Before the school's "futbol" team took center stage, it was Sturgeon Bay's football team that had the community talking.
The Clippers won their state championship in 2004, approximately 11 years after the team came up just short of bringing the gold football back to Door County after a four-year drought. The team went 11-2, losing only their season opener to Little Chute and a mid-season against Olympian/Packerland rival Luxemburg-Casco. The Clippers defense held their opponents to single digits in eight of their 11 games, including never more than a touchdown in the playoffs until they reached Madison. In that game against St. Francis, the Clippers scored two second-quarter touchdowns to take a 14-7 lead into halftime. After giving up the lead in the opening moments of the fourth quarter, quarterback Shane Phillips scored the game-winning touchdown with under five minutes left in the game from four yards. It capped off a drive that took 7:01 off the clock, which is the fifth-longest drive in WIAA State Football Championship history at Division 4. Before they beat St. Francis in the state final, the Clippers beat New Holstein, Denmark, Ripon, and Xavier as a number three seed.
