Remembering Jerry Loper

This morning in the upper right corner of the Arizona Daily Star's sports section is an article on one of the top high school football coaches in the state of Arizona. His name was Jerry Loper and he coached at Tucson Amphitheater from 1971-75.

Back in 1996, I covered the state 5A football semifinals in Mesa, Arizona. Five years ago on my blog I posted an article called: The Greatest High School Game I Ever Saw.

Read below and discover the rest of the story.


The greatest high school game I ever saw took place during the winter of 1996 in Mesa, Arizona. I was a young sportswriter...well not so young. I was 51 at the time.

The game involved the Chandler High School Wolves against the powerhouse Mesa Mountain View Toros. What made this game so emotional and so memorable was the fact that two months prior to the game, Chandler's football coach, Jerry Loper, one of the most well-respected football coaches in the history of Arizona prep sports and a former coach at Mesa Westwood and Tucson Amphitheater, was hit by a drunk driver and killed while he was taking game film to a high school in Mesa.

The Wolves, sporting a 3-3 record, dedicated the remaining games on their schedule to Coach Loper and went on to win six in row to set up a showdown in the state 5A semifinals against a powerful Toros team led by Todd Heap, who is currently a star tight-end for the Baltimore Ravens.

With seconds left in regulation, the Toros were clinging to a 20-17 lead to a team most folks figured Mesa Mountain View should have put away in the first quarter. All they had to do was punt the ball and then snuff out the return.

But Yohance Scott, who went on to play for Eastern Arizona JC and the Utah Utes, ran the ball up the sideline and was thrown out of bounds. To the shock of everyone in the stands, a Toros' player on the sidelines received a penalty for coming onto the field...and to make matters worse another unsportsmanlike penalty was called...and all of a sudden, the Wolves found themselves with a field goal attempt.

The game clock had run out and the game could not end on a penalty. Of course, the football sailed through the upright and overtime ensued. It then took three overtimes to decide the outcome, but Mesa Mountain View finally prevailed, 37-30, as Heap hauled in the winning catch.

All these years later and I can still recall the game as if it happened yesterday.