47 years later, Lincoln East’s first championship football team gets its medals

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — For years, the Nebraska high school football championship games were determined by the writers at local newspapers rather than an organized playoff structure.

That all changed in 1975, and that fall, the Lincoln East football team became the first Class A team to win a true NSAA football playoff championship in their 20-9 win over Omaha Westside.

Then-head coach Lee Zentic, who spent 30 years at the helm of the Spartan program, helped establish the new way of organizing the playoff championship.

“We harped for years and years to have the playoffs and finally got them, and we won them and that was really, really quite a treat,” Zentic said. “These guys were undersized but just had a lot of heart and fight, and so that’s what got us into the championship game.”

Linebacker Jim Horner said, “I think one sports writer at the time called us pygmies.”

The one caveat to Lincoln East winning: They were never awarded any medals.

“One of the managers posted a team picture on Facebook, and one of the responses fairly consistent was we never got our state medallion,” Horner said.

Then-team manager Tom Hicks said, “I thought, ‘Wow, a bunch of 63, 64-year-old men complaining about not getting a medal. How silly is this?’ But surely it’s something that can be rectified.”

Silly or not, the medals are a reminder of the brotherhood the 1975 team had, and almost 50 years later, the bond of a championship team is still very much there.

Then-quarterback Dave Watters said what the team had was special and “you feel like you really have never lost a beat” when they talk or are reunited.

On Friday during the Lincoln East vs. Lincoln Southeast game at Seacrest Field, the ’75 championship team was finally awarded its state medals and honored for its incredible season.

“It’s less about the medal and more about being with these guys right here and being with the coach and having good quality time to talk about what happened that year,” Watters said.