Five Points for the Scorekeeper

We had the best managers and scorers around on the Lady Vikings basketball squad. They were always ready with Gatorade when you needed it, a towel to dry your sweat or your tears, and an eagle eye when keeping the books. That eagle eye helped us get 5 extra points in a state first round game.

We were playing Temple in 1970’s state tourney. The game was in Fairburn, a long way from Taylor County. We arrived at the game and noticed that Temple had nice looking new uniforms. We hoped it wouldn’t bring them good luck.

At a state tournament game, the official scorer was from some neutral place. During the first quarter, our scorekeeper, Beth Jones, called Coach Carter over to the scorer’s table. She told him that the numbers and players names she received before the game didn’t match for the Temple team. Coach Carter told her to tell the officials, which she did. The officials didn’t want to do anything about it, so Coach Carter mentioned it to them again at the half because the rule book called for a technical for every wrong number. The officials didn’t feel it was Temple’s fault. Then they found out that Beth had gotten the numbers from the Temple scorer, as had the official scorer.

When we returned from the locker room at half time, Coach Carter told us what had happened and called for Judy Riley to go with the officials and shoot the technical fouls.

Picture this: the crowd for both sides sees our player go out to the foul line with the official. Our player Judy shoots free throw after free throw. Points are added to the scoreboard for our side. The score changes from 26-20 to 31-20.

The crowd went crazy. Our fans didn’t know what was going on, but they saw points being added to our score and they liked it. The Temple fans didn’t know either, but they could certainly see it wasn’t to their advantage and they didn’t like it. I think it was the most unusual thing that happened during the years I played.

Judy ended the game with 15 points that night, and the final score was Taylor Co. 51 and Temple 38. She didn’t enjoy very much shooting those technical fouls, but it helped us win the game. One more interesting detail: it was Friday the 13th!

The Last Time You Try

There were more seniors on the 1972 season than there had been any other season during the streak - 6 players, 2 managers, and 1 cheerleader. And, as always happens during any student's graduation year, this group started thinking of the "lasts" that were occurring during basketball season. Our last first home game, our last Tri-county Tournament, our last regular season game, and sadly, we also had our last game of the winning streak.

That loss came to Perry on January 4, 1972. Perry was out to get us. We had played them in Butler in December and come away with a 56 to 51 win. They were quick and they were good. Their coach was quoted in their paper after the December game as saying, "I am not convinced Taylor County has a better ball team than we do." We set out to show him otherwise. By halftime of the fateful game in Perry, we were ahead fourteen points 29 - 15. The third quarter saw a turnaround with Perry scoring quickly and narrowing our lead to six points. Perry went ahead for the first time at 40 - 39 with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter while shooting 61.5 percent from the floor. Our attempts at turning the momentum our way were squelched as Shirley Durham fouled out early in the fourth quarter. The buzzer sounded and our streak was gone. Little was said in the locker room that night. Coach Carter asked if we wanted to go and congratulate the other team, which we did. The Houston County newspaper reported that "the boys game had to be delayed 30 minutes as near pandemonium broke out on the court and in the hallways leading to the gym."

After we lost to Perry, Coach Carter told us that the pressure was off now from the streak; that we had a good ride with it and set a record that would be hard for anyone to beat; and that we still had our number one goal of the season ahead. Our number one goal was to win the state tournament, the fifth in a row for Lady Vikings. On the way to doing that we lost two more games. One was to Warner Robins, who were AAA in state classification; we were A. Then we lost the finals of the sub-region tournament to Haralson County. Coach Carter told us in the locker room after the sub-region loss that if we had to lose a game in the tournaments, this was the one to lose. It didn't send us home, it meant that we'd play the sub-region champ the first night of region. We could still win region and state. After Coach Carter left, we had a players' meeting in the locker room, and decided losing was not fun and that we were not going to do it again. If we did lose again, of course, that would be the worst "last," our last game of basketball for the year. We wanted to play five more games. We wanted to win the semis and finals of region, and three games in Macon at the State Class A Tournament.

It was not an easy feat to get to Macon. We were in a region of Northwest Georgia schools and region was held at Haralson County High School in Tallapoosa, 133 miles from Butler. We had to play Cartersville the first night, the all-important game determining if we would go to the state tourney. I remember looking at the printed program, and Taylor County was listed on the tourney bracket as the Region 4-A South Loser - imagine! We won that game handily 61 to 44 and spent the night in Bremen at the Holiday Inn. Our region finals opponent was Haralson County, our fourth meeting that year and on their home court. It was a hard fought contest, but we managed to win 44 - 41 and the region 4-A title was ours.

We plastered "On to Macon" on the locker room wall with used tape. What we had worked so hard for was in our sights. We would head to Macon for the March 1 - 4 tournament.

Winning the region gave us a bye in the first round, and we handled the second and third rounds, and then met once again our familiar opponent, Haralson County, with the championship on the line. It was a hard fought contest, a defensive contest. It took a while for the forwards to find their mark and Sandra Arnold had to leave the game when she was hit in the mouth. She came back in the third quarter and we pulled ahead to win the game 51 - 45.

Accompanied by a slew of fans with hands outstretched and yelling "Five in a Row!", we accepted our fifth state championship trophy for Taylor County High School Lady Vikings. We seniors had succeeded in making our "last" game as we wanted it to be. After our loss in January, Mrs. Mickey Foreman, our Senior English teacher, gave us a quote from American inventor Charles Kettering, which fit the rest of our season. It read, "The only time you mustn't fail is the last time you try."

Five Times That Season

You can't talk about the 1967-68 season without talking about the five matchups with Harris County. At one point in the season, the two teams played each other twice in seven days. Harris County did not lose to any team except Taylor County that year. If they hadn't played Taylor County, they would have had a perfect 23-0 record. The finals of sub-region saw Harris County play Taylor County. Same with the finals of region. Same with the finals of state. Each time Taylor County was victorious.

The state tournament was held in the Macon Municipal Auditorium. It was the last year the state tournament was played in that building. All the players say it was a wonderful place to play. The fans were right there close on the sidelines with the team. The balconies were full too. By the end of the night there was a haze of smoke swirling in the ceiling.

When you get to the finals of the state tournament, all the other games go out the window. This is the all-important game. This is the game that gives your school bragging rights until the next year's state tournament. This is the game you remember all your life. And the Macon Telegraph writer described Harris County as starting the game without fear of falling again to Taylor County.

It was a defensive first half. The guards, led by senior Grace Bussey and juniors Dianne Wall and Linda Joiner, played a wonderful defense and held the Hornettes scoreless for seven minutes at one point. The score at halftime was a very low 17-10 with Taylor in the lead.

During the third and fourth quarters, the forwards, who were senior Sue Lawhorn, junior Sissy Riley, and sophomore Judy Riley, reeled off several strings of unanswered points. The lead expanded to 18 points twice, with the final margin 41 - 24. The Lady Vikings left the Macon Auditorium that night with the State Class B State Championship trophy.

This game ended the first perfect season and first state championship during the winning streak years for the Lady Vikings. There would be three more perfect seasons and four more state championships to come.

And several girls, namely eighth graders Bunny Fuller, Sandra Arnold, and Jean Jones, were sitting up in the Macon Auditorium stands at that Harris County game, thinking, "I want to be a part of that."

We Left Our Fans Weak

The Taylor County News described the first game of the 1971 state tournament as one that "left our hometown fans weak." In my scrapbook, I noted that the Lady Vikings "played crummy." That first week of March 1971 the flu reared its ugly head in Taylor County. Patsy Ranow had to miss the game because she was at home sick with the flu and 102 fever.

Vidalia was our opponent. This team, with a record coming in of 12 wins and 14 losses, stayed right with us for 22 minutes. At half time it was tied 21 - 21. At the end of the third quarter Vidalia was ahead 32 to 31. With 6:20 left to play in the game, they were winning 34 - 33. Enough was enough - the forwards erupted for 23 points and we ended up winning 57 - 40.

Coach Carter was not pleased with our play, to say the least. When we returned to Butler, we went straight to the gym for a late practice. Practice started at 9:30 p.m. and finished at 10:30. It was a late night, but it must have done the trick. We won the next three games and our fourth straight state championship.

And Patsy - she came back with a vengeance from the flu. Her tenacious defense in the quarters, semis, and finals earned her the "Most Valuable Guard" selection in the State Class A Tournament.

A Special Place for Lady Vikings

In 1969 the State Basketball Tournament moved from the Macon City Auditorium to the new Macon Coliseum. The Macon Coliseum was, and still is, a cavernous place. I remember the first time I saw the inside of that building. Coach Carter took the team over to get a feel for the place - it seems like we went to see a Hawks exhibition game. The wall that divides the lobby from the open Coliseum was not there as it is now. You walked in and saw this huge expanse of seats and basketball floor that stretched on seemingly forever. It was an awesome view, and was the biggest place this 15 year old country girl had ever seen! I well remember the nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach when I thought of playing basketball before a crowd in that huge place.

Little did I know what a special place the Macon Coliseum would become to my teammates and me over the next four years.

Our first game in the Macon Coliseum was the state game on March 20th, 1969. It was the second round of the state tournament; the first rounds were held at different locations around the state. Our first round game was held at Talbot County and we had beaten Toombs Central to advance to Macon. We had played the first round on March 15, so we had nearly a week to get ready for the second round, and the media had that week to tout the upcoming game as a "Dream Match." Our opponent was Doerun, the defending state Class C champions. The Lady Vikings were the defending state Class B champions. The game was billed as the contest that should probably be the final of the three day tournament in Macon instead of the first.

The basketball court at the Macon Coliseum was a removable one and I remember the joke among the players was that if we could all just get on the court without tripping over the raised edge as we ran in from the locker rooms, everything would be all right. The ball dribbling on the court had a strange sound, the voices of our guards hollering "Screen," "Get Through," drowned out in the air, and it was very hard to get your depth perception as you shot at the clear backboards against that expanse of space between goalpost and bleachers. But I'd say the Lady Vikings overcame those obstacles fairly well.

The "Dream Match" against Doerun quickly became a nightmare - for them. Our guards held their forwards to only 3 points in the whole first quarter, while our forwards scored 19 points. Senior Sissy Riley scored 35 points that night, and the guards, as usual, were awesome. Although Doerun kept trying to catch up, that early lead was too big and we ended up winning that first game in the Macon Coliseum 63 - 39.

The Macon Coliseum is close to forty years old and it's still a good place for basketball games. The court still has that hollow sound as players dribble down court and the shooters still probably have trouble with depth perception as they try to score. It's a special place with special memories for Lady Vikings.

An Amazing Time

Forty years ago, in the small town of Butler Georgia at Taylor County High School, a group of girls coached by an amazing man started winning basketball games and did not lose for 132 straight games. The rules changed, great players graduated, the schools integrated, the school's state size classification changed, the coach became superintendent of schools - none of these factors affected the determination of each year's team to win every regular season game and every tournament.

I feel fortunate to have been a part of those teams. We had so much fun playing basketball every Tuesday and Friday night from November until February each year. And then the tournaments - they were the best. What great memories!

I remember the games of the 1970 state tournament. The tourney was held at the Macon Coliseum, and Stratford Academy of Macon was the Cinderella team that year. They won each of their state tournament games, and received so much publicity from the Macon media. Much was made of the fact that we would possibly meet up in the state finals and they'd have a chance to stop the streak. In the finals, we had a great game and beat Stratford 68-50. Coach Carter afterwards said, "Stratford was the Cinderella team, but my girls were a group of hard-working pumpkins." I always laugh when I think of us as hard-working pumpkins!

It was an amazing time and I'm glad I was a part of it.