Slow Motion Replay: Danko, ‘Big Mo,’ and George Rogers Clark’s historic victory over St. Xavier High in 1991

“The Cardinals shocked the world in ’91; Ale 8, the Beer Cheese Festival, and the champion Cardinals were all the legends of Winchester…”
-Jon Collins

Their names read like a Homer epic extolling the Greek and Trojan heroes of lore. They had Achilles, Hector, Paris, and Agamemnon. The Cardinals had Don Danko and Marty “Big Mo” Joyce. I wouldn’t trade Danko and Big Mo for all the Achilles and Agamemnons on the Greek isles. Then again, that is just I; and I have been described as a strange cat. Either way, Clark County will never forget the ’91 championship, the last play with St. X’s QB going for the pylon only to be knocked out at the one-yard line, nor the night Danko’s team upended Louisville Royalty to take home a title won by a pair of guys who had played together at UK in the 60s after both coming to Kentucky from Delaware.

HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”

Winchester, KY: The game ended on the one-yard line. It was the KHSAA championship, title game in what was known as “The Big Boy” classification in those days (4A). Don Danko’s George Rogers Clark team had beaten Mike Glaser’s Tigers from St. Xavier in KFEC Cardinal Stadium in front of a crowd of 11,575 fans.

The final score was 28-21. St. Xavier’s QB was knocked out of bounds at the one-yard line on the game’s final play to preserve for the Cardinals its lone, program title.

Mike Glaser from St. Xavier High in Louisville would post a 336-78 mark in 31-years to include a 7-4 record in title games. Don Danko would go winless just six years later.

Danko had lived in Delaware before taking the job at George Rogers Clark (GRC). Danko brought with him, from Delaware, a misleading, mis-directional offense to help him sweep through an undefeated season in 1991. The run for the title reminded Danko of his high school playing days in Bluefield, Virginia.

“We always had good teams and I can remember walking downtown and having almost everyone stop and ask about the team and how we were doing,” Danko told the Winchester Sun at the time. “It was the same [at George Rogers Clark] this year [1991]. There was a lot of excitement and it became infectious as the season progressed. It was something I know the kids will never forget.”

When Danko suffered a winless season six years after his championship, he was somewhat prophetic about the experience. “If you go 15-0, you have to be prepared to go 0-10,” Danko told The Sun after the last game of his winless campaign.

Danko and “Big Mo,” Danko’s defensive coordinator, had quite the partnership. Big Mo, as he was commonly called, spent 27-years on a Clark County sideline working for his fellow, former Delaware citizen, Don Danko. In all, Joyce would spend some 42-years on a high school sideline as an assistant coach.

Joyce’s favorite saying was a latin phrase from his days at Salesiagnum, an all-boys Catholic high school in Wilmington, Delaware. The saying was, Tenui Nec Dimittam and means “I have taken hold and will not let go.”

Joyce taught it to his linemen throughout his career, particularly later in his coaching tenure at Henry Clay in Lexington, Kentucky. Joyce had it inscribed on medallions and distributed amongst his linemen at the end of the season.

There is a “Big Mo” story which is our favorites at KPGFootball. It was told to us by one of our area agents.

The story goes something like this…”Did I ever tell you about Big Mo destroying a TV at a post game reception in the school cafeteria? The year before the ’91 championship (1990) the Cardinals had lost in the playoffs. Big Mo had a starting OT go AWOL (absent without leave) to clog in a state tournament. Nobody knows where this tackle is until they see him on the news at 11:00, dancing up a storm.”

Talk about being fit to be tied. Imagine you’re about to play an important game and your starting OT is missing only to be seen clogging away on the 11 o’clock news. We would have loved to have been a fly on the wall of that cafeteria.

Still, those were mighty fine days, looking back on that time. A ton of us grey beards remember those days, those boys, those games, and those coaches very fondly.

The next time someone brings up Big Mo and Danko, you can tell them you know those guys. We can tell you this, those two guys, and guys like them, were absolutely worth knowing.

Then again, what the heck do we know?

This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!

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