Northeast Ohio naturally had Sept. 2, 1989 circled as one of the biggest day's of high school football in the region, but 24-year-old Bob Papa of SportsChannel America and a Boston-area sports writer named Happy Fine (seriously) with a fine eye for high school football brought the game bar beyond the shores of Lake Erie to a national spotlight. Those two men helped make the game between two of Ohio's top-ranked teams the first nationally televised high school football game and the first installment of “The Gatorade National Federation High School Game of the Week.”
Ignatius would win 55-26 en route to the state title and the USA Today national championship, which included another win, albeit by a much tighter 31-30 score, over Euclid in the state playoffs.
The Morning Journal has a fabulous rundown of Papa and Happy Fine and the origins of the game, along with interviews with Pickens and Smith and others.
“I was a young broadcaster at the time, and SportsChannel America was making a serious run at ESPN,” said Papa. “They wanted someone young on the high school football package, and that helped me in that respect. It was a big initiative for the company, and I believe it was ahead of its time. They wanted to bring high school football and the largeness of the game to the country in a way that had never been seen before. I thought it was a great idea.”Do go check it out.
