As Baylor and McCallie get ready to battle again Thursday night at 7 in the Division II-AAA state championship BlueCross Bowl at Finley Stadium, it will mark the second year in a row these now-top-caliber teams have played twice in the same season.
Before last year, the longtime independent school rivals also met twice before after the private- and public-school split began and repeat meetings became more common. Those occurred in 1997 and 2010.
But the first year they met twice was way back in 1974 – 50 years ago this fall – when repeat meetings were rarer because there were fewer classifications, and public and private schools still competed against each other in the post season.
That season also marked the only time in four previous repeat meetings in the same season that the team that lost the regular season game, which was McCallie, came back to win the playoff game. It is a feat McCallie is also hoping to repeat this season after losing to Baylor by a score of 44-12 on Oct. 4.
In connection with the anniversary of that inaugural season of double meetings and this week’s championship game, I decided to look back at that season in the old newspaper clippings of the two games. I was also able to get a few memories from two people who played in the rivalry that year – Baylor quarterback Scott Ferguson and McCallie running back Ward Nelson.
Mr. Ferguson remembers some excellent x’s and o’s preparation by head coach E.B. “Red” Etter and the Baylor assistant coaches in the first game, while Mr. Nelson recalls some great strategy by McCallie head coach Pete Potter in getting them ready for the second game. Both also have lighter memories, including recollections of a little trash talking and even a shaved head of one coach after the second game.
I was a ninth grader at Baylor then and certainly recall a few highlights of both games from watching from the stands. That included the somewhat surprising victory by Baylor in the first game, and the humbling payback by a very determined McCallie in the second game.
As a little background, Baylor had been able to beat McCallie in 1971, ’72, and ’73 on the way to a state championship in 1973. But many Baylor starters graduated after 1973, and McCallie had an outstanding senior class of athletes on the football team in the fall of 1974. The talk around town was that this would be McCallie’s year to finally break the streak.
McCallie had also hired successful Brainerd High coach Pete Potter before the 1973 season, and the former standout boxer was obviously getting the program headed in the right direction with a belief in hard work and a personality that appealed to the players.
Coach Etter, known as likable as well but also a smart and cerebral coach who knew how to strategize and break down film before a game, was also showing signs of keeping Baylor on its winning ways, just as he had done for more than two decades at Central High.
Mr. Nelson recalled that the two respected coaches had also enjoyed a memorable previous meeting in 1969, when Brainerd and Central met as two of the top teams in the state. That was a game played on a Saturday afternoon at East Ridge High due to some racial tension at Brainerd High over the school’s Confederate symbols. Brainerd High and coach Potter had come out victorious in that game.
When the two teams met at Chamberlain Field on Saturday night, Oct. 5, 1974, both were undefeated. But McCallie was considered the solid favorite due to Baylor having lost so many top players from the year before, and McCallie was a senior-laden group.
But it would be a memorable night for Baylor in a big surprise by a score of 31-14 in front of 9,500 blue and red fans basically filling up both the Oak and Vine Street grandstands.
However, the game initially looked like it would play to form, as McCallie went out to a 14-7 halftime lead. The advantage for the Big Blue had come after a 33-yard TD by Mr. Nelson, who was the top rusher in the area going into the game, and after Mark Hooper fell on a botched punt snap in the endzone involving Mr. Ferguson, the punter.
The second half, though, would involve a comeback long remembered by Baylor supporters. With cheerleader Mark Chesnutt, I believe, giving a pep talk to the students in the stands at halftime to get them loudly behind the team, Baylor came out and was able to dominate. With 24 points to McCallie’s none – including two touchdowns in the fourth quarter and a field goal by Garry Henry – the Red Raiders continued their domination over McCallie.
A key factor was junior fullback Jeff Aiken, who rushed for 167 yards in the game, including 131 yards in the second half. Chattanooga News-Free Press sports writer Terry Hardwick referred to the stocky player as a “wild bull” in the next day’s paper.
Halfback Frank Latimer and quarterback Robert Hays had also gained some valuable yardage.
Baylor had switched to the triple option-oriented wishbone offense in 1974, and Mr. Ferguson remembers that he was more the passer, while junior Robert Hays was faster and more the runner. But as a wrinkle, the coaches had in the pregame planning put in a run play or two for him and a pass for Mr. Hays.
“Etter flipflopped and I ran a little more and Hays threw a pass to (receiver) Jimmy Hudson,” said Mr. Ferguson, who has worked in insurance in Chattanooga. “Our coaching staff was great. They came up with some interesting plays.”
Mr. Nelson admits that Baylor in its first year running the wishbone had fooled McCallie’s normally capable defense. And the breakdowns did not sit well with the competitive coach Potter, the father of the longtime successful Blue Tornado coach Ralph Potter.
“Coach Potter was furious, easily the most frustrated his players had ever seen,” recalled Mr. Nelson, now an attorney with Miller and Martin. “The next week's practices were killers.”
On a lighter note, Mr. Ferguson remembers that while Baylor and McCallie players normally did not trash talk each other in those days, he remembers some good-natured kidding by McCallie defensive end Ed Smith, with whom he had grown up and played against for years.
“Ed Smith was jumping up and down and saying, ‘Ferguson I’m going to kill you,” he remembered with a laugh.
Mr. Smith was certainly a talented player who loved to hit people and would go on to star at Vanderbilt and earn the nickname “Sheriff,” and Mr. Ferguson recalls that he did get hit hard by him one time while dropping back with the ball. He said that Baylor lineman friend David Rutherford later called that play a lookout block as the years passed, because he had to yell to Mr. Ferguson to “lookout” after Mr. Smith had passed him heading for Mr. Ferguson.
He also remembered punting to him one time and thinking Mr. Smith was going to return it to his side of the field and he was going to have to try and tackle him before seeing the Big Blue star head in the other direction.
Baylor also had some good defensive players as well that day and who helped in the win, including John Lyman, Sam “Bam Bam” Stewart and safety and future Vanderbilt signee Van Bunch. Tim Lagod also recovered a fumble on a pass to Mike Shofner from capable McCallie quarterback Tom Clarke.
After that game, Baylor felt it could breathe a sigh of relief for another year. But soon afterward, people started realizing there might be a chance the two teams could meet again in the first round of the Class AAA playoffs as the top two teams in the region. And that did occur.
McCallie did not lose again as the weeks passed, while Baylor found some challenges. That included a three-point win over a good Clarksville Northwest team on the road and a memorable five-overtime survival over Red Bank High at the old Rankin Field off Dayton Boulevard. The stadium was located where a vacant lot is now, and where talk has surfaced of turning at least some of the land into a community central park.
Although the Red Raiders did survive after Garry Henry kicked a winning field goal over a Red Bank Lion team coached by the up-and-coming Tom Weathers, Baylor appeared to be running slightly out of gas. Perhaps still trying to recover emotionally from the win, they then lost to traditional North Georgia power Dalton at home.
That did not count in the playoff standings, though, and that set up the rematch with McCallie. Mr. Ferguson, who was unable to play in the second McCallie game due to a bothersome knee injury that was aggravated during the Red Bank game, remembers Baylor not being overly hyped about the second McCallie game, although they certainly wanted to win.
McCallie, on the other hand, was obviously emotionally motivated about getting a chance to redeem itself, an opportunity that does not always come in team sports. Not only that, but they tried to refocus their mental strategy in a more positive way as well.
As Mr. Nelson recalled, “In the practices that week, Coach Potter told his two all-world defensive ends, Waymon Tipton and Ed Smith, to put Baylor's Hays and Aiken on their backs every single play, whether they had the ball or not. On Baylor's first play from scrimmage, Tipton flattened Hays on a quarterback option. On the next play, on the other side of the field, Smith flattened Aiken for a loss. Essentially, that strategy played out all night.”
On that night -- Nov. 22, 1974 – with the game also at Chamberlain Field, but this time a Friday night instead of Saturday – McCallie went out to a 9-0 halftime lead and then blew the game wide open for a 29-7 win. And a lot of it was due to the defense.
As News-Free Press sports writer Larry Green wrote in the next day’s paper, “The blue-clad defense, behind the ferocious play of Ed Smith, thwarted every Red Raider attempt.”
Mr. Ferguson had a similar perspective of the second game, this time watching from the sidelines while injured. “They hammered us,” he said. “I felt like we were kind of flat and McCallie was ready after that first game and just outplayed us really on both sides of the ball. They were up for the game.”
Mr. Smith led the way for McCallie in the second game with 12 tackles, while also playing well defensively were fellow Vanderbilt signee Waymon Tipton, Bill Cremer, Tommy West, and Jeff Straussberger, among others.
McCallie also played well on offense. And it had a new weapon to go along with quarterback Mr. Clarke, running back Mr. Nelson and others: blossoming sophomore back Dan Robinson. He would gain 117 yards to go along with Mr. Nelson’s 84 and some key passing yardage by Mr. Clarke.
“Another factor in this game was the emergence of sophomore Dan Robinson to share the tailback spot with me, and I played fullback when Robinson came in,” recalled Mr Nelson. “McCallie had a perfect balance of running and passing, with quarterback Tom Clarke firing at will to tight end Tom Mullady and Ed Smith.”
Baylor’s lone score came from a second-half pass from Mr. Hays to Jimmy Hudson after the ball went through the hands of an interception-minded Jeff Straussberger.
While Mr. Mullady’s name could not be found much in the News-Free Press articles of the two games, he would go on to have quite a post-McCallie football career, as he played tight end at what is now Rhodes College in Memphis before becoming a regular for the New York Giants of the NFL. Mr. Nelson also remembers him having a reception for a long gain in the second Baylor game.
Other future standouts in the games included future Alabama lineman David Hannah of Baylor and future NFL lineman Blake Moore, also of Baylor. Mr. Moore was a junior that year still growing some. Ed Smith also went on to play some for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Colts and in the USFL.
Mr. Nelson said that Mr. Smith and Mr. Tipton both had offers from legendary Crimson Tide coach “Bear” Bryant to play at Alabama, but they wanted to honor their commitment to Vandy coach Steve Sloan. However, coach Sloan ended up leaving after the 1974 year. Mr. Tipton also ended up injuring his knee.
With the Baylor win, McCallie felt much better about its season, while Baylor had to disappointingly head to the off season. McCallie also got to celebrate the victory the following Monday in a school assembly, Mr. Nelson recalled.
Assistant coach Richard Bohner said he would shave his head if McCallie won, and, sure enough, he kept his promise, with Mr. Smith and Mr. Tipton doing the honors on his head after flattening in a similar manner some of the Baylor backs the week before. As Mr. Nelson quipped, the moment was “much to the delight of all but Bohner.”
Besides just advancing to the second round, the following Friday McCallie also received the opportunity to play at Neyland Stadium against Knoxville Fulton. It came while they were trying to remain motivated but also experiencing a positive distraction of still enjoying finally getting to beat their rival for the first time since 1936, since the teams did not play from 1941-70.
Mr. Nelson said he was also the placekicker, with Mr. Clarke handing the extra points and field goals, and an opening kickoff resulted in a McCallie offsides penalty. The do-over resulted in a Fulton kickoff return for a touchdown that quickly set the tone for what would be a 21-7 Fulton win in the state semifinals.
Fulton would lose the next week in the state championship game in a wild 29-28 loss to Nashville Father Ryan, which was quarterbacked by future Vanderbilt quarterback Mike Wright.
But both Baylor and McCallie had moments to cheer about during the 1974 season, too. Baylor had been able to upset its rival in the first game, while McCallie was able to enjoy some revenge and redemption in the second game.
While those games were a half century ago, Mr. Ferguson believes they do teach some lessons this week, particularly regarding his alma mater of Baylor.
“That is a little caution for the Baylor team this year,” he said. “It’s hard to beat a team two times in one season.”
But Baylor will try to do just that this Thursday, just as McCallie hopes to enjoy a little 1974-like redemption as well.
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net