PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The 1979 Upper State champion Strom Thurmond Rebels were honored on Friday night at halftime of the Rebels' game with South Aiken to commemorate the 30th anniversary of that very special season.

Our STHS football season began with a group of coaches and players that were determined to win.

We had a fan base of students, band members, teachers and young and old from Edgefield County that filled the stands at home or away. Our first week of practice was at the school.

We practiced at seven in the morning, showered, ate in the lunch room, napped on cots in the gym, studied schemes in a class room, had our afternoon practice and then went home. Our second week of practice was held at the Athens (Georgia) Y Camp. We slept in cabins not far from the practice field and ate in a screened building.

I know that cook was glad when we left. His inventory had to be low when we departed.

A small lake with ice-cold water graced the bottom of this tract, one filled with rolling hills. It seemed to be a good place to hunt in the fall. At sunrise we ate breakfast and the mornings were cool, but it warmed up fast – not from the sun, but from a practice that included some tough physical contact.

Coach McAlister had brought the Oakland Raiders’ mentality with him and it was rubbing off. Some of those mornings were tougher than some of the Friday nights we played. The level of competition at camp was very high. We all wore red jerseys. I was playing linebacker and running back. On that Tuesday, Curtis Burton and I were the first to earn our blue jerseys – which meant we could dress in the Blue Room at the school. It has blue carpet and clean as a whistle (and it better be or we would run extra for it).

Coach McAlister started that tradition and the legacy holds to this day.

By the time we returned there were about a dozen or so others who had earned that privilege as well. A handful of us had transferred in and were working hard to contribute and fit in. I had worked during the summer for several years with the players, Coach Triplett, and Coach Heflin from the 1978 team and became close friends with many of them.

We seemed to be accepted by not just the players, but by everyone else at STHS as well.

The camaraderie on the team continued to grow as time passed. We were a team that openly showed our Christian faith during team meetings as settled in to hear comments about our performance and what we could do to improve. We observed another team at camp that would line up in the trenches and yell at each other “make me better”. It was joked about from time to time, but in a sense it subconsciously instilled a vision for our improvement each day. That’s what practice is all about. You work to get better each day no matter how good you are.
 
We got off to a bad start, but turned it around and were 2-1 going into Conference 4-AAA.

We had lost to Abbeville and beat Ninety-Six 40-0. Burton had 282 yards on 19 carries and Mike Miller recovered a fumble on the 28 and Ira Hillary hit Joe Thurmond for a 28 yard play. T.D. Burton had 18, 39 and 80 yard scoring runs. Then Hillary went to Griffin for 39 yard touchdown. We then beat our rival, Saluda High, 19-0. I had a 3-yard touchdown run and Burton had 61 and 45 yard scoring runs. The offensive line blocked for 294 yards rushing that night, while the “D” was hard-hitting in allowing only 54 yards.

Our Conference record was an eventual 6-0, but with us leading C.A. Johnson 24-18 we were in a struggle on the road. At halftime, Coach Triplett told us “Don’t get frustrated, they’re doing some things on offense that we did not see on film”. He went to the board and made some adjustments and after this game I think it would be fair to say that we were playing for a staff that could coach on a higher level. With the score tied at the end of the fourth quarter overtime was set to play. Time ran out after the first overtime with no score.

C.A. Johnson had the ball first to start the second one.

On third and ten they threw a pass into the back of the end zone and I jumped, intercepting it to give the offense the ball back. Coach McAlister told our quarterback, Ira Hillary, to run option and to not pitch it and hit the corner and Ira sprinted for a 10-yard touchdown.

In the next game, the Rebels stopped Langley-Bath-Clearwater (now Midland Valley) by a score of 36-8. James Miles returned two fumbles for a total of 138 yards and one for an 89-yard touchdown. Freeman, Curry, and Abney each had one interception. L.D. Anthony sacked the LBC quarterback on third and four and the Hillary to Griffin connection goes for for two scores, one for 47 yards and one for 52 yards. Burton scored on a 2-yard touchdown and Jenkins on 62 yard touchdown. Griffin also had a 2-point run as we won at home.

We traveled on the road to win the next game 27-7 over A.C. Flora for our fifth in a row. Burton had an 87-yard touchdown run and Hillary had scoring runs of 80 yards and 57 yards. Burton was hit and pitched to Hillary for a fourth quarter touchdown and Miles had a 45 yard interception return for a touchdown. Hillary also had a 25 yd. field goal and 280-pound John Seawright recorded a sack. Wayne Freeman started the second half with a 33 yard kick return. Jimmie Lawrence, a great blocker, had two runs for 15 yards. Larry Abney added two interceptions. In total, the Rebels amassed 366 total yards.

The competition became much tougher the following week, but the Rebels were able to beat Winnsboro 27-24  Jones had a 50 yard interception return for a touchdown and an 85-yard kickoff return for a score. James Miles blocked his third punt of the year and George Thurmond scooped it up and raced 41 yards for a touchdown. Hillary passed to Griffin for the 2-point conversion. Winnsboro went 1-4 for passing and ran 65 running plays. We had 23 running plays and went 0-3 passing. At that time, it was believed that the 65 plays run by Winnsboro was the most ever run on our field and that 23 was the least by either us or an opponent. Winnsboro had four scoring drives of 71, 53, 94, and 80 yards.

The Rebels answered with a fourth quarter score by Jones, who took the kickoff back for 85 yards. Winnsboro was stopped on a three-play drive in the fourth quarter by the “Blue Steel” defense and had to punt. Wayne Freeman set up to receive and ran toward the scoreboard end. Instead of trying to block as usual we peeled out right in front of our bench and set up a wall. Mike (Mutt) Miller hit a man in the chest and sent him airborne into another player, taking him out too. I was still running to get to my position and saw it as I advanced. I hit a tackle in the numbers and they were picked off on down the line by the rest of the “D”.

It looked like a bunch of domino's falling on film as I remember it like it was yesterday. Wayne ran for the winning touchdown and I believe he was untouched. They had 323 rushing yards and we had 61 rushing yards but 283 return yards.

* For the remainder of this story, please see this week's edition of The Citizen News.