Jahkeen Gilmore played four years at IU and never went to a bowl game.

Lee Becton played for Lou Holtz at Notre and came within a field goal a national championship, only to have to settle for second.

Israel Thompson was an Indiana Mr. Football, yet never got to play for a state championship.

Aaron White guided Edgewood to a sectional final but walked away without a title.

Saturday night, these men and their teammates were united in a common cause, to win a championship. They were playing in the championship game of the Interstate Football League, a league for amateurs who still have a passion for football. They were playing for the Indiana Cutters, a Bloomington-based unit, against the Kosciusko Mustangs, a northern Indiana squad.

While the rest of the state paid little attention to this game, it meant the world to the men who played it. To them it was a chance for redemption, a chance to fill a void left by their careers in organized football.

Take Becton, for example. He played in the 1993 epic game of unbeatens, No. 1 Florida State vs. No. 2 Notre Dame. In that year’s “Game of the Century,” Becton rushed for 122 yards as the Irish seized a 31-24 victory, Although it vaulted them to No. 1 in the polls, it was short-lived. The following week they lost to Boston College on a last-second field goal. Although the Irish beat No. 1 Colorado in the Cotton Bowl, they finished second to Florida State in the final polls.

For all of Becton’s athletic career, he had never won a championship of any kind. So, at 35, this mortgage-broker was as hungry as they come.

“When you play football as long as a lot of us have, no matter what level it is, you are still a competitor,” he said.

Having lost to Kosciusko County in the regular season, the Cutters had to make the long trip to the Mustangs’ home field at Triton High School, located a few miles east of Plymouth. Heading into the last five minutes, it looked as though a title would once again elude them. They trailed by nine, 37-28.

After a field goal by Jeff Westell trimmed the deficit to six, the Cutters’ defense got a stop. However, the offense gave the ball right back on an interception by White.

Thoughts of the 2000 sectional championship revisited White, who threw two interceptions in Edgewood’s 35-12 loss to Whiteland. Said White, “The whole team was thinking, ‘We did all this work and now we’re losing it.’ ”

But the Cutters’ defense forced another punt. Taking over with two minutes to go, Cutters coach Brent Slinkard did not hesitate to put the game back in White’s hands. Slinkard was the offensive coordinator when White was at Edgewood.

On fourth-and-1 at midfield, with the Mustangs expecting a run, White faked and went deep to Gilmore, a speedy receiver who from 2002 to ’06 caught passes from four quarterbacks at IU — Gibran Hamdan, Matt LoVecchio, Blake Powers and Kellen Lewis. Thinking back to the first passes he took from White, he had to laugh.

“It was kind of hard for Aaron to adjust to my speed,” he said. “The first time he threw me a fade, I outran the ball by 10 yards. I had to come down to his level. I thought he wouldn’t be able to adjust, but he proved me wrong. He picked it up real quick.”

On this critical occasion, White’s throw found Gilmore behind the Kosciusko secondary. A beaten Mustang defender lunged in desperation and made contact before the ball arrived. The pass interference call gave the Cutters a first-and-goal at the 5. With 19 seconds left, Thompson, the powerful tailback, bulled over for the tying touchdown. Westell’s ensuing extra point gave them a Hollywood-like 38-37 victory.

“Anybody who loves sports would have loved this game,” said Slinkard, who was amazed at the spontaneous outpour of emotion by his players. “We had guys crying and falling to their knees,”

White was relieved to go from goat to hero.

“I went from the worst feeling a quarterback can have to taking my team down the field and winning it,” he said. “I think for all of us who never got a championship, it was great for us to get that feeling — and what a way to get it. To be playing with guys like Izzy (Thompson), Lee and Jahkeen ... It’s crazy. I mean, I went to Edgewood.”

“I was just thinking about it today,” Gilmore said two days later. “I played at Indiana, in the Big Ten, and we’ve got these (Cutters) guys who don’t want to stop playing the game. A lot of people might overlook it because it’s semipro, that it’s nothing. But these guys go to their jobs every day, then come out and put the pads on.”

For Becton it would never replace the one that got away at Notre Dame, but it was still satisfying.

“Of course it would have been great to win a national title at Notre Dame, but to come out and play at age 35 and accomplish something ... It doesn’t fill the void, but it is still a great accomplishment. Not a lot of people can say they can play at 35 and get that done. This is my first true title ever. To say you are a champion, no matter what the league, is a great feeling.”