THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: The buzz around Coeur d’Alene’s 1985 state football title

Shortly after his team won an unlikely state title in 1985, Coeur d’Alene High football coach Jim Clements was asked to describe the Vikings’ wacky '85 football season, which started with five losses in six games, but ended with a state chmpionship. 

“Aerodynamically, they say the bumble bee isn’t supposed to be able to fly,” Clements told Coeur d’Alene Press sports writer Gail Wood, after the Vikings beat Meridian 21-14 to capture the state A-1 Division I championship at what was then called the Minidome, in Pocatello. “The thing is, nobody bothered to tell the bumble bee that. That’s the way these kids are. They just continue to do the unexpected.” 

As part of Coeur d’Alene High athletics’ “Return of the Legends,” that 1985 Viking football team will be honored at halftime of Coeur d’Alene’s football game vs. Sunnyside (Wash.) on Friday at Viking Field, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.

THE 1985 Vikings were unlikely state champions. 

They started out 1-5, then won their last six games in what would be Clements’ lone season as Viking coach. 

“It was a magical season,” recalled Larry Schwenke, who was receivers coach and offensive coordinator on that 1985 Viking coaching staff. “It just took the kids a while to get used to the new system (a veer offense), and a different defensive scheme. The kids just grew, and they just believed, and things happened.” 

One of those five losses was a 42-22 setback to Meridian at the Kibbie Dome in Moscow — the same Meridian team the Vikings would face in the title game. 

After beating Sandpoint 38-6 on the road in the mud at Memorial Field in the regular season finale, Coeur d’Alene defeated Borah 17-9 at home in the semifinals to earn a rematch with the Warriors. 

IN THE title game, Coeur d’Alene trailed 14-7 heading into the fourth quarter. Viking quarterback Duane Halliday tied it with a 4-yard touchdown run, then hit Paul Narcisian with a 15-yard touchdown pass to put Coeur d’Alene ahead to stay. 

“I just never doubted we could do it,” Halliday told The Press afterward. 

Clements, who formerly coached at Pullman and East Valley high schools, died in 2002. For a few years, when Coeur d’Alene and East Valley were together in the Border League, their annual football matchup was dubbed the Clements Cup. 

(Another somber note from that era — Jeff McLean, who with Steve Myklebust called the championship game on the radio, on KVNI 1080-AM, died earlier this year, in June in Sandpoint.) 

Though icy roads made for a treacherous return home, the Vikings were welcomed back to Coeur d’Alene by hundreds of fans and a caravan to the high school once the team buses reached town. 

The title came three seasons after Coeur d’Alene’s first state football title, in 1982. 

“Duane and I have been talking about how we wanted to end up our high school football careers,” Narcisian told The Press. “This is exactly the way we pictured it.”  

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.