GREENWOOD VILLAGE — Cal Cavey and Rich Morean were part of a father-led contingent that included at least one grand- father, a few younger kids and school principal Ryan Silva watching the Cherry Creek football team practice at the Stutler Bowl on a glorious Thanksgiving morning.
With the Bruins getting ready to play Valor Christian at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the Class 5A championship game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Cavey and Morean probably realized as much as anyone in the stands the team’s good fortune.
Not only do they have sons who are starters in the Bruins’ secondary as seniors, safeties Dylan Cavey and Mike Morean, the two fathers squared off against each other 34 years ago in a state championship game.
In the first title game for their schools, Cal Cavey’s Thomas Jefferson Spartans beat Rich Morean’s Cherry Creek Bruins 20-19 to win the 1980 big-school (4A) championship at Denver’s packed All-City Stadium.
“I’ll remember it forever,” said Cavey, who’s not afraid to rub it in to his former opponent and longtime friend.
“It was pretty special,” Morean said.
Back in 1980, the big-school title game featured a still-emerging Cherry Creek that headed an evolving suburban contingent and host TJ, one of the city’s newer schools that was just a couple of decades old.
The teams’ head coaches — Cherry Creek’s Fred Tesone and TJ’s Herman Motz — were on their way to having legendary status.
Cavey played in the slot for the Spartans, and Morean was a Bruins linebacker who also received snaps at guard. The Bruins scored a touchdown to get within a point of the Spartans with four seconds to play — and it quickly became obvious that Tesone was going for the victory.
“At that time,” Morean said, “if you kicked an extra point, it would have ended in a tie. There was no overtime.”
But the Spartans stopped the Bruins just 1 yard shy of the end zone. TJ tackled Cherry Creek quarterback Ted Dorrance to grab its first state title and give Cavey and Morean something in common, as well as a conversation piece that has lasted a generation.
“Isn’t that something?” said Motz, now 84. “It’s almost hard to believe.”
Cavey, 52, went on to play for Southern Colorado, now CSU-Pueblo. Morean, 51, played for Colorado State, where he said he frequently encountered Spartans alumni after being raised near the Cherry Creek- Thomas Jefferson boundary.
“I couldn’t get away from those TJ guys,” he said.
Morean returned to the state to raise his children after moving around because of business and re-encountered Cavey in youth sports as a coach.
Mike Morean, a top 5A defensive player who might play lacrosse at Princeton, said his father “is obviously really excited for me and the opportunity. He went to a state championship; he got to be there. But he never actually got to finish the job.
“So I guess he can live though me a little bit now. He just tells me I have to work hard.”
Dylan Cavey, who was switched from quarterback, said he hasn’t talked much with his father about trying to match his championship. But he hasn’t needed to.
“It would mean everything,” Dylan said. “I’ve dreamed of winning since I was a little kid.”
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or
