Jim Taylor: Onekama's Football Father

By MATT WENZEL, Manistee News Advocate Sports Editor
Published: Thursday, November 26, 2009
As a young man, Jim Taylor had to make a choice. What was more important to him? He was already up to his ears with responsibilities as a father, a husband, a provider and a coach. And, when he did find a few free moments, golf and fishing were his chosen hobbies.

However, his wife Lora asked him to make a sacrifice for the good of the family. “She didn’t feel I needed to be gone all the time,” Taylor said. “I had to make one sacrifice.” So, he gave up golf.

Giving up football, though, was never an option for the eventual Michigan High School Hall of Fame coach. ...At least not until this year.

The Beginning

Long before high school football games were featured on national television and fans spilled venom at each other through online posts, Jim Taylor created a program from scratch at Onekama High School.

Needing equipment for his first team, Taylor went to Central Michigan University and picked through the leftovers, much of which was oversized for his young athletes.

In order to have his players outfitted with numbers, the Portagers pulled old basketball jerseys over their pads before they took the field.

“Whatever it took to get it done in those days, we did it,” Taylor said.

That included finding a place to play until Onekama built a field of its own in 1972.

So, on any given week, Manistee, Cadillac or Mesick might have served as Onekama’s home field.

“We went around and played all over the area,” Taylor said. “I think it was about 50 dollars to rent a football field. That’s not that much money, but I guess that was a lot of money back then.”

Strapping on secondhand equipment, Onekama played its first game in 1964 against Brethren in Manistee. On the opening kickoff, Onekama’s Ted Werle returned the kick for a touchdown, leading to a 25-13 win.

“We got a lot of people excited who didn’t really know what football was all about because Onekama was a well-known basketball school at that point,” Taylor said. “When we started football, we also had Filer City. Their students went to Onekama, so I was blessed with a lot of tough Polish kids too,” he added with a laugh.

Success

After launching the program, Taylor steered it toward dominance. In his 25 seasons as Onekama’s head coach, the Portagers went 118-67-3.

“He started literally from scratch and did very well here,” said current Onekama head football coach Jim Hunter, who succeeded Taylor in 1989. “He built a dynasty in the Northwest Conference. There’s a long string of championships that Jim was involved with.”

The Portagers may have been at their best in the 1970s in which they went 60-19-1, including an 8-0 season in 1976.

After the 1988 season, Taylor decided it was time to step away from the game. It didn’t last long.

Tim Kline was the head coach at Frankfort and talked Taylor into joining him as an assistant. In their four seasons together, the Panthers went 46-4, won two state titles and finished second twice. Taylor also followed Kline to Roscommon where they spent three seasons together.

Back home

After the coaching carousel, Taylor again returned to Onekama when the program he built didn’t field a team in 1996.

“After a few years when I burned through the other assistants here, he came back on board and really helped a lot,” Hunter said. “Of course, I scooped him up as quickly as I could.” Eventually, both Taylor and Kline were assistants under Hunter, which made for a trio that would be almost impossible to match.

“Having those two guys on board, we figured we had 130 years of experience on the sidelines,” Hunter said. “At 32 years, I was the puppy. “Three head coaches and one offense was interesting,” he added with a laugh.

The number of years Taylor spent with the Portagers made for some interesting situations.

“Jim hung around long enough that he was coaching grandsons of his first players these last few years,” Hunter said. “Because of the age difference, it was more like a calming grandfather effect. He had seen it all, been through it all. I can remember many times when things were getting a little chaotic on the field. You have one of those runs when it just seems like everything is going wrong, and he would saunter out to the huddle with the kids and say, ‘it’s just a speed bump boys. This is what we have to do.’

“He has just a wealth of knowledge and a hands-on kind of guy. Even at 73 years old, he would work with the kids, help them get into stances.”

Passing down knowledge

Taylor’s knowledge of the game hasn’t gone overlooked, even by those outside of the program. Manistee head coach Gus Kapolka first met Taylor through their involvement with the High School All-Star game about a decade ago, and he continues to use him as a sounding board.

“He’s just somebody who has that practical experience,” Kapolka said. “You can go to clinics, you can buy videos and talk to coaches that have all the coach speak down, but you go talk to somebody who’s done it for 40 or 50 years and they can tell you, ‘hey I tried that once and it doesn’t work very well.’”

So, even now, the lessons Taylor learned decades ago still show up on the field. “You want to find those guys who were successful and made those connections with the kids and get what you can from them,” Kapolka said. “That’s what makes this game better, those guys passing on their knowledge.”

Former longtime Onekama football coach Jim Taylor (right), standing alongside current head coach Jim Hunter, accepts a handshake after coaching his final game with the Portagers against Frankfort at the end of the 2008 season. Taylor started the Onekama program in 1964 and was the head coach for 25 years. (Photo courtesy of Mindy Sedelmaier

Stepping away

Taylor’s days with the Portagers came to an end in the 2008 season. Onekama, which had a tradition of playing home games on Saturday afternoons, decided to add lights to the field that season so it could host Friday night games like most of the other schools. While it was a thrill for most of the players, it wasn’t for Taylor, who had previously been able to watch his grandsons play football on Friday nights.

“If they didn’t put the lights up, I’d probably still be coaching,” Taylor said.

The game changes

Considering he was active in coaching football for almost 50 years, Taylor has certainly seen a number of changes. When he was younger, he had a view of the Onekama practice field from his house and could tell when football season was approaching.

“Preseason, I would know it was getting close because in those days — we would usually start maybe a week before school or when school started,” Taylor said. “But, my backs would be down there in the evening and they would run 100 hills a night before the football season started. That was standard procedure in those days. The kids would condition themselves and be ready to go. Now they feel it’s a punishment.

“But, then again we didn’t try to stretch kids a lot of different ways. We’ve got too many things happening for them now. The kids weren’t overworked and they were anxious to do things at that time and wanted to get after it. They didn’t have that little mouse to play with, they wanted to get out to work.”

Taylor (center) gathers together with Onekama players in a huddle during a game last season. (Photo courtesy of Mindy Sedelmaier)

Not necessarily the end

Despite spending nearly 50 years on the job and watching the game change rapidly, Taylor said coaching still provides a simple thrill.

“The games are still games,” he said. “What I really get excited about is watching the kids improve. It’s a thrill to watch little freshmen come in and go out a senior and a real man.”

So, it’s of little surprise that although he wasn’t coaching this fall, Taylor pulled his car up to the practice field to watch Onekama’s first day of practice in August.

And, when Taylor’s grandsons are done playing high school football in four years, there’s an open invitation to return. “He knows that not only is the door open, there are rose petals leading all the way up to it,” Hunter said. “We’d take him back in a heartbeat. And, maybe we’d be lucky to get him into the younger levels, he might do something for us down the road with the middle school program or something where it’s not a conflict.”

Taylor said the coaching profession has always been a difficult one.

“A lot of the young coaches have to get out of it,” he said. “Their wives have children and the pressure is too much so they have to hang it up. My wife was behind it. She was the cheerleading coach for 21 years at Onekama and she’s only missed one game since I’ve been coaching. She’s always been a great fan and never complained a lot.”

Lora only asked that he give up one of his hobbies for the family, which he did. And, as an older man, Taylor had to make another choice about what was more important to him.

This time, he gave up coaching for his family.

“Family comes first with that guy,” Hunter said.

But, Taylor still isn’t ready to call it quits.

“I don’t want to definitely put an end to it,” he said. “Four years, may the good Lord willing ... I still go to a football camp here or there, so I’ll keep my hand in some way.”

 

  • Article by Manistee News Advocate's Matt Wenzel
  • Photos from Mindy Sedelmaier, football Mom

 

 

 

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