Significant traditions for Roncalli football program with 10 state titles

On By Littum

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David Neu and Rick Dias were teammates on Roncalli’s first high school football state championship team in 1985. They were right next to each other in the program, Dias No. 66 and Neu No. 67, and lined up next to each other on the extra-place points team .

That team, coached by Bill Kuntz, wasn’t necessarily destined to become the school’s first of now 10 state champions. The previous year, Roncalli was ranked No. 1 for most of the season, but was upset by No. 2 Brownsburg in the 3A region. In 1983, the Royals (then Rebels) let a 14-point fourth-quarter lead slip away in the 3A state championship in a 22-21 loss to Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger.

“The ’84 team was loaded with talent,” Neu said of a team that featured four all-staters in Dan Bauer, Tim Annee, Glen Huffman and Sean Sanders. “They went to regionals. Our team, my senior, wasn’t really like the other two (before us), but we ended up winning state when it wasn’t necessarily expected. But we knew we had a pretty good team, and Joe Gillum was a household name back then.”

Gillum, a senior running back in 1985, led the state in rushing that season, running behind all-state lineman Steve Clements. Roncalli won a first-round matchup against Cathedral, 14-7, then cruised through the next five tournament games, finishing with a 37-3 win over Wawasee in the Hoosier Dome.

“It was supposed to be a rebuilding year,” Dias said. “We were going to finish somewhere in the middle of the pack. But we had 17 seniors that had played together since our freshman year and we decided we weren’t going to let that happen. The coaches worked on us relentlessly and we played like we fought for our mate next to us. We lost to Chatard 3-0 in a hard-fought Catholic game and then we ran up the table a bit and brought the first (championship) home to the school.”

Hard to believe it was almost 40 years ago. Dias, 57, jokes that he would “still put on a uniform and run out there” even though he will have a knee replaced next month. While not necessary when Roncalli (6-4) hosts fourth-ranked Chatard (8-2) for the Class 4A Sectional 22 championship, there is a direct line from the first Roncalli state championship team to the current group that hopes to win the program’s 11th later this month.

When Dias’ son, Simon, was a senior on the 2018 team, he decided to revive a pancake breakfast tradition from his nephew’s Roncalli team from the early 2000s. But instead of pancake breakfasts, they turned them into “Pasta Thursdays” for the linemen.

“It’s something my family always did growing up,” Dias said. “My father traveled a lot for work and he came home on Thursdays and we ate spaghetti every Thursday. We thought, ‘Let’s do this for the linemen.’ The only expectation for them was to come and eat. Then we started getting some donations from parents and it turned into a neat thing. The parents were really into it. We probably fed 25 children every Thursday evening.”

When Dias’ son finished playing, he wanted to pass on the tradition. He had known David Neu since he was in the sixth grade. David and his wife Erin had long been intertwined with Roncalli football. The oldest of their 10 children, David, was a sophomore on the 2004 Roncalli football team when it won its third of three consecutive Class 4A state championships (and eighth overall).

David made it to the game that day, rushing to school and then to the hospital to be by Erin’s side as she gave birth to their eighth child, son Brady. Fast forward 16 years later, and Brady, now an offensive lineman at Central Michigan, was a sophomore at Roncalli’s 10th and latest state champion in 2020.

“I made it,” David said with a laugh.

With seven sons involved in Roncalli football over the years (Sam is a senior linebacker and youngest son Charlie is a freshman), Neus is likely a good choice to keep the Thursday night tradition of “feeding the pigs.” Sam

“It’s kind of funny, though,” David Neu said. “We don’t have too many ‘hogs’ this year. Brady’s senior year, the whole front line was big. This group, even though we call them the ‘hogs,’ they’re not the biggest group.”

David said the group has expanded to include some starters and other players depending on the week, although obviously they are not able to feed the entire team.

“(Erin) is looking forward to it,” David said. “We have a big family anyway, so it’s not much different for us than feeding our family. It’s fun for us to feed them and let them get ‘carbed up’ for the game and watch some highlight reels. It’s not all about football. It’s a good chance for them to bond.”

Neu knows those bands well. He has remained close to his teammates from that special season in 1985.

“I still hang out with eight to 10 of them regularly,” he said. “There’s a brotherhood between us all these years later. It was cool for us to be a part of that experience to set the benchmark for Roncalli and now they’re at 10 (state championships). It was fun to do it with all my friends.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.