A lot of things have changed in high school football over the past 30 years — there is now a playoff system, players have gotten bigger, teams pass more often, and the number of offensive sets has increased greatly.

But one thing has stayed the same over the years — the homecoming game.

When the Austin football team hosts Mankato East for homecoming this week this Friday, members of all the great teams of Austin’s past will likely be in the audience.

One of those former players is Terry Barnett, who was a defensive end on the Austin squad that was voted No. 1 by the Pioneer Press in the fall of 1966. Barnett’s team went 9-0 and won the Big Nine.

“I was just an average player on a great program,” Barnett said. “When we were in high school we didn’t quite understand that homecoming is a chance to come home and see your old teams and old facilities. There are people coming back for homecoming to see what’s going on. Over the years, there’s tons of people in the stands that played on championship teams that are still coming to the games 40 years later.”

While a lot of the current Packers, who are off to a 1-4 start, weren’t around to watch those teams, they have an understanding of the past success of Austin in football and they are hoping to get the tradition back.

“The past few years our teams haven’t done so well, so we’re trying to step it up from there,” Austin running back Jerrad Ryks said. “Way back in the day, we were always good at football, and now it’s just the little things holding us back.”

And if any of the players forget about the past, they are constantly reminded by the pictures of Austin’s former state championship teams, which hang above on the wall of the locker room.

Those reminders show the current team just what their school has done in the past.

“We haven’t done a lot to shine lately,” Austin head coach Tim Hermann said. “We’ve got a great shot at doing it this year, believe it or not. Our kids know our history, and down deep inside they strive to get to that point.”

Barnett said when his team played, they would pack in seven to nine thousand fans on a given night, but homecoming was always the biggest game.

That remains the same.

“Everyone shows up for the homecoming game, even if they don’t like football,” Austin defensive back Matt Mueller said. “Homecoming and the Albert Lea game are the two games you really want to win.”

Hermann said homecoming is an important night for his players.

“A lot of football coaches get nervous around homecoming time because the think the focus of their kids is someone else,” he said. “I think it’s important for our kids to embrace everything that goes on. We want somebody to be involved in the homecoming court and we want them to be involved.”

For Barnett, homecoming gives him a chance to watch his old school, even if some things — namely the players — have gotten bigger.

“The biggest change is the size,” he said. “It is unbelievable. The kids playing now were considered monsters. Rochester had a tackle that was 250 and that was huge. Our biggest guys were 225.”

Barnett said he would love to see the Packers come up with some big wins and said the crowd will show up and there will be a lot of pride if it happens. He had piece of advice for the current players.

“Don’t worry about who’s class 4A and who’s class 5A,” he said. “All of them are huge today, even Austin kids. When you play those bigger schools, you’ve got to attack them.”

When Barnett played, it was three yards and a cloud of dust on offense, although his 1966 team won one game on a passing TD and another, a 10-7 victory over Winona on a late field goal. That team’s two biggest wins came over John Marshall by a score of 28-21 and over St. Cloud Tech by a score of 14-13 at the end of the season. Both games were played in Austin.

Austin was one of four undefeated teams in the fall of 1966 and the reason they weren’t the undisputed champs is because the Lake Conference in the Twin Cities was considered the premiere conference so the Star Tribune picked its champ out of that group.

Of the 1967 team, Rick Heard and Tim Keller went on to play at South Dakota State University, Dan Ruzek played at Colorado State, and Jim Dybevick played at Winona State.

Barnett said the class of 1967 still gets together every five years to golf and relax.

He added that only one considerable thing has changed about homecoming in almost 30 years.

“They switched the dance to the Saturday night,” he said. “I thought that was important because it was tough to go to a dance after playing football.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday at Art Hass Stadium.