Jerry Summers
If you thought this article is about General William Tecumseh Sherman going through the state of Georgia on the way to Savannah during the Civil War (War to Suppress the Rebellion) for folks from the North), you will be badly mistaken.
This march through the Peach State occurred in 1954 by a 31-member football team from the North Georgia textile town of Rossville, Ga. just across the state line from Chattanooga.
Many of the survivors of that historic year are now eighty plus years old. The majority of the undefeated state champions are either deceased or slowed down considerably from the glory season of 1954.
However, their accomplishments are preserved in writing in a 129 page publication by former Rossville Bulldog and Georgia Tech quarterback on the ‘54 Bulldog Team. Doug Veazey's “Marching Through Georgia” was published in 2008. In 1999 a reunion was held with 15 attendees and head coach Stan Wade in attendance.
Although the physical structures of Rossville High School and Peerless Wooden Mills are victims of the eventual outsourcing of the textile industry abroad, the Rossville community is starting a recovery.
The expansion of bowl shaped Chattanooga into other areas such as Ooltewah, Wauhatchie, etc. has by the process of elimination made Rossville a candidate to regain its former prominence through the Rossville Boulevard corridor.
In 1954 the municipality of Rossville, Georgia was an exceptional textile mill town like many in the South with a population of approximately 3,000 citizens where the sport of football had almost become a religion (Actually on Friday Nights it was).
Following World War II in 1945 the owner of Peerless Wooden Mills, John L. Hutchinson Sr., was asked to support and revive the Bulldog sports program.
With the promise of an open wallet financial budget to support the athletic department the birth of the Rossville dynasty in Northwest Georgia was initiated.
The recruiting magic formula was very simple. If a young man was a good athlete his parents could always find a job at the plant just across the Tennessee-Georgia border.
The undefeated 1954 season began with a wild game in Cedartown, Georgia and ended with the championship game played at Porter Stadium in Savannah between the Bulldogs and the Blue Jackets. The match would decide the ultimate champion in Georgia’s highest football classification.
Although Rossville’s student population numbers would have placed the team in a lower region, John L. Hutchinson had insisted when he agreed to provide the funds to build a championship team and he ordered that “I only want to compete in the highest classification. Everything will be first class. I want a championship team and Walt (Athletic Director Lauder), I want it before I die.”
The final score between the two powerhouses would be a runaway victory of 38-0 in favor of the little town of Rossville in 1954.
John L. Hutchinson Sr. lived to the age of 89 and died in January 1957 after achieving his dream of creating the dynasty of the Rossville Bulldogs.
However, the story of the state championship did not end the stories of the 31 players and the coaches and other members of the Rossville community.
Most would be successful in their chosen careers/professions as productive citizens in their own right.
(The proposed rebirth of Rossville in the 2020’s should also produce a rebirth of the memories of the 1954 team).
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You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com)