1953 Hall Football

Year Inducted: 2023

Accomplishments: The 1953 Hall HS football team finished the season undefeated at 9-0. Led by first-team all-state running back Bill McAdams, they outscored opponents 208-54 (23.11 ppg scored vs. 6 ppg allowed), shutout three opponents, and allowed a TD to only four other opponents. They won the North Central Illinois Conference title and defeated Normal, Mendota, DeKalb, Princeton, Ottawa, Dixon, Sterling, St. Bede and Ottawa Marquette.

By Brandon LaChance

The last football team Tony Panizzi and Roger Bruno played on was the 1953 Hall Red Devils. Although the squad hasn’t played together in 70 years and only six of the 32 players are alive in 2023, Panizzi and Bruno can’t forget the best team they played for and one of the best times of their lifetimes.

“At left end was Clifford Peart, left tackle was Jack Podowicz, left guard was Eugene Weberski, center was Joe Cinotto, right guard was Richard Demichelis, right tackle was Tony Panizzi, right end was Roger Bruno, Dick Schweickert was our QB, Bill McAdams was our running back who ran the ball, Bob Savage was our blocking running back and Dick Beecham was our fullback,” Panizzi rattled off.

The 1953 Hall football team has quite the resume to grant its induction into Shaw Media’s Illinois Valley Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023. The Red Devils finished 9-0 behind McAdams – an all-state running back – a line on both sides of the ball littered with eventual college players and head coach Richard Nesti, who is a Class of 2022 inductee into the IV Sports HOF.

“It started in 1951,” Bruno said. “We were a bunch of young guys who thought we could play football. We found out we couldn’t. It was a pretty rough going. We took our knocks. We had Nesti, who knew how to get the best out of you. Along came a defensive coach, John Roach, who said we had a lot of enthusiasm, but we didn’t know how to play our position. He said he’d show us. We listened, and he did.

“Tony and I had a game plan by our junior year. We talked to each other, we cross blocked and, by the time we were seniors, we finally figured out where we were on the football field, what down it was and started to think about what the other team may try to do to get a first down.”

Bruno and Panizzi can tell you highlights or moments of every game in 1953. Normal was good, but Hall won 12-0. Mendota, which featured IV Sports Hall of Famer and NFL star running back Bill Brown, was the toughest opponent of the season in terms of score, but Hall prevailed 14-12. DeKalb (33-0) and Princeton (33-14) were blowouts even though Princeton scored the most points against Hall in the 1953 season. Ottawa was tough and had big guys, but the Red Devils edged the Pirates 7-0. The last four opponents – Dixon, Sterling, St. Bede and Marquette – all scored seven points apiece. However, Hall’s offense was far superior, scoring 26, 32, 24 and 27 points.

“We had fun,” Panizzi said. “We had a great coach in Richard Nesti. We beat everyone. We had a great season and had a lot of fun doing it. Nobody scored on us too much at all. Our defense was outstanding. All of our linemen were wonderful. We were so-so our junior year, but we really stepped up as seniors.”

The team also sent many players into the collegiate ranks. McAdams played at the University of Iowa, while Peart was all-state and played four years at Northwestern. Podowicz was all-state and also played at Iowa, Cinotto played at Iowa State and Schweickert was all-state and attended college.

The lessons the Red Devils learned in 1953 helped it succeed on the football field and beyond. “Tony and I went to grade school together,” Bruno said. “I had no idea that we would be the only two guys left out of the first 11 (starters from freshman to senior year). The rest are all deceased. I remember those guys like it was yesterday. We learned a lot about life playing football. No one said playing football was easy. No one said life was easy. But you learn how to pick yourself up and get back in there. That’s what football did for us. The last game of the season against Marquette at Hall, I had tears in my eyes because I knew it was over.

“Every time I’m going through a tough situation in life, I think about the 1953 football team and how we just got back up and got through it.”