By Bryan Fazio
September 24, 2007 02:21 pm
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Annually, an excitement rolls over Valdosta, filling the town with anxiety and rivalry.
Every fall, pressure fills the air as thick as a morning fog when Valdosta and Lowndes battle on the gridiron.
The two high schools are just miles apart. One is rich in tradition, and the other is the recent champion. Friends become enemies and neighbors become hecklers — all the ingredients coming together for the game of the year. The annual Winnersville Classic is a staple of South Georgia.
As the 39th year of the Wildcats-Vikings matchup is upon us with an Oct. 19 date at Martin Stadium, a look back at the game that started all the ruckus reveals a much different time.
Presently, the two teams are annually discussed as the top in Region 1-AAAAA, with many observers sighting the cross-town contest as the biggest game in the region.
When the two teams met for the first time in 1968, it was the first year Lowndes competed with Class AAA teams. The AAA classification was the highest in Georgia football, with the biggest and often the best schools in the league.
The Wildcats were clearly the best of the best, having already amassed 12 state championships. Under the coaching of the legendary Wright Bazemore, winning was a way of life.
Way before the young boys of Valdosta stepped through the doors of the high school, they had dreams of wearing the Wildcats’ black and gold.
“The word lose was not in our vocabulary,” former Valdosta defensive end Jerry Don Baker said. “It was instilled in us from the Boys’ Club. All I wanted to do at six or seven years old was play football for the Wildcats.”
Lowndes was more of a basketball school than anything close to a football program. The Vikings came together from Lowndes and Hahira schools, and were united on the football field by Carlton Adams. Adams last coached football in the 1950’s, during a time when offensive plays were simple and mostly on the ground.
The Vikings just came together on the football field, and the boys of Valdosta were fed football from the time they could hold a ball. Valdosta had some of the nicest facilities, and the Vikings just barely had facilities.
“We were very handicapped as far as equipment,” former Lowndes quarterback Ben Morris said. “We had a couple of five-gallon buckets with concrete in them stuck on the end of 1/4-inch pipe that must have weighed 150-200 pounds. That was our weight training.”
“We were way out of our league.”
The Wildcats rolled into the 10th game of the 1968 season, having won the previous nine by an average of 33.8 points per game. After a year that provided more trauma than just a 5-4-1 record in 1967, the Wildcats had added motivation for ’68
In ’67 the Wildcats lost one of their own as Jerry Green gave in to a life threatening disease.
“We had dedicated the season to him,” former Wildcat Mike Flail said.
The motivation of a coach who believed there was one way to finish the game - with a win - the facilities and talent to be a top program, and the desire to win for a fallen friend all added up to a cross-town matchup that would be a train wreck for the Vikings.
The Vikings boarded their bus on Nov. 15, and were full of optimism, or rather naivete.
“Some of us had hopes of winning,” Morris said. “We were bright-eyed about it.”
The Vikings’ defensive tackle, Mitchell Cothron was leading the charge, getting his teammates fired up for a possible upset victory. However, the wisdom of another teammate, who knew some of the Valdosta players, attempted to quiet Cothron down and keep him from getting hurt, according to Morris.
After the Vikings arrived, they prepared pre-game in the visiting dressing room of the Wildcats. The preparation would bring signs of things to come.
With an infant program, Lowndes’ supplies matched its weight equipment. The players often had to buy their own equipment pieces and many would lend helmets to teammates in need. As the Vikings dressed before kickoff, as happened before every game, equipment was mismatched, and uniforms didn’t fit on several occasions.
Lowndes had to prepare for the game in the Valdosta gym, with no heat on the cool fall night and no water to quench thirsts or nerves. When the Wildcats came marching by en route to the field, they banged their helmets along tin that was connected to the roof of the Vikings’ dressing room, telling of the impending pounding that would occur.
Once on the field, the 36-player-strong Vikings looked across the field and swiftly lost much of their optimism. The Wildcats dressed their entire team, including junior varsity players and had more than 60 on the field, according to a Valdosta Daily Times article printed the next day, and more than 115 according to some of the Vikings’ players.
“Man, we got out there and the whole sideline was full of people,” Morris said. “It looked like the entire Roman army had come down on a small village.”
The game and the rivalry that would become a yearly classic started off as Valdosta kicked to Lowndes. The Vikings would run three plays and punt the ball right back.
The Vikings would get a chance at a kickoff later in the game, and it would set the tone. When the Vikings lined up for the kickoff, one of the players bent over in his starting stance and revealed what happens when uniform pants are too big.
After the moon came over Cleveland Field, the Vikings kicked off to the football juggernauts, and quickly learned they were on the field with premier competition.
“We took 10 steps, and the entire front kickoff team, there wasn’t but one guy left standing and he was the kicker,” Morris said. “We all laid down and learned after that not to get up.”
The Wildcats stuck to what made them the best, using their speed to run opponents off the field. Valdosta racked up 402 yards of offense, including a 71-yard touchdown strike.
Valdosta quarterback Don Golden went down the field early and often on the Vikings, exploiting their lack of speed and back-up players.
“They bombed us to death,” former Viking Marc Lindsey said. “Nobody had the speed. We couldn’t cover them deep.”
While Valdosta was in charge of things on the offensive side of the ball, Lowndes wasn’t having as much success.
“They had a heck of a defense,” Lindsey said. “They were the big-time guys.”
It also helped that the Wildcats knew what was coming. Valdosta knew that the Vikings had just three plays, and could identify the direction of their runs.
“They didn’t have but three plays - blue was to the right and red was to the left,” Baker said. “We knew they were coming.”
The fact that the Wildcats knew where the ball was going helped the Vikings pick up their biggest victory of the game. Despite the loss, the Lowndes’ football team was riding high after the game thanks to one screen play.
After Morris had come into the game just before half-time, Adams called a pass play to the left. The Wildcats crushed through the line so fast that Morris immediately started scrambling straight back, and Vikings’ running back L.M. Jackson bolted to the right.
Morris tossed the ball to Jackson, who used his tremendous speed to sprint 71 yards for the touchdown.
“It was terrible because it ruined my career,” Morris said. “People started expecting things out of me.”
Morris enjoyed the touchdown from the position the Wildcats placed him, on the ground, and the Vikings all cheered in celebration directly after Jackson crossed the goal-line. It was only the second time all year the Wildcats had been scored on.
“Everybody had their hands up on our side,” Morris said. “It was pandemonium. It seemed like we were running on clouds.”
The Wildcats entered the locker room at half-time with the score 28-6, and Bazemore bringing the score to attention during his intermission speech.
Bazemore told his players they “let the cat out of the bag” by letting the Vikings score. Valdosta came back and played the second half with a focus of the eventual state champions they would become.
Valdosta scored 20 more points for a 48-6 final result. The Wildcats remained undefeated the rest of the season and defeated Forest Park 37-12 in the State Championship.
The Vikings continued to be a fledgling program until a Valdosta offensive coordinator, Joe Wilson, came over to Lowndes as the head coach.
In 1976, Wilson brought the Bazemore style to Lowndes, along with its first winning season. Lowndes would defeat the Wildcats nine years after that first matchup in 1977 during Wilson’s second season by the score of 7-2.
Since the first matchup, Valdosta has won 33-of-45 meetings with the Vikings. The rivalry has changed many times over the years, with violence stemming from it in the past, and in the present the Vikings holding a three-game winning streak. No matter who hosts the now Winnersville Classic, it is one of the nation’s best football games, that stemmed from a team in its heyday and another one just starting.
“I love it,” Lindsey said. “I can’t wait until football season and those Friday nights.”
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