Oak Ridge 2016

[BarneySox2007]

Unbelievable what UT and all these other colleges will spend to put on a big Shindig to try an recruit a good player. No wonder it cost as much as a trip to the moon to see a football game over there anymore. OR did look great from what I heard through someone I know that was there and would be my early favorite to win the 5A Title this year. When Graham plays it will keep a good balance between him and Tee so no team can just focus on one of them. Thanks for posting the video Sweet. I enlarged it and it was UT Orange that Tee was wearing. That almost looked like a man playing against a midget league team. I do hope you all win it and OR is one of my favorite three or four teams I have interest in watching besides Maryville no matter if what I may say sometimes might hit a nerve. My memories of OR go back a lot farther than most of yours because during my playing days they were the dominator of high school football in the state and back then it was a much tougher road to get into the playoffs and there were only three classes which included every team in the state.

[SweetScience]

Unbelievable what UT and all these other colleges will spend to put on a big Shindig to try an recruit a good player. No wonder it cost as much as a trip to the moon to see a football game over there anymore. OR did look great from what I heard through someone I know that was there and would be my early favorite to win the 5A Title this year. When Graham plays it will keep a good balance between him and Tee so no team can just focus on one of them. Thanks for posting the video Sweet. I enlarged it and it was UT Orange that Tee was wearing. That almost looked like a man playing against a midget league team. I do hope you all win it and OR is one of my favorite three or four teams I have interest in watching besides Maryville no matter if what I may say sometimes might hit a nerve. My memories of OR go back a lot farther than most of yours because during my playing days they were the dominator of high school football in the state and back then it was a much tougher road to get into the playoffs and there were only three classes which included every team in the state.

Thanks Barn. Did you ever get to watch OR play a game in the Hale era? Do you remember an All State LB for us named Johnny Burgess? Played in 79 and 80. He's my dentist. Edited May 21, 2016 by SweetScience

[BarneySox2007]

Thanks Barn. Did you ever get to watch OR play a game in the Hale era? Do you remember an All State LB for us named Johnny Burgess? Played in 79 and 80. He's my dentist.

I was born in 1958 and played for Maryville in 1975 when Oak Ridge won the state that year. Believe it or not we beat them in a scrimmage game that year just before the season and our heads swelled like a balloon. We went over to Rule thinking all we had to do was show up and they kicked our a** back to Maryville 30-8. Then the next week we went to Middlesboro, KY to play the best team in the state there and they gave us a home cooking and all the sudden we were 0-2. After that we went on to win nine in a row and end Loudon's 30 plus game winning streak only to lose to them in the finals on a very bad call. Loudon went on to win the state the next week in a landslide. So close but the following year Maryville won it in 76 . Yes I watched many Oak Ridge games back then and I was at the state Championship game when they beat Germantown and I have a program here to prove it. I had to set on the Germantown side because that was the only place I could find a seat. I remember the player but didn't know him personally. 

Edited May 21, 2016 by BarneySox2007

[BarneySox2007]

This was the Oak Ridge roster from that playoff booklet from the 1980 Championship Game.

Edited May 21, 2016 by BarneySox2007

[BarneySox2007]

This is the road they traveled to get there Sweet. You have to admit that's pretty good information from a Pecker Head.

Edited May 21, 2016 by BarneySox2007

[BarneySox2007]

While I'm on a roll I'll give you guys a copy of the 1975 Oak Ridge Roster out of the playoff program. They didn't mention all the sophomores because there just wasn't that many teams that had 100 players back in those days except Oak Ridge.

Edited May 21, 2016 by BarneySox2007

[BarneySox2007]

Here is a copy of the 1979 team roster for Oak Ridge who won the AAA title that year. Hope you guys enjoy this and download it for your files.

Edited May 21, 2016 by BarneySox2007

[SweetScience]

Wow that's awesome stuff. I'm at work now, but I'll look more at that when I get home. Recognize a lot of names on there. I've heard and seen clips of that OR Germantown game video and Blankenship was packed to the hilt. Back when state games were played at the higher seeds home field. I believe 2 were played at the Ship in the 70s, along with the "National Title" game played in 1958 against OR and the Purple Pounders from Chattanooga Central. Man, that's some good stuff peckerhead. As a die hard Wildcat that's some great history. Thank you for sharing.

[BarneySox2007]

One of my favorite memories about Oak Ridge was the time we scrimmaged them at Maryville.. The week before the scrimmage we always practiced at the junior high and one day riding in a truck of one of the seniors driving over there he got a ticket for speeding and for punishment our coach made the one's in the truck walk to practice which was half a mile away. The day we scrimmaged Oak Ridge their bus drivers saw us walking and stopped to pick us up because they didn't have a clue where the junior high was. When we pulled into the junior high I will never forget all the people from Maryville setting there waiting to see Oak Ridge get off the buses. I would have given a million dollars to had a picture of everyone's faces when that bus door opened and I was the first one out.

[SweetScience]

Haha that's great. Seems like Rebel Ron told me a story about Hale getting on the Maryville bus before a scrimmage and claiming that OR was going to stomp yalls a%& or something to that effect haha. Hale was a trip I've heard.

[SweetScience]

Barn you sure do have a lot of knowledge about HS football. Never would've thought you knew this much about OR.....

[WillieTheWildcat]

I had Coach Hale for Ecology my junior year and we spent the entire time during the 1980 State Title run watching film of the teams OR played in the playoffs. He was so cool, he would tell us to read a chapter then do a work sheet on it. Believe it or not but we did learn about ecology.

 

I also happened to be in the gym playing ball one night when the team came in from practicing. They had been going at from 3 pm until after 8 pm. The whole team was covered in mud, exhausted, steam coming off their heads because it was so cold and jacked up ready for Friday night. Coach Hale was crazy but he worked the players harder than any coach in the state.