Bill Bays and the history of Ladoga football

History of Football 1961-1970
The only record we can find of football before 1961 is a picture of a team in the 1907 annual. Bill Bays started the football program that lasted from 1961 to consolidation in 1970. Byron Cox recalls that Coach Bays used to go one-on-one with the linemen without pads just to toughen them up. That would probably explain why Bays suffered with bad knees after his coaching career. Ed Miller recalls that Bays offered to buy steak dinners for any football player who got straight A's on his report card. Miller was sure that came out of the Coach's pocket and not the footbal budget. The Canners started out with an 8 man team that year and progressed to a regular 11 man schedule in 1964. They were a part of the Wabash River Conference which included New Market, Covington, Perrysville, Cayuga, and

Veedersburg. The first time they played Perrysville (where Coach Bays used to coach), they got thumped 97-7. According to Phil Seale, coach was so embarrassed, he spent the last part of the game in the bus. However, they got sweet revenge the next year when the two teams returned most of the same players and Ladoga won 14-13. That turnaround got witten up in the Indianapolis Star. Way to go, Canners! In ten years of football, Bays and his Canners put together a record of 50-37=5. The best years for the Canners were 1962 when they were 6-2-1, 1965 when they posted a record of 7-2-1, 1966 when they were undefeated with a record of 7-0-2, and 1968 when they were 7-3. The only losing season for the Canners under Bill Bays were the first when they were tryinmg to figure the game out and the last when they were playing a lot of youngsters, who went to Southmont the next year and formed the nucleus of an undefeated team. The 10 year record reads as follows:
1961 2-5
1962 6-2-1
1963 4-3
1964 5-3-1
1965 7-2-1
1966 7-0-2
1967 5-5
1968 7-3
1969 5-5
1970 1-9
Total 50-37-5