My grandfather, Jeff Cotton, played for the 1968 Troy State Champion team. Not sure of his exact stats, but he went on to live in Troy for many many years after his time on the team.
Ellie, I will add your grandfather right now ... I just saw that your grandfather rushed for 950 yards and had another 168 yards pass receiving in the 1967 and 1968 seasons. That means he had more than 1,100 yards total offense in just two years. And he was a key member of Troy's first-ever national title team! Sorry I left him off in the first draft. Thanks for the heads-up.
My son in law, Dylan Bradshaw is an Enterprise native but has made Troy home, working and involving himself in the community, since marrying my daughter 3 years ago. He was a member of the Troy football team for 6 seasons. From 2016-2021 and was the starting center for the last three seasons of his career.
Another thing that jumps out at me when examining this list is that only two athletes were from Brundidge - John Faircloth, who played in the late '50s and Steven Coleman, who was Alabama's "Mr. Football" in 1989.
Goshen and PLAS produced many more letter-winners and Troy football players than PCHS.
For those who might not be familiar with The Troy Citizen, I recently published an article that gave a brief synopsis of the 50 "most popular stories" we've run in the past 7 months.
This story includes links to the stories. Several are sports-related and many deal with Troy history.
P.S. In the three days since I first published this article, has already made my "Top 10" with 1,027+ page views so far. Many thanks to all readers and everyone who is sharing this story. Check back later for an updated list and I'll try to correct errors as I find them or am notified of them. A neat feature of Substack is you can make edits in a few seconds.
Right now the list is at 54 names (update: 59), although I threw in some other names in my tidbit anecdotes. I learned early on in the newspaper business that "names and faces" sell newspapers!
Local history is also very popular with many readers. I enjoyed researching this subject and found several former athletes I didn't know played at Troy. Some of the statistics are amazing.
UPDATE: I've now added about six more photos and found a few more stats - for example, some high school stats of Coby Smith, a defensive lineman who had a great career at CHHS and some stats of Tyler Hussey. I'll try to find more photos and stats to add later. As noted, I've added at least seven new names since this article was first published.
This reminds me of my story on "The Great Concerts Ever Held at Sartain Hall." Once I published that story, readers kept adding musical acts I'd omitted and the size of the list rapidly grew! This is called "crowd sourcing."
The list is players who grew up in Pike County or who later made their home in Troy or lived in Troy. I don't think Sim lived in Troy after his playing career ... or did he? In the future, I'm going to do another story on former athletes with the most eye-opening season or career stats. Sim will of course be very conspicuous in that story.
My grandfather, Jeff Cotton, played for the 1968 Troy State Champion team. Not sure of his exact stats, but he went on to live in Troy for many many years after his time on the team.
Ellie, I will add your grandfather right now ... I just saw that your grandfather rushed for 950 yards and had another 168 yards pass receiving in the 1967 and 1968 seasons. That means he had more than 1,100 yards total offense in just two years. And he was a key member of Troy's first-ever national title team! Sorry I left him off in the first draft. Thanks for the heads-up.
My son in law, Dylan Bradshaw is an Enterprise native but has made Troy home, working and involving himself in the community, since marrying my daughter 3 years ago. He was a member of the Troy football team for 6 seasons. From 2016-2021 and was the starting center for the last three seasons of his career.
Thanks, Jessica. I will add Dylan to the list right now!
Another thing that jumps out at me when examining this list is that only two athletes were from Brundidge - John Faircloth, who played in the late '50s and Steven Coleman, who was Alabama's "Mr. Football" in 1989.
Goshen and PLAS produced many more letter-winners and Troy football players than PCHS.
"Williams, get in!"
This jumped out at me in looking at the lettermen list. There are 36 players with the last name "Williams" who lettered at Troy!
This, easily, seems to be the most-common last name of former Trojans. (There were 24 players with the last name "Jones.")
For the record, here are all the Williams ...
1. Williams, Charles (OL/RB - Georgiana, Ala. - 1951-58)
2. Williams, Chris (TE - St. Cloud, Fla. - 1990-93)
3. Williams, Chris (WR - Birmingham, Ala. - 2012-13)
4. Williams, Cornelius (WR - Hoover, Ala. – 2006-09)
5. Williams, Damion (LB - Camilla, Ga. - 1995-98)
6. Williams, Darius (WR - Blakely, Ga. - 2005)
7. Williams, Darryl (DL - Mobile, Ala. - 1982-85)
8. Williams, Davern (DL - Montgomery, Ala. - 2000-02)
9. Williams, Eddie (DB - Huntsville, Ala. - 1978-79)
10. Williams, Garry (WR - Linden, Ala. - 2009)
11. Williams, Gordon (LB - Miami, Fla. - 1999-2002)
12. Williams, Harold (LB - Jacksonville, Fla. - 1976-78)
13. Williams, J.A. (FB - Millport, Ala. - 1966-69)
14. Williams, James (WR - LaGrange, Ga. - 1960-61)
15. Williams, Jarvis (DE - Greer, S.C. - 2014)
16. Williams, Jeff (OL - Shannon, Ga. - 1979)
17. Williams, John (DL - Tampa, Fla. - 1971)
18. Williams, Keith (OL - Ozark, Ala. - 1992-95)
19. Williams, Mike (WR - Dothan, Ala. - 1968-69)
20. Williams, Mike (RB/WR - Greenville, Ala. - 1972-76)
21. Williams, Mike (WR - Bartow, Fla. - 1981)
22. Williams, Sam (RB/DB - Eufaula, Ala. - 1951)
23. Williams, Steve (K/P - Holt, Ala. - 1973-74)
25. Williams, Tate (TE - Camilla, Ga. - 1980)
26. Williams, Tavares (DB - Gainesville, Fla. – 2005,2007-08)
27. Williams, Zion (CB - Omaha, Neb. - 2020-21)
28. Williams, Chandler (K - Jacksonville, Fla. - 2016)
29. Williams, Aaron (DL - McIntosh, Ala. - 2009-13)
30. Williams, Anthony (WR - Tampa, Fla. - 2009-10)
31. Williams, Anthony (DE - McDonough, Ga. - 2014)
32. Williams, Bart (OL - Birmingham, Ala. - 1982-84)
33. Williams, Bubba (DL - Jacksonville, Ala. - 1976-79)
34.. Williams, Callarious (WR - Quincy, Fla. - 1996-99)
35. Williams, Cam (DE - Loganville, Ga. - 2021)
36. Williams, Charles (RB/DB - Sylacauga, Ala. - 1951) - Note: Not to be confused with the other Charles Williams, No. 1 on this list.
Additions since first version of this article was published:
- Dylan Bradshaw (center) - 2016-2021, Enterprise & Troy
- Jeff Cotton (RB/DB) - 1967-68 - Arlington, Ga. & Troy
- Phillip East (OL) - 1978-79, Troy (CHHS)
- Tyler Hussey (WR) - 2019-2020, Troy (PLAS)
- Fitz Lee (DL & special teams) - 1974, Louisville & Troy
- Dwayne Mahone (OL) - 1984-86, Goshen
- Brian Snyder (WR) - 1981, Goshen
- Ford Taylor (RB/DB) - 1948, Troy.
Also, still looking for/waiting for more info on a couple of more omissions or possible additions.
For those who might not be familiar with The Troy Citizen, I recently published an article that gave a brief synopsis of the 50 "most popular stories" we've run in the past 7 months.
This story includes links to the stories. Several are sports-related and many deal with Troy history.
https://thetroycitizen.substack.com/p/the-most-popular-troy-citizen-stories
P.S. In the three days since I first published this article, has already made my "Top 10" with 1,027+ page views so far. Many thanks to all readers and everyone who is sharing this story. Check back later for an updated list and I'll try to correct errors as I find them or am notified of them. A neat feature of Substack is you can make edits in a few seconds.
Right now the list is at 54 names (update: 59), although I threw in some other names in my tidbit anecdotes. I learned early on in the newspaper business that "names and faces" sell newspapers!
Local history is also very popular with many readers. I enjoyed researching this subject and found several former athletes I didn't know played at Troy. Some of the statistics are amazing.
UPDATE: I've now added about six more photos and found a few more stats - for example, some high school stats of Coby Smith, a defensive lineman who had a great career at CHHS and some stats of Tyler Hussey. I'll try to find more photos and stats to add later. As noted, I've added at least seven new names since this article was first published.
This reminds me of my story on "The Great Concerts Ever Held at Sartain Hall." Once I published that story, readers kept adding musical acts I'd omitted and the size of the list rapidly grew! This is called "crowd sourcing."
Did I miss seeing Sim Byrds name
The list is players who grew up in Pike County or who later made their home in Troy or lived in Troy. I don't think Sim lived in Troy after his playing career ... or did he? In the future, I'm going to do another story on former athletes with the most eye-opening season or career stats. Sim will of course be very conspicuous in that story.