By By Adam Robinson
sports editor
After months of planning, the 1969 T.R. Miller Tiger football team will be honored Friday night for their 40th anniversary of winning the school’s first state championship in football.
Riggs said the players will check in around 5 p.m. and take part in the quarterback club’s tailgate party this Friday night before the Calhoun game.
Riggs said during the game Friday night, his starting offense is going to wear the same numbers that the 1969 starting offensive team wore.
One other thing that Riggs said he was going to do will be the Tigers will run their first play from 1969 head coach Mack Wood’s playbook.
Riggs said he his looking for about 40 people to come back and that includes players, cheerleaders, coaches, and administration.
Also on Saturday, the team will have a luncheon in the lunchroom and will be fed Oaks hamburgers.
On the video will be old game footage along with player interviews and some other things to tell the story of the 1969 team.
Finalizing the reunion will be the presentation of champsionship rings to the team members since rings were not available back in 1969.
The 1969 team had an 11-0 record, scored 484 points and gave up only 28 points with eight shutouts in 11 games.
The team defeated Abbeville 41-14 in the first round of the playoffs (semifinals) and the 1969 team capped off their undefeated state championship season with a 27-0 spanking of Aliceville in Brewton in the state championship game.
During the 1969 season, only the top four teams made the playoffs after a points totaling and you had a semifinals and a finals Riggs said. The next year they went to three and then four and then there were just two rounds.
The 1969 team was not scored on until the sixth game of the season against Monroeville. “They were ahead like 28-0 in the fourth quarter and threw an interception and they ran it back for a touchdown and that was the first time they had been scored on,” Riggs said. “The defense gave up six points to Evergreen and 14 points to Abbeville. If I am not mistaken, they were way ahead of Abbeville and they scored late in the second half.”
Greer Horton and Bucky Phillippi were team captains of the 1969 team. Mack Wood was the head coach that year and Frank Cotton, Larry Mickwee and Hinton Johns were assistant coaches.