WHEN THE NEW YORK CELTICS CAME TO RENTZ

Magicians of the Hardwoods

In their day, the New York Celtics were the Kings of Basketball in America.  Only the Harlem Globetrotters could claim that equal crown.  Not to be confused with the modern day Boston Celtics, the Celtics were a pre-NBA team which called New York home.  In the latter years of the 1930s and 1940s, the Celtics barnstormed across the country playing local and collegiate teams in tiny, rural high school gymnasiums and large, urban arenas.  They rarely lost a game,  playing just good enough for a small, but comfortable, margin of victory. 

Such would be the case when the nationally celebrated septet came to Rentz, Georgia on the  cold, rainy Tuesday night of January 24, 1939.  The fund-raising event was billed as an exciting evening of basketball.  The fans who crammed the tiny wooden gym that night did not come away disappointed.

The first of the three-game slate matched the girls of Rentz High School against their bitter rivals, the lasses from Cadwell, who were out to avenge an earlier season loss to their neighbors to the north.  

The second contest featured "Deacon Holy" Grahl's powerful Cedar Grove quintet match with an equally strong team from Dudley.

The climax of the evening's games featured a 9:00 pairing of the Celtics against the Teachers from South Georgia Teacher's College in Statesboro.  The Teachers, the forerunners of Georgia Southern University, had practically their entire team returning from another successful season under the tutelage of legendary coach, B.L. "Crook" Smith. The "Blue Tide," as the boys from the "Boro" hailed themselves, were no slouch of an opponent for the professional Celtics, who entered the game with 31 consecutive season victories, including a victory over the college team the night before in their own gym in Statesboro.

The "Magicians of the Hardwoods" were regarded as the greatest passers in the game.  They held in their play book a large number of trick plays.  More than comedic and gimmicky players, each of the Celtics were known as dead sure shots from nearly any spot on the court.   

The Celtics were led by player-coach Henry "Dutch" Dehnert, who is generally credited with inventing the pivot play.  The solidly built, tall for his day, Dutchman was a member of the Original Celtics, one of the first two teams to be inducted into the National Basketball Hall of Fame.  Considered the game's first big men, Dehnert led the Original Celtics to more than 1900 victories in thirteen seasons.  He left the Celtics after two consecutive league championships in 1927 and 1928 to join the Cleveland team, which won ABL titles in 1929 and 1930.

After leaving the barnstorming Celtics after more than two decades with the team, Dehnert managed another barnstorming team, the Detroit Eagles.  One of his better players was "Press" Maravich," father of the legendary ball-handling great "Pistol Pete" Maravich.  Now you can see where "Pistol Pete's" talent came from.

Dehnert, who was the only member of the team to have played with the "Original Celtics,"  was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1969 along with legendary coaches, Red Auerbach of the Boston Celtics and Adolph Rupp of the University of Kentucky.

The clown prince of the Celtics was Davy Banks.  Banks had to be funny.  He was the shortest man on the team.   Banks, a 19-year veteran,  was a five-tool player. Laughter, tricks, stunts, speed  and pinpoint shooting were his talents.  Four months after the game at Rentz, Banks became the first player to wear a radio transmitter during a game, humorously broadcasting the action to a clamoring crowd.

One of Banks' patented trick shots came when he received a pass while sitting in a chair along the sideline.  From his seated position, Banks, who was a licensed bookmaker and promoter,  would frequently put his shots in the basket.  When the Celtics were well ahead, especially when their opponents were a local aggregation, Banks would shoot into their basket to cut the safe Celtic lead. 

One of the newer members of the Celtics, Paul Birch, played at Duquesne from 1932 to 1935, helping lead his team to a (51-4) record.  Birch, an off season professional baseballer, played intermittently with the Celtics for a couple of years before signing with the Fort Wayne Pistons.  After enjoyed two world championships with the Pistons, Birch went into coaching, leading the Pittsburgh Iromen  (1946-1947) and Ft. Wayne (1951-1953) in the NBA.  

Rusty Sanders, another newcomer with the Celts, once moonlighted as a prison guard. 

Dan Herlihey, a veteran Celtic and Long Island golf pro, was all business, no humor, just aggressive hustle and deadly accurate shooting.  Bob McDermott, a cage star at Long Island University whose forte' was the long shot,  and Nat Hickey, who managed baseball teams in the off season,  rounded out the veteran dominated lineup. 

At half time of the girls game, arrangements were made with the Celtics to stage a clinic for all of the county's  high school teams.   

Cadwell's girls didn't come close to evening their record with Rentz, which, with 47 points, more than tripled the Cadwell girl's point total of 15.  

Billy Keith, a Dublin High upperclassman covering the game for The Courier Herald, failed to report the outcome of the Dudley-Cedar Grove tilt. 

Sadly, Keith's 87-word scant article simply reported that Celtics, considerably better than the boys from Statesboro, never really opened up.  The Celtics jumped out to an early 10-point lead and kept it that way until the end of the game when Crook Smith's teacher pulled to within seven points to lose 58-51  to the Celtics, who claimed they only lost two games in the South in twenty-five years.

The members of the Celtics played on thousands and thousands of basketball courts around the country during their long and storied careers.  But, it was on that night, that one magical night  seventy- five years ago this week when the New York Celtics charmed a standing room only crowd as they worked their magic on the hardwoods of the Rentz gym. 

OTIS TROUPE

A Forgotten Football Hero?

Now that the seemingly - endless, overly - hyped hoopla of the Super Bowl is finally over, sit right back in your Lazy Boy chair and read the story of Otis Troupe, one of the best college football players you probably never heard of.  In the days before Jackie Robinson forever broke the color barrier in major sports, Troupe was denied the opportunity to play football in the National Football League.  No one will ever know the impact that this bruising runner and all around athlete would have made on the professional gridirons of the nation, but in his day and in his league he was generally regarded as one of the best black collegiate athletes in the nation and for a brief time was a star player of the fledgling Negro Professional Football League.

Otis Emanuel Troupe was born on August 29,  1911 in Laurens County.  His parents, Emanuel and Annie Hester Troupe, lived on the road leading from Dudley to Rebie, Georgia in 1920.  Otis was the grandson of Wallace and Charlotte Troupe, of the Hampton Mill District.    His family, including Quincy Trouppe, a legendary catcher and manager of the Negro Leagues,  descended from former slaves belonging to Governor George M. Troup, who maintained a plantation at Vallambrosa and at Thomas Crossroads north east of Dudley.    During the 1920s, the Troupe family moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where they  lived at 425 South Park Street in an ethnically diverse neighborhood.   Otis lettered in football, baseball, basketball and track and became somewhat of a legend in high school circles in New Jersey.

A talented singer, Otis received a music scholarship to attend Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland  which was at the time considered one of the finest black colleges in the nation. His athletic physique and strong bearing caught the eye of coaches Talmadge "Mars" Hill and Eddie Hurt.   Morgan State dominated black college football in the 1930s,  winning seven CIAA championships between 1930 and 1941.

Otis tried out for football as well as basketball and track.  He lettered in all three sports in his four years at Morgan State.  The Morgan State Bears captured the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association title during Otis' entire career.  In 1935, team captain Troupe led his three-year unbeaten team to the Black College National Championship, earning All-American honors at full back in the process.  That same year, Otis was lead tenor of the famous Morgan State Choir, one of the country's premier collegiate choruses.  Under the leadership of Coach Hurt, Troupe's 1933 basketball team won the C.I.A.A. championship.  His track team won numerous championships.

Though he played in the shadows of Brutus Wilson and Tank Conrad, Richard Sorrell, a former teammate said of Otis, "he was one of the greatest all around running back  the game of football has ever had and I have seen them all."  He added, "Otis could not only run the football, but he could catch like a wide receiver, and he could be a devastating blocker for a team.  He also averaged 60 yards per punt."  Troupe also was the team's extremely accurate place kicker.

In 1936, Fritz Pollard of the Negro Football League's New York Brown Bombers selected the triple-threat Troupe to play in the backfield with Joe Lillard and Tank Conrad, two of the league's best backs.  The Bombers were named after the country's great boxer Joe Louis.  In the second year of the NFL's existence in 1921, Pollard became the league's first African-American head coach.  In 1933, the league banned the use of black players, denying Troupe, Lillard and Conrad the opportunity to play.  The ban lasted until 1946.

Troupe played for the Bombers, the most successful professional Negro League team,  for two years.  In 1938, while a coach at Howard University, Otis played part time for the Bombers, who changed their name to the New York Black Yankees to avoid confusion with the Chicago Brown Bombers.  He was selected to play for an all star team in a preseason game against the Chicago Bears in 1938, but couldn't obtain a leave from his coaching duties at Howard.

After his football days were over, Otis Troupe joined the District of Columbia Police Department.  He spent 18 years on the force before taking a job as an officer and counselor with the Federal government.    But Otis couldn't shake sports from his blood. He was a member of the Eastern Board of Officials and served as a referee for high school and college games in Washington and around the country.

Otis married Carolyn Holloman, a daughter of Rev. John L.S. Holloman, a North Carolina circuit rider and pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Washington, D.C. for 53 years, and his wife Rosa.  Carolyn Troupe was a well-known Washington, D.C. high school principal.  

Their only child Otis Holloman Troupe, a former football player at Yale, held an impressive resume' with a bachelor's degree in English from Yale University, a master's degree in Business Administration from Columbia University, and a law degree from Boston College.  The younger Troupe was appointed Auditor of the District of Columbia for two terms, after serving as a market analyst with Exxon Corporation.   His zeal for exposing fraud in city government prevented the completion of his third term in office.  In 1994, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of Washington, D.C..  He died in 2001 and was considered a lonely voice for honesty in a hive of corrupt D.C. government officials.

Otis Troupe died on August 31, 1994 in Washington, D.C. just two days before his 83rd birthday.   For his outstanding exploits as a star and team player, Troupe was inducted into the Black All-American Hall of Fame, the Morgan State Varsity M Club Hall of Fame, Eastern Seaboard Officials Hall of Fame and the Inside Sports Hall of Fame.  And now you know the story of Otis Troupe.  Try not to forget him. 

OBIE WALKER

"The Black Boxcar"

In this corner from Cochran, Georgia, Obie Walker!  He was big. He was strong. He jabbed his opponents with machine gun like speed.   Obie Walker thought he could whip every boxer in the world.  But, the Georgia Goliath never got the chance to fight the world champions Max Baer or Joe Louis.  This is the story of a local man, who once reigned as the Prince of boxing in Europe and among his race, was considered a world champion.

Obie Diah Walker was born in Bleckley County, Georgia on September 19, 1911. Before the age of nine, Obie was living with his maternal grandparents, Frank and Elizabeth Powell of the Frazier community.

Obie moved to Atlanta  as a way  to increase his chances for success as a boxer. His first of 100 professional fights took place some eighty five years ago  on February 16, 1929  against "Battling Connell"  in the Auditorium in Atlanta, Georgia.  The hometown fighter had little trouble against Connell, who lost all three of his career professional fights, two of them to the Brute from Bleckley.

Walker won four straight bouts, some people say eighteen,  until his first loss on points to Happy Hunter on February 3, 1930.  

The "Black Boxcar," built like a bank safe,"  would not lose again in thirty fights (28-0-2)  until he lost a close decision on points to Don "Red" Barry at the Arena in Philadelphia.  His last win in America came against George Godfrey, to capture the title of  the Colored Heavyweight Champion.  

That is when Walker's manager Jefferson Davis Dickson made the decision to take his fighter, with a record of 32-2-2, to take on the best fighters in Europe.  Some say that Walker had fought at least sixty other undocumented bouts with colored fighters in addition to his three dozen professional fights.     

The first European  fight came in Sallewagram in Paris, France.  Walker knocked out Belgian giant Louis Verbeeren in the last round of a ten-round match on Groundhog Day in 1934. Fighting primarily in French and Swiss arenas, Walker knocked out all of his first nine opponents. Only one of the ko's came after the third round.  After losing two of his next three matches, Obie, trained by former Argentine champion Norman Tomasulo,  won nine of ten before leaving Europe on a losing note in June 1936 with a defeat on points.

Named "Enfant Terrible "  by his adoring French fans who stormed the headquarters of Joe Louis following the defeat of Max Baer, Walker was praised  for his strikingly unorthodox and  innovative style.  

In commenting on a possible match with Lewis, Walker said, "I ain't been asked yet.  And, I ain't askin." 

Walker confidently  commented on a match with Lewis, the Brown Bomber, "There ain't no fighter in the world who doesn't make a mistake during a fight. Me, I just stand around and wait for that mistake.  

"I can take it.  And, when Louis makes that mistake, I'll swat him," the Georgia boxer proclaimed.  

As he traveled Europe and the states, Walker, a quiet man who could not write and could only read picture books,  showed off his strength by going to carnivals and picking up the strong men and their hefty weights - all at the same time. 

Obie Walker firmly believed that World Champion Joe Louis and he could beat any boxer in the world.  Walker  yearned to get his chance just to fight Louis or Louis' arch rival Max Schmelling, of Germany.  

"Let Louis clean up the states. I'll clean up Europe. Then we will get together and see what for," Walker once proclaimed. 

Walker's first bout upon his return to the United States came in Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia.  Walker had won a fight at Shibe Park, the home of the Philadelphia Athletics, in 1933. Municipal Stadium  was the same outdoor arena where Gene Tunney captured the world heavyweight boxing title from Jack Dempsey. The bout came at the home of the Philadelphia Phillies, where Rocky Marciano knocked out Jersey Joe Walcott in 1952 to win boxing's heavyweight championship.

Walker pulled himself off the mat and won six consecutive fights in his home territory of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina before losing half of his next eight fights.  Seven straight wins brought Walker to the climax of his career.  No longer the Cochran Colossus he once was, Walker, who had returned to his home at 514 Larkin Street,  lost four of his last six fights before the beginning of World War II.  Walker hung up his gloves after a failed comeback attempt after the war when he lost to Elza Thompson at Dorsey Park in Miami in March 1946 in a close 10-round decision. 

Atlanta Georgian sportswriter Ed Danforth wrote of Walker, "Walker became the toast of Paris.  He knocked cold every topnotcher he met on the continent.  Max Schmelling shrewdly dodged him, the best of the Englishmen too, sidestepped the squatty brown man who carried lightning bolts in both fists.  Competent critics say he could have knocked out Schmelling, Joe Louis and Jim Braddock in one night with the space of ten rounds. 

In the 100 recorded bouts of his twelve- year career, the five- foot nine- inch Obie Walker compiled a record of 77 wins, 16 losses and 5 draws. Walker's powerful arms knocked out 53 of his opponents.  Remarkably, Walker was never himself knocked out - a feat matched only by a few dozen American professional boxers in the history of the sport.

On May 4, 1989, at the age of seventy-seven, Obie Walker unceremoniously died in his adopted hometown of Atlanta.  There is no adequate marker to designate the  final resting place of this once proud and powerful Heavyweight Colored Champion of the World.  Maybe now, many more people will know his story, the story of the Black Boxcar, aka the Bleckley Behemoth, who in a  hundred fights never went down to the mat for the count.

DUBLIN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL 1963 CLASS A CHAMPIONS

Dublin High's 1963 State Football Championship

They called them the Banshees.  They were small. They were fast. They were stingy on defense.  The Dublin Irish football team had won Class A championships and 1959 and 1960, but had succumbed to the more powerful Sylvania Gamecocks in the following two seasons. The 1963 edition of the Dublin Irish sported a new look and a new enthusiasm.  It was the last time Dublin would win a state football championship.  There were other times when we came close. There was a loss to Carver High School in a mud bowl in 1967.  The 1994 team was defeated by Thomasville, one of the top-ranked teams in the country.  Most recently, there was the hard-fought heart-breaking loss to Screven County, which ended the Cinderella season of one of Dublin High's greatest all time teams.  This is the story of a group of small boys, who played hurt, fought hard, and climbed their way back  to the pinnacle of Class A Georgia football, a half century ago.

        The new look Irish with seventeen seniors sported a new look, dark green uniforms with white numbers. They were considerably smaller than past Irish teams. The offensive line averaged 169 pounds. Marion Mallette was the biggest offensive lineman tipping the scales at 205 pounds, while Chub Forth was a speedy 145-pound guard. Tom Perry, the quarterback, was the largest back at 170 pounds. The defensive line weighed in at 175 pounds, with Derious Williams the big man at 215 and the nose guard Bob Mathis anchoring the line at an unheard of weight of 140 pounds.  

The Irish opened the 1963 season in the Shamrock Bowl in front of a crowd of 4000, the largest in the stadium's young history.  Steve Walker and Ronnie Williams led the award winning Dixie Irish Band.  Sharon Lamb captained the cheerleading squad.  The Irish, running a new pro-style offense, were led by Quarterback Tom Perry, who passed for two touchdowns and ran for one more. Vic Belote was cited for his great play on both sides of the line of scrimmage in a 20-6 victory over the Dodge County Indians.  The vaunted Banshee defense, led by an interception by Joel Smith and a fumble recovery by Charles Faulk,  kept the red men in check by holding them to 126 yards of total offense. The boys from Dodge County managed their lone score late in the game.

The Irish traveled to Fort Valley the following week to face the Green Wave. Sophomore running back Vic Belote, (Left)  subbing for the injured Danny Stanley, ran for 80 yards.  The Galloping Green offense scored on three long drives culminating in a run by Belote, and receptions by Frost and Hahn.  Robbie Hahn began the season as the place kicker and punter.  The Irish defense shut out the Green Wave 20 to 0, allowing 134 yards of offense.

               The Green and White returned to the Shamrock Bowl for the third game of the season against the previously undefeated Swainsboro Tigers, who outweighed the Greenies by thirty pounds per man.  Nearly six thousand screaming fans showed up to see if the Irish could remain unbeaten. The Irish scored on their first drive and not again until their last three drives of the game to defeat the Swainsboro eleven 27 to 0.   Chuck Frost became the first Irish running back to have a 100 yard rushing game, sixty-six of those yards coming on a touchdown run.  The game was close until the Irish broke it open in the final stanza with three touchdowns by Danny Stanley (Left) , Robbie Hahn, and Chuck Frost.  For the third straight game, the Irish held their opponents to less than 200 yards in total offense.

The Irish traveled to Cordele to defeat the Crisp County Rebels 34-0 to extend their winning streak to four games.  The Irish scored on their opening drive with a 61-yard pass from Perry (Left) to Frost. The first half ended with  Perry's 39-yard screen pass to Danny Stanley for a touchdown.   Robbie Hahn, who went on to become a record breaking All American receiver for the Furman Palladins, scored on a long pass play. The star of the night was the fourteen-year-old sophomore Vic Belote, who scored on runs of 70 and 90 yards on his only carries of the night.  The Banshees stymied the Rebels, holding them to only 97 yards of offense.

The Washington County Golden Hawks were the opponents to end the first half of the regular season.  The Galloping Green put up 387 yards of offense with scores by Stanley, Hahn, Frost, Blue,  and Powell.   (Left) The Irish got off to a slow start, but won the game 38-6.  Joel Smith snatched his second errant Golden Hawk pass of the game and raced 25 yards into the end zone for a rare defensive touchdown.  The boys from Sandersville were held to 111 yards of offense.

           Camera and smiles flashed as the Panthers of Perry came to the Shamrock Bowl for the Homecoming Game.  Linda Hobbs was crowned the Queen of Homecoming.   Despite having an off night in losing four fumbles, the Irish pommeled the Panthers 41 -19.  The Panthers managed to score 13 of their points in one 47 second span in the 4th quarter, an electrifying period in which the Irish scored their final 8 points in between.  The Irish offense was led by Tom Perry's three touchdown passes to Chuck Frost (Left) , one long TD pass to Hahn, and two runs of 6 and 54 yards by Belote.  Belote ran for 139 yards to led the Irish running backs. The Banshees held the Perry team to 143 yards of offense, and keeping them from passing the line of scrimmage on thirteen running plays.

In the closest game of the regular season, the Dublin boys defeated the Braves of Baldwin County 21 to 14 in Milledgeville.  It was Danny Stanley's greatest game of his career in a Dublin uniform.  Stanley carried the ball 27 times for 141 yards, out rushing the entire Baldwin County running back corps.  The Irish came from behind for the first time with two touchdown runs by Stanley and a pass from Perry to Hahn. (Left)  The Irish were plagued with a series of mental lapses and miscues, which nearly ended their six game winning streak.  The Irish ground game was stymied when Vic Belote left the game with a badly bruised hand.    For the seventh straight game, the Irish defense held their opponents to less than 200 yards of total offense.

A win over Statesboro in the Shamrock Bowl would clinch the 2A Title for the Irish.  A cold rain kept the crowd down to the smallest it had been since the bowl opened for play in 1962.  Louie Blue scored his first touchdown of the season, while regular scorers Belote and Hahn picked up one score apiece.  Two Irish touchdowns were called back, holding the score to a 19-0 Dublin victory.  Robbie Hahn boomed a 63-yard punt to end the first half.  The Irish defense aided by wet pigskins held the Blue Devils to 66 yards of total offense, all on the ground.

The 9th game of the season came in Americus. It wasn't  pretty. The Irish played horribly. The Americus Panthers, well, they were just too much for the boys in green.   Chuck Frost and Tom Perry were knocked out of the game on the same play when they tackled an Americus runner.  The score, an old fashioned butt whooping 35-7 loss to the defending state champions. 

Dublin faced their region nemesis Screven County in the final game of the regular season. The Irish managed a 26-6 victory over the Gamecocks, who had dominated the region for the past two seasons, but failed to gain a single passing yard.  A encouraging highlight of the future of Irish football came when Stanley Johnson, an eighth grade runner with electrifying speed, dashed 14 yards into the end zone.  By the end of the season, the Irish were playing hurt. Chuck Frost substituted at quarterback for Perry, who had broken his thumb in practice and bruised his ribs in the loss to Americus.  Center Bernard Snellgrove  (Left) stood on the side lines on a bum leg.  Vic Belote sucked it up and played the entire game both ways while suffering from a broken thumb.

After an intensive 11-week season fifty years ago in 1963, the Dublin Irish took time to pause for the state playoffs. In those days, there were only four regions in Class A and only four participants in the state tournament, unlike the 32-team tournament format of today. The Irish had the first week off while the three top teams in Region 1 fought it out to determine who would meet the Banshees in the South Georgia Championship game. Thomasville trounced Americus, a team which dominated Dublin in their only loss, by the score of 26-0. Then the Bulldogs defeated region rival Cook County by practically the same score. 

      Almost a week before the first game, the players and the nation were stunned by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. The players and coaches attended a memorial service at First Methodist Church before resuming their practice schedule. 

     From the beginning, controversy engulfed the game. Thomasville officials refused to allow a Dublin radio station to broadcast the game by telephone back home to Dublin. Dublin boosters were only allotted 192 reserved seats along the fifty yard line. The seats that were there were only on one side of the field, so Dublin and Thomasville fans shared the same side of the field. Those who couldn't find a seat, stood on the opposite side of the field while the cold winds of November howled through the stadium in Thomasville. 

    The ball game was a close as the Thomasville and Dublin fans were crammed into the seats. Neither team penetrated the other's goal line during the first half. In the third quarter, the Irish mounted their only scoring drive of the game. Stanley ran the ball for two. Belote fumbled and Perry recovered for a 4-yard loss. Perry then tossed a 23 yard pass to Hahn. Stanley was held to 1 yard gain on first down. Perry turned back to the speedy Hahn for 16. The Bulldogs caught Stanley in the backfield for a 2-yard loss and a 1-yard gain. On third and long, Perry hooked up with Hahn for his third catch of the drive on a 14-yard pass. Stanley then took matters into his own hands. He wouldn't be denied. He gathered in a screen pass and blasted his way for 12 yards. He took the next handoff at the 13-yard line and ran it to the 4. Running behind Marion Mallette and Charles Faulk,  (Left)  Stanley drove it down to the two. Quarterback Perry huddled the team and called "same play." Stanley squeezed the ball and dove into the Thomasville end zone to consummate a twelve-play eighty-yard drive to put the Irish ahead. Tom Perry's kick after touchdown struck the right goal post and bounced haplessly away.

     It was then up to the vaunted Banshee defense to hold the heavily favored Bulldog offense. The Thomasville boys struck back with a one-play forty-five yard drive on run by all-state running back Dickie Thompson to tie the score at 6-6. The snapper snapped. The holder tried to upright the pigskin for the kick. It was all to no avail. As the kicker kicked the horizontal ball, the Banshees swarmed all over it like ducks on a June bug. The clock ran out with the score standing at a "sister-kissing" tie, 6-6. In 1963, there was no overtime. The winner of the game would be determined by giving one point to the team leading in three categories: most offensive yards, most first downs, and most penetration inside the opponent's 20 yard line. By virtue of their lead in all three categories, the Irish were awarded three points and won the game 9-6. 

    Coach Minton Williams cited the great job of blocking and defense as the reason for the Dublin win. Larry Jones (Left) stopped a critical Bulldog drive with a fumble recovery. Another defensive star was Chuck Frost, who had to leave the game early when he broke his finger in stopping a sure Thomasville touchdown. Johnny Malone saved his best game of the season for South Georgia championship. 

  

     The championship game was set at the 8000 seat North Dekalb Stadium. Again all the seats were on the same side of the field. This time however, the Irish were on the opposite sidelines, all by themselves. The opposition was Tucker High School, who were playing in their own territory. Coach Williams expected that the boys from Tucker would concentrate on pass defense, so he ran the ball and he ran the ball. With Senior Danny Stanley and Sophomore Vic Belote running the ball behind the powerful offensive line, the Galloping Green dominated the line of scrimmage. Three long Dublin drives ended with two fumbles inside the Tucker 10-yard line and an interception at the opposition's 3-yard line. 

      The Irish began their first scoring drive at their own 23. Perry tossed a 22 yard pass to Hahn. He came back with another pass, this one a 29-yard spectacular catch by Hahn with 27 seconds left in the first half. From nearly the same position on the field that Irish had against Thomasville the week before, Coach Williams, with 14 seconds left called for a screen pass, which Stanley again grabbed and jaunted down to the Tucker 1 yard line. With the clock standing at four seconds, Stanley ran behind a powerful block of Jack Stafford (Left)  for a 1-yard dive play. Hahn kicked the extra point to give the Irish the lead with no time left to play. Following a quick score by Tucker, the Irish exhibited a strong ground game to grind out the clock. 

    Taking the ball at their own 3-yard line following a Thomasville punt, the Irish moved 89 yards on runs totaling 50 yards by Stanley, 25 yards by Belote, and 14 by Chuck Frost. With the Irish leading 7-6 and the ball at the Tucker 5-yard line, Stanley took the ball on a 4th down and 1 yard play into the end zone to give Dublin a 13-6 lead after the extra point attempt sailed wide to the left. Tucker roared back with a touchdown which brought the score perilously close at 13-12. Tucker lined up for a two-point conversion and the lead. 

      That is when the controversy, at least on the part of the Tucker fans and the Atlanta newspaper reporter began. The quarterback faked a dive play into the line. Defensive lineman Larry Jones, well coached on the art of goal line defense, dove at the offensive end's feet just as he was supposed to do and took him out. It just happened that the end was the one the quarterback had called to catch the pass. The front seven Banshees focused in on getting to the ball. The Tucker quarterback, with his primary receiver lying on the cold tundra, heaved the ball into the end zone praying for a miracle. The miracle never came. The ball landed beyond the grasps of any player. 

     Charles Roberts of the Atlanta Constitution accused the referees of ignoring a flagrant hold by Jones on the play. The Irish coaches responded to the baseless charges by stating that "our player was doing what he supposed to do." The Irish tried to put an insurance touchdown on the board but were stopped at the Tucker 22-yard line with a long penalty. Then the Banshee defense made one last stand and stopped a Tucker drive, much to the sheer delight of the 2500 Dublin fans who had traveled to the game. The game ended with the score, Dublin 13, Tucker 12. 

  The game was a close as you could get. The Dublin one point victory was matched by a 2-yard edge in rushing (263-261), a 1-yard margin in passing (54-53), and a 1-first down deficit (12-13). Each team completed only three passes. The crowd swarmed the field as the Irish had captured their 3rd State Championship in five years, ending their tenure in Class A as Kings of Georgia football. 

    The Dublin Irish ended the season with a record of 11 and 1. They outscored their opponents by an average of 23 to 8 during the season. The stingy Irish defense held their opponents to an average of less than 50 yards a game in passing defense. The Banshees shut out their opponents four times and held them to six points in three games. 

    While the Atlanta Constitution ignored Minton Williams as its coach of the year in favor of the losing coach from Tucker, the Irish placed four members on the all state team. Quarterback Tom Perry, half back Danny Stanley, and end Robbie Hahn joined Charles Faulk, a repeater from the 1962 team at tackle. So ended the last championship season for forty three years. 

      The primary members of the 1963 Class A State Football Champions were: Vic Belote, Louie Blue, Don Bracewell, Ronald Cook, Otha Dixon, Ben Eubanks, Charles Faulk, Jimmy Fort, Chub Forth, Chuck Frost, Robbie Hahn, Charlie Harpe, Stanley Johnson, Larry Jones, Marion Mallette, Johnny Malone, Danny Misseri, Tom Perry, Johnny Phelps, Alan Powell, Dwyane Rowland, Joel Smith, Bernard Snellgrove, Earl Snipes, Jack Stafford, Danny Stanley, Ben Stephens, Edwin Wheeler, Derious Williams, Brooks Wright, and Freeman Young. Coaches: Minton Williams, Travis Davis, Bob Morrow and George Sapp. Trainer/Sr. Manager: Johnny Warren, Managers: Mike Daily and Jerry Spivey.