What happened?
Bane scores first.
And that is right about it.
It was the Ryan King, davididhuff show.
What do I mean by that?
What I mean is that ryan kingran everywhere he wanted to go.
He ran for 227 yards.
(15:00):
That at the time, was a singlegame record 271 all-purpose
yards add two touchdowns.
So I was like Ryan King, what'dyou do?
That's what he did.
He did that.
And on top of that, huff,remember the all chilly, chill,
(15:21):
relaxed, chillin' type Huff.
I said Huff, what'd you doafter the game?
He did that Relaxed, chillingtype Huff.
I said Huff, what did you doafter the game?
He did Wap, wap, wap, wap, wap,wap, wap, wap, wap, wap.
I'm going to do my stuff.
He did his stuff.
He scored by run reception,interception for touchdowns to
lead Hamilton to a 45-13 victory, the biggest margin of victory
(15:44):
in the series, to put Hamiltonon the board 2-1.
Now that's the formula forHamilton.
The formula is either gooddefense or superstar
performances.
Let's look back Tony Farkasthree touchdowns.
Rick Cassano only field goal.
This game had two superstarsRyan King 271 all day.
(16:05):
Huff three touchdowns all day.
So the formula is in.
The formula is in on how to bebaiting in the 90s it's
athleticism, right, 45-13 saysathleticism.
And in the 2000, the next year,because this is a two-year
thing, it should be the samething.
I know these people, man, I seethem all the time the jermaine
(16:29):
wells, the derrick wilkerson's,the taz morris I told you about
taz morris, like, hit people sohard, hit them two weeks in the
future.
It's loaded.
This is a loaded squad and nextyear is going to be the same
right.
So this should be second, uh,second verse, same as the first.
(16:49):
There's no way we're losing2000 game.
The formula is right there.
This is athleticism andindividual performances.
That cap.
That that makes a hamiltonvictory plain and simple.
And it's just for me.
Me it's jubilation becauseHamilton won.
So we're all playing the themesong, we're ready for 2000.
(17:10):
Let's go Right, but towards theend of that game, there's this
one guy, one guy, I don't evenwant to mention his name.
This is Tommy Puma.
Tom Puma Throws this littlerinky-dink touchdown at the end
(17:34):
to give Baton another touchdown45-13.
Tom Puma, tommy Puma, whateveryou want to call him.
He saw that.
He saw the 1990 game and said,hey, hold my burr.
He said hold my burr, we got2,000 to play.
I go to the 2,000 gameexpecting the same.
This is going to be cake.
It's going to be easy.
(17:54):
This is the same formula.
We got all the athleticism.
They don't have the athleticismto beat Hamilton.
They don't, they don't, theydon't.
Okay, there's just no way.
And both teams struggled thatyear.
They weren't top-tier teams.
This wasn't the same TerryMalone team.
(18:16):
So again, leading up to thegame, it's the same thing.
We know.
We say, hey, man, is Hamiltongoing to win?
There's no doubt.
There's no doubt in my mindthat this is going to happen.
Remember that guy I mentioned,tom Puma.
Tommy Puma, you know, he saidhold my bird.
He was not playing so before.
(18:40):
So I was like you know what?
Let me reach out to TV Hamilton.
You know what?
Let me reach out to TV Hamilton.
Tv Hamilton has beenadvertising showing clips on
Facebook of the game.
I was like, wow, they got clipsof the game.
Let me reach out to them.
Let me reach out to them andsay, hey, let me get that 2000
game on DVD.
They said no problem, so I gotit.
(19:01):
I got it.
So I go to the game and I, Iwatch the game and bait and wins
the game.
Six I believe it was 16 to 10at roger swarm stadium bait and
won the game.
Watching the game on dvd, Irealized bait and 12 is tom puma
.
Tom puma scores every point forbait.
(19:22):
He did it all.
I'm not playing when I say that, when I say Tommy Puma did
everything.
He did everything Kicking fieldgoal, extra point touchdown.
Tommy Puma I think his name isTommy B Puma.
The B stands for Baton, becausehe did it all for Baton, he did
(19:44):
it all.
Now again, as a person who lovesthis game, who loves this
rivalry, I I read about tonyfarka scoring three touchdowns,
but he didn't do it alone.
I read about rick casano'sfield goal he did it alone.
David huff, ryan kingcombination, put the whooping on
bait.
This performance by tommy pumahas and including the game, the
(20:09):
last, the last, the 1999 gamewhere he threw a touchdown, this
performance by tommy pumaarguably one of the best
performances in hamilton versusbait in history.
I'm serious about that.
I I would love to talk to TommyPuma First, give him a mean
(20:29):
look, because that was not cool.
At the same time, give this manhis flowers he put.
I want to know how he feltafter this game.
He did everything.
Now, watching the game, yes, hedid 90% of the work, but there
(20:49):
was two other people thatdeserve applause.
Okay, so while, yes, yes, tommyPuma did a lot, a lot of credit
goes to Drew Teekin and AndyFurman.
Those two also helped a lotwith the running game and
everything.
And despite Big Blue'sathleticism and a big shout-out
(21:10):
goes to Derek Wilkerson.
He had a run that set it off,man, I think he had 135 yards
that game.
And the thing that I question,looking back at the game, is why
did we quit feeding Derrick?
Like dude, he was the thingabout Derrick Derrick's.
(21:33):
Like my height, maybe a coupleinches taller than me, the man
could run, and it's like once wedid that, we got away from it.
Now, granted, the defense ofBaton was good that game, it was
great that game.
But now, in hindsight, I canwatch the game again.
Some of the play calling wasquestionable and and hold on, I
(21:56):
got a mystery for you thequarterback from Hamilton was
from Baton.
Was he sent there to purposelylose the game?
Maybe we'll never know, buteither way, that was the cap of
the series for another 20 years,fast forward to 2023.
(22:20):
You don't know what to thinkright now because, again, we've
had 20 years of up and downfootball for Hamilton.
We've had bad coaches after badcoaches after bad coaches, and
then we finally get some goodcoaches in, like Nate Mahon.
He was our coach, hamilton gradCoach Crouch Now he was here
(22:47):
before as an assistant coach.
It's like, okay, the momentumslowly, you know, going back,
getting back to a betterstandard of Hamilton football,
and Bain is still doing itsthing.
Despite Coach Malone retiring,the program is still at an
all-time high, which leads us tothe 2023 game.
Now, before I even dive into2023 game, let you know I don't
(23:10):
talk about kids.
Okay, I don't, I don't, I don'ttalk about kids.
The kids will be nameless andstuff.
I'm not going to talk about, nokids, it's not fair, it's not
right.
They, they, just the kids.
But leading up to the game, we,as hamiltonians, come together
to celebrate.
We had this whole prep rally atmarkham park and this is the
(23:34):
first time I get to openly boopeople in green and I'm doing it
.
I don't care, I don't care ifI'm older or not.
I see somebody in green, I'mbooing a boo, boo.
You stink boo.
Go back, go back to whereveryou came from, and the thing is
that nobody's like angry aboutit.
We're all laughing and see theperson that born us crossing the
street.
(23:54):
They're laughing and all thatstuff.
There is colors of blue, ofgreen, of people from Baton,
people from Hamilton, people ofHamilton are all together and
we're all at Markham Parkcelebrating this rivalry.
That's bringing us all together.
So it's a good time to see allthese people celebrating
(24:21):
Hamilton and that's what I loveabout this rivalry the series
that we are celebrating Hamilton.
Our kids are our people ofHamilton.
We're all together enjoyingourselves.
Right, and I get to boo peoplein public.
That's great.
Leading up to the game.
So we're at virgil swarmstadium.
(24:43):
It's weird.
The feeling is weird.
Now again, I have been to the1999 game as a student, the 2000
game as a, as a spectator whateveryone call it and a 2023 game
as a spectator and again, Idon't have no insight.
I don't have, you know, nothingbut the feeling that I got from
(25:03):
watching the game that it wasjust another game to the
Hamilton players.
I don't know, it just lookedthat way, it just came off that
way.
Needless to say that this gamewas played the first game of the
season.
How can you tell who you are inthe first game of the season?
These games previously wereplayed in the 80s, in the middle
(25:25):
of the season, and the 90s, thelast game of the season.
At the last game of the season,you know who you are.
I need to run it with king.
I need to give it to huff.
Uh, I need chris brunt to throwa touchdown pass.
That's who we are.
That is hamilton football.
Malone did the same thing.
We need to run the ball.
You need to give it to Tom Puma.
He will take care of the rest.
This game.
It's the only thing I don'tlike about this game.
(25:47):
It should never be played thefirst week of the season, never.
We don't know who we are, theydon't know who we are.
So, basically, it's all abouthow prepared you are and how
prepared you are, and I don'tthink Hamilton was prepared and
it showed because again,individual performances show.
(26:09):
As quarterback who's now left Ithink his name was Alex Ritzy
performed amazingly being agreat ball manager as
quarterback bait and beatHamilton 18-0 at the Swarm.
But that game was Hamilton'sworst game of the year, worst
game of the year.
(26:29):
After that they beat LakotaEast 21-0.
Mason 0 kills and if it wasn'tfor the quarterback getting hurt
at Princeton and a bad passinterference call, probably
would have beat Princeton.
We're talking GMC, possiblygetting a GMC championship where
(26:50):
we haven't had one since 1997.
And on top of that, we made theplayoffs, got our first playoff
win in the modern day history.
Let me say that modern dayhistory.
Let me say that Modern dayhistory.
And then we lose to Princetonagain Eight and four.
You can't tell me that's not asuccessful season.
You can't tell me that if thatwas played in the middle or end
(27:15):
of the season that outcome mighthave been different, don't know
.
But nevertheless, success forthe hamilton big blue football,
success for baiting football too.
They went on to go to theplayoffs as well, but that is a
regular for baiting.
So what I did, I did somethingto honor this, this tradition
(27:37):
right.
This, to me, is the greatestthing for hamilton when we get
together and play this game.
So I decided to make coins,bring this rivalry to a physical
form.
I made coins all the way up tothe.
I call them the 2024 coins,which basically each side of the
coin has one side hamilton, oneside baiton, and it lists the
(27:59):
years that they won theirrespective game, which leads me
to the 2024 game Again.
That game, the 2023 game waspossibly their worst game of the
year.
Hands down, it was their worstgame of the year and there was
flashes of great play, greatplayers on that Hamilton team.
(28:20):
They got to play the 2024 gameat Fairfield.
Now playing at another teamstadium that's nothing new to
the series, right?
We've done that in the 80s,playing in Middletown, and we're
playing the 2024 in Fairfield,and I would love to keep this in
Hamilton because this is ourthing.
We don't need to be going toFairfield to play Hamilton Bain.
(28:43):
This is our game.
If Bain wants to be on the homeside, we should let him.
We should let him Cause.
This is this is.
This is our game, this is.
This is how I feel.
This is our game and it shouldbe played on our field, on our
land.
It just makes sense to me.
So what does the 2024 game hold?
(29:05):
What, what, how is that goingto end With the 18?
And nothing loss in the mind.
I seen, I follow, I follow coach, I follow Hamilton and I follow
the report.
And the report is one of myfriends, chris.
He just covers high schooleverything.
Everything shout outs to Chris.
For that.
It seems like them boys arethirsty man.
(29:27):
I've never I've seen you know,I'm watching them on the X
Twitter, twitter XX, whatever,twitter X.
I watch them and again, I don'tknow.
They're young men.
I don't want to talk aboutyoung men, but they seem thirsty
from the clips I've seen.
I've seen thirsty.
I've seen thirsty.
I've seen Coach Crouch.
He's not like taking aninterview at the desk, he's in
there watching them drinkingwater, like, yeah, we thirsty.
(29:47):
And I believe that I believethat Hamilton is thirsty this
year for something great.
Okay.
So what does that say for thegame in 2024?
I'm going to say watch out now.
I'm going to say this.
This is what I'm going to say Ithink Hamilton's going to kill
him.
Just a feeling.
(30:09):
I just got a feeling that theyknow, I've seen too much on the
Twitter and everything thatHamilton's going to do their
thing.
Just my opinion.
I guess I'll have to do apodcast on that and see exactly
to do their thing.
Just my opinion.
I guess I'll have to do apodcast on that and see exactly
how the game went.
But that's the series, man.
It is right now 4-1.
(30:31):
4-1?
That's not cool.
You can't go down 5-1 againstyour rival that you only played
20 years.
I'm going to be dead by thetime they even the series.
We got to win this one.
I love talking about this.
I can talk about this all day,but that's it.
(30:52):
Thank you for listening to WDYM.
Thank you for listening to myHamilton vs Baton 2023 edition.
I guess I'm going to do the2024 edition after the game.
My name is Michael Espy.
I'll talk to you guys later.
Peace out.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.