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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; In the arena of local football, Rollie Schmidt is a legendary figure.
				In the mid- to late 1960s the Wilkes College football program ran off 32 straight wins &mdash; the fourth longest streak in college football history at the time. Its success brought local and national notoriety to players, coaches and the school.
				Coach Rollie Schmidt was at the helm.
				The streak began in the fourth game of the 1965 season and ended in 1969. From a 34-0 victory over Ursinus to a 13-7 loss to Ithaca, Wilkes College football captured the hearts of Wyoming Valley and beyond.
				These Colonel teams became known as &ldquo;The Golden Horde.&rdquo;
				There are many words to describe the Golden Horde &mdash; tough, talented, close-knit, magical, prepared, conditioned, determined. They all apply.
				Schmidt always said that his teams were just that &mdash; teams. He would acknowledge the abundance of individually talented players that wore the blue and gold, but he was reluctant to heap praise on them one by one. He preferred to discuss them as a unit.
				When he left Wilkes, Schmidt was not associated with the school for many years. He and his wife, Marge, spent most of their retired days in Florida.
				George Pawlush, who was a student at Wilkes during most of the streak and who later became the school&rsquo;s first sports information director, agreed with Schmidt that the success of the Golden Horde created a stronger school spirit.
				&ldquo;It brought back alumni and that helps with raising money,&rdquo; Pawlush told me in 2008. &ldquo;Wilkes received a lot of attention and national recognition and that attracts students. The Golden Horde can take credit for helping Wilkes grow.&rdquo;
				Schmidt would always say his players deserve all the credit.
				&ldquo;They never quit. What else is there? Once a Colonel, always a Colonel.&rdquo;
				Schmidt coached the Colonels from 1962-81. His teams went 90-73-1 winning five MAC titles, two Lambert Bowls (best small college team in the East) and one Timmie Award (best small college team in the country).
				They had chemistry. They were physical. They were talented.
				And they were well-coached.
				The 32 straight wins will be talked about whenever players and coaches get together to catch up and reminisce.
				When the Golden Horde held a reunion in 2008, Joe Wiendl &mdash; the only 12-letter man in Wilkes&rsquo; history &mdash; traveled from California to be there for Coach Schmidt. Wiendl earned a letter in three sports &mdash; football, wrestling and baseball &mdash; in each of his four years at Wilkes from 1966 through 1969.
				&ldquo;A football team is something different,&rdquo; Wiendl told me. &ldquo;You live and die on the field with each other; you do everything together. The pressure we had on us to continue to win was unbelievable. And I will tell you this &mdash; we fought as hard as we could all the way through that streak right up to the last game.&rdquo;
				Wiendl said Schmidt was a humble man who put together a group of very different individuals who wouldn&rsquo;t normally be friends and brought them together and made it work.
				&lsquo;Zeus and the Boys&rsquo;
				Pawlush has written a book about Schmidt and his wife, Marge Schmidt, both deceased. The title is &ldquo;Zeus and the Boys.&rdquo;
				It should be noted that Coach Schmidt and his wife never had children. Marge told me one time that, &ldquo;Every fall Saturday, all these boys were our children.&rdquo;
				In the book, Pawlush talks about those Golden Horde years and how Schmidt molded them into an unbeatable team that became galvanized through one common goal &mdash; winning.
				The book brings the reader into the locker room and on to the sidelines. You get a real feel for what it was like to play for a legend &mdash; to be part of something very, very special.
				Those days at Wilkes College were magical. From Dean Ralston leading the pep band to Art Hoover singing along to crowded bleachers and those blue-and-gold uniforms playing on a field tucked into a corner of America where no foe ever felt comfortable.
				Winning football game became an expectation at Wilkes &mdash; a mindset Schmidt created.
				That&rsquo;s why when he &ldquo;retired&rdquo; in 1994, the absence of any celebration of his successes was not just noticeable, but hurtful.
				Then in October of 2008, after a 14-year absence, Schmidt returned to the site of his triumphs. Many of his players showed up to show their respect and appreciation for their coach.
				It was much more than a healing process.
				It was long overdue.
				Give the book a read.

Beyond the Byline: ‘Zeus and the Boys’ tells Coach Schmidt’s story