Sep. 3—Joseph Ipsen’s clutch 42-yard field goal on the final play of Joplin’s 41-40 victory at Webb City triggered memories of another heroic kick in Joplin football history.
My good friend Keith Adams, a long-time Joplin, Missouri Southern and overall sports fan, called and asked if I remember Duffy Harbaugh and his golden slipper. I’d heard bits and pieces about it, and after angling in the archives, it’s a tremendous story.
Back in the day Joplin and Springfield — when Springfield had one public high school — played every year on Thanksgiving. In 1949 Joplin won the game in dramatic fashion.
Here’s the lead from the Joplin Globe on Nov. 25, 1949:
“Storming back after a dismal and disheartening first half, Joplin yesterday turned back Springfield in their annual Thanksgiving Day football game 14 to 13 in a game which ranged well down on the list so far as mental lapses were concerned but right at the top in suspense and nerve-tingling happenings for the more than 6,000 persons who overflowed the stadium.”
Then the afternoon Joplin Herald reported:
“What has been perhaps the weakest link in the Jopliin high school football chain all year — the accurate kicking toe — was reversed yesterday as the hometown Eagles won their big Thanksgiving Day game from Springfield 14-13 at the stadium here.
“Dale (Duffy) Harbaugh got off the bench to kick what proved to be the winning extra points after each of Joplin’s two second-half touchdowns.”
Springfield capitalized on two Joplin fumbles to take a 13-0 halftime lead. Joplin reached the Springfield 1-foot line late in the first half, but the drive “fizzled out 19 yards back on a pass attempt,” according to the Herald.
Joplin kicked the ball into the end zone to start the second half. Two Springfield players failed to cover the ball, and the Eagles’ Bob Covey recovered the ball for a touchdown. Obviously there’s been a rule change since then as a kickoff that reaches the end zone is an automatic touchback now.
Then in the fourth quarter, the Globe reported, “Willett (Deadeye) Beavers came through with a touchdown aerial on the Springfield 1 (to Jim Ohrer) for the touchdown that tied up the game. It was then that Harbaugh dashed in to boot the winning counter.”
According to the Herald, “Harbaugh kicked one strongly and squarely into the wind for the extra point.”
Then the story gets better.
Ten days after the game, the Globe ran a picture of Harbaugh and his right shoe under a headline “Oh, that golden slipper.” It was called Duffy’s Golden Slipper because it was the 50th anniversary of Joplin High School.
According to the cutline, “Professor Glen B. Deatherage, Joplin High School principal, told Friday’s assembly at the school that he planned to have the famous shoe metalized with gold and that it would take its place in the trophy cabinet along with other athletic silverware.”
The cutline also said: “Duffy does his kicking in street shoes instead of the regular cleated variety. … Harbaugh has never played in a game because of his parents’ request, but he has been a member of the squad all season.”
The shoe made it to the trophy case for a while, and today it is in Seneca in the home of Mary Lou Harbaugh — Duffy’s wife. Its journey from Joplin to Seneca adds another remarkable chapter to the story.
“I was working at a Milnot Company in Seneca,” said Darryl Harbaugh, Duffy and Mary Lou’s son. “They had three boilers in the back of the plant for steam. The people who worked on the boilers were working on the Joplin High School boilers at the time, and they mentioned to our maintenance people at Milnot they were redoing the trophy case, and all the trophies were down in the boiler room. and they were talking about some shoe down there. The guys in the boiler room in Seneca were like ‘Hey, his son works here.’
“So I called up there, and Jeff Starkweather (JHS athletics director) tells me that’s probably one of the first things we’re going to put back in the trophy case. I said OK.
“Years later, there was a break-in and someone stole the shoe. They didn’t know who. It was gone. Now fast forward a few more years, a friend of mine, Dan Hiller, who I used to coach with at Sarcoxie, was assistant principal at Joplin High School. He calls me and says ‘Darryl, you still looking for that shoe? We have it now. … Let’s just say we have the shoe now.
“I have found out — I don’t know who it was — that when some older guy had passed away, they were digging his stuff out and that shoe was in his attic. They called Joplin High School and said they found this shoe in the attic. Dan Hiller said ‘I know where that shoe belongs,’ and he called me and said ‘I have your dad’s shoe if you want it.’ I said absolutely.
“So I went up and got it and gave it to mom. I sat it on the table and she said ‘That’s your dad’s shoe.’ “
So that begs the question: Is something going to happen to Joseph Ipsen’s shoe?
Only time will tell.
Follow Sports Editor Jim Henry on Twitter at @Jim_Henry53.