Dan Mohrmann
This story originally appeared in two parts in the Manitou Springs-based Pikes Peak Bulletin.
A brand new trophy sitting in the coaches’ office at Manitou Springs High School provides the most concrete evidence of a memorable run at the Class 3A state baseball championship this past May.
Nothing can take such an achievement away from a group of kids who played their best baseball at the right time. They have the hardware to prove. Soon, a state runner-up banner will join several baseball league championship and state final four banners already hanging on the north wall.
The state runner-up banner will be the first of its kind for the Mustangs.
But it shouldn’t be.
Manitou had achieved that level of baseball success 50 years, one week and a day earlier than the most recent group of kids donning the uniforms of the Mustangs.
But after a search of the trophy case in the commons at the high school and the banners that cover the walls of the gym, there wasn’t a shred of evidence to prove it.
The only evidence is a search of the championship game archives of CHSAANow.com. The Mustangs lost to Broomfield 7-0 in the 2A state title game on a hot, dusty Saturday in 1966.
“To me it was just another game,” shortstop Bruce Heidenreich recalls. “Of course you want to do well because your friends and family were there.”
The odd part was that the 7-0 was very uncharacteristic of the Mustangs. While finding information outside of the memories of Heidenreich, Bill Harper and Tom Miller proved to be difficult, the information that was found showed the Mustangs to be an all-around solid baseball team.
And it was early that Manitou showed they had a chance to be something special.
From left to right: Bruce Heidenreich, Bill Harper, Tom Miller (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Harper was the staff ace and unlike today, was never limited by innings or pitch counts. The very first game of the season, he took the hill against a Woodland Park team whose baseball program was very much in its infancy.
“I pitched four innings and struck out 11 out of 12 hitters,” Harper said. “Kenny Stubbs came in for the last three innings and struck out eight out of nine. So we struck out 19 out of 21 batters in that game and no one reached base.”
The Mustangs won the combined perfect game by a score of 23-0.
They showed early that they could hit and they could pitch. Harper can only recall either himself or Stubbs taking the mound for Manitou. And Stubbs would only pitch when two games were played close enough together that Manitou’s star lefty in Harper needed a few days rest.
After the win against Woodland Park, the Mustangs were on cruise control, save for their only regular season loss which came against St. Mary’s.
Much like today’s Mustangs, a loss to the Pirates was unacceptable.
“We beat St. Mary’s the first time,” Harper recalled. “But my wife and I almost didn’t get married because when St. Mary’s beat us the second time we played, she told me that it wasn’t that big of a deal (laughs). We were disappointed, let’s put it that way. And I’m not a good loser.”
But the results for the rest of the season gave the Mustangs one of the most successful runs in program history.
They beat Crowley County on Apr. 30 of that year to outright win the Pikes Peak League for the first time since 1960.
They had to travel to Burlington to earn the right to play for what would have been the school’s first team state championship. Harper admitted that he thought the Mustangs were going to lose that game.
But his successful run on the mound and the offense, led by Heidenreich, continued its onslaught against opposing pitchers. The Mustangs earned a trip to Broomfield on May 21, with a state title on the line.
And that’s where everything fell apart.
Harper, who had been so dominant on the mound during the season gave up four early runs. What didn’t help was that Heidenreich – who was hitting .352 going into the title game – and his teammates suddenly forgot how to hit.
“There must’ve been a lot of mental pressure on people because we were a good hitting team and that game we hit terrible,” Heidenreich said. “I don’t think we had half a dozen hits between us. Everybody sort of choked.”
But the result of the game proved to be historical nonetheless. It would take half a century for the Mustangs to once again reach that level of success.
But there remains no sign of what was accomplished in 1966.
No banner hangs on the wall of the gym (for now). If a runner-up trophy was given out like they are today, no one knows where to find out.
Heidenreich ventured a guess that if one was given, head coach Rupert Sullivan may have kept it.
Sullivan loved that team according to Heidenreich, Harper and Miller.
And they loved him. In the first revelation of what the teams from 1966 and 2016 had in common, they both had coaches that the kids loved playing for. And the results of both seasons certainly reflected that.
Sullivan and Archuleta never crossed paths. But in listening to their players, it’s not hard to see that they shared a similar passion for their players and always pushed them to be better.
Heidenreich and Harper fondly remember the relationship they had with Sullivan both in terms of that title hunt in 1966 and their general relationship with each other.
“He was very proud of us,” Heidenreich said. “He liked us a lot.”
And it went both ways.
“We all loved him,” Harper added. “He was the best.”
Prior to teaching and coaching at Manitou Springs, Sullivan was a minor league pitcher in the New York Giants organization. He amassed a 14-24 career record with a 5.24 ERA.
After three years in the minor leagues he moved on. His next baseball adventure pitted him as the coach and a P.E. and shop teacher for the Mustangs. There were times where he could come off as a little intense, but there was never a doubt from members of the baseball team that his heart was in the right place.
“A lot of people maybe thought that he was a little sadistic because of what he did in P.E. class,” Heidenreich recalled. “When he wanted to get the kids on the team in shape, we’d go out and run three cross-countries. Everybody would do it so the baseball players would get in shape.”
From a conditioning standpoint, the baseball team was in far better shape than the football or basketball teams.
But that’s not where Sullivan’s love for his players ended. He hosted a barbeque every year at his house in Black Forrest and the players would flock over there.
There was respect, admiration and love for Sullivan that the players would hold onto until the coach’s death in July, 2006.
And one glance at the relationship that Archuleta has with his current team will show a similar pattern. It’s something that former Manitou Springs football coach George Rykovich certainly sees. He had the opportunity to see Sullivan work up close with those kids all those years ago and now stands side by side with Archuleta in the current landscape of Manitou athletics.
“Do they do the same things? No, they don’t” Rykovich said. “The kids always went to (Sullivan) when he was in shop, not on the baseball, and want to talk about baseball. What do you think these kids today want to talk about with Arch even (on the football field)? They want to talk about baseball.”
But similar to the 1966 team, the relationship that Arch’s players have runs much deeper than baseball. It might be baseball that brings coach and players together, but it’s then that bond grows strong.
Like Heidenreich and Harper used to with Sullivan, Arch’s player find themselves at his house for gatherings or summer barbeques.
And like in 1966, the results on the field tend to be positive and the strong bond certainly plays a role.
“Arch is the best if not one of the best coaches I’ve ever had growing up,” Davyn Adamscheck said. “To be able to go through high school with him and have the fun we’ve had and put in the work that we’ve put in, it just means a whole lot to all of us.”
And it means a lot to Arch.
But with a different era comes different ways to show it. Harper and Heidenreich were unsure if Manitou was ever given anything to commemorate their second place finish in state. But the one guess they ventured was that if anything was given, Sullivan hung on to it because that team and that finish meant so much to him.
The baseball banners at Manitou Springs High School. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
For Archuleta, he wouldn’t remove a single thing. The runner-up trophy that the Mustangs earned currently sits in the varsity coaches’ office, but soon it will sit in its rightful place in the school’s trophy case.
As Archuleta has begun to understand the history of the baseball program, he knows above all else that the trophy represents more than just this year’s accomplishments. There is currently no physical recognition of what happened in 1966. So Arch wants the award for those guys as well.
They stand in rare company at Manitou Springs, but they should stand together. When Archuleta looks at the hardware, he doesn’t just see Adamscheck, Dominic Archuleta and Travis Struble.
He knows it also represents Heidenreich, Harper and Sullivan.
The two teams might be 50 years apart, but when talking to those involved, they share so much in common.
And in another 50 years, Manitou baseball teams will use a common word to describe both those teams. They’ll see them as legendary.