1975 Neillsville Football Championship Sign Dedication This Friday Night
Thursday, September 12th, 2019 -- 11:27 AM
Friday night at halftime of the Neillsville/Granton/Cadott football game there will be a dedication of the 1975 Football State Champions sign that is at D.E. Peters Athletic Field and features the name of the head coach of that team...Harlan Sunsdahl.In 1970, Harlan Sunsdahl and his wife moved to Neillsville from Minnesota, where Harlan had guided a team there to the state’s top ranking. Sunsdahl taught and coached football, and track at Neillsville High School. He was head football coach for nine years. The first two were tough as the Wariors only posted 1 win in each season. In 1972 the team posted a 6-3-1 record and a 5-1-1 conference record.
It took Sunsdahl and the Warriors a few years to produce a conference champion mainly because of Colby who had a 31 game win streak from 1972 - 74. The Warriors would beat Colby at the Homecoming game on Sept. 26th, 1975, 17-14 to end that long winning streak by the Hornets. Neillsville would also beat Stanley-Boyd twice that season including the conference championship on November 1st, 29-0. It would be the Warriors first Cloverbelt Conference title in 28 years.
Neillsville would finish the season 10-0 and ranked No. 1 in the state for medium division schools according to the Associated Press and United Press International. At that time there were no state playoffs so with the No.1 ranking, Neillsville was named State Champions.
In 1980, Sunsdahl graduated from Winona State University with a master’s degree in school administration. From 1980 to 1985, he was the assistant principal at Neillsville High School under Superintendent Henry Lukes. Sunsdahl was the high school principal from 1985 to 1991.
Harlan passed away at the age of 74 in 2018. His legacy will long be remembered for building those Neillsville football teams of the early to late-1970s.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.