Randy Smith
It's hard to believe that it's been 18 years since that infamous first ever meeting on the gridiron between Tyner and Boyd-Buchanan. You very likely know the meeting I'm talking about; the one where the very youthful Buccaneers took an early 3-0 lead.....then went down in defeat by the score of 95-3. Ninety-five unanswered points by the Tyner Rams, which by the way was the team that would capture the Class 2A state title later that same season. I was there at the game that night at David L. Boyd field.
I witnessed every single play, because it was my son Davey's very first high school football game. He started that game as a freshman, and it was one he would never forget.
Boyd-Buchanan had a very successful season the year before in 1996. They had gone 11-1 in Coach Robert Akins initial season, but 1997 saw a very youthful squad in camp for the Bucs. They would finish 3-7 and miss the playoffs completely. To further complicate things, they would open the 1998 season at Tyner against the defending 2A State Champion Rams. Revenge was something that was hard to talk about when you lose by 92 points. It would appear that survival was a better motivator than revenge. 95 points in a high school football game. That's still the standard for local high school teams. No team in the Chattanooga area has ever scored more than 95 points in a single contest.
That was a special Tyner team. The Rams had seven D-1 signees off that squad, including linemen Kelvin Hughley and Cortez Stokes. But those guys were gone when the 1998 season rolled around. The Rams were still impressive despite the graduation losses and when the third quarter rolled around on that season opening night Boyd-Buchanan, the team that lost 95-3 the year before, had taken the lead over the Rams. Tyner would claim the win, but it wasn't 95-3, and after the game was over the Bucs had earned the Rams respect.
Boyd-Buchanan would start a long string of playoff appearances in 1998 as they finished 8-4. In 1999 and 2000, the Bucs were a combined 22-5 and the 2000 squad advanced to the Class 1A semi-finals before bowing to eventual state champ Christ Presbyterian. Boyd-Buchanan would reach the state finals four times, winning it all in 2003. Not bad at all for a team that once lost 95-3.
I don't know how much motivation that 95-3 loss provided the Buccaneers. It's not something they're proud of obviously, but when you look at where the Bucs went from that devastating loss to the Rams, you can see and feel the pride in the program. Coach Grant Reynolds enters his tenth season as the BBS head coach and yes, he was there in 1997. He knows what it was like and he hopes his teams never have to go through that kind of loss again. Tonight, the Bucs and the Rams get together once again. Both teams are ranked, and both teams are unbeaten; just the way it should be. I don't know what the outcome of tonight's clash at Tyner will be, but I can tell you right now, it won't be 95-3.
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Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.