By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
NATCHITOCHES – They filled four pews at the First Baptist Church of Natchitoches Thursday morning, for one last meeting with their coach.
John Ropp passed away last week at age 95. At his funeral were more than two dozen players from each stage of his football coaching career — his days as an incredibly successful coach at Rusheon Junior High, then as the almost instantly-successful leader of the brand-new Airline High School football team, followed by the longest series of winning seasons ever at Northwestern State while he was offensive line coach.
Ropp coached and taught locally at the elementary, junior high, high school and college levels for over 20 years.
He was a head coach at Plantation Point Elementary in Bossier City before moving to Rusheon Junior High, where he developed one of the state’s most successful middle school athletic programs from 1958-64. His football teams won four Northwest Junior High League championships and had a 50-7 record, including a 21-game win streak, in his eight seasons.
He then launched Airline’s football program when the school opened in 1964 and was 13-7-1, including a remarkable 9-1-1 mark (the only loss was 21-20 to Lee Hedges’ Woodlawn team featuring Terry Bradshaw and Tommy Spinks) in 1965, his second season.
Northwestern coach Jack Clayton added him as offensive line coach in July 1966. The Demons went a perfect 9-0 that season, the first of nine years Ropp was an assistant at NSU. The Demons had winning seasons in all but his last one, set many offensive school records, and he coached 21 all-conference players for Clayton, Glenn Gossett and George Doherty.
Bossier City resident Mike Pool played for Ropp on Airline’s first two teams after playing against his teams in junior high. Pool became an N-Club Hall of Fame quarterback at Northwestern playing behind Ropp’s offensive line.
When Airline’s first team went through spring practice in 1964, Pool knew of his new coach after competing against Ropp’s junior high powerhouse.
“I knew Rusheon was kicking our butts every year, so I was in awe of him. He turned out to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, a super guy. He was such a positive person.
“I wish I could play for him again,” said Pool.
David Smith was Ropp’s last quarterback at Rusheon.
“We were really good. He was a really good coach and a great motivator. You’d run through a wall for Coach Ropp. He was a wonderful guy, a great influence on me and my teammates at an age where you need a positive, Christian person leading you. He was that.
“There are very few John Ropps,” said Smith. “Thank goodness for him.”
Smith, who was a Bossier High standout and went on to play defensive back at Northwestern, had one regret.
“The way he succeeded so fast at Airline didn’t surprise me one bit,” he said. “We had seven guys sign college scholarships from our Bossier team, and if John Ropp had been our coach, I have no doubt we would have won the state championship.”
Jack Skaggs was a quarterback, backing up Pool, on the first two teams at Airline. The first spring practice was at Greenacres Middle School because construction wasn’t done at the new school. In those days, the campus was located well north of town, clear of traffic. Everything started from scratch.
“We picked the colors, the mascot, everything. Coach Ropp brought in different colored uniforms for us,” recalled Skaggs. “He did make one decision – he looked at those uniform styles, and said, ‘we’ve got to go with the UCLA stripe (on each shoulder) and we did. Those were great looking uniforms.”
The first Vikings team didn’t win until a midseason game at Springhill. Up 20-12 with under two minutes left, before two-point conversions were legal, Ropp’s heart took over, said Skaggs.
“Coach Ropp looked back at me and the other backups, and said, ‘We only got a minute and a half left, and these boys have worked so hard, let’s put them in.’ One of the assistants said, ‘Well, we can’t lose this one, why not?’ Getting to play in that first win meant the world to us.”
One of Shreveport-Bossier’s greatest running backs, Tony Papa, played against Ropp’s Airline teams as the star for Jesuit (now Loyola). The early-season 1964 game was played at Bossier High since the Vikings’ homefield wasn’t ready yet.
Something that happened afterward, in an era before teams met at midfield for handshakes, told Papa everything about Ropp.
“We won it by seven. We had a great team, and they had a young team, and still it was so close. After the game, we were on our bus, to go back to Jesuit, and the next thing we know, we’re looking out the windows and here comes the Airline team with Coach Ropp, to shake our hands and tell us what a great game we played. That’s class,” said Papa. “That’s what I never forgot.
“He was such a kind man, and a great coach,” said Papa, who ran behind Ropp’s line after transferring from Texas A&M to Northwestern.
Gordon Boogaerts starred at Captain Shreve for Lee Hedges, then was an N-Club Hall of Fame linebacker for the Demons. He lined up against Ropp’s players every practice for four years.
“He simply didn’t accept failure, and it permeated through the whole team. He taught us not to lose in everything we did,” said Boogaerts. “His offensive line, he’d spoil them, but he did put a little animal in them. He got everything they had.”
Smith treasured memories of Ropp attending Airline reunions.
“He always looked after us. He was such a first-class individual,” he said.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com
