I don’t remember much about the first time I saw Burlingame, Kansas. I remember thinking it was tiny, especially after we moved from Lebanon, Missouri, a town of about 10,000 people in Southwest Missouri. I remember wondering what a Casey’s General Store was – this was eons before it was “famous for pizza.”
My most vivid memory of our first drive through Burlingame is the football field. As is the case in many small towns in Kansas, the field is prominent. I remember driving by the power plant on the north side of the community and coming around the corner. Immediately after passing the swimming pool, a wood sign stood out: “1972 State Football Champions.”
Seventeen years had passed, but I assumed the school was a state power. Boy, was I wrong. A contender in the 1970s, the Bearcats fell on hard times for more than a decade. By the time my family arrived in 1989, Burlingame was starting to rebuild under a young coach named Steve Warner, who won a state title years later at Buhler.
With a talented group of players and an energetic leader, Burlingame made the playoffs in 1989 and 1990. A year later, under new coach Jim Cauthon, the Bearcats upset Wabaunsee on a snow-covered field and in frigid temperatures to qualify for a third straight postseason.
The following week, Burlingame, which hosts Little River on Friday in a sub-state game, played an established program in Waverly. To counter the Bulldogs’ ferocious defense, the coaching staff moved an offensive lineman, Terry Middleton, to running back. For much of the night, Middleton punished Waverly’s defense with bruising run after bruising run.
With a 5-4 record, nobody gave Burlingame a chance to win that game. But with the clock winding down in a 12-12 game, the Bearcats were inside the 10-yard line. Three straight holding penalties followed. Then, a long field goal on the final play of regulation sailed just left of the upright.
The Bearcats lost in overtime. On a fourth-down play, Burlingame appeared to score on a run on the first possession of the extra period. Officials ruled that running back Brandon Masters didn’t get into the end zone. Waverly scored on the second play of its series, ending Burlingame’s season.
That loss set the tone for a lost era.
CROWNED IN 1972
“Defensive Battle Looms.” That was the headline in the Topeka Capital-Journal the day before Burlingame’s last (and only) appearance in a state championship game. At the time the story ran, “The Godfather” and “Deliverance” were box office hits, Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” was the No. 1 song, and “All in the Family” and “Sanford and Son” were the top TV shows.
Though the Bearcats played in the state semifinals in 1971, Burlingame wasn’t the favorite the following year. The perennial powers then have aged well: Little River, Clyde (now Clifton-Clyde) and Madison were contenders.
But Burlingame had something no other small school had back then: a huge line, particularly on defense. The Capital-Journal’s preview noted that the Bearcats interior defensive line (Roy Amos, Harold Wood and Tim Masters) weighed a combined 745 pounds. Even by today’s standards, that’s a massive trio.
That group anchored one of the best small-school defenses in state history, one that pitched seven shutouts, including in all three playoff games. That’s right, the 1972 state championship team did not allow a single point in the postseason.
The defense needed to be good because the offense, partly due to brutal conditions that included ice and snow one week and heavy rain and mud the other, didn’t score much. During its run to the crown, Burlingame scored all of 15 points, winning 6-0, 3-0 and 6-0. In doing so, the Bearcats edged Madison, still one of their biggest rivals, Clyde and Protection.
Burlingame’s stay atop the mountain was short. The Bearcats started the 1973 season 7-0, but missed the playoffs with close losses to Lyndon and Olpe at the end of year. The school didn’t make the postseason again until 1989 and didn’t win another playoff game until 2015.
‘REFUSE TO LOSE IN ’92’
Burlingame opened the 1992 season with high expectations, fueled by a talented senior class. The slogan that year: “Refuse to Lose in ’92.” That refusal lasted all of one game.
First, the Bearcats lost on the road to a bad St. Mary’s team in a game they were heavily favored. Then, they were blown out at Lebo. A few weeks later, they traveled to Olpe and lost to the tradition-rich Eagles by one point. In their fourth loss, Burlingame coughed up a 16-point lead in the final quarter against Waverly. On the last night of the regular season, the Bearcats gave up a touchdown in the closing minutes against Wabaunsee to miss the playoffs.
That disappointing season kickstarted a steady decline. The team won three games in 1993, two in 1994, one in 1995, then zero in 1996. By the time I worked as a sports reporter at the Emporia Gazette in 2000, Burlingame was in the midst of a 25-game losing streak. I remember that because I fielded the phone call to write the story about the Bearcats winning their first game in three years.
BECOMING A PUNCHLINE
By the early 2000s, Burlingame was a punchline for sports reporters in Northeast Kansas. I remember telling one longtime scribe that I heard the Bearcats were about to turn the corner. He laughed heartily. The following year, in 2004, he wrote a feature about Burlingame because the school won five games. Think about that: A feature because the team won all of five games.
That season, the Bearcats made the playoffs when Goessel, which crushed Burlingame a few weeks earlier, suffered an upset at Hartford. That fortunate postseason berth, which lasted all of one game, was the school’s only trip to the playoffs in 23 years.
For several more years, Burlingame went back to being a punchline. There was one bright spot in the decade after the trip to the postseason. Anchored by a deep senior class that included quarterback Austin Masters, the Bearcats started the season 4-0 to set up a showdown against Lebo.
Though it was only the fifth contest of the season for both teams, it was essentially a playoff game. With state championship contender Madison in the district, the loser would not make the postseason. Burlingame never found its footing, losing 62-22. The Bearcats finished 7-2, their best record in more than 30 years, but did not make the playoffs.
PRETENDER TO CONTENDER
The story of Burlingame’s reclamation from perennial loser to state power really begins with the 2014 team, which featured a mix of veterans and a talented class of freshmen who have been well documented in this writing space, as well as a young, energetic coach in Jeff Slater.
Coming off 3-6 season, expectations, at least outside of town, were what they always were: low. But the Bearcats started 3-0 and were 6-1 entering the final two weeks of the season. Losses at Peabody-Burns and Madison prevented a playoff bid, but the foundation was set.
Over the next three years, Burlingame emerged as a state power, as they had been a little more than 40 years before. In 2015, the Bearcats reached the state semifinals, finishing 11-1 with a loss to Hanover in a competitive game. The following two years, Burlingame went 11-1 and played in the semis again. In the span of four years, the program transformed from pretender to contender.
“I can’t say enough about what these kids have done,” Slater said of the 2015-17 teams. “They’ve done everything I asked of them to be the best they can.”
BUYING IN
By 2022, the minimum expectation in Burlingame was to make the playoffs. That was the bar going into this season, even though the Bearcats were in the toughest district in the Eight-Player classification. The hope was to earn one of four playoff spots, knowing a four seed from District 2 was capable of making a run in the postseason.
Burlingame lost a strong senior class to graduation, but the Bearcats entered the season knowing they had one of the state’s top players in Colby Middleton, Terry Middleton’s nephew, two steady seniors in Matthew Heckman and Roman Bayless, and a deep, talented sophomore class (Dane Winters, J.D. Tyson, Timmy Roberts, Parker Haid, et al).
Even with that core, Burlingame had questions marks, notably up front. What Slater needed was a couple of kids to step in and fill the void. Enter Tyler Lockwood and Jason Davidson, who worked tirelessly in the offseason after being role players through their junior years. Lockwood and Davidson emerged as stalwarts up front, paving the way for Middleton and Winters.
“You want to talk about kids buying in … Tyler Lockwood and Jason Davidson worked extremely hard in the offseason to get to this point,” Slater said. “Now, it’s their time. I couldn’t be more proud of those kids.”
A SPECIAL GROUP
It’s cliché to say a team has chemistry, but it’s true of the 2022 Burlingame Bearcats. This crew has forged a brotherhood that shines brightly under the Friday Night Lights. They believe in and care for each other.
“This team really is super close, and when you have those teams, it’s really special,” Slater said. “They play for each other, celebrate each other’s success and are great competitors. It’s a great combination to have and really fun to watch it all come together.”
It all began to come together in the weight room during the offseason, where Burlingame’s buy-in is a 180-degree turnaround under the coaching staff of Slater, Austin Masters and Eric West. When practice started, Slater used a slightly different approach.
“I focused on conditioning because I felt like we wore down against Waverly and Little River last year,” Slater said. “I didn’t want that to happen ever again.”
That conditioning showed in a win at No. 1 Chase County, where the Bearcats weathered the storm in the first half, then held the Bulldogs scoreless in the second half of a 26-24 win. In the final seven minutes, Burlingame wore down Chase County behind its stout offensive line and Middleton’s ultra-physical running.
“We knew this was going to be difficult, but I love physical games like this,” Middleton said. “These are the games I live for.”
LOCKED IN
Slater continually said through the season that the team’s ceiling continues to go up. By Week 7, the Bearcats were Lyon County League and district champions, ranked second in Eight-Player Division I. Then came the only blip on the radar, a wild 60-59 loss at Lyndon.
“That loss hurt,” Heckman said. “We really wanted an undefeated season, and to lose that hurt. But I think that loss ended up being good for us. We’d lost our focus.”
That loss served as a reset button. The Bearcats hunkered down, and, as Slater likes to say, let Burlingame be Burlingame. First, the Bearcats rolled past Flinthills in the opening round of the playoffs. Then, in miserable weather conditions, they dominated Wichita Independent to win a regional title. Last week, Burlingame avenged its only loss with a blue collar thumping of Lyndon on the road.
“I couldn’t be happier with how we approached this week and locked in on doing what it takes to win,” Slater said.
Locked in this year and as a small school football power every year. One that’s two wins away from adding a second state championship sign on the football field.
Mighty Fine read.
Thank you.