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BY GARY HAWKINS
Staff Writer 11/21/2008

By Gary Hawkins
Staff Writer

The Cobb family tree is ripe with Winthrop High School football players. Beginning with Nate Cobb back in 1899, it seems there’s a linebacker, guard or running back hanging from every branch.
“If you were a Cobb in this town, you played football,” Winthrop coach Joel Stoneton said.
Junior safety and tailback Riley Cobb is the latest family member to play for the Ramblers and will be in the lineup Saturday when they face John Bapst for the Class C state championship. He is well aware of the family football tradition although he’s too young to have seen any of his relatives play.
“Pretty much everyone in my family played,” Riley said. “When I was young, I didn’t think twice about it.”
Nate Cobb aside, three generations of Cobbs have played football for Winthrop. It began with Willis “Bud” Cobb, Class of 1935, and his brother Richard “Chick” Cobb (’38).
“My father was a real fast running back,” said Dave Cobb, who is Riley’s father. “That’s where Riley gets his speed from. He sure didn’t get it from me.”
Bud and Chick owned a farm, known as Cobb’s Dairy Farm, located on the Old Lewiston Road. Both families lived there for several years and when the boys weren’t working the farm, they were in the fields playing football or sitting around the dinner table talking about it.
“It was just a zoo over there,” Dave said. “I remember sitting around the dinner table, 18 to 20 strong, and that’s all we talked about.”
The Cobbs were well known for the corn they grew — they’ve heard just about all the corn on the Cobb jokes — and another favorite pastime was corn-eating contests. The winner, Dave said, would consume as many as 40 ears.
Dave (’75) was part of a second generation of Cobbs that included older brother Kevin (’69), and younger siblings Rick (’79) and Steve (’80). Bud’s kids included Bill (’59), Bob (’60) and Dick (’64). Chick’s daughter Avis also had two sons, Donnie (’56) and David (’57) Maxim, who played at Winthrop.
This was the heyday of Winthrop football. The Ramblers, under Fred Douglas and Doc Hersom won state titles in 1957 and 1959. Bill, known as Crazy Legs, was a leading halfback on those teams while Bob went on to gain Little All-American honors as a linebacker at Springfield College.
Bill and Bob still got up early each morning for chores before hauling wagons loads of corn from the fields to be cut and blown into silos. Saturday football games were followed by critiques from father Bud.
“In those sessions, we learned it was about more than winning,” Bill said. “It was about what kind of effort and performance we gave.”
Winthrop’s winning football tradition carried through the next several years. The Ramblers won or shared titles — there were no state championship games in those days — in 1968, 1970 and 1975.
Dave played on a 1974 team that he considered as good or better than the state title team in ‘75, but pointed out they had not yet learned how to win the big game. The same might be said of last season when Winthrop lost in the regional final to Boothbay after beating the Seahawks during the regular season.
The third generation of Cobbs can be said to include Riley although they all played well before his time. They included Chris (’91) and Geoff (’93), who are Dick’s sons, and Bob’s son Casey, who was an all-state quarterback who played in the state final for Orono his senior year and Kevin’s son Justin (’97).
Geoff played on the same teams as Stoneton did and is still the school’s single season rushing leader.
“He hit the hole and he pulled away,” Stoneton said. “That’s a lot like Riley. It looks like they’re jogging but they’re gradually pulling away.”
Riley isn’t sure how many of his relatives will attend Saturday’s game, but he knows what’s expected of him no matter who’s watching.
“Just representing the Cobb name you have to run hard and play hard,” he said. “That’s what I try to do all the time.”

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638
ghawkins@centralmaine.com

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