Crim: Warsaw’s Althide leaves legacy as one of state of Illinois’ most dominant running backs

WARSAW, Ill. — A recent obituary caught my attention.

Darrell Althide of Basco died Oct. 17 at age 78. His funeral was last Tuesday.

The obituary details a lovely family legacy. He was married to his high school sweetheart, Debeera, for 56 years and together they had four daughters who blessed them with six grandchildren. Later came five great-grandchildren.

Darrell was a teacher-turned-farmer. The obituary stresses his passion for farming and commitment to leaving his land better than he found it. It lists his community service through the Warsaw Lions Club and the 16 years spent on the Warsaw School Board.

There was also this passage:

Darrell was an exceptional athlete, particularly in football, and received numerous awards and held many records in rushing and scoring in the State of Illinois. He then went on to play for Kansas State University and Illinois State University where he received his bachelor’s degree in education.

To be fair, that description is a Cliff’s Notes version of Darrell’s football exploits for Warsaw High School.

When his career concluded after the 1963 season, he held Illinois High School Association records for most career rushing yards (4,162), most touchdowns scored in a season (38) and career (84), and highest per carry rushing average for a season (15.4) and career (11.8).

At the time, only Red Grange of Wheaton, the legendary “Galloping Ghost,” scored more than Darrell’s 513 points in a high school career. Only John Zinser of Peoria High School in 1920 scored more touchdowns (10) in a single game than the eight Darrell recorded against Carthage in October 1963.

In addition to the TDs, Darrell kicked five extra points in the Carthage game, making him responsible for all but six of Warsaw’s points in a 59-21 victory. Those 53 points scored were the 11^th-highest at the time.

It was no fluke. Darrell scored seven TDs two weeks earlier against Media-Weaver, now known as Stronghurst Southern, which was then tied with Zinser — he had another game with seven — for third all-time.

In the season finale against Central Lee in Donnellson, Iowa, Darrell scored on runs of 10, 57, 2, 5, 2 and 22 yards and kicked an extra point in a 44-20 triumph.

“It wasn’t like he broke a lot of tackles,” Fred Figge, the Warsaw quarterback, told me in a 1991 interview for The Herald-Whig. “He had such quick foot speed that he’d be gone before the tacklers got there. I can remember only one kid bringing him down from behind in four years.”

Darrell played sparingly as a freshman in 1960 but rushed for nearly 900 yards and 10 touchdowns as a sophomore. As a junior, he ran 93 times for 1,428 yards and 36 touchdowns, with nine of those scores coming on runs of 50 or more yards.

He carried the ball 163 times as a senior — his only season with 100 or more carries — for 1,837 yards and 38 TDs. Nine of those scores covered 56 or more yards. He was named to all-state teams by newspapers in Chicago, Peoria and Champaign.

To put those numbers in perspective, this came before the IHSA introduced the playoff system. Warsaw played only eight games in 1961 and 1962 and nine in 1963. Because the Wildcats were so dominant, losing only four times over those three seasons, Darrell rarely played in the second half of games.

Small in stature and weighing a little more than 160 pounds, Darrell was deemed not big enough by many colleges. Yet he was recruited by Missouri, Illinois and Iowa State, among others. He chose Kansas State, a Big 8 Conference doormat at the time.

“I really didn’t know what I was getting into, but in the back of my mind I wanted to find out what it was like to play in the Big 8,” he told me in a 1991 interview.

Freshmen were ineligible at the time, and he was redshirted as a sophomore. He said he decided to transfer to Illinois State when he realized he was playing for a defensive-minded coach, Doug Weaver, who preferred bigger running backs.

Darrell had to sit out another season as a transfer. He played six games the following year before being sidelined by a knee injury. Despite having one year of eligibility remaining, he chose instead to graduate and take a high school teaching job.

“I considered staying but the uncertainty of my knee and the opportunity to graduate and get a job outweighed it,” Darrell told me in 1991.

The introduction of playoffs and its multiple classes, which enable teams to play up to 14 games a season, means many of Darrell’s records have been eclipsed. His eight rushing touchdowns in a game remain tied for fourth all-time and his 53 points against Carthage should be tied for 15^th, although his name is omitted.

He’s just outside the top 20 for career points and for rushing touchdowns scored in a season. The IHSA no longer lists records for average yards per carry for a season or career.

Not that it mattered to Darrell. Even when we talked more than 30 years ago, he understood records were made to be broken.

“The Champaign paper did a story a few years ago and they mentioned me and Red Grange in the same sentence,” Darrell told me in the 1991 interview. “That makes a guy feel really good.”

It should.

With his passing, those old enough to remember and those who never had the opportunity to see him play should be reminded of that amazing chapter in the life of Darrell Althide.