Undefeated, Untied, Unequalled
Alumni Joe Simon ’78 and Kevin Trim ’78 reflect on the amazing season of the 1976 St. Thomas High School football team as we prepare to honor them at this fall’s Homecoming Game.
On Friday, October 2, 2026, the final football team to represent the name “St. Thomas High School” will be honored at halftime of Father Gabriel Richard High School’s Homecoming game at Eastern Michigan University’s Rynearson Stadium. The 1976 team finished the season with a perfect 9-0-0 record, outscoring its opponents 291–34, and is being honored on the 50th anniversary of its historic undefeated season. Despite its remarkable record, the team narrowly missed the playoffs—and a chance to compete for a state title—under the MHSAA’s playoff point system in place at the time. The following school year, in 1977, St. Thomas High School was renamed Father Gabriel Richard High School, making the 1976 squad the final football team to compete under the St. Thomas name.
Anchored by a seasoned and talented senior class, the team is widely remembered as one of the strongest athletic groups in school history. Three football players earned first-team all-state honors, while the same school year also produced a state champion wrestler, a baseball state championship team and multiple track and field state champions.
But the team represents more than a proud chapter in St. Thomas–Father Gabriel Richard athletic history. It also reflects the decline of many area Catholic schools and served as a bridge from St. Thomas’ uncertain survival to the first class of Father Gabriel Richard High School, which will celebrate its own 50th anniversary next year.
In fall 1970, Michigan voters passed Proposal C, a constitutional amendment barring public aid to non-public schools and students. The measure prohibited public funding for non-public elementary and secondary schools, including support for attendance and employment, except for transportation. In the years that followed, several Catholic parish schools closed, and St. Thomas faced annual uncertainty. After losing students in the wake of Proposal C, the school remained open but financially fragile. Its athletic conference affiliations also dissolved.
The 1976 team included students who had attended St. Thomas since first grade, as well as others who arrived from schools forced to close, including nearby St. John’s in Ypsilanti. Two seasons earlier, Coach Dave McCarney had been forced to field a varsity team made up largely of sophomores, with few upperclassmen. By 1976, however, his senior class was experienced and talented, backed by a strong junior class. No longer competing in the Tri-County Conference, McCarney set his sights on a state title. “Not being in the Tri-County Conference anymore changes our attitude about the season. We have to win everything now. We have to be looking ahead to the state championship.”
The adversity surrounding the 1976 team extended to the field, as several key seniors suffered significant injuries. Juniors and sophomores stepped in, helping preserve the team’s dominance, with many players playing both sides of the ball as well as special teams. St. Thomas closed the season by defeating once-beaten Class C Manchester and completed its unbeaten campaign. The players were competing for more than football; they were proudly playing for their school in uncertain times. As McCarney noted heading into the Manchester game, “It’s more than that (the unbeaten streak). It’s been great for the school. You hear a different rumor every day about maybe the school’s closing tomorrow or whenever. But this team’s no rumor and the whole school knows it and it’s something you can see they’ve rallied around.”
Ultimately, after rising to the challenge and defeating formidable Manchester, the team faced one final blow: being denied a playoff berth and the chance to pursue a state title by a fraction of a point, a title that many believe was assured.
The following year, to help ensure the school’s survival, St. Thomas became a regional Catholic high school with a broader geographic reach. To distinguish it from the parish that had shared its name, the school was renamed Father Gabriel Richard High School.
Unaware at the time that they would be the last football team to represent St. Thomas High School, the players produced a season that became a part of both schools’ history and has continued to bind the team decades later, including a strong turnout at its 40-year reunion in 2016. At this year’s recognition, the team will also remember three former players, an assistant coach, and its athletic trainer who have died. The story of the season is detailed in the Season Binder for 50th Reunion, which includes recognition for Coach McCarney and a City of Ann Arbor resolution honoring the team’s remarkable season.