1986 was a productive year for all sports in North Penn High School. A lot of teams bounced back from mediocrity the year before and showed their strength in the Bux-Mont League. This was the case, especially, for the football team that year, under leadership of first year head coach William Travers.

His leadership was key as North Penn was going through a teacher strike and coaching personnel was not fully available. From the beginning of August to about early October, the football team was struggling just to find a place to hold practices, as they couldn’t practice on school grounds due to the staffing contract being expired. With the help of a friend, Travers managed to get his team together and go through practice at an open field near the current Hatfield Aquatics Area. That wasn’t the end of the obstacles yet.

During the first couple of games of the season, Travers and other teachers who were coaches on the team, could not be on the field to coach their team during the games. “Since we couldn’t be on the field to coach, we coached the game over the phone. We won 2 of our 3 games, and they were close, but we did it and the players were the ones that stepped up to the challenge. It wasn’t easy, of course they fought and argued and they were issues with the practices and all that, but we got it done, and I was proud of the team.”

After the chaotic start, the Knights of ‘86 went on to an 8-3 overall record.