Your School's Mt. Rushmore

[AlcoasPaintedBridge]

WB has had good individual players throughout its history,like any team... But..... How many of those good players actually won football games? Like Lane Bloom, great player! But the teams he played on didn't win... If you are picking the top players of all time ,especially at a school like WB, you have to pick the guys who had the biggest impact on winning games.and Tyler Burtstrom and Mcmahan were guys who had big impact on winning games.... If you take Mcmahan off of the 2001 WB team do they upset Dobyns Bennett? No... And if you take Burstrom off of the 07 team do they still have the best team in school history? No

It's not like you have a whole lot of wins to choose from there....

Just saying.

Meat stays....period.

[Governm]

It's not like you have a whole lot of wins to choose from there....

Just saying.

Meat stays....period.

fair enough.about the wins, exactly.... I counted 7 winning seasons in school history. Thats why it makes it even more important to pick guys who won games. If you are talking about maryville or alcoa you have to nitpick at stats because they win every year.. Every year they are in the state title conversation and have great players... But at a school like WB or Heritage you have to pick guys who won. I was told Heritage had a great team in the 80s that went to the semifinals. So imo you have to pick one of the guys off of that team for Heritage. Edited February 28, 2014 by Governors91

[LoveForTheGame]

Dylan before Michael Becker?

Dylan before Michael Becker?

I was deciding between those two and I felt that Arkansas State, where Dylan went, was a better school football wise than TSU, were Michael went.

[AlcoasPaintedBridge]

Here's a little fact for you, 91...

Back then, everyone didn't make the playoffs. So WB would not have had a chance to beat a team like DB in the first round of the playoffs, because there was not a "4 seed" back then. Heck, there wasn't even a two seed until the 90's.

T-Rob took the Govs to Farragut and beat them down on their own turf to set up a district championship game at Oak Ridge, last game of the season, win or go home.

WB lost, but they were in that game, at a time when no other teams would play against Oak Ridge.

Kinda like Alnwick won't play Alcoee now.

Ask the Gov Man, he will tell you. WB would play anyone back then.

[oldsc7]

I was deciding between those two and I felt that Arkansas State, where Dylan went, was a better school football wise than TSU, were Michael went.

Dylan went to APSU I played with him and Daniel they are three years younger than me. TC played at Ark St and then transferred to AP.

[GovMan]

Interesting discussion ... and beneficial as we begin to work on the first ever William Blount Sports Hall of Fame class to be inducted next fall.  I've not seen any names mentioned for WB that wouldn't deserve consideration --except for yours truly.

 

Not sure what to do with some of the footballers from beginning years who didn't actually participate four years at WB.  Could you consider their whole body of high school work?

 

I would venture to say in all the years I've watched WB football (which with the exception of a two-year exile to Alcoa to serve as the Tornadoes team chaplain, would include all of them) that TJ Walker might have been one of the best defensive players the team ever had.  Both of his bothers (Brad and Darren) were really good high school players as well.  I agree with '91 on the impact of Reese and Tyler Burstrom.

 

Tony (Meathead) is certainly up at the top ... but Junior "Cobb" Tillett might have been my favorite rb.  You have to include Mike Fickert (not Steve) in there as well ... broke lots of WB rushing records.

 

APB or Red Rebel, who was the defensive back that signed with one of the military institutes early on?  Was his last name Deck?  How about big Charles Rathbone ... went on to play at Carson Newman.  And Josh Lawhon was one of my favorite evers.  Old school player who once ran off the field with a 90 degree bend in this little finger, with the bone sticking out, and begged the trainers to tape it back up so he could finish the game.

 

As far as Heritage ... I remember one night around '79 maybe when Richard Hyatt had 7 td's in a game.  And who was the big end?  Lee Strickland?  Wasn't he really good?

 

APB ... he might not merit a face on the mount, but the one year I remember playing substantial minutes against Alcoa, one the their best players I remember was one of the Love boys ... Sam.  I was assigned to block down on him from my end position most of the night.  I believe he had like 18 solo tackles against us.  

 

Stars ... would it be legit to say that many of the old timers might still argue that Danny Ray was the best Maryville football player ever?

[Red Rebels]

fair enough.about the wins, exactly.... I counted 7 winning seasons in school history. Thats why it makes it even more important to pick guys who won games.

Back when I played WB played OR, Farragut, and Maryville every year. WB put Alcoa on the schedule my senior year. If you make all County or District or Region or State, It doesn't matter what your winning percentage was. I'd put some of those 3 to 5 win teams in the old 3 Class system up against some of the teams with better records. Meathead is high on the list for consideration.

 

PS: Farragut was a lot bigger back then before the City/County merger and the building of new schools. They dressed out over 100 and had about 300 in the band back then. OR was OR and was the measuring stick in AAA.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Red Rebels

[Red Rebels]

Interesting discussion ... and beneficial as we begin to work on the first ever William Blount Sports Hall of Fame class to be inducted next fall.  I've not seen any names mentioned for WB that wouldn't deserve consideration --except for yours truly.

 

Not sure what to do with some of the footballers from beginning years who didn't actually participate four years at WB.  Could you consider their whole body of high school work?

 

I would venture to say in all the years I've watched WB football (which with the exception of a two-year exile to Alcoa to serve as the Tornadoes team chaplain, would include all of them) that TJ Walker might have been one of the best defensive players the team ever had.  Both of his bothers (Brad and Darren) were really good high school players as well.  I agree with '91 on the impact of Reese and Tyler Burstrom.

 

Tony (Meathead) is certainly up at the top ... but Junior "Cobb" Tillett might have been my favorite rb.  You have to include Mike Fickert (not Steve) in there as well ... broke lots of WB rushing records.

 

APB or Red Rebel, who was the defensive back that signed with one of the military institutes early on?  Was his last name Deck?  How about big Charles Rathbone ... went on to play at Carson Newman.  And Josh Lawhon was one of my favorite evers.  Old school player who once ran off the field with a 90 degree bend in this little finger, with the bone sticking out, and begged the trainers to tape it back up so he could finish the game.

 

As far as Heritage ... I remember one night around '79 maybe when Richard Hyatt had 7 td's in a game.  And who was the big end?  Lee Strickland?  Wasn't he really good?

 

APB ... he might not merit a face on the mount, but the one year I remember playing substantial minutes against Alcoa, one the their best players I remember was one of the Love boys ... Sam.  I was assigned to block down on him from my end position most of the night.  I believe he had like 18 solo tackles against us.  

 

Stars ... would it be legit to say that many of the old timers might still argue that Danny Ray was the best Maryville football player ever?

^ That's some good stuff. What do you do about the Disco's or Jeff Jacksons? One from FHS and one from Lanier. I was thinking I'd put Hyatt on there for HHS over Mathis.

[GovMan]

^ That's some good stuff. What do you do about the Disco's or Jeff Jacksons? One from FHS and one from Lanier. I was thinking I'd put Hyatt on there for HHS over Mathis.

I sometimes wonder what Randall could have done if he specialized in one sport and had the training resources available to today's players.  From his sophomore year on, he was the starting tailback, the starting point guard, and the starting center fielder.  I think he could have played at the next level in any one of those, but he may have had "big league" potential in baseball.

[jake]

Red Rebels and I would agree that Meathead...err, Tony Robinson was the first "great" player that WB ever had and a first ballot HOF'er at Alnwick. Led them to some big wins in the early days of the program. Junior Tillet could be another.

The unfortunate part of being a great player at the county schools, is that, in the past anyway, those guys were just not college material if you know what I mean.

Other names just to toss out there, 

Rusty Holmes, Chris Whitehead, Scott Satterfield, Mike White, Jr.,.......

 

Can't leave out Ray Porter........and more recently, Jon Young, QB of last team ('99) to beat Maryville.

[Red Rebels]

I sometimes wonder what Randall could have done if he specialized in one sport and had the training resources available to today's players.  From his sophomore year on, he was the starting tailback, the starting point guard, and the starting center fielder.  I think he could have played at the next level in any one of those, but he may have had "big league" potential in baseball.

A lot of the really good football players at WB were even better baseball players. There were a ton of them that played in College. Randall and Randy were both really good running backs in the same backfield, but were even better baseball players. Randy played on scholarship at Lipscomb.

[AlcoasPaintedBridge]

Can't leave out Ray Porter........

Who? 

Mike Fickert (not Steve) in there as well ... broke lots of WB rushing records.

 

I would have too if I carried the rock 50 times a game.