Test of time for Grant football

I took a pop culture trivia quiz online this week about the year 1986.

I aced it -- not that that actually says much. I mean, I was in high school in 1986 and always tried to be as with-it as the next teenager.

Here's a sampling of the questions:

Who was the star of the 1986 Emmy award-winning television show Family Ties? Easy. Michael J. Fox.

What movie starring Tom Cruise was the top-grossing movie of the year? Yawn. Top Gun.

Who was the President of the United States in 1986? PLEASE! Ronald Reagan.

Who scored 63 points in a 1986 NBA playoff game against the Boston Celtics? Now this quiz was really starting to get insulting. Michael Jordan, of course.

The reason I took this quiz in the first place is that I thought it would be a fun exercise to do during my interview on Monday with quarterback Pavel Zurkowski and defensive lineman Bob Madlener, two of the captains of the Grant football team.

After all, the year 1986 is a significant one for the Grant football program.

Tonight, when they face off against another undefeated team in 4-0 Wauconda, the Bulldogs will try to become the first Grant team to start the season 5-0 since the 1986 team, which wound up going a perfect 9-0. That team stands as the only undefeated football team in Grant history.

"That team gave up only 17 points all season," Zurkowski said of the 1986 squad. "They went to the playoffs and lost their first game 3-0."

Not a bad little piece of trivia there. I was impressed.

However, Zurkowski and Madlener were no match for my questions about 1986.

The player who scored 63 points in an NBA playoff game against the Celtics?

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar?" Madlener asked sheepishly.

"Wait a minute. Was he even playing back then?" Zurkowski asked.

The top-grossing movie of the year starring Tom Cruise?

"Sleepless in Seattle," Zurkowski yelled out immediately.

"Oh, wait. That's Tom Hanks," he added.

The star of Family Ties?

"I don't even know what that show is," Zurkowski laughed. "I wasn't even born yet."

Ah yes. Now, I'm feeling really old -- and kind of guilty for testing the guys about trivia that predates them.

Both Zurkowski and Madlener were 1989 babies, not even a twinkle in their mother's eye during Grant's most heralded season on the gridiron.

Believe me, that point has not been lost on them -- or their teammates. They all know that a season like the one they're experiencing right now is a long time coming in Fox Lake.

"This is so exciting. People around here haven't seen something like this in such a long time," said Zurkowski, who spent his early years in Poland before his Polish-born parents moved the family to the Chicago area just before he started kindergarten. "Some people in school don't have any idea about the 1986 team because it was so long ago -- kind of like us with the trivia.

"But a lot of the older people around the community know all about that season and are really excited that we could be the ones to bring it back."

It would be life coming full circle for Grant coach Kurt Rous.

He was a junior linebacker and lineman on the 1986 team, which rolled to the Northwest Suburban Conference title.

"That was a good team and people around town were really into it," said Rous, who, by the way, also aced my 1986 trivia quiz. "There were huge banners along the streets downtown wishing us luck. We'd get tons of people out to our games. We even had a bunch of fan busses going to road games. A lot of times, we'd have more fans at our road games than the home team would.

"It was just a really good group of guys who were good players and who were very coachable. It was the right mix at the right time."

The same is true of the current Bulldogs, who boast a speedy, experienced defense and their typical hard-to-stop option offense that has been made even more potent with the addition of Zurkowski's strong arm.

Zurkowski has had some big passing games already this season and has a game-changing receiver to throw to in the elusive Tommy Bychowski.

Talent aside, Rous says he sees yet another important similarity between this year's team and the 1986 team.

"This team is really focused, just like we were in 1986," Rous said. "It's one game at a time. Obviously, we want to be the next team at Grant that goes 9-0. But we're not wanting to be 9-0 right now. We want to be 5-0 right now."

Standing in the way is another equally determined team trying to end its own drought.

Wauconda hasn't had a winning season since 1998, which is also the last time it earned a playoff berth.

"We have to bring our A-game and just play harder than them," said Madlener, a three-year starter on defense whose intensity and work ethic seem to fully compensate for his smallish 6-foot, 180-pound frame. "Our defensive line is going to have to really step up to try to stop (Wauconda star running back Brad Wisniewski)."

Wisniewski is coming into this game having rushed for 240 yards on 36 carries in Wauconda's 41-20 victory over Antioch last week. He's the bread and butter of the offense and one of the hardest-running backs in Lake County.

He was Wauconda's bread and butter last year, too, but Grant had some success neutralizing him and eventually won the game.

"I want to say Brad had only about 100 yards on us last year, which isn't bad when you're talking about him," Madlener said. "We played to stop him. Everybody was into it. There was a competition with the defense. The coaches told us that if we held him to a certain yardage, they would give us something."

So were the Bulldogs rewarded?

"Yep," Madlener said. "We got burritos."

Wauconda coach Glen Kozlowski is convinced he knows what the appetizer was.

"Those kids over there at Grant start taking their tough pills at a really young age," Kozlowski said. "I don't know what it is, but they always have a bunch of tough, tough kids there who play with so much heart and intensity.

"You know that when you beat Grant, you've really beaten them, because they never beat themselves."

They've come close, though. Even this season.

The Bulldogs had to pull out last-second victories against Johnsburg and Grayslake Central because of costly and ill-timed mistakes.

"We learned from those game that we can't get big-headed about anything," Madlener said.

"We could easily be 2-2 right now," Zurkowski added. "I think that's good, though, because everyone is really motivated and knows that we can't get over-hyped about anything."

Still, the Bulldogs have their goals and, given their start, are aiming even higher than before.

"We want to win the rest of our games," Zurkowski said. "We want to go 9-0. We want to win our first playoff game and our second and more.

"You know ... Grant has only won one playoff game ever."

Grant beat Nazareth Academy in 1999, 14-8.

Another good bit of trivia.

Making it obsolete would be anything but trivial for the current Bulldogs.