West TN Top Football Programs Historically

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

29 minutes ago, noonesfool said:

BPM, thank you for your thread! One of the best on the T in a while. I’m just now getting my Football face on and have just read the thread. A question was answered, how good was and is Covington FB. But it raised couple of more. 1) they have only played football for 53 years? 2) how were they so successful early on?

late fall 1971 I sat in the stands of Viking stadium, the Stone Castle, as Tn High beat Covington 52-0 in the AAA State finals.

it left a sour taste in my mouth as we The Johnson City, Science Hill, Hill Toppers gave TN High  their tightest game of the year losing 14-7. We were on there 3 yard line with 30 seconds left when our QB threw the ball out of bounds to stop the clock thinking it was third down when it was actually 4th.

Please educate me about Covington.

There are some posters on here that can better answer those questions then me. But I will try. I think a lot of Covington’s early success is because they weren’t necessarily starting a “new” program. There were other teams in the area prior to Covington HS forming a team. I think one may be Byars Hall?  May be way off on that name. But regardless the layers had some experience and the area is not short on athletes. They have good community support and resources and pretty good coaching. All those things, as you well know, lead to success. And thank you for the compliment on the thread. Good discussion was definitely the intention. 

[stacmot]

1 hour ago, noonesfool said:

BPM, thank you for your thread! One of the best on the T in a while. I’m just now getting my Football face on and have just read the thread. A question was answered, how good was and is Covington FB. But it raised couple of more. 1) they have only played football for 53 years? 2) how were they so successful early on?

late fall 1971 I sat in the stands of Viking stadium, the Stone Castle, as Tn High beat Covington 52-0 in the AAA State finals.

it left a sour taste in my mouth as we The Johnson City, Science Hill, Hill Toppers gave TN High  their tightest game of the year losing 14-7. We were on there 3 yard line with 30 seconds left when our QB threw the ball out of bounds to stop the clock thinking it was third down when it was actually 4th.

Please educate me about Covington.

In 1970 Byars-Hall and Frazier consolidated to create Covington High School.  I'm not sure why Covington decided to start over with the stats.  Maybe it was because of the name change.

Byars-Hall   307-158-18     .654    49 seasons
Covington   370-222-2   .625   53 seasons  

Put the two together and you will have some very impressive stats.  Byars-Hall and Covington have always been a dominate force in rural West Tennessee football.

[stacmot]

4 hours ago, BIGPURPLEMACHINE said:

 

Thanks for putting this together Stac. This is great info!!

Thanks for creating the thread.  It's a hard one for me to answer (as far as listing a top 5), but I've enjoyed reading the posts.

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

Just now, stacmot said:

Thanks for creating the thread.  It's a hard one for me to answer (as far as listing a top 5), but I've enjoyed reading the posts.

I agree it is a good read cause cases could be made for several teams to be near the top. I’m learning lots of new things as a result. Good stuff indeed. 

[Chargercats]

Hey All!

I love reading the history of high school football, specifically West Tenn.  My dad told me about the1971 Chargers! Tough team! I bet the travel was majorly different back then? That's as about as far apart as teams in Tennessee can get! 

It seems that the Tennessee High (then Bristol?) went on and played nationally or played for a national championship?? Any truth to this? 

[noonesfool]

1 hour ago, Chargercats said:

Hey All!

I love reading the history of high school football, specifically West Tenn.  My dad told me about the1971 Chargers! Tough team! I bet the travel was majorly different back then? That's as about as far apart as teams in Tennessee can get! 

It seems that the Tennessee High (then Bristol?) went on and played nationally or played for a national championship?? Any truth to this? 

TN High was state champs AAA in the 1971-72 school year and state champs and mythical National Champions in the 1972-73 school year.

[BIGPURPLEMACHINE]

11 minutes ago, noonesfool said:

TN High was state champs AAA in the 1971-72 school year and state champs and mythical National Champions in the 1972-73 school year.

Milan was AA state champs in 1971. Would have been cool to have faced TN High. But I don’t know if Milan would have done any better than anyone else. 

[noonesfool]

23 minutes ago, BIGPURPLEMACHINE said:

Milan was AA state champs in 1971. Would have been cool to have faced TN High. But I don’t know if Milan would have done any better than anyone else. 

I think one had to match up with the Vikes. Their line was basically former running back, receivers ect. At the Hill we were former skilled players. I came up a FB and monster back on defense. So both teams were extremely athletic. We were small by today’s squads. Back then the big boys couldn’t run and we’re not stronger than anyone else. There were the exceptions. The 1971 Vikings probably could not have beaten the 2021 Elizabethton Cyclones, Knox Powell, Greeneville High, Maryville and Alcoa and that was just East TN.

[ManOfMillions]

8 hours ago, stacmot said:

In 1970 Byars-Hall and Frazier consolidated to create Covington High School.  I'm not sure why Covington decided to start over with the stats.  Maybe it was because of the name change.

Byars-Hall   307-158-18     .654    49 seasons
Covington   370-222-2   .625   53 seasons  

Put the two together and you will have some very impressive stats.  Byars-Hall and Covington have always been a dominate force in rural West Tennessee football.

 

@stacmot Coming in with the good stuff. You are one of my all time favorite posters on the T! Please, keep up the good work. You are making all of us smarter than we really are.  

[ManOfMillions]

23 hours ago, stacmot said:

I’m not going to attempt to list a top five.  We all tend to favor our own schools anyway, and I will say that data can be manipulated to prove almost anything you want to prove.  Nevertheless, I’ll throw out some more data since I enjoy reading the comments.

Another criterion was recent success.  I’m not sure how far back we should go, but I went back 5 years.

Most recent success by wins (2017,2018,2019,2020,2021) :

Peabody 64-6   3 championship trophies
Haywood  56-15   2 runner-up trophies
Huntingdon 55-9 
Covington 55-11  2 runner-up trophies
Lake Co. 52-14  1 championship trophy
Henry Co. 51-17  1 runner-up trophy
Riverside 48-17
Hardin Co. 45-14 
South Gibson 42-18   ( just over a decade old )   #9
Dyersburg 41-19  
USJ 41-21   2 runner-up trophies
Union City 40-22   1 championship trophy
McKenzie 36-23  1 runner-up trophy
Milan  35-25  1 runner-up trophy  ( over 100 years old )   #14
Westview 33-25   1 championship trophy
Lexington 32-27 

Most recent success by winning percentages over the past 5 years:

Peabody   91.43
Huntingdon   85.94
Covington   83.33
Haywood   78
Lake Co.   78.7
Henry Co.   76.39
Hardin Co.   76.27
Riverside   73.85
South Gibson   70.00
Dyersburg   68.33
USJ   66.13
Union City   64.52
McKenzie   61.02
Milan   58.33
Westview   56.90
Lexington   54.24

 

 

As far as playoff appearances  (semifinals and finals) and consistency are concerned, it's hard to argue against the success of these 4 programs over the past 5 years.  All 4 have reached the semifinals at least 3 times between 2017 and 2021.

Peabody 4 semifinal appearances, 3 finals - 3 championship trophies
Haywood 5 semifinal appearances, 2 finals -  2 runner-up trophies
Covington 3 semifinal appearance, 2 finals, - 2 runner-up trophies
Henry Co. 3 semifinal appearances, 1 final - 1 runner-up trophy

 

 

SAAAY WHAT?? THIS CAN'T BE TRUE. MILAN IS IN THIRD PLACE IN THE LAST 5 YEARS... IN JUST GIBSON COUNTY!  

 

LOVE YOU BPM.... NUMBERS ARE HARD SOMETIMES BUDDY. IM OFF TO MY VACATION. I WILL SLEEP WELL TONGIHT. 

Edited July 8, 2022 by ManOfMillions

[stacmot]

25 minutes ago, ManOfMillions said:

@stacmot Coming in with the good stuff. You are one of my all time favorite posters on the T! Please, keep up the good work. You are making all of us smarter than we really are.  

Thanks @ManOfMillions  I enjoy reading your posts as well.  Enjoy your vacation.

[stacmot]

10 hours ago, Croppygenius said:

Sixties probably the Mustangs greatest decade. 2 undefeated teams plus 5 one lost teams. 1966 team in my opinion was the most dominant team I've ever seen. Put up 436 points and gave up 33 in 11 games. Starting defense gave up 6 pts on the year!

1966 – Tim Priest and the Huntingdon Mustangs.  I was a youngster at the time, but I  have vague memories of that Mustang team.

The sixties were one of Haywood’s greatest decades as well.  The Tomcats finished the decade with  94 wins, 12 losses, and 1 tie.  (3 undefeated teams, 4 one loss teams, 3 bowl championships and 4 Big Ten Conference championships. Haywood also ended the decade sporting a 24 game winning streak.

A note of interest:  Undefeated Haywood met undefeated Huntingdon in the 1964 Little Cotton Bowl.  Haywood won 20-0.