We were 6 - 0 and had scored 171 points in our first six games, giving up only 20 points. Would we be able to stay focused and finish out the season with the same intensity we had so far? There had been distractions. The death of the Leflore County player made us wonder if playing football was worth it. There was a district court ruling that required schools to desegregate "immediately." I remember hearing of it after one of our games, although I don't remember which game. This ruling required Fielding Wright and Henry Weathers schools to combine. What did "immediately" mean? Would it be next week? Next month? When? Would we be able to finish the football season? We soon learned that "immediately" meant the first day of school in January 1970. We would get to finish the season, but this was the last Colonels team -- the end of an era! I don't know if I realized there would never be another Colonels football team at the time. These distractions could have broken our focus, but they did not. These things brought us closer together as a team. During my sophomore and junior years, I remember there being some dissention on the team. Not so with this team! Not the 1969 Colonels! We loved each other as brothers. I think that is how we were able to stay focused.
We now had to turn our attention to our game against South Panola. They had lost to Coahoma County. As I recall from reading the stories in the sports pages, Coahoma County had jumped out to a big lead and South Panola came roaring back, only to fall just short of a comeback victory. The differences between our team and theirs were significant. South Panola had speed on their team. They would have 100 players on the sideline; we would have 34. They had huge defensive linemen. To give the starters a rest, they rotated fresh players in a lot. They had an offense and a defense composed of different players; almost all of our starters played both offense and defense. Doss Shropshire and I were the only offensive starters who did not play defense. Doss didn't play defense because he needed a rest between offensive drives. He carried the ball on 80% of our offensive plays and when he didn't carry the ball, the majority of the plays were fakes to him and a pass, or an option play around end. I didn't play defense because I had a bad knee that had to be taped before every practice and game. It would be much easier for me to re-injure it while playing defense.
I have mentioned that Doss was not fast. He would break through the hole and get caught from behind time after time. We kept wishing he wasn't so slow. There was one game that he sat out because injury. It was a home game and I believe it was against Leland. His backup was Mark Stevens. Mark was one of our fastest players. We thought that Mark would be able to break into the open never to be caught. We envisioned lots of long touchdown runs. The line would open the hole and Mark would run to the end zone. Nothing could be simpler. We all knew Doss was a great running back, but we learned just how good he was when we had to play without him. One of our favorite plays was "Drive-4 right." Tom Griffing would be a lead blocker helping me or Bill Marshall double team and the ball was given to Doss to run through the "four hole" which is between the center and the right guard. But Doss didn't always run there. He had great vision and the hole might be opening up to my left and Doss would veer left and go where the hole was and not where the play was designed to go. Doss would always "run to daylight" as the saying goes. Doss had been our starting fullback for three years and had learned how to pick where to run because of that experience. In the game Mark had to play for Doss, he would run where the play was designed to go. Mark would get tackled for a medium gain on a play that Doss would have veered to where the hole was and break into the open -- to be tackled from behind after gaining fifteen or twenty yards. After playing a game without Doss, we were no longer critical of his being caught from behind. You had to break into the open in order to be caught. And he would break into the open time and time again for us.
As I look back on that magical 1969 Colonels football season, I cannot remember any of our starters other than Doss who missed a game because of injury, and he missed only one game. Was our lack of injury that year because of our conditioning, or was it simply our destiny to be great that year? We needed all our players. We had none to spare. We would play against teams that had an offense and defense composed of almost completely different players. They should have worn us down. But, that was not the case. In the fourth quarter, when we should have been exhausted, that was when we dominated. We always won the fourth quarter when it was crunch time. It would be the other team who was dragging, not the Colonels. Running the hill at football camp paid off. All of the drills that we ran paid off. The trips to the weight room during the summer paid off. The running during the summer paid off. We were victorious. WE WERE COLONELS!
The South Panola game day arrived -- October 24. It would be a long trip. Batesville is 140 miles from Rolling Fork. We would be on a bus for around three hours traveling to the game. For the South Panola game, it would not be a school bus. The boosters had chartered a Greyhound bus to take us to the game. The pep rally was in the morning. The atmosphere at school was electric and exciting. Win this game and we would win the Delta Valley Conference Championship. Well . . . . . there would still be two conference games against Grenada and Belzoni that we would have to play, but South Panola was the best team we would play all year and the primary obstacle to an undefeated season. After the pep rally, we loaded the bus and headed off for our football encounter in Batesville. We stopped along the way for our pre-game meal. I was even more nervous than for the opening game against Oak Grove. We arrived in Batesville and tried to rest before the game. We went out to the field to walk it. This was where we would do battle in a couple of hours.
Finally the time came to get dressed for the game. Part of our uniform was red leggings. Mine were not in my duffle bag with my uniform. That night I would have bare legs above my socks. Later, my mother told me she noticed that I didn't have the leggings when I went out to mid-field for the coin toss. She was able to spot me in the scrums throughout the night because I was the only one of the Colonels without leggings. Their captains appeared huge. We won the coin toss as we had in every other game. We were ready. WE WERE COLONELS!
The game started. In the first half, we fell behind. We had not been behind all year. I do not remember the sequence of the scores. South Panola scored one touchdown on a pass that was tipped by our defensive back. He was in perfect position to intercept the pass, and it was tipped up and caught by the receiver and taken in for a score. Another touchdown was scored on a screen pass. They had a fantastic running back -- very fast. He caught the pass and there was a missed tackle -- not something that happened very often to the Colonels defense -- and he took it for a long score. I believe, but am not sure, that their other score was a draw play by the same running back. We scored once in the first half -- I believe it was a pass to Bob Wixon near the end of the half. South Panola had missed one extra point and the score at halftime was 20 - 7.
During halftime, we did not go back to the locker room. We boarded the bus. It was closer to the field. Coach Robertson talked to us! Actually....... it was an ass-chewing. We had missed blocks; we had missed tackles; we had missed interceptions. We were reminded of the work we had done to get this far. We ran the hill at football camp; we lifted weights all summer; we had dedicated ourselves to this season; and we had pride. The choice was clear. We could go back out for the second half and play with all the determination and skill that we had, or we could give up and go home with a loss. We exited the bus with the determination not to go down without a fight. WE WERE COLONELS!!
South Panola had more players than we had; South Panola had players who were bigger than we were; but South Panola's players did not have the hearts of Colonels. I was playing against a nose tackle who weighed 260 pounds. According to the game program, I weighed 175 pounds. And, maybe I did weigh that much with my uniform on. I could not block him with any consistency during the first half. He won the early battle. In the second half, it was different. He was getting tired and I was getting stronger. I was winning the private war I was having with him. It was the same up and down the Colonels line. We were winning those individual battles, and we were winning them as a team. We opened holes for Doss to run through. James Collins or Tom would run an option around end. We scored and kicked the extra point. It was still 20 - 14 in their favor. One more touchdown and extra point and we would be ahead. Our defense had kept them bottled up the second half. There were no mental lapses or missed tackles. We were dominating the play in the second half. We scored our third touchdown and with the successful extra point, we were now ahead by one point -- 21 - 20. WE WERE COLONELS!
South Panola was a very good and valiant team and was not ready to give up. They had time for one last drive down the field. They moved the ball. It was gut-wrenching watching this from the sidelines. Every inch was fought for by each side. South Panola had seen their lead evaporate, but they had not given up. As I recall, this was their only drive of the night. They had scored on three long touchdowns in the first half, but had not been able to sustain a drive against our defense. They got closer and closer and closer to the end zone. The Colonels defense finally stopped them. It was fourth down, but they were close enough to try for a field goal. On the sideline, all I could do was hold my breath. If they made it, we would have about 90 seconds left to take the ball down the field for our own field goal attempt. The teams lined up for the field goal try. Eddie Wilson and Mike Huoni lined up on the snapper and began talking to him -- telling him what they were going to do to him. As he snapped the ball, they hit him so hard he was knocked backwards almost into the holder. I don't think the kicker ever had a chance to kick. There were 90 seconds for us to run off the clock and -- COLONELS WIN! COLONELS WIN! COLONELS WIN!
We left everything we had on the field that night. South Panola was a very good team. We were just better! We came through in the clutch when everything was on the line. Every trip up the hill in Grenada at football camp had paid off. Every mile we had run during the summer for conditioning had paid off. Every trip to the weight room during the summer had paid off. Dedicating ourselves to this season and our teammates had paid off. Winning that game is one of my fondest memories. The trip home was joyous. WE WERE COLONELS!
We had three more games on tap. We played Grenada, St. Aloysius, and our final game was at home against Belzoni. They all would turn out to be easy victories. Those three teams scored a total of 14 points against us. The Colonels scored 109 points in those games. We were undefeated and Delta Valley Conference Champions for the fifth time in the eight seasons beginning with that great 1962 team. WE WERE COLONELS!
When we dedicated ourselves to our team and the season at football camp, we had given up things like drinking and smoking. Very early in the season we began making great plans for the party after the Belzoni game. It was a home game and we would be able to plan an after-game party. We would be able to drink and we were planning on it! I don't exactly remember the elaborate plans we made; we had to cancel them. Following the South Panola game, we were invited to play in the Red Carpet Bowl in Vicksburg. It would be played one week after the Belzoni game. Our opponent would be St. Joseph of Jackson. The party would have to wait. There would be one more game to complete a perfect season. And we were determined to make it a perfect season. WE WERE COLONELS!
by: Kenneth Burns
by: Kenneth Burns
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