Alliance native and All-Ohio quarterback Walter Zingg passed awat
Walter Zingg was one of many talented quarterbacks Mel Knowlton developed during his distinguished 25-year career as Alliance High School head football coach.
In early January, the 80-year-old Zingg passed away, more than 60 years after playing for the Aviators, attending Purdue University, working 46 years for Goodyear Aerospace, which became Loral Defense, then Lockheed Martin and living in both Arizona and his native Alliance.
While Zingg was part of an outstanding Alliance quarterback legacy under Knowlton that included John Borton, Len Dawson, Bill Offenbecher, Bob Wallace and Ken Zupanic, he was the only one in the history of the high school who guided the Aviators to the 1958 Associated Press Class AA poll title, which preceded the present playoff format that was adopted in 1972.
Zingg was a two-way starter on that Alliance team, which finished 9-0-1, with only an 8-8 tie against then annual rival Massillon in the third game of the season.
Zingg, who was listed as 6-foot and weighed 172 pounds, was the only Alliance player on that squad to earn first-team All-Ohio honors. He completed 57% of his passes in an era where the run game dominated the offense.
“We threw the ball a lot, which was unusual for that time,” Zingg told The Review during a 2018 interview. “By throwing it a lot, we didn’t throw it 30-40 times [a game] like most of the high school teams do today. We averaged 15 passes a game.”
Halfback Bobby Brown, end Roy “Skeeter” Allen, fullback Gene Venables and center Tom Baddeley were other Alliance players on that 1958 team that earned honorable mention All-Ohio status.
Ray Woods, a longtime Alliance coach in several sports and a former supervisor at Alliance American Steel Foundries, was a junior rotating guard on that state title football team and recalled Zingg was a well-rounded high school quarterback.
“Walt was a very good passer who threw a lot of deep passes but who throw any type of pass,” Woods said. “He liked throwing to ‘Skeeter’ Allen, but he also would throw the ball to his backs, both Bobby Brown and Lee Woolf. He could hurt a defense with his arm but also with his legs.”
On a team with Brown, Woolf and Venables as featured running backs, Zingg was an effective runner for the Aviators, averaging 8 yards per carry in that 1958 season.
Woods, who rotated at guard with Bill Coldsnow, Al Paone and Bobby Kennedy, said Zingg possessed an ideal temperament to handle the quarterback spot.
“He was a quiet individual, but he also was confident and poised,” Woods said.
Alliance opened the 1958 season with a 20-0 win over Akron Central, followed by a 26-12 decision over Cuyahoga Falls. Massillon, where Knowlton played his high school football under legendary head coach Paul Brown in 1932, invaded Alliance for the third game.
Brown scored on a 4-yard run and Venables, who finished with 89 rushing yards, added the 2-point conversion to give the Aviators an 8-0 lead, one they protected until the fourth quarter.
Alliance penetrated the Massillon 20-yard line late in the game, but couldn’t score and was forced to settle for a tie.
After the tie, Alliance doubled the score on Barberton, 28-14. Barberton, the first poll champion in state history (1947), was the last team to score on Alliance. Youngstown Ursuline (22-0), Cleveland Glenville (28-0), Canton McKinley (16-0), Youngstown North (40-0), Akron Hower (76-0) and East Liverpool (52-0) were blanked in the last six games of the season.
“We had a great offense, but we really were strong defensively, especially in those last six games,” Woods said.
Zingg was part of that defense, playing safety.
“Mel kept me at quarterback my sophomore and junior years, but I begged him to let me play defense my senior year and he put me at safety,” Zingg said in that 2018 interview.
While Alliance won the Associated Press Class AA state championship in 1958, Marion Harding captured the United Press international Class AA state poll title. The Presidents, who were then coached by future Ohio State assistant and University of Akron head coach Gordon Larson, went 9-0 in the regular season.
In the 2018 interview, Zingg regretted not having a playoff format to determine a state champion through an elimination tournament but supported the Associated Press’ decision, saying “we played a difficult schedule”.
In 1959, Woods returned for his senior season. Alliance and Marion Harding met on the football field that year, but it was a preseason scrimmage.
“We won, but I know it was a different year and I don’t know how many players they lost to graduation from their [1958 team],” Woods said . “But I know you can’t take what we did in 1958 away from us. Nobody expected a lot in 1958, because we were young and had a lot of juniors and a sophomore [Jim Davidson] start for us.”
But that 1958 team, coached by Knowlton and quarterbacked by Zingg, stepped up and went undefeated, with one tie.
“We just went out and went about our business,” Woods said. “We also had a guy like Walt, who was a good quarterback and a good all-around guy.”
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