cow451

Having played for John Cropp at Tennessee High in the early 70’s, I have to give him a nod. He was a math teacher and did analytics before computers could be lifted without a forklift. He was sharp at catching tendencies of opponents and his own team. We beat lots of teams with bigger players using the Houston Veer.

Not in '71. Milan is definitely from the west and the trophy looks good in the case as you walk in the front doors of the school.

My bad. Thanx for the correction!

Would have loved to see a game between them and Milan that year. We were undefeated and AA state champs.

You had a great team. I recall all three state champs were from the eastern portion of the state.

9-0-1 1965 Science Hill

 

Lee H Edwards(NC) W 21-6

Morristown W 40-7

Knox Central W 28-13

Tennessee High T 0-0

Hampton W 33-0

Oak Ridge W 13-7

Elizabethton W 6-0

Greeneville W 35-7

Unicoi County W 37-7

Church Hill W 32-13

An interesting bit of trivia: Tennessee High did not throw a single pass in that 0-0 game. They were coached by Fred Keller who was extreme old school.

Here's how Oak Ridge did both those seasons

 

1968 7-2-1

 

Austin-East W 33-6

Bearden W 35-20

Cleveland L 28-21

Loudon W 26-7

Science Hill T 7-7

Maryville W 33-7

Baylor W 19-7

Alcoa L 6-0

Dobyns Bennett W 13-0

Knox Central W 32-6

 

1971 9-1

 

Morristown West 27-0

Knox Central 14-0

Bearden W 6-3

McMinn County W 21-0

Science Hill W 12-7

Chattanooga Riverside W 49-35

Baylor L 7-6

Clinton W 24-13

Elizabethton W 34-14

Sevier County W 35-7

In 1971, Tennessee High beat Science Hill 14-7 and Elizabethton 42-14 on the way to state championship.

The 1968 9-1-1 and 1971 9-2 Bearden teams

 

 

1968

 

Powell W 30-0

Knox Central W 27-13

Oak Ridge L 35-20

Clinton W 26-14

Karns W 49-18

Knox Young T 7-7

Knox West W 54-0

Holston W 40-0

Fulton W 34-14

Seymour W 29-6

Doyle W 27-7

 

1971

 

Science Hill L 20-16

Kirkman W 30-18

Oak Ridge L 6-3

Clinton W 24-7

Knox Central W 19-6

Morristown West W 35-6

Knox West W 50-14

Holston W 44-8

Doyle W 38-8

Fulton W 36-6

 

Optimist Bowl

 

Powell W 30-8

No playoff until 1969. In 1971, Tennessee High was state champion. The common opponent was Science Hill, which THS beat 14-7.

I had the opportunity to play against them in the Semis (Tenn. High). They were much bigger and had all that talent. Although they beat us by twelve, it was not that close. We scored to make it

14-8, then they came right back to go up 26-8. We got a late TD to make it look respectable,

26-14. Leo Martin (I think that was his name) was a monster.

I coached one year of girl's youth softball. That was enough. I loved the kids but 1/3 of the parents were either frustrated ex-or non-athletes trying to live through the kid. I never had much trouble personally because we had a new team and we were simply not as talented as most of the other teams in our division. Once I told the parents that, two pulled their kids and went looking for better diamonds. I doubt either kid made a high school roster later.

But the other parents were cool with honesty and we could deal with questions like grownups do. However, there are coaches that think yelling is the same thing as teaching. I played for one of the best hisgh school football teams in the nation and one reason was that the coaches could teach and only yelled when it made sense. And they never rode the officials, even with a bad call.

Overall I think most high school football coaches are better than in my day. My only complaint generally is that some are so "scheme" focused, they come up short on addressing fundamentals.

So, Parents: Shut up and watch the game. If you think you can do better, get a degree and a coaching job.... or get a striped shirt and try reffing a few games.

I am glad that they are moving the game back to McCallie but it will be interesting to watch how all the big blue back track after they talked about how Baylor was being so unreasonable by having the game at Baylor which has 5 times more parking and the stadium holds 50% more capacity. The game environment that Baylor has had since returning the game back to campus is second to none and I would expect the same at McCallie.

Baylor has been whipping McCallie with better personnel, period. McCallie had a very slight edge during the BJ Coleman years. Looks like it is evening out now with McCallie again having a top-drawer QB. I do agree there is some desperation now. Baylor moved it back to campus for that reason, but lost the first time after the move. I don't see any home field advantage on either campus.

Steve Spurrier 

I'l have to go with Spurrier of Science Hill and B.J. Coleman of McCallie.

      That there wouldn't be any chatter on here unless we  debated public and private. CHEATERS

Now, both Grace and Silverdale are private, so what's to debate? Silverdale is an old-fashioned ground-and-pound team. I'm a bit surprised they have done so well. The only loss was in OT and they've pulled some close ones. Silverdale is big on their fans acting like grown-ups. The Head sends out a letter to families each year making expectations very clear.

It's a relatively new program and that may explain the lack of coacht activity.

The Head Coach has resigned.

Marion County has suspended several coaches in the wake of a growing cheating and vandalism scandal.

Marion County coaches are accused of vandalizing their own facilities to make it appear arch rival South Pittsburg fans had done so (to "psych up" the team). There are also allegations that they have stolen opponents' playbooks and paid a young man to practice with the team in game preparation.

If true, there may be some coaching careers ending, some games forfeited and possibly more.

I'd look at a "Bowl" game as a glorified scrimmage like the Pro Bowl. Multisport players should pass if another sport is underway and that would be priority, (basketball, for example). I'd tend to sit a "banged up" underclassman player since this game doesn't really count. That would open up some playing time for a few players, whether they be seniors or not.

I'd try my best to get all the seniors on the field one last time. I would also want to look for a chance to get promising underclassmen some time to see how they have progressed.

It would be a challenge to get the team up for a game after being eliminated from the playoffs anyway, so I'd have to be creative. How many of these games actually exist anymore?

 

Can somebody explain why Notre Dame is not Division II?

 

Section 3.

For tournament competition there shall be two categories. Division I shall be schools whose student-athletes competing at the varsity level do not receive need–based financial aid. Division II shall be those schools whose student-athletes competing at the varsity level may be the recipients of need-based financial aid.

 

 

 

 

 

They moved out of D-II several years ago because they were getting killed in football by McCallie, Baylor, et al. As I understand it, ND students participating in TSSAA sports  do not receive aid.

This rule is about youth so-called rec leagues, not high school.  Unfortunately some frustrated ex-not-jock coaches like running up the score. I think the 35-point level is too low, though.

It's good that his injury can be accurately diagnosed. Prior to modern scans he would've been taped up and sent back out.

Interestingly enough, that was the first year the school was called "Morristown East" it had been just Morristown HS the year before but when they built West they renamed it. That team also had players from the East and West side of Morristown, when they opened the new school they gave upcoming Juniors and Seniors the option to stay at East.

I had forgotten that. ME destroyed us (Tenn High)  34-0 that season at Bristol. They were up 28-0 at halftime and could've easily put up 50-60 points had they wanted to. All-World receiver Marshal Mills was the big star. Two years later we crushed them 52-0, so the talent drain was apparent.

D-B beat us 12-7 in Kingsport in '69. The thing I remember most about playing at D-B was the awful smell, which we presumed came from the Eastman factory there.

Playoffs started in 1969.

Morristown East won the first AAA playoff. Interestingly, they beat Science Hill by one in the opener (7-6), then lost the next week to D-B (14-13). After that they blew out nearly every other regular season opponent. They won the title, winning two close playoff games. Although D-B beat them, I think ME was far more talented, having played against both that year.

The 1970 Murfreesboro Central team is by far the best team I have seen. 26 players from that team (70,71) committed to play college ball. Some of the better players went to schools like Tennessee, Vanderbuilt, Oklahoma, Mississippi St, others went to TN State, MTSU and etc. Riverdale has had some great teams but nothing compare to the 1970 Central team. Central destroyed Memphis Melrose in the finals. Two years later Central was divided into two schools, Riverdale and Oakland. Central beat Tenn. High in Bristol in the semi finals. Their are a couple of youtube videos about the 1970 Central team. The videos are awesome. The 1970 Central team is definitely the best High School team I have ever seen. In Murfreesboro they are known as the 1970 Dream Team.

Having played against them for Tennesse High in that semifinal, I can attest they were tough enough. They had a lot of size on us and hamstrung our offense much of the night. I think the back-breaker was a kick-off return after we had scored to close the lead to 14-8. They eventually had us down 26-8. Final was 26-14 I think.

I know folks in Covington and they had a great team in early 70's. They had to go to Bristol to play the state championship against Tennessee High. They said they were basically beat before the game started.The stadium looked like a castle and it was packed. Even though they got beat bad, they said it was the best high school game atmosphere ever. Add this to the fact that the folks I know said this was the best team they had seen before or since to this day.

It did seem like they were shell-shocked. The play that sent us over the top was a 43-yard FG at the end of the half to go up 17-0. We knew they couldn't overcome a three-score deficit. Our coach, John Cropp, later noted he thought we caught them on a bad night.

^{One thing the helmet caps might also do is help players "unlearn" using the "head-first" approach to tackling. One of the things I have thought is whether helmets are really fitting correctly. It seems odd to me that a player can whip off his helmet like it is a ball cap. Mine always required two hands unless i planned to also lose an ear in the removal process.}

I can't vouch for the 1971 scrimmage but in 1970 those two teams scrimmaged and it wasn't even close...a full game type scrimmage and Gate City dominated. The only things keeping it from being a real game were no admission price and no broadcast. Legion field was filled to capacity on both sides. Have never seen another high school contest with that atmosphere!!

I played on the 1969, 1970 and 71 Tennessee High teams. My recollection is that gate City kicked us around in 1969, having a much better team. In 1970, THS returned the favor. Both of those games were played in Bristol. In 1971 we went to Gate City and they handled us pretty well, but we played without about four starters. Coaches had had to curtail hitting in practice because we were having lots of injuries. We didn't really start to gel until about mid-season. It all suddenly started to come together and we were confident on top of confident by the time playoffs rolled around.

Out of the teams I've followed and seen, I would say the 1972 Tennessee High team, or the 1995 Brentwood Academy team. The Tennessee High team were national champions and BA was the most complete team I've ever seen. The BA team had the most dominating defense this state has seen. The staring defense was loaded with college players. Here is their lineup and college they played at:

 

DE Air Force

DT MTSU

NG nowhere

DT Memphis

DE Tennessee

LB Nebraska

LB Georgia Military ( Tito Lee. The best player on the team, but didn't qualify)

CB Virginia Tech

CB Tennessee

SS Vanderbilt

FS Tennessee

 

Most of these guys played on offense too. An offense that had another receiver that went to Ole Miss and a tackle that went to Texas.

I just stumbled in as a newbie and this is my first post. I was a senior on the 1971 Tenn High Viking team that won the first state championship. I was Hon Mention All-state, but I don't know that I'd have been a starter on the 1972 team. They just had a bunch of really good players across the board and a great coaching staff. I now appreciate more how hard it is to get all of that going on at the same time.