(KMAland) -- We round out the teams in the 2022 KMA Sports Hall of Fame class with a trio of baseball state champions from the same school that were spread 20 years apart.
Council Bluffs, Thomas Jefferson’s 1953, 1973 and 1993 state champions are honored in this year’s class for the 70th, 50th and 30th anniversaries of when they raised the big trophy.
In 1953, Roy Jessen led the Yellow Jackets to the first of their nine state baseball championships just three years after the baseball program was formed.
Coach Jessen’s team lost just one game all season to Iowa competition, claiming postseason wins over Bedford, Mount Ayr and Abraham Lincoln to advance to district play. They followed with a win over Des Moines West, 8-6, and then edged past Remsen, St. Mary’s by a 5-4 final in extra innings. In the state championship, TJ took a 9-4 win over Dysart.
Members of the 1953 champs were Ron Schiltz, Bob McGruder, Jack Graham, Don Yates, Jerry Conner, Ron Clinton, Abe Steiner, Ron Emmons, Dave Lewis, Stu Steiner, Dave Witke, Larry Rowley and Dennis Drake.
In a publication from 1953, Coach Jessen was quoted: “The boys just had the desire and good spirit you need to be champs.”
Note: KMA Sports would love to chat with anyone from that 1953 team. Please contact dmartin@kmamail.com or text 712-269-7938 if you know where we can find them.
Thomas Jefferson added spring titles in 1957, 1962 and 1966 and summer titles in 1959, 1960 and 1962 before Coach Tom Vincent guided the Yellow Jackets to the 2A title in 1973.
“It was a great team,” Coach Vincent told KMA Sports. “A great situation to be in. They had so much strong pitching, and pitching is so much of the game. I had four pitchers on that team. Three that I used and the other played center.”
Ken Cvejdlik and Bob Knezevich both earned All-State honors in 1973 at pitcher while catcher Barry Barritt and first baseman Tim Podraza also received All-State mention. With plenty of talent on the roster, Coach Vincent felt his team had as good of a shot as any.
“You never know what’s going to happen, but I was very proud of that team,” he said. “I knew that they were very capable, and we practiced hard. We put in a lot of time. I always emphasized to the kids that you don’t really win baseball games, you lose them. We spent a lot of time on defense, and then when we had that pitching to go along with it that was a real plus.”
Vincent took over the program from Dick Davis, although there was some hesitation, he said.
“Dick was in the insurance business, and he asked me if I would take over the baseball program if he gave it up,” Vincent said. “Otherwise, he wasn’t going to give it up. I agreed, but I was hesitant because as top notch as that program was up to that point, I had nowhere to go but down.”
They didn’t go down in 1973, though, eventually advancing to the state tournament where they beat Waterloo East in the semifinal and Ames in the championship by combined scores of 23-2.
“Our kids had always been very dedicated,” Vincent added. “We asked a lot of them, and we had some fairly long practice sessions. We played in the summer in the Iowa/Nebraska league, and we faced a lot of American Legion teams. All the teams that we played in Nebraska were Legion teams, and we had some college kids coming back playing against our high school kids. They definitely had their work cut out for them and rose to the task.”
The proud Thomas Jefferson program raised their eighth state championship trophy in 1973, but they didn’t find the ninth (and most recent) until 1993 – 20 years later.
Lee Toole, who also guided Lewis Central for a number of years, was the head coach for the program for that championship.
“That was a very special team,” Toole told KMA Sports. “It was a bunch of guys that came together and were pretty darn good as juniors. We thought we had a shot to get to state and make some noise (that year), but we got beat in the substate round. I think that was a big motivator for those guys.”
Toole says there was plenty of offseason work put in every year, but they amped it up even more heading into that 1993 season with a clear goal in mind.
“That junior year really frustrated them after that loss that we had in the substate round,” he said. “They were just devastated. They were kind of in that depression mode (for several days), and at that point we said if we want to (win a state title) then we need to see it in the off-season. Lift, play some baseball, stay active, stay out of trouble. Those things were important, and that group took it to task and did it.”
The talent was incredible on the ’93 team with pitcher Tom Giles, shortstop Chauncey Jones and outfielder Kyle Amos all earning First Team All-State. Other All-State nods went to catcher Seth Conner, third baseman Ryan Bowman and utility player Keith Midkiff.
“That’s what made it fun,” Toole said. “It was a group of guys that were mixed between Council Bluffs and Carter Lake kids, and they got along well. They kind of made it a mission to prove to the state that TJ still had some good baseball and some noise to make.”
The Yellow Jackets were 41-3 that season and rode Giles to wins over Davenport Central and Ankeny by scores of 2-0 and 8-1, respectively.
These are the first Thomas Jefferson teams to be honored in the KMA Sports Hall of Fame. Along with the rest of the 2022 KMA Sports Hall of Fame class, they will be honored on Saturday, October 22nd at Shenandoah’s Gladys Wirsig-Jones Auditorium.
Listen to full interviews with Coach Toole and Vincent below.
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