A 40-year reunion of the Newton Nite Hawks’ 1975 Chicagoland Football League Championship team is Friday and Saturday at Newton’s America’s Best Value Inn.
The Nite Hawks were a semi-professional football team which called Newton home. From 1974 to 1978, the place to be on a Saturday night was at a Newton Nite Hawks football game at Holland-Paterson Memorial Field or H.A. Lynn Field.
The Nite Hawks were founded by James Williams and Jim Foster in 1974. Williams guided the Nite Hawks to the 1975 Chicagoland Football League championship.
Williams was inducted into the American Football Association Semi-Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1996. He, along with Foster, as an executive, former Daily News sports editor Ed Peck and six players from the Newton Nite Hawks are in the Hall of Fame.
On Friday, there is a meet and greet of former players, which the public is invited. It is at 7 p.m. at the hotel. The reunion dinner is Saturday and is $15 per person.
Registration is from 2 to 4 p.m. at the hotel and game films will be shown from 4 to 6 p.m. The welcome is at 6:15 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 p.m. A highlight film of the 1975 semifinal game against the Chicago Lions will be shown at 7:30 p.m.
Dale Hansen, former KCOB sports director and Nite Hawk PA announcer is the special guest speaker.
The meal is roast beef, herb roasted pork, lettuce salad, baked potato and green beans. There will be assorted dessert bars.
For more information contact Stan Allspach at 641-521-5620. Allspach was the quarterback on the 1975 team under Williams. He was inducted into the semi-pro Hall of Fame in 1991.