The Mankato West Scarlets, who had started the 1999 high school football season with a miserable record of 2-4, had improbably swaggered into a state championship game.
Their defense, though, would first have to repel the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets, who were from north of Minneapolis and trailed by a single touchdown.
But inside the 10-yard line, a Scarlet defender intercepted the ball, effectively clinching a 35-28 victory and Mankato West’s first championship.
A coach lifted Tim Walz, then the defensive coordinator and now the Democratic candidate for vice president, skyward.
In Mr. Walz’s telling, the victory also eventually proved a launchpad for politics.
Persons:
Minneapolis’s, Isanti Bluejackets, Tim Walz, Walz’s
Organizations:
Minneapolis’s Metrodome, Mankato West Scarlets, Mankato West’s, Democratic, skyward
Locations:
Cambridge, Minneapolis