John Shearer: Remembering Kirkman Football Team’s Memorable Run Of 40 Years Ago

In the fall of 1976, change was in the air in America, just as in 2016. Upstart former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter was successfully able to complete his unlikely bid for the White House, beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford in a close election.
 
On the Chattanooga football landscape, change was apparent, too, but the results were not so close. Kirkman Technical High School enjoyed a rare dominant position among all Chattanooga or Hamilton County high schools, easily beating most of its opponents on the way to an undefeated 10-0 regular season.
 
It was definitely a Cinderella story for this now-closed vocational school located on an expansive campus spanning several blocks of Chestnut Street near the Tennessee River. Baylor School under legendary coach E.B. “Red” Etter was usually the most dominant football program locally during most of the early and mid-1970s, with City High, McCallie School and Red Bank, among others, also producing good teams.
 
But 40 years ago this fall, the situation was turned upside down. Kirkman became the focus of praise before seeing midnight proverbially come with a first-round playoff loss to eventual state champion Bradley Central, which was making its own unforgettable run.
 
“It was a Cinderella team in the sense that we knew we were good, but nobody else knew we were good,” recalled former Kirkman head coach Angelo “Nubby” Napolitano recently of his former Golden Hawk squad.
 
“It was magical,” added William Owens, a standout offensive and defensive lineman on that team. “We were a buzz in this town.”
 
When the season began on Sept. 3, few outside downtown Chattanooga knew how magical the season would be, though, after the team had finished 4-6 and 3-7 the previous two seasons. It had also lost inspiring running back Vernard Allen and star lineman Jonah Daniel to graduation.
 
With only about 35 players on the entire squad – less than half as much as some schools like Baylor and McCallie – Kirkman defeated Riverside High, 40-0, on Hawk Hill, which was located where the Lookouts’ AT&T Field is today. Scoring for the Golden Hawks were six different players – running backs Charles Lane and Reginald Douglas, Ernest Dunson and William Wright on receptions by quarterback Glen Thompson, star ball carrier Ron Jones, and reserve quarterback Billy Harper.
 
The game the following Friday on the road against a good McCallie team would prove to be the toughest and most challenging of the season. But it would quickly give an indication that the 1976 season was going to be special.
 
McCallie had raced out to a 21-0 first half lead on three Dan Robinson runs following three Kirkman turnovers. However, the Golden Hawks began a comeback for the ages. Harper scored the first touchdown while filling in for the temporarily injured Thompson to make the score 21-6 at the half.
 
The Golden Hawks thought they had a chance in the locker room, and when they came out for the second half, they drove the ball all the way down the field for a score. Then, on McCallie’s next position, Kirkman player Jeffrey Hinton blocked the punt, picked up the ball and scored to make the McCallie lead only 21-20 after a Thompson two-point run.
 
However, time was ticking away for Kirkman. But the Golden Hawks soon showed a lot of poise in driving the ball down the field late and went ahead 26-21 on a 34-yard pass from Thompson to Wilbur with 1:33 remaining.
 
The Blue Tornado did get the ball back and drove to the Kirkman 31, but Dunson was able to intercept the ball and thwart the drive with the help of teammate and defensive standout Thomas Sparks and others.
 
“When we beat McCallie, it substantiated in their minds that they could be good,” recalled coach Napolitano.
 
With crowds starting to pick up after the team struggled to get fans in the stands just a few years earlier, Kirkman ended its drought against Brainerd on Sept. 17 with a 12-0 win in front of 3,000 fans at Hawk Hill. And it was against a Brainerd team that featured star player Tony Ball, who went on to star at UTC under Joe Morrison before embarking on a college coaching career that took him to such places as the University of Georgia.
 
In the game, Ron Jones had close to 150 yards in the first half alone for Kirkman.
 
At home against Notre Dame the following week, Kirkman won 37-0. Although the Irish were without star running back George Keith, Kirkman still looked quite impressive.
 
As News-Free Press sports writer David Jenkins wrote, “If the Golden Hawks aren’t placed somewhere in the state rankings, then someone isn’t looking.”
 
As a footnote to the Notre Dame game, it was said to be the first time ever an Irish marching band performed at halftime.
 
In its third straight home game on Oct. 1, and one that marked the halfway point of the regular season, Kirkman moved to 5-0 with an 18-6 victory over perennial power Baylor.
 
Although Baylor was experiencing a rare rebuilding year for that time period, Kirkman’s accomplishment was still quite noteworthy.
 
As Mark McCarter of the News-Free Press wrote, “It was Cinderella’s finest hour. The Kirkman Golden Hawks, long abused by the ugly sisters, have arisen from their status as doormat to become, at the year’s halfway point, one of just two unbeaten teams in Chattanooga.” The other, of course, was City High, which was waiting on the schedule.
 
Coach Napolitano said his Kirkman team – which featured players that had come from good working-class families throughout Chattanooga – weren’t used to enjoying such success, but they were willing to work hard to achieve.
 
Most also had to work off the field to make money for themselves and their families. Mr. Owens, who went to Alton Park Junior High, said he worked at the S.H. Kress dime store and soda fountain in downtown Chattanooga.
 
Coach Napolitano, a former University of Chattanooga standout receiver from New Jersey who came to Kirkman as an assistant to Carey Henley in 1971 and became head coach in 1973, said Kirkman also had a great sense of school community at that time.
 
He said it taught life skills and a work ethic and gave students an opportunity to work.
 
“Kirkman was a one-of-a-kind place,” he said. “The teachers, students and administration all agreed it was a really special place.”
 
Mr. Owens, who went on to serve in the Navy and is now a mechanic in California, also remembers the school fondly. “I loved that school,” he said. “I had different trades to try and it rounded me out as a person.”
 
Coach Napolitano said the unique sense of school community that Kirkman had as a vocational school increased even more during that magical season of 1976 as the team continued to win. He remembered that a Ms. Ballinger, a home economics teacher, started making pregame meals with some of her students that year for the players.
 
Of the players, coach Napolitano remembered that he had several good running backs like Ron Jones and Charles Lane, as well as starting quarterback Glen Thompson. Coach Napolitano remembered that he could run and throw, while Mr. Owens remembered Thompson more as a pocket passer.
 
One of his top receivers was William Wright. “We put him in at split end and he was so tall,” coach Napolitano remembered. “He had great size and great speed.”
 
Mr. Owens was a great player on the line, the coach added, while Ernest Dunson was a standout linebacker. “He was a tremendous leader on and off the field,” coach Napolitano said. “He was as good a linebacker as I ever coached. Ernest had great speed, great toughness and great anticipation.”
 
Among the other players on the team, some of whom have already been mentioned, were fullback and linebacker Maurice Daniel, back Efrin Stewart, lineman Robert Murphy, lineman William Owens, lineman Steve Horton, lineman Steve O’Shields, lineman Tommy Sparks, wingback Broderick Wilbur, Ervin Thomas, defensive end Jeffrey Hinton, defensive lineman Derrick Westfield, running back Reginald Douglas, and defensive backs Gary Alford, Billy Harper (who was the backup quarterback) and Ken Hammock.
 
Making all-city that year were Dunson, Wright, Murphy, Owens, Jones and Wilbur, Mr. Owens said, adding that he and Mr. Dunson played at Austin Peay together with Mr. Thompson.
 
Of that team, at least three are now deceased, according to Mr. Owens. They include Murphy, Wright and Daniel.
 
Assistant coaches that season or around that time included Jack Cremer (the brother-in-law of coach Napolitano), Eddie Lambert, and possibly others. The Kirkman principal was Ralph Ennington.
 
Besides having good and effective players and coaches, the Kirkman team was also remembered for having good rapport with each other. Although the Chattanooga area public high schools were just in the first 10 years or so of integrating and the process had not gone smoothly everywhere, the Kirkman team of 1976 had black and white players who seemed to get along well.
 
“It was a team made up of all types of kids,” Coach Napolitano said. “It was a well-balanced team socially and had excellent team chemistry.”
 
Mr. Owens said the team had come from such junior highs as East Lake, Hardy, Alton Park and Lookout and were already acquainted before they arrived due to playing sports with or against each other.
 
“We were family,” he said. “The blacks and whites got along. We would spend the night at each other’s home and got to know each other’s family. We were close.”
 
Quarterback Thompson had gone to East Lake Junior High, coach Napolitano said.
 
As the Golden Hawks moved into the second half of the regular season, they showed no signs of letting up and actually seemed to be improving. They dominated Howard, 47-0, in the rain, to set up the big game against also undefeated City High on Thursday, Oct. 14, at Kirkman.
 
In what was no doubt the most memorable game ever played at the site where the Lookouts baseball team now plays, Kirkman beat City, 28-0, in front of an impressive 8,500 fans sitting in part on temporary bleachers brought in from places like Warner Park.
 
City had three fumbles and crossed midfield only once, while the game was considered the best of the season for Kirkman.
 
“Our defense held them in check,” said coach Napolitano, who remembers vividly the landmark victory against a good team that had players who were also acquainted with the Kirkman players off the field. “Our defense was as good as, if not better than, the offense.”
 
He said the defense had been formed after off-season conferences with Red Bank coach Tom Weathers and assistant coach Don Bishop.
 
“We put pressure on defense with the front six and that freed the linebackers to make tackles,” coach Napolitano said.
 
The next week, after the emotional high of such a big win over a rival school, Kirkman continued its winning ways with a 28-11 win against Tyner. Maurice Daniel had 128 of the team’s 278 rushing yards to make up for the rare struggling passing of Glen Thompson, who was fighting a throat infection.
 
Tyner, which had suffered the death of teammate David Sams from hepatitis earlier in the year and was wearing black crosses on its team’s helmets, was led by the passing combination of James Bagwell to Tim McDade.
 
The athletic excellence around the Kirkman campus seemed to be spreading, as during that week the Golden Hawks girls’ volleyball team under coach Juanita Merrill won the state championship at Murfreesboro over Nashville Harpeth Hall. They were led by such players as Cathy Ochsenbein and Jackie McReynolds.
 
On Thursday, Oct. 28, the Golden Hawks beat Hixson, 34-14, with the help of the running of Broderick Wilbur and a fumble recovery by Thomas Sparks. Coach Napolitano after the game praised the blocking of several players against a tough Hixson defense led by Pat Smith, Holt Adams, Chuck Griffin and Chuck Rector.
 
On a cold Nov. 5, Kirkman closed out its first – and only – undefeated regular season in the history of the school with a 35-18 win over Soddy-Daisy. The diminutive star running back Ron Jones, who wore No. 22, rushed for 143 yards, while Glen Thompson, No. 10, overcame frost-bitten hands to throw four touchdown passes. Broderick Wilbur, meanwhile, kicked five extra points.
 
Among the standouts for Soddy-Daisy was sophomore receiver Tim Neighbors, who would later be the subject of several stories by News-Free Press sports editor Roy Exum regarding his valiant-but-losing battle against leukemia.
 
That game also clinched Kirkman a spot in the Class AAA playoffs at a time when far fewer teams made the playoffs than today.
 
The opponent was to be Bradley Central under coach Louie Alford. The Bears were also undefeated and ranked No. 3 in the final AP poll, while Kirkman was No. 5. But many thought Kirkman was the favorite, although banged up Golden Hawk players Maurice Daniel and William Owens were cause for concern.
 
In a show of support never before experienced, a motorcade formed at Kirkman and drove up to Bradley’s stadium before the game that Friday night.
 
Unfortunately for Kirkman, the dream season came to a scratching and painful halt, as Bradley won 18-0 in a dominating performance. The Bears were led by 154 yards rushing by Danny Wooden and the play of quarterback Scott Kyle. Also contributing to the Bear win were end Dennis Carroll and running back Kinny Hooper, a sophomore who would go on to play for fellow Bradley alum Steve Sloan at Ole Miss.
 
While coach Napolitano said recently that Bradley deserved a lot of credit for taking the game straight to Kirkman’s strength with an offense that put a lot of pressure on his defense, the loss admittedly still hurts 40 years later.
 
“I wish we could have that one over,” he said. “They ran an offensive scheme we weren’t prepared for. We would have liked to have had another shot.”
 
For Mr. Owens, the loss hurt more than just emotionally, as an ankle he injured in the Soddy-Daisy game forced him to see very limited action in the Bradley game. As a result, he spent much of the game in the locker room.
 
“We felt like we could have taken the state, but we didn’t have the extra manpower,” he said. “When we were strong, we were competitive with anybody.”
 
Of course, the loss would be lessened slightly after Bradley went on to win its first state championship since a mythical championship in 1961, and its last to date. It defeated Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett, 24-18, the following week at what is now Sevier County High’s stadium, and it beat Jackson Central-Mary, 50-48, in three overtimes at Middle Tennessee State University’s stadium on Thanksgiving Day.
 
In those days when all the private and public schools played each other and more competitive regular season games took place than what occurs today in the Chattanooga area, Kirkman would remain competitive after that season.
 
But the school would never enjoy the limelight that splashed over Hawk Hill in a magical way in 1976.
 
After the 1979 season, Coach Napolitano began coaching Hixson in 1980 and produced several competitive teams. He then went into school administration before retiring, and these days stays busy selling real estate and watching his grandchildren play sports.
 
Mr. Owens, meanwhile, also keeps busy as the father of 4-year-old twins.
 
For Kirkman, hard times would later come on and off the field. It later had a losing streak that was eventually snapped with a win over Taft Youth Center. A memorable photograph of the Kirkman players celebrating breaking the drought ran on the front of the Chattanooga News-Free Press sports page, and the players looked as happy as those in 1976 did.
 
A decision was also made to close Kirkman in 1991, and move the vocational programs to Howard High. Moves by then were also underway to build the Tennessee Aquarium and redevelop the riverfront into hotels and restaurants and other attractions.
 
As a result, all of Kirkman’s campus – including the familiar athletic track alongside Fourth Street near where the Creative Discovery Museum now stands – was razed. The large school smokestack, which was originally kept as part of the riverfront redevelopment and stood tall during several Riverbend Festivals, was the last to go.
 
For coach Napolitano, the closing of the school never felt right. “It bothered me because of the need for that type of education that met the needs of those kids,” he said.
 
While Kirkman is gone, plenty of memories remain, particularly of that magical football season of 1976, when those Golden Hawk players with the diagonal “K” and “T” on their golden helmets gave a golden effort.
 
“It’s still vivid,” said Mr. Owens. “I remember it just like it was yesterday.”
 
Jcshearer2@comcast.net