1945 Walnut Football Team
Year Inducted: 2020-2021
Accomplishments: The 1945 Walnut HS football team finished the season with a record of 7-0 and were the only unbeaten team in the state that season. The Blue Raiders did not allow a single point all season and outscored opponents by a 126-0 margin. They were the Blackhawk Conference champion defeating Princeton, Wyoming, Bradford, Toulon, Wethersfield, Galva and Sterling.
By Brandon LaChance
The walk past a certain residential lot in Walnut might be stimulating to some. Before the land gave structure to living rooms, kitchens and bed rooms, stood Walnut High School. Through the hallways many students and athletes from 1890-1995 – before it’s demolition in the late 1990s – wore the royal blue and white colors of some of the best high school football teams around, the Walnut Blue Raiders.
The 1945 Walnut team was one of the best gridiron shows available in the state as it was the only squad in 1945 to be undefeated at 7-0 and the only team to not be scored on as it outscored the competition 126-0. Blue Raider nation saw victories over Princeton, Wyoming, Bradford, Toulon, Wethersfield, Galva and Sterling as Walnut went onto win the Blackhawk Conference Championship. Walnut had entered the BCC in 1942 and won the conference championship in 1943. The championship in 1945 was the second of 14 Blackhawk championships before Walnut left the conference in 1977 for the Indian Valley Conference.
Walking past what is now known as Raider Park, which hosts the youth soccer program, you may still envision the crowd chanting the Walnut fight song that echoed through the football field in 1945. In the tune of the Ferris State University fight song, the words howled:
“Cheer on those Raiders, watch them fight
Boost those Raiders, they’re alright
We’ll stand by the blue and white
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Raiders of Walnut High
Steer the Raider varsity
Cheer the team to victory
Fight you mighty Raiders and
Gain another victory!!!
R-R-R-A-I...D-D-D-E-R-S
R-A-I...D-E-R-S
RAIDERS!!!”
The students and athletes of today who would have joined the ranks as Walnut alums now align with Manlius, Wyanet and Buda Western to form Bureau Valley High School in Manlius. But in 1945, the Blue Raiders were in Walnut and running through the competition led them to an induction in the NewsTribune’s Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame.