Memories of CHHS 1980 state-title team

The state title game took place 44 years ago last Friday. Plus, local resident assumes top National Guard position, the Great Blizzards of ’93 and ’73 and a Filler Photo or two or three …

Coach Mike Hogan posting this photo made me want to share some of my memories from being a bench-warmer on this historic team.

By BILL RICE, JR.

Coach Mike Hogan made a post on Facebook several days ago, pointing out that CHHS won the school’s only state championship almost 44 years ago on Dec. 5, 1980 with a 14-7 victory on the road at Hartselle.

I was a sophomore third-string quarterback on that undefeated 1980 team. What follows are some memories that stand out about that special team:

• We played a very tough regular-season schedule. Back then in our our area, we had to beat Opp (who usually had very good teams), Elba (which had a very good team that year) and Andalusia, which had been a 3A powerhouse through most of the 1970s. The team also beat Stanhope Elmore in the regular season, who we beat again in the semi-finals.

“The Game of the Year”

• I remember the Elba game was played in Troy and both teams were undefeated at the time. Memorial Stadium, which had a capacity of about 10,000 in 1980, was at least 90 percent full for that game. We had more fans at that game than any Troy State game that year.

• Elba’s star running back was Don Horstead, who later played at Alabama. Fortunately for the Trojans, Horstead had a badly sprained ankle. He tried to play but only carried the ball once before re-aggravating the injury. (I think he gained 15 yards on that carry. Sometimes injury luck can make or break an entire season.)

• In the playoffs, we had to beat an excellent Eufaula team, then Greenville on the road, which had perhaps the most physical team we played all year, and then Stanhope again, which we beat handily both times.

• In the Eufaula game, the Tigers jumped out in front of us by two scores early. Before every game, one of the last things Coach Jay Jefcoat would tell the team was that we should keep our poise if we fell behind early. Se must have kept our poise, because that was it for Eufaula’s scoring that night.

• Our tough schedule made us a much better team. I remember looking at all of Hartselle’s scores from that season. Hartselle, it seems like, was winning every game by 40 points. As it turns out, south Alabama football must have been much stronger than north Alabama football that year.

An unbelievable - and unusually large - senior class …

The reason that team won a state championship is it had a huge senior class, one of the biggest in school history. I think there were 25 seniors on the football team and almost all of them played key roles on the team. These guys had been playing football and sports together their whole lives.

On offense, nine starters were seniors. On defense, only one starter was not a senior - Emory Ellis, a junior, and the late Charles Bradshaw, then a sophomore, both rotated at one outside linebacker spot. So 19 of the team’s 22 starters were seniors.

The team had tremendous leaders.

• All team members would agree that fullback Jerry Beverly was the undisputed team leader. Jerry was a lanky tailback his first two seasons on the varsity, but Coach Jefcoat moved Jerry to fullback his senior year (after Buddy Austin graduated). The 6-1, 180-pound fullback got the vast majority of carries on offense and was exceptional as both a player and leader.

• In my opinion, the best player on the team was defensive tackle Willie Collins. If Willie had been three inches taller, he would have ended up in the NFL. As it was, he was the intimidator on a great defense. He also had a stellar career at Troy State.

• Joey Dennison was a 5-10, 240-pound right guard. He was the Wiregrass’s equivalent of John Hannah. Like Willie, he later won a Division II national title at Troy. I still remember practices where Willie and Joey would go one-on-one against each other. Talk about great against great!

• Our center was Ross Davis, who might have weighed 160 pounds. Our nose guard was James Stringer, who might have weighed 155 pounds. But both were super quick and great players.

• Michael Thomas, a retired state trooper, delivered the hardest hit I ever saw in a high school game on a punt-return in the playoff game against Greenville. The whole stadium saw that hit coming - and heard it! The block sprung Kent Anderson for a TD. CHHS staged a goal-line stand late in the game to preserve the victory.

• Barry Tucker was the team’s quarterback. Barry’s game was very similar to Mike Turk’s wishbone game at Troy State … except Barry was even smaller. He might have weighed 150 pounds, but he was flawless in his execution of the wishbone offense. Barry didn’t pass much, but when he did he made them count.

“Frog 93” wins Trojans a state title …

Case in point, the winning TD in the state championship game was a Tucker-to-Kent Anderson quick post route off option look.

I still remember the name of the play, “Frog 93” - named for Kenny Keith, whose nickname was “Frog.” Keith had once been a wide receiver, but ended up being a great cornerback on that team. He’s now the head coach at Providence Christian.

While CHHS won the state title by only one TD (14-7), CHHS easily had the best team. I think we rushed for more than 300 yards in that game.

In fact, CHHS won several close games that year. Surprisingly, we almost lost to Ozark early in the year. I think we won in overtime. What I remember about that game is that about 10 key players had the flu and either didn’t play or were playing sick.

A great coaching staff …

State championships aren’t possible without a great coaching staff. Coach Jay Jefcoat was only in his early 30s, but he seemed much older than that to me. He was stubborn in his ways, but he was the perfect coach.

Coach Jefcoat didn’t have one player that played both ways. We also ran the no-huddle offense before that became the thing decades later. And, like many teams of that era, we ran the wishbone offense.

Coach Mike Hogan, best known as a great baseball coach who led that powerhouse program, was our defensive coordinator. Rick Moody was the defensive line coach. Stanley King was the defensive back coach and Eddie McCarter, the ultra-successful basketball coach, was the quarterback coach.

Coach Jefcoat was the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator. People more knowledgeable than me about O-line techniques say Coach Jefcoat was one of the best teachers of offensive linemen anywhere.

Two Greyhound busses take a lap around the football field pre-game …

Program boosters chartered two Greyhound buses to go to Hartselle. The buses pulled into the stadium about an hour and 15-minutes before kickoff. A track circled the football field and the buses drove around the track toward the locker rooms.

I remember that the visitors bleachers were already packed when we pulled up and I still remember the roar and standing ovation that greeted those busses.

… Coach Jefcoat and several of my teammates have now passed away. But they still live in my mind, as they always will.

… I can’t remember the opponent, but after one road victory, the team went back to the building which was the visitors’ locker rooms. The same building was going to be used for a school dance that night.

When we got in the locker room, the DJ was setting up. While we were pulling off our shoulder pads, the DJ played Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” one of the hit songs and albums of 1980.

Talk about a sign. That team did become the champions of 3A football that year. Forty-four years later the happy memories seem as fresh as yesterday.

*** (Thank you to everyone who shares Troy Citizen content with friends, co-workers and family members who perhaps don’t know about this on-line newspaper yet). ***

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Congratulations and good luck, Sgt. Major Robert Elmore!

Troy resident Robert Elmore was recently appointed State Command Sergeant Major for the Alabama Army National Guard, the senior position in the National Guard for non-commissioned officers.

Facebook member PA Boatwright posted several photos of the Change of Command Ceremony in Montgomery with Troy native Chris Amos re-posting the news at his site. (Chris had a long career as a full-time officer in the Alabama National Guard).

Command Sgt. Major Elmore poses for a photo with his wife, Deana, and other well-wishers at the Change of Command ceremony.

Wrote Boatwright:

“Steve and I proudly attended the Change of Responsibility ceremony this morning as CSM Robert Elmore was appointed … We are so proud for him, his lovely wife Deana and family.

“Robert delivered one of the most eloquent acceptance speeches I have ever heard. It was funny, it was touching, it was thoughtful and encouraging. Perfection!

“We know you’ll be very successful in this role, Robert. We’re behind you all the way.”

CSM Elmore lives in Troy and is a graduate of CHHS.

The Blizzard of 1993 captured by artist Neal Brantley …

Former Trojan Neal Brantley, an accomplished artist, recently found a photo from the “Blizzard” of 1993 and has now converted that photo into an original oil painting.

Neal titled the painting “Snowfall in Montgomery - The Blizzard Remembered.” (Oil on canvas / 24x18 / painted 2024.)

Artist Neal Brantley, originally from Troy, captured this image of the Great Snow Storm of March 1993. The painting depicts a street scene in Montgomery.

Wrote Neal: “I was recently going through a box of old photos and found this scene. I had taken it the morning after the overnight blizzard we had in 1993. I thought it had a good composition so I used it for my new painting posted here.

Location: standing in the middle of S. McDonough St (in Montgomery) looking south towards Clanton Ave.”

Neal’s post and painting prompted me to perform some quick research into that memorable snow storm.

The storm was described at the time as “a monster with the heart of a blizzard and the soul of a hurricane.”

From March 12 through 13, 1993, a confluence of gulf moisture, arctic cold and brutal winds gave Alabama a memorable taste of winter. Nationally, it was the third-worst U.S. storm of the 20th century, killing 270.”

In Troy and Montgomery at least four inches of snow were recorded. However, 13 inches fell in Birmingham.

“All 67 counties in Alabama reported snow cover. Jackson County tallied up to 11 inches of snow in the valley and 18 inches in the mountains. There were areas with snow drifts as deep as three feet.

“According to the weather service, Birmingham officially recorded 13 inches of snow, which was the greatest amount ever recorded for any day, any month or any season at that site.”

Six inches of snow were recorded in Andalusia and Highland Home and five inches in Auburn.

But the Blizzard of 1973 was worse …

While this was the heaviest recorded snowfall in Pike County in the last 31 years, it’s not the largest snowfall our city and region have ever recorded.

Anyone at least 57-years-old no doubt remembers the Mother of All Snowstorms of our Lifetimes - which occurred Feb. 9-11, 1973.

Troy and surrounding cities got 8 to 16 inches of snow!

Per more quick Internet research:

“One of the greatest snowstorms in Southeastern United States history occurred February 9-11, 1973. This storm dropped one to two feet of snow across a region that typically sees only an inch or two of snow per year.

“New all-time snowfall records were established in a number of locations including Rimini, SC with 24 inches; 18 inches in Darlington, SC; and 16.5 inches in Macon, GA. Measurable snow fell along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida and flurries were reported as far south as Lisbon and Clermont, Florida just outside of Orlando.

According to a snowfall map, 8 to 15.8 inches of snow fell in a cone that stretched across central and east Alabama including Troy and, where I lived at the time, Opelika.

“Snowfall rates increased to one to two inches per hour and held there for most of the day, producing a 50-mile wide stripe of snowfall totals over one foot extending clear across Georgia including 18.5 inches in Butler, 16.5 inches in Macon, and 14 inches in Columbus, Georgia. Interestingly the snow remained entirely south of Atlanta with only cloudy skies reported there.

This storm shut down travel and isolated entire communities across south Alabama, central Georgia, South Carolina, and eastern North Carolina for several days.

… In some places over a decade's worth of snow fell in less than two days!

Personally, I think a “decade’s worth of snow” might have fallen on Troy and Opelika … in a couple of hours!

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Today’s “Filler Photo”

Brenda Meadows Peacock is always posting interesting or cute photos (the last I published was of a snake she found … in her kitchen!)

I also like this photo and caption from Brenda:

An Old Friend of Santa!

“You know you’re old when you were childhood friends with Santa. Still love him bunches … Not trying to get a bigger present … I truly do.”

(Brenda, I think Santa was also my Dixie Youth baseball coach - of the Astros, circa 1977. Santa might also have been the sports editor and photographer of The Messenger - that is, the man who got the name of every young ball player who got a hit in a game into the paper for future scrapbooks. Doing this every week was a gift to the community).

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‘Touchdown Tony’ signs with Bama

Tony Nathan never played basketball for Coach Newtown at Alabama, but he had a great career on the football field.

I enjoyed this photo because Tony Nathan was my favorite No. 22 at Alabama (after Johnny Musso).

From a Facebook post I found this morning: “Prep All American running back Tony Nathan of Birmingham's Woodlawn High School signs his letter of intent to attend the University of Alabama in 1975.

“Standing in the background is legendary Alabama head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant. Standing next to Bryant is Alabama basketball coach C.M. Newton. Nathan was also a standout basketball player in high school and recruited to play hoops.

“He went on to help the Crimson Tide win the national title in 1978. Nathan later played eight seasons with the Miami Dolphins from 1979 to 1986.”

When I was 10-years-old living in Opelika, I once attended an Opelika High School basketball game just because Tony Nathan’s team was playing against the Bulldogs.

In the fall of 1974, more than 40,000 fans attended a high school game at Legion Field between Nathan’s Woodlawn football team and Jeff Rutledge’s Banks High team. This is still the largest crowd to ever watch an Alabama High School football game.

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Downtown Troy - Circa 1940s

I found this photo from a Facebook Group of People who grew up in Alabama. This is what downtown Troy would have looked like when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 - See info below.

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Coming tomorrow:

I’m excited that Dr. Wayne Curtis, a Troy High School classmate of my late parents (Class of 1958), is going to allow me to publish several of his archived newspaper columns.

As many residents will remember, Dr. Curtis was a long-time professor in Business and Banking at Troy State before heading an important state banking agency. I used to run Dr. Curtis’s economics/finance columns in the original Troy Citizen.

(My parents always told me Dr. Curtis was the “smartest person” in their class - and I know this was a class full of brilliant people).

Dr. Curtis, 85, was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and has recently retired from writing columns (he’s written approximately 2,000 articles!).

However, he did tell me about a column he wrote about World War II and how that war was funded.

On the anniversary of Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), Dr. Curtis wrote a column about several veterans he came to know who were at Pearl Harbor, including one man who fired the very first shot in that battle and another man who shot down a Japanese fighter plane with a rifle!

Since this dispatch is already running long, I’ll run that column tomorrow.

Also, thank you to Citizen readers who include Dr. Curtis in their prayers as he fights cancer.

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Don’t forget to Enter the First-Ever Troy Citizen Trivia Contest - The winner will receive dinner for two at their favorite local restaurant. Check the Citizen archives for details.

The Troy Citizen Trivia Contest is here.

Note: The original story had a typo in my email address. This has now been corrected in the story. Email answers to:

wjricejunior@gmail.com