Winnfield schools weren’t segregated schools until the late 1960s. Prior to that time, white students attended Winnfield High School and black students attended Pinecrest High School. Desegregation of the late 1960s meant the closing of Pinecrest High School and a mixing of black and white students at Winnfield Senior High School. The first Winnfield Senior High School roster that showed this mixture was the 1969 roster, when five of the team members were black. Of that group, two were seniors, including Lonnel Sherman and John Gibson. After that season, black athletes have not only filled starting roles but have enabled Winnfield football to be as successful as it has been in the last three decades of the twentieth century. The first black athlete to be selected to an All-District team while playing for Winnfield Senior High School came in 1970 when Julius Craft (DT) and Lionnel Johnson (LB) were selected to the 3-AAA defensive unit. The following year, Johnson (LB) and John Wayne Williams (RB), became the first black football players selected to the All-State team while playing for Winnfield Senior High School. Since then, the list of black athletes that have played football for Winnfield Senior High School reads like a Who’s Who of Winnfield high school football. Where would W.S.H.S. be without the likes of Nathan Johnson, Jeffery Dale, Ricky Chatman, Garlon Powell, Anthony Thomas and Freddie King, plus hundreds of other black athletes that have competed since 1969? There was a time when no one could have conceived that a black student would ever wear the red and white. Given the success that Tiger football experienced since integration, it is now unimaginable how the Tiger program would have evolved without the black athlete.            

     During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s it was rare for a Winnfield team to win two games in a row (it only happened 41 times out of 311 games played). By the end of the 1960s, the bar had been raised to the point to where stringing together winning seasons was the only acceptable outcome and by the 1970s, consecutive playoff appearances and district titles became the standard.      

Key Rules Changes of the Decade: 

1960 -   Face protectors required.

1962 -   Tooth and mouth protector required. Blocker prohibited from swinging his arms in blocking.

1963 -   Legalized the use of a 2-inch kicking tee.

1966 -   Clock stopped following first down or change of team possession.

1967 -   Two team attendants (not coaches) permitted on field during charged time-outs.

1968 -   Flags or pylons required.

1969 -   Punt may be used as free kick after safety. Coach-referee conference to discuss misapplication or misinterpretation of a rule. It is “illegal substitution” when substitute or player not off field. Point after touchdown from 3-yard line with awarded two points for “touchdown” and one point for “field goal” or “safety.” 

Key Players/Coaches of the 1960s 

Wayne McFarland (1957-1961, T)    Four-year starter at tackle and the first multi-year first team All District selection.  McFarland earned All District honors in 1959, 1960 and 1961 and  was an honorable mention All State selection in 1959.  He was a two-way player in both the offensive and defensive lines. McFarland was the third-leading vote-getter at tackle the Expert Panel voting on the 2000 All Century Poll for the Modern Squad; though he received the most first place votes from among that group.  He was the leading vote-getter at tackle by fans voting in that poll and in fact the only player at any position who received either more first place votes or overall votes by the fans was running back Anthony Thomas. 

Don Jones (1957-1961, G)    Jones is the second member of the 1959 to 1961 line listed in this Who’s Who list.  He too was well decorated, earning first team All State honors in 1961 (the only player that season to be named to a first team slot and the only lineman from this group to earn first team honors).  Jones was a first team All District selection in 1960 and 1961.  Like his teammate McFarland, he was the third-leading vote getter at guard by the Expert Panel voting on the 2000 All Century Poll for the Modern Squad and was the leading vote getter at guard by fans voting in that.  Jones was a two player in both the offensive and defensive lines. He is the son of J. D. Jones (1933-1935), who is listed in this list and in fact they comprise the only father-son combination in this list.   

Carroll Long (1958-1961, C, LB & PK)    Long is the third and final member of the 1959 to 1961 offensive line cited in this list. He was a first team All District selection at center in 1961. Long was the place kicker for the 1960 and 1961 squads, where he converted 46 of 66 extra point tries.  Established a new single season record for PAT kicks by converting 29 ties in 1961.  Ended his career with the most PAT kicks.  Long also kicked the first field goal in the history of the program.  That came during the 1961 season and was a 32 yarder against Jena. The fans voting on the 2000 All Century Poll made him their top choice at center, while the Expert Panel tabbed him their second choice. Long was a linebacker on the defensive side of the ball. 

Mike Tinnerello (1959-1961, QB, Punter, DB)  Versatile player who started at quarterback three years, played at a fullback position some during his senior season, played a defensive back position on that side of the ball and was the team punter for three seasons. Tinnerello was the first Tiger QB to throw for double-digit touchdown passes in a single season; that coming in 1959 when he tossed 13 touchdown passes. That shattered the previous single-season record of five. He is the first Tiger QB to throw for double-digit touchdown passes in a single season; that coming in 1959 when he tossed 13 touchdown passes.  Prior to that, the single-season record was 5 touchdown passes. He was the first Tiger QB to throw for 150 yards in a game, that coming in 1961 when he threw for an even 150 against Mansfield. He threw at least one touchdown pass in every one of the eleven regular season games and is the only Tiger quarterback to have ever done that.  His string of touchdown passes was snapped in the playoff game of 1959, but his streak of 11 straight games with at least one touchdown pass is the longest in the program. Tinnerello rushed for 16 touchdowns, with his two longest being 75-yarder against Jena in 1961 and a 60 yarder against Ville Platte that same year.  Tinnerello is one of only six Tiger quarterbacks who have touchdown runs of 50 or more yards and he joins Greg Powell (2) and Thomas King (6) as the only Tiger quarterbacks with multiple touchdown runs covering fifty or more yards. In 1961 Tinnerello also returned two interceptions for touchdowns, with those covering 45 and 37 yards. He was the second-leading vote getter at quarterback by fans voting in that poll.  He was a first-team All District selection at quarterback his sophomore and junior seasons and a second team selection his senior season.  He was an honorable mention All State at quarterback in 1959. 

Tommy Bankston (1966-1969, Head Coach)   Took over program as head coach in 1966 and had immediate success. After two straight losing seasons prior to his coming, his first team  posted a 9-4-0 record and secured a playoff spot as the district runner.  The seven win improvement between 1965 and 1966 is the biggest turnaround from one season the next in the history of the program. His second and third teams were back in the title hunt, with his 1968 team knocking off district foe and No. 1 ranked Winnsboro to secure the district title.  Coach Bankston’s 1968 team became the first Winnfield Tiger football team to win a playoff game When they defeated Northwood of Shreveport 7-0 in Stokes Walker Stadium.  Coach Bankston preached pride, work, conditioning and fundamentals. His overall won/loss record at Winnfield was 29-14-3 (.656) and his district record was 13 6-1 (.675).  In 1970 he became principal at Winnfield Senior High School and from there moved to Superintendent of Schools in WinnParish.  All four of his team’s produced winning records.  The only Tiger coaches who stayed inthe program more than three years and did not have a losing season are Joe Dosher (1970-1974),Doug Moreau (1979-1984) and Bankston.   

Jerry Hightower (1965-1966, RB & DB)    Two-year starter at running back and defensive back. Beginning in 1962 players were selected to Offensive and Defensive All Districtsquads.  In 1966, Hightower, along with teammate Mike Spangler, became the first playersnamed to a first team spot on both sides of the ball. Hightower was named as both an offensiveand defensive back. He was the leading scorer on the 1966 team, tallying 54 points.  Those cameby way of nine touchdowns, with four of those being by rush and five coming from receptions.He was the rushing and reception leader of the 1966 team, rushing for 483 yards on 83 carries(5.8 ypc) and adding 398 reception yards to his total yardage figure.  

Mike Spangler (1965-1966, E & DE)     Spangler was one of only four players to be namedto a first team All State spot during the 1960s. That came during his junior season when heearned that honor at defensive end. He also earned first team All District honors at both offensiveand defensive end in 1966, joining teammate Jerry Hightower as the first players to earn firstteam honors on both offense and defense. Spangler blocked four punts in his career, with themost critical being a block of a punt against long-time rival Tallulah in 1966. Winnfield cameinto the Tallulah came never having defeated the Trojans in six tries. Then again, not manypeople had beaten Tallulah in the 1950s or 1960s.  In the comeback season of 1966, Tallulah loomed large on the    Tiger schedule as they were picked to win the District title.  Winnfieldserved notice that the program was back with an early season 6-0 win over Tallulah.  The lonetouchdown came when Spangler not only blocked a Trojan punt, but he also sprung up from theground, grabbed the football off the turf and ran five yards into the end zone for the score.During the rest of the 1966 season he scored by way of a 55 yard interception return and twopass reception.  During his senior season Spangler blocked a punt in a playoff game against Jesuit, Sp. which led to a Tiger touchdown and he caught one touchdown pass. Spangler received the most first place votes from fans voting in that poll.   

Charles Poisso (1966-1967, C & LB)    Fierce competitor on both sides of the ball, Poisso is considered one of the best players in the history of the program at two positions, those being center and linebacker. The Expert Panel named Poisso the starting center on the 2000 All Century Poll for the Modern Squad as he garnered five first place votes from the eight panelists.  The fans made him their second choice at center in that poll.  He received the third most votes at linebacker by the Expert Panel and fans voting in the All-Century poll, falling behind legends Lionel Johnson and Ricky Chatman (arguably two of the best football players in the history of the program) at that spot. Poisso is credited with 174 tackles in 1967, which includes both solo and assisted tackles.  Poisso scored two touchdowns in 1967 from his linebacker position, the first coming on a 27-yard interception return against Jena and the second coming in the playoff game against Jesuit, Sp. When he returned a blocked punt 36 yards for a score.  He was an honorable mention All District choice at center his junior year, but he was named to the first team at both center and linebacker his senior season.          

Steve Stroud (1965-1967, PK, OT & DT)     Two year starter at both the offensive and defensive lines at tackle, but is better known for his place kicking proficiency. In his career he converted on 37 of 50 attempts, but his most prolific season was his senior season when he made 21 of 23 extra points attempts. One of those attempts was blocked and the only other miss came in the final game of the season against Jesuit, Sp. That .913 kicking percentage is the second highest single-season percentage in the history of the program. In 1967 game against Jena Stroud converted 7 of 7 extra point tries. That broke the school record of 5 PAT kicks set by John Harrington in 1955. He also made three field goals in 1967, which were the second through fourth field goals ever made in the program. He is the first player to boot more than one field goal in a season and that feat wasn’t duplicated until 1978 when Tommy Latham kicked four field goals.  Stroud’s three field goal performance is tied for second most field goals in a single season. Stroud was the first choice by one of the members of the Expert Panel voting on the kicker position for the 2000 All Century Poll and received the fifth-most votes from fans.  

Gary Green (1965-1967, Quarterback)    Green was the first Tiger quarterback to throw for more than 1,000 yards in a single season, that coming in 1966 when he threw for 1,063 yards.  Green ended his career with 1,671 passing yards, which at the time was a new career high. He ended his career with 126 completions, becoming the first Tiger quarterback to cross the 100-completion mark. In his senior season he attempted 156 passes and complete 78 of those for an even 50% completion rate. All of those numbers were all-time highs at the time. His single-season completion total has only been topped six times and his completion percentage has only been topped three times. Green was voted first team All District at quarterback his senior season.  

Randy Poisso (1966-1968; DB, RB & KR; Assistant Coach, 1976-1984 & 1991-1995) He is the first 1,000-yard rusher in the history of the program.  That came in 1968 when he gained 1,088 yards on 188 carries in that 12-game season. That is a 5.78 yard per carry average and a 90.6 yard per game average.  For that effort Poisso was voted to the Class AA All State team and was named Class AA Back of the Year. He was also a first team All District selection that year.  Poisso was a two-year starter at running back and a three-year starter at defensive back.  He also returned kickoffs.  Poisso had seven career rushing touchdowns but his most decisive touchdown came when he opened the second half of the 1968 Winnsboro game.  Winnfield was engaged in a battle for the district crown in that game and were facing The undefeated, No. 1 ranked team in Class AA at the time. Poisso’s touchdown gave Winnfield atwo-score margin (14-0) at the time  and essentially enabled the team to play the second half knowing one play would not tie the score. Though Winnsboro did answer that Tiger touchdown late in the third quarter, the Tigers scored again in the fourth to take a 21-7 win.  Poisso’s best single-game rushing night came against another tough district foe, that being Tallulah in 1968. That night Poisso rushed for 145 yards on 17 carries 

Terry Skains (1968-1969, RB, DB)     Durable fullback and defensive back for two seasons. He is the first Tiger back to gain 200 or more yards in a game, that coming in the 1969 Caldwell contest when Skains gained 201 yards on 17 carries. Skains scored one rushing touchdown as a junior and nine as a senior to end his career with 10 rushing touchdowns. At the time that ranked Skains in the top ten for career rushing touchdowns.  He was the scoring leader for the 1969 Team with 54 points. His longest scoring run was a 54-yarder against Winnsboro in 1969.     

Robbie Richards (1967-1969, QB, RB, DB, Punter)     Richards was the first special team player to earn All State honors as a Tiger.  That came in 1969 when he was voted to the Class AA All State team as a punter. He also earned All District honors as a punter that year. Though Richards had to contend with injuries his senior season.  He was a three-year letterman, playing in both the offensive and defensive backfield. Richards was the leading vote-getter at punter in the All Century poll by both the Expert Panel and the fans at large. On the offensive side of the ball he was used primarily as a quarterback early in his career, though he was moved to a running back his senior season. Richards had a 65 yard fumble return for a touchdown as a sophomore, and he scored three touchdowns as a junior, with the longest being a 60 yard run from scrimmage against Natchitoches Central.  During his senior season Richards rushed for three touchdowns, including a 55-yarder against Winnsboro, and he caught two touchdown passes.  His best night as a quarterback came in the 1969 game against eventual Class AA runner-up Tallulah when Richards completed 11 of 21 passes for 193 yards and one touchdown. That was the third highest single game total at the time.  Two weeks later he switched to the receiving end of the ball and gained 174 yards on four catches to establish a new single-game receiving record. Two of those receptions went for touchdowns covering 78 and 60 yards in length. He is the first, and one of only two players to catch touchdown passing that covered 50 or more yards in the same game.  The other player to accomplish that was Freddie King in 2000 against Jena. In fact, Richards is only of only five players to have two touchdown passes of 50 yards or more in the same season.   

1960, ((Overall - 8-3-1; *District - 4-0-0)  The 1960 football season was met with as much optimism and anticipation as any season in Winnfield football history. Winning has a way of giving a program that kind of momentum. After the 1957 team won the school’s first district title and made the school’s first appearance in the playoffs, it only took two more years for the school to get their second district title when the 1959 team went undefeated in district play. But, winning alone wasn’t the main cause for anticipation in the Tiger camp. What made Coach Newman so eager for the 1960 season was that he returned virtually the same team that had captured the district title the year before.  That prompted him to declare in an Enterprise interview, “we should be stronger than last year.”     

     The previous season, the team only had six seniors on the squad, with only two of those holding down starting roles. There weren’t many players lost to graduation, but the losses that did occur were felt as “quality losses” rather than “quantity losses.” The biggest loss would be Tommy Wyatt, Mike Tinnerello’s “go-to” guy the season before. It is always hard to replace an All-State player and a player the caliber of Wyatt, but such is life in high school athletics. The other starter lost was Jerry Burch, who played opposite Wyatt at the left end position. Other than those two, the starting lineup from the season before returned intact and a total of 23 lettermen returned from the season before. That was the most number of returning lettermen any Tiger team had enjoyed up to that point in Tiger football history.      Mike Tinnerello returned at the QB position for his junior season. He, of course, was a double threat there, what with his strong throwing arm and his running ability. Though the team lost both of their starting ends, a solid group of players returned that had some playing time at the end position. Those included seniors Jimmy Berry, Willie Carter and Charles Austin; and juniors David Adams and Billy Barton. The uncertainty at the end position was no great cause for alarm, because all of those were capable players. Plus, Coach Newman was a “three-yards and a cloud of dust” type of coach anyway.     

     What really eased Coach Newman’s mind was the talent he had returning in his backfield. He was two-deep at every position with a stable full of seasoned and talented backs. Only departing senior Johnny Wroten was missing from the previous season’s backfield. The returning players included fullbacks Benny Canerday and Gerald Bryant, both seniors; and enough halfbacks to fill two starting lineups. Those players included juniors Rusty Melton, James Lloyd Collins and Mack Martin; along with sophomore Jimmy Bolton. All of those players had at least two years of playing experience.    

     As strong as the Tigers were at the skill positions, the team may have been even stronger in the line. The 1960 team had arguably the most talented group of linemen to ever play together on one Winnfield team up to that point in history and all were returning lettermen. Returning at the center position was senior Bobby Brazzell, one of only two seniors in the starting line. Carroll Long had also played center the previous season and would be a starter on most other teams. Like the season before he would be used as a defensive specialist. At the guard positions, the Tigers had the strongest and best tandem of guards the school at ever had in juniors Don Jones and Cecil Taylor. Jones was destined for All-State honors later in the season. At the tackle position Coach Newman could pick between senior Perry Joe Smith and juniors Wayne McFarland and Butch Lowery. Of that group, McFarland was one of the best tackles that had ever worn the crimson and red. Newman’s starting five across the interior line was the largest group of linemen in school history in terms of physical size. Brazzell was the smallest of the group, weighing in at 170 lbs. Cecil Taylor, at left guard, was the next smallest, tipping the scales at just over 180 lbs. Then the size increased. On the right side, Jones and McFarland weighed in at 198 and 190 respectively. The biggest of the linemen was Perry Joe Smith, who held down the left tackle at a stout 240 pounds.     

     The starting offensive eleven was a mixture of six seniors and five juniors. But, the team was still young, with only nine seniors on the roster and as many as seven of the nine reserves being underclassmen. Coach Newman had told the fans during the 1958 season that he had a good group of freshmen and sophomore players who would be good football players in two to three years. His prophecy would be fulfilled in 1960 and 1961.    

     Winnfield’s schedule in 1960 would be the same schedule the team had played the year before. District 1A had been reduced by one team when Farmerville moved to play in District 2-A. So, the newly aligned District 1A included Mansfield, Coushatta, LaSalle and Many. As was true in the previous two seasons, Winnfield would wrap-up district play by the middle of the season.      

     When summer practice started in 1960, Coach Newman believed in starting the sessions early. Two-a-days began at 6:30 in the morning and lasted until 8:00 a.m. Then the Tigers returned for the evening sessions at 4:30 p.m. and practiced until 6:30 p.m. The always-tough Hoss Newman expected his players to come ready for summer practice. He warned in an interview with The Enterprise just prior to the start of summer practice that his boys had better be ready. Newman stated, “these won’t be any gettin’-in-shape time. Once we get started we’re going at it full steam.”    

     In the opening game against Bastrop, Winnfield faced one of five opponents from a higher class that they would play during the regular season. To the delight of Coach Newman, the Tiger defense played outstanding football throughout the contest as they pitched a shutout. The Bastrop defense did nearly as good a job on the Tigers, but Winnfield did manage one touchdown. The touchdown came late in the first quarter and was set up when Rusty Melton returned a punt 29 yards to the Bastrop 33-yard line. On second down, Mike Tinnerello hit James Lloyd Collins with a 25-yard pass to move the Tigers to a first and goal at the Ram 5. From there, Tiger fullback Benny Canerday bowled over the goal line for the only score of the night.     

     The game was a testimony to good defense and a timely execution in the other two phases of the game. For Winnfield, a good punt return and their ability to capitalize the only time they were in scoring position spelled the difference in the game. Considering the lack of a large number of “big-time” wins in recent decades, it was as impressive of a win as the program had experienced in some time.     

     The win gave the Tigers momentum as they headed into their three-game road stretch of District 1-AA encounters. In the preseason poll, Winnfield had been selected as the coaches pick to defend their District title, with LaSalle and Mansfield picked to be the Tigers biggest challengers. As a result, the district race would essentially be decided by week four of the season.    

     Coming into the season, Winnfield had received the most votes in the UPI's coaches Class AA poll, making the 1960 team the first Winnfield team to be ranked No. 1 in the state. After their impressive win over Bastrop, they received 49 of a possible 50 points to stay ahead of Delhi, the second place team.    

     Winnfield faced Mansfield in their district opener. Like Winnfield, Mansfield had opened the season against a AAA opponent, losing to Natchitoches by a score of 27-7. Mansfield had been the second place team in the district the season before and had 12 lettermen back from that team.    

     The Tiger injury report showed one starter on the sidelines for the Mansfield game. Tiger halfback James Lloyd Collins aggravated his chronic back injury against Bastrop, leaving Coach Newman no choice but to sideline Collins until his back healed.    

     The two teams exchanged touchdowns on their respective first possessions of the night.  Winnfield got theirs on a 13-yard run by Mack Martin. That was all of the scoring in the first half until Winnfield put together a 65 yard drive for a score, with Benny Canerday getting into the end zone from 2 yards away with only 45 seconds remaining on the clock in the first half. The PAT was good, giving Winnfield a 13-6 lead and plenty of momentum at the half.    

     Winnfield scored twice more in the second half, first when Mack Martin broke a 55-yard run in the third quarter and later when Tinnerello passed for his first touchdown of the year when he hit Jimmy Berry with a 4-yard scoring strike with just under three minutes to go in the game.     

     After Winnfield moved to a 20-6 lead Mansfield got their only touchdown of the second half, but that wouldn’t be enough as Winnfield’s 27-12 win pushed Winnfield to the lead in the district race, and a 2-0-0 mark for the season.    

     Winnfield gained 279 yards rushing for the night, with Mack Martin gaining 114 of those yards on only 5 carries. Tinnerello’s touchdown pass to Berry was his only completion of the night, but he only threw the ball 3 times.      

      Winnfield increased their stronghold atop the UPI's coaches’ poll after the win over Mansfield. The Tigers received all 5 first place votes for a total of 50 points. Delhi and Tallulah rounded out the top three positions.    

     The Tigers had a breather the following week when they traveled to Coushatta for the second district tilt. The 0-2-0 Choctaws were young, starting six sophomores and three juniors. Though Coach Newman expressed concerns about his team’s “sluggish performance” against Mansfield, he knew he would have the luxury of resting some of his injured players, knowing that LaSalle loomed the week after the Coushatta game.    

     The injury list included fullbacks Gerald Bryant and Benny Canerday, as well as halfback James Lloyd Collins. However, the Tigers were not exactly hurting in the backfield either. Mack Martin and young Jimmy Bolton still offered Winnfield plenty of weapons.    

     Against Coushatta the Tigers built a 19-0 halftime lead on touchdowns of all kinds. The first touchdown came on a quarterback sneak by Mike Tinnerello from one yard away. Then, in the second quarter Mack Martin fielded a Coushatta punt and ran 85 yards for a score to give the Tigers a 13-0 lead. Only Vernon McDonald's 90-yard punt return in 1948 and Eddie Parker's 87-yard return during the 1943 season had covered more ground. Finally, on the last play of the first half Tinnerello hit Willie Carter with a 52-yard scoring strike to give Winnfield a 19-0 lead going into the locker room.    

     Coushatta scored once in the second half but the Tigers scored three more times to get a 38-6 win. Scoring in the second half were Tinnerello on a 2-yard run from the fullback position, Don Nicklas on a 12-yard run from the quarterback position and Jimmy Berry on a 12-yard reception from Nicklas. The win moved the Tigers to 3-0-0 for the season and 2-0-0 in district play.      

     The best start to a season that any Winnfield team had ever had was the state champion 1919 team who won their first seven games of the year. That was the only games that team played that year, but their 7-0-0 mark to open the season made for the best opening in Winnfield Tiger football history up to that point. The 1948 team won their first five games and the 1928 team won their first four games. So, the 1960 Tigers had a chance to join the 1928 team in third place if they won in week four against LaSalle. But, there was much more at stake in the LaSalle game than that.  

      Winnfield moved to a commanding lead in District 1-A with the win. The Tigers district mark stood at 3-0-0, with only Many left on the district slate. Mansfield had defeated Many 30-7 the same night Winnfield beat LaSalle, giving the Wolverines a 1-1-0 district mark. Meanwhile, LaSalle, Many and Coushatta were all 0-1-0 in district play. So, for all practical purposes Winnfield had wrapped-up the district crown, but they still had virtually the whole season to go. They could now concentrate on defeating their rivals; with games against Ruston, Jonesboro, Jena and Natchitoches still looming on the Tiger schedule.    

     Winnfield also maintained its stronghold on the No. 1 spot in the UPI coaches poll, tallying all 50 points. Delhi remained in second with 39 pts. and Tallulah just trailed Delhi, garnering 37 points. Winnfield had not been out of the top spot since the preseason poll was released.            

     It is difficult for a football team to savor a key victory during the middle of any season. For one thing, the next game is usually only seven days away and preparation for that game often begins within two or three days after a big win. So, teams usually don’t have to time to focus on key wins because their attention is usually divided between the most recent opponent and the next opponent. However, it is worthwhile to consider just exactly where the Tiger program was after the fourth game of the 1960 season. The team began the season with four wins. Only three other teams in school history had duplicated that feat, including the 1919, 1928 and 1948 teams. You know you have a successful program when you begin to characterize things in terms of “streaks”. By winning the first three district games, the 1960 team extended the school winning streak in district games to 10 straight. By winning the first four games of the season, the team extended the schools regular season game winning streak to 5 in a row. At that moment in time, all was well in the Tiger football program.     

     After four grueling road trips, the Tigers finally played their home-opener in week five. The schedule makers couldn’t have scripted it any better, given the level of confidence the Tigers had because the Tiger’s next opponent was the Ruston Bearcats. Ruston came into the game with a 2-2-0 record for the season. The Bearcats had sustained heavy losses in personnel after the previous season, losing 17 lettermen. Ruston was not as strong as usual, but Hoss Garrett had not compiled a 203-70-6 record by lying down when he faced strong odds. In fact, Coach Garrett had never lost to Winnfield. But, then again, only one Ruston coach had. So lopsided was the series record, that by the time the two teams met in 1960, Ruston held a commanding 24-3-3 series record and had beaten Winnfield 18 consecutive years. Only the 1923, 1928 and 1935 Winnfield teams had managed to eke out a win against the Bearcats.  Though you almost hated to even think it at the time, Winnfield's best chance to beat Ruston in over three decades came during the 1960 season.    

     During the first half of the game, the two teams played as if neither wanted to win the game. Both teams had a whole games worth of turnovers in the first half alone and both defenses put up stands once the other drove within 5 yards of a touchdown. As a result, the score still read 0-0 when the two teams broke for halftime.    

     Then, both teams scored on their first possessions of the second half when each drove nearly 70 yards for a score. Ruston scored first, but Tiger end David Adams broke through and blocked the extra point attempt. In response, Winnfield put together their scoring drive, which was capped by a 2-yard run by Mack Martin on the first play of the fourth quarter. Carroll Long came in to try the all-important PAT and sailed the kick through the uprights to give the Tigers a 7-6 lead. That gave the Tiger program its first second-half lead over a Ruston team since their last win 25 years earlier - there was hope.    

     That excitement was multiplied only minutes later when Jim Berry picked up his third fumble of the night and raced 37 yards to the Ruston three before he was downed. Benny Canerday scored on the next play and the Winnfield stands went wild. Leading 13-6, Long came in to try the extra point attempt that would move the Tigers to a lead that would require Ruston to score two times to overcome. However, Ruston broke through and blocked Long's kick, enabling them to stay within a single score of tying the game. Nevertheless, that turnover enabled Winnfield to take a 7-point lead, thus forcing Ruston to score and convert on the extra point just to tie the game.     

      Ruston did just that on their next possession when they got a good return on the kickoff and then proceeded to get the touchdown and game-tying extra point. Each team had one more possession but neither was able to generate any kind of drive. As a result, the game ended in a tie. The tie broke Ruston’s string of 18 consecutive wins over Winnfield and still kept Winnfield undefeated record intact, moving their record to 4-0-1. The Tigers, of course, were disappointed that they had come so close and had still not defeated Ruston. However, by not losing to Ruston and by playing a AA team tough, Winnfield kept a good season on track.     

     The 13 points scored by Ruston were the fewest point a Ruston team had scored against Winnfield in 19 years. That defensive effort was greatly aided by the recovery of four fumbles, 3 by Jim Berry and 1 by Wayne McFarland. The game was a bruising battle, though, with Tiger back Mack Martin taken from the field to the hospital with what was feared to be a concussion. After a stay of several days in the hospital, Martin was released and cleared to play.     

     Meanwhile, the day after the Ruston game, the Tiger players and coaches left Winnfield and drove to Houston, Texas. The Quarterback Club, led by club President Kidd Farr, had raised funds to send the team to watch a professional football game. After spending Saturday night in Houston, the Winnfield contingent attended church and watched the Houston Oilers, led by former Louisiana collegiate stars Billy Cannon from LSU and Charlie Tolar from Northwestern State.      

     Winnfield held onto the top spot in the Class A coaches poll, in spite of the 13-13 tie to Ruston. However, Tallulah moved into second place, only three points behind Winnfield, after demolishing Newellton 33-7. Delhi dropped to No. 3 after narrowly defeating Holly Ridge 7-0.     Winnfield came into the sixth game of the year, facing homecoming week and their final district game of the year. Many was the opponent, and their record for the year stood at 1-4-0.    

     The Tigers needed a win over Many to wrap up the school’s second consecutive district title. Some around town were saying that Winnfield’s third string could beat Many. That kind of thinking has gotten many football teams beaten. Nevertheless, Winnfield made it look easy with a convincing 45-0 win over Many to clinch the District 1-A crown and earn a spot in the playoffs for the third time in school history. The 45 points were the most points scored by a Tiger team since the 1955 season and the fourth highest number of points scored since the 1930 season.      

      Overall, seven different players scored touchdowns, the most number of players to score in the same game since the 1928 season. The following players and the yardage of their scores (all runs) are as follows: Bryant (1), Melton (1), Martin (20), Bolton (5), Nicklas (1), Canerday (44) and Tinnerello (4). Carroll Long tacked on 3 PAT kicks.    

     So potent was the Tiger offense that they scored all four times they had the ball in the first half and scored on all but one of their four second half possessions. In this 45-0 drubbing it would be safe to conclude that Many was simply out-manned.     

      Winnfield put its undefeated 5-0-1 mark on the line the next week when they took on the AA powerhouse Pineville Rebels. The Rebels came into the game ranked in the Top Ten in the AA polls, having posted a 4-2 record during the season. Their only losses were to strong AAA powers Sulphur and Lake Charles. Pineville clearly represented the strongest team Winnfield had faced all year.    

      It was Winnfield who was outmanned against Pineville as the Rebels moved to a 13-0 halftime lead, added another touchdown in the third quarter and took a business-like win by a 28-7 margin. Winnfield averted a shutout in the fourth quarter when they drove 78 yards for the score, with Tiger halfback Gerald Bryant getting the Tigers on the board from two yards out. Pineville responded with a 75-yard run for a touchdown on their next possession to close out all of the scoring for the night.     

     Statistics for the game reveal just how one-sided the contest was. Winnfield rushed for 92 yards, while Pineville's mammoth line continually opened up huge holes, enabling the Rebel backs to pick up 352 yards rushing.     

     Though Winnfield sustained their first loss of the season against Pineville, the defeat was to a very good Rebel team. After beating Winnfield, Pineville won six straight games in route to taking the 1960 AA state title. In the title game, Pineville beat Assumption 19-7 for the school’s first and only state title.    

      Though the loss was disappointing, the Tigers still had plenty of season left. For starters, the Tigers still had games to play against rivals Jonesboro, Jena and Natchitoches. Also, since the team had already won the district title, there was the matter of the playoffs that loomed five weeks ahead.    

     Winnfield ended their four-game home stretch against archrival Jonesboro. The visitors were having a down year, having already lost 6 games in their first 7 outings. However, Coach Newman knew that a win over Winnfield would salvage Jonesboro's season.     

     Winnfield didn’t let that happen as they bounced back with a 20-7 win over the Jackson parish squad.  Both teams got touchdowns and extra points in the first half, with Winnfield’s tally coming on a 3-yard run by Gerald Bryant. The second half was all-Winnfield and Tiger fullback Benny Canerday had a lot to do with that as he got two touchdown runs (49 yds. and 10 yds.) to account for the only scoring of the second half.  Both touchdowns were set up by the Tiger defense, with Rusty Melton’s fumble recovery at the Jonesboro 35-yard line setting up the first. Later in the quarter David Adams and Wayne McFarland teamed up to block a Jonesboro punt to set up the second touchdown.      

     The win over Jonesboro, coupled with Winnfield’s win in 1959, marked the first time that Winnfield had won two in a row against Jonesboro since the 1927-1928 seasons. With the win, Winnfield improved to 5-1-1 for the year.    

     Winnfield faced a good Natchitoches team the next week.  Like Winnfield, Natchitoches had posted a 6-1-0 record for the season and like Winnfield their lone loss was to Pineville. That had come the week before in a 21-0 loss to the Rebels.      

     Natchitoches was led by halfback Bobby Parker who had rushed for over 1,000 yards in the first seven games of the season. The Red Devils didn't have as much speed as the Tigers, but they were big and strong up front and relied on a bruising, grind-it-out attack.     

     The game would have been difficult enough had the Tigers been at full strength, but they weren't. No fewer than five Tiger starters were held out of the game. Jimmy Bolton, Tiger halfback, broke his collarbone against Jonesboro and was listed as doubtful for the remainder of the season. Tackle Cecil Taylor broke his nose in the Jonesboro game and would need additional time to heal before returning to action. Stellar guard Don Jones, who was held out of the Jonesboro game with a leg injury, reinjured his leg in practice the week before the Natchitoches game, so he too would miss the contest. But, the player with the worst luck was James Lloyd Collins. He had entered the season with a nagging back injury sustained during summer practice. After trying to play Collins the first couple of games, Coach Newman finally sidelined him so that he could heal. After watching from the sidelines for five straight weeks, Collins returned to action against Pineville and also played against Jonesboro. Like Jones, he too was injured in practice the week before the Natchitoches game when he broke his collarbone. Listed as questionable for the Natchitoches game was tackle Rodney Lenard, who sustained a back injury while filling in for Cecil Taylor. Also hurt in the Jonesboro game was Gerald Bryant, Tiger halfback, who was listed as doubtful for Natchitoches.    

      The character of the 1960 football team was revealed during the Natchitoches game. With so many starters sidelined, the Tigers were a decided underdog and Winnfield did give up two first half touchdowns to go to the locker room facing a 14-0 deficit. Then, the Tigers used two second half turnovers to get back into the game.    

      The first gift came early in the third quarter by way of a fumble recovery at the Natchitoches 22-yard line, after which Bryant scored from 2 yards out to make the score 14-6. The PAT attempt was blocked. In the fourth quarter Gerald Long intercepted a Don Beasley-pass and returned the ball to the Red Devil 28-yard line. That seemed to spark the Tiger offense. The makeshift Tiger backfield suddenly found holes that hadn't been there all game long. Halfbacks Melton, Martin and Bryant combined to move the Tigers down the field to the two. From there, quarterback Mike Tinnerello toted the ball over the goal line to narrow the margin. Long converted on the extra point to move the score to 14-13.      

     That is where the scoring ended for the night, however. Despite the Tigers valiant effort and their comeback from a 14-0 halftime deficit, Natchitoches was too strong to overtake. The loss left the Tigers wondering "what if" they had all of their starters. But, the Tigers were still 6-2-1 for the season.    

     The Tigers closed the regular season with decisive wins over Jena and Farmerville. Winnfield took a 21-6 win over Jena, with two short touchdown runs by Bryant and one by Mack Martin. Carroll Long was 3 for 3 in extra point conversions.     

     The win over Jena, coupled with the Tigers’ earlier defeat of Jonesboro, marked only the second time Winnfield had defeated both of those in the same season, with the last time being the 1948 season. Also, the 1960 season marked the first time that Winnfield played Ruston, Jonesboro and Jena in the same season and did not lose to any, given that Winnfield had tied Ruston and defeated the other two.     

     The win over Jena gave the Tigers a 7-2-1 record for the season and set up the final regular season game of the year against Farmerville. The season finale turned out to be just the kind of game Coach Newman had hoped for heading into the playoffs. His regulars worked like a well-oiled machine in the first half and the reserves got plenty of playing time in the second half. He was able to guard against injury in the second half while his Tigers prepared for the playoffs.  In the end, the Tigers notched their eighth win of the season in a 46-20 mauling of the Farmers.     

     Since the Farmerville game was played on a Thursday night, the Tigers got a rare opportunity to see their first-round playoff opponent in person. Coach Newman loaded up his troops and headed to Tallulah the next night to watch the Tallulah-Delhi game, which would determine the District 2-A championship. Tallulah was ranked No.1 in the Class A polls and Winnfield was ranked No. 3. The No. 2 ranked team was Delhi. Winnfield would face the District 2-A champions on their home field.     Winnfield got a good view of what task lay ahead for them when they watched Tallulah dethrone the Delhi Bears in relatively easy fashion as they recorded a 27-7 win. In doing so, Tallulah captured the District 2-A crown and protected their No. 1 ranking.  The win enabled Tallulah to end the season with a 10-1-0 mark, with their only loss coming to AA Neville by a score of 13-12. Neville was in the middle of a four-year stretch that only saw them lose one football game, with Tallulah being the only other team to come close to beating Neville during that period.     

     The game between Winnfield and Tallulah marked the second meeting between the two programs. Tallulah had been Winnfield's opponent in their first foray into the playoffs during the 1957 season; a game Tallulah won by a score of 27-6 in route to the school’s sixth state championship in eight tries. The Trojans added a seventh title during the 1958 season, so they were seeking their 8th title in 1960.     

     The Trojans represented one of the strongest teams any Winnfield team had ever faced from the same class. In achieving their 10-1-0 record, the Trojans had scored 287 points. However, it was the defense of Tallulah that was so impressive. Tallulah had only given up 60 points in eleven games, recording four shutouts and not allowing any opponent to score more than two touchdowns. Tallulah was led by 185 lb. fullback Wayne Noland, who had scored 14 touchdowns in spite of missing two games with an injury. Also in the Trojan backfield was halfback Leonard Neumann, who recorded 10 touchdowns of his own.     

      Winnfield had the misfortune of facing the eventual state champion in their first playoff game in 1957. In 1959, the Tigers faced the eventual state runner-up when Delhi ran away with a 31-0 win. So, when the Tigers entered the playoffs for the third time, they had to open against the No.1 ranked team in the state and the clear favorite to take the 1960 A crown.    

      Though Winnfield was the underdog against Tallulah, this was a good Winnfield team. The Tigers had a shot if they played their best game of the year.  That chance came on Thursday, November 24, 1960, which was Thanksgiving Day. At 2:30 p.m. on that day, Winnfield kicked off to Tallulah in the third-ever playoff game the program had been involved in.     

      Tallulah moved to a 13-0 first half lead, while Winnfield never threatened the Trojan goal line in the first half. Then Tallulah roared to two third quarter touchdowns to remove any doubts about outcome of the game.  Noland and Neumann had combined for two touchdowns a piece.     

     In the fourth quarter Winnfield avoided a shutout when Tinnerello (running out of the halfback position) took a pitchout, ran to his right and tossed the ball to Bryant who went over from the five. Long’s kick made it 25-7 at the time. Tallulah got those 7 points back on their next possession to make the final score 32-7.      Tallulah proved to be every bit as tough as the pre-game hype indicated. For the game, Tallulah pummeled Winnfield for 335 yards rushing and close to 100 yards passing, making that one of the highest total yardage totals ever amassed against a Tiger team. Tallulah simply had the better team and that was further proven two weeks later when Tallulah rolled over Lockport 39-19 to secure the school’s eighth state title.    

      Measured against the other teams that came before them, the 1960 Tiger team would be considered among the best teams in school history. For starters, they were only the third team to win a district title and third team to make the playoffs. By winning eight games, they were fourth on the all-time list in that category at the time. The 1960 squad ended the season as only the sixth Tiger team to score 200 or more points in a season, scoring 243 points in the regular season and ending the year with 250 points. The Tiger defense allowed only 112 points in the regular season against strong competition. That was the fifth lowest number of points allowed by any Tiger team since the 1930 season. Though the Tigers gave up 32 points to Tallulah and ended the year giving up a total of 144 points, that figure was still lower than the total number of points given up by 27 of the 31 teams that had played between 1930 and 1960.    

     One of the most encouraging things about the 1960 squad was that the nucleus of the team still had another year of eligibility and would return to defend the District 1-A crown the following year. The group of players that Coach Newman had been talking about since they were freshmen were finally ready to move to their season. The success of the 1959 and 1960 teams were but stepping-stones to the ever-developing Tiger football program. Winnfield was fast becoming a perennial power.     The Tigers scored 250 points and allowed 146 points; with over half of Winnfield’s regular season schedule being made up of AA or AAA teams. Winnfield ended the season with an 8-3-1 record. That marked the first time since the 1954 season that a Tiger team had ended the year with a winning record and the eight wins were the tied with the 1954 squad for fourth-most wins.  Only the nine wins of the 1923, 1928 and 1948 squads were better.  

KEY SEASON, 1961, (Overall - 11-1-0; *District - 4-0-0)       

Opponent                 Results                                                 

Ville Platte                  W, 19- 0                                                            

MANSFIELD             W, 20-13*                                                          

Homer                        W, 26- 0                                                            

COUSHATTA            W, 53- 7 *                                                          

Ruston                         W, 21- 6                                                            

Many                           W, 58-12*                                                          

Pineville                       W, 20- 0                                                            

Jonesboro                     W, 39-28                                                            

NATCHITOCHES       W, 53- 0 (HC)                                                    

JENA                           W, 50- 6                

LASALLE                    W, 41- 0*            

PLAYOFFS          

TALLULAH               L, 0-12 (Regional)                  

     All championship caliber high school football teams share similar characteristics. Obviously one of those traits is talent. But, if talent was all it took to win football games then all you would have to do is turn those talented players loose and watch the wins roll in. If only it were that simple. Championship teams are built around players who are committed, who work hard and who have a certain group cohesion that brings those players together so that individual talent is combined in a team concept. Championship teams need leaders and those that follow their leaders. They need smart players and players who rely more on brute strength. The team that made up the 1961 Winnfield squad fit all of those characteristics of a championship team.     

      The team was talented. Eight of the returning starters had already earned post-season honors as underclassmen and an additional four players on the roster were destined to earn post-season honors before their playing careers were over. A total of five of the starters would go on to play football at the next level. The team had talent and it was spread throughout the backfield and across the line.     

     The team was a cohesive group. An even dozen starters were entering their fourth year of football at the varsity level and another two were beginning their third year of football. They had played together as a unit, experiencing the highs of winning two district championships and the lows of being soundly defeated in two playoff games. The group was well meshed as a unit.     

     Other than the talent and group cohesion factors, probably the biggest asset of the team was their experience level. Nine of the incoming starters were coming into their third year as a starter, and three additional players were entering their second year as a starter. Ten of the eleven positions on the field would be held down by a player who had lettered. The players had game experience. They knew what it was like to play in front of a crowd, to face pressure in a game situation, to play against a tougher opponent and to play against a weaker opponent. Equally important, the team had playoff experience. So, they weren’t wide-eyed about playing in playoff games – they expected that.    

     Finally, the team had senior leadership. Coach Newman had eleven returning senior lettermen, all entering their fourth year as a Tiger. Leadership comes in many forms. Those seniors were leaders in the school and leaders on the team. The group had outgoing individuals and quiet individuals. They were the type of seniors a coach dreams about.    

     Winning breeds winning. That was beginning to be apparent in the Winnfield football program as the recent success by the varsity resulted in a significant rise in the number of boys out for football at all levels. Coming into the 1961 season, a record number of younger boys turned out for football, with the Pony squad fielding 35 boys and the Pee Wees having 42 players on their roster. The varsity roster was made up of 36 players, with 15 of those being returning lettermen.     

     The projected starting lineup in the Tiger backfield included seniors Mike Tinnerello (QB), Rusty Melton (FB), Mack Martin (HB), James Lloyd Collins (HB) and junior Jimmy Bolton (HB). Seniors also dominated the end positions with David Adams (E) and Billy Barton (E) assigned to those spots. Finally, the line was dominated by seniors too, including Carroll Long (C), Don Jones (G), Cecil Taylor (G), and Wayne McFarland (T). The only question mark in the starting lineup was at the left tackle position. Newman tabbed junior Rodney Leonard and Charles Machen for that slot. That gave the offense ten senior starters.    

     The team was rich in talent and thus rich in reserve strength. Underclassmen provided quality backs in junior Ronnie Parker at halfback and sophomore Harley Gordon at the fullback position. Where the Tigers experienced the biggest losses due to graduation was at the end positions where three of the five players from the season before had played. Expected to provide added duty at the end positions were juniors Ronald Skains and sophomore Kenny White. The other player tabbed for needed reserve duty was Jimmy Brazzell, a senior. He was an all-purpose lineman but was expected to fill in for Jones and Taylor at the guard position.    

     The Tigers had several players who would be counted on more on the defensive side of the ball. Those included Gerald Long, Rodney Lenard, and Don Garrett, all seniors except Lenard. Ronald Skains also specialized more on the defensive side of the ball. That meant that Coach Newman had around 18 players he could count on for regular duty, with virtually all of those being talented, game-tested seniors.    

     Coach Newman was entering his sixth season at the helm of the Tiger program. The five years he had already put in with the program moved him into second place on the list for longest coaching tenure, surpassing Ben Cameron, Kidd Farr and Emmett Cope who had each coached for four years in the program. Newman still had a ways to go to catch Alwin Stokes who had put in nine years as the head coach at Winnfield.     

     Back to assist Newman for their fifth year were Thomas Straughan and Frank Mobley. David Williamson, the other assistant, was a newcomer to the program. It was an experienced coaching staff that had worked with the senior-dominated team throughout their playing careers.     

     Prior to the 1957 season, virtually every Winnfield team since the 1920s was simply looking for a win - any win. Since the program had won district titles in three of the four years between 1957 and 1960, a new goal was established for the program in 1961. As the Tigers prepared for the 1961 season, the bar had been raised to a height that winning a district championship and the primary goal of the 1961 team became winning a state championship. The sportswriters thought Winnfield had as good a chance as anyone of achieving that goal when they voted the Tigers the No. 1 Class A team in the preseason poll, with Tallulah, the defending state champs, being ranked No. 2.    

     The 1961 schedule marked the third consecutive year that the Tigers played an 11-game regular season schedule. The Tigers opened the season by traveling to Ville Platte for a rare game against a south Louisiana team. Prior to the 1961 season, Winnfield had competed against only five schools located south of Alexandria; those being Jennings in 1924 and 1925, Leesville during the 1930s and 1940s, Marksville in 1930, New Orleans in 1917 and Warren Easton (New Orleans) in 1923. Other than the road trips to New Orleans in 1917, Warren Easton in 1923 and Jennings in 1924, this would be the longest road trip any Tiger team had ever made.     

     In the season-opener against Ville Platte High School Bulldogs, the Tigers played a “typical” season opener.  Most high school team do not execute well in the season opener and that is especially true on the offensive side of the ball.  That would be the case for Winnfield did not have a single sustained drive for a touchdown in the first half, though the Tigers did get on the scoreboard when quarterback Mike Tinnerello took a bootleg 60 yards for a score. The Tiger defense added one other first half touchdown when linebacker Gerald Long stepped in front of a Ville Platte pass in the second quarter and ran 55-yards for a touchdown. His twin brother Carroll came in and attempted the extra point but it was no good, leaving the score 12-0 at the half.     

     Ville Platte never moved into scoring position in the first half but they did threaten to score three times in the second half. Two of those drives were stopped by interceptions by James Lloyd Collins. All total Collins snared three interceptions for the night.     

     Winnfield scored one more time in the game, that coming in the third quarter when Jimmy Bolton sprinted into the end zone from 10 yards out to give the Tigers their final margin of 19-0.     

      Coach Newman was upset with his teams opening-game performance. When speaking to the Rotary Club later in the week, Newman said, "The game didn’t show us what we have. The boys played well when they had to and held for downs around the 10-yard line. But, at other times they relaxed and let Ville Platte run over them.” After years of losing, it was nice to hear complaints about a win that was less than picture-perfect.    

      Winnfield faced a big challenge the second week of the season, as they took on Mansfield. Coach Newman warned that Mansfield was a serious contender for the District 1-A crown. Coming into the game, Winnfield retained their Class A number one ranking, while district foe LaSalle moved to No. 9.    

     Mansfield was guided by Donald Beebe at quarterback. He had one of the best arms in the state and in fact his talent was honored at the end of the season when he was named as the quarterback on the All-State team.     

     Neither Beebe nor any other Mansfield player was able to crack the Tiger defense in the first half. However, the Tigers weren’t much more successful against Mansfield as the Tigers only got one score, that coming when Melton carried the ball into the end zone from two yards out to cap a 70-yard drive.     

     When the Tigers came out after halftime they found the Mansfield to be just as hard to crack as they had been in the first half. It took a defensive play to enable the Tigers to get back on the scoreboard. That came when Rodney Lenard blocked a Mansfield punt and then recovered the ball near the Wolverine goal line. James Lloyd Collins then extended the Tigers’ lead when he crashed over from the 2 on the next play. Long missed the extra point, leaving the score 13-0.    

     After that Winnfield would have to survive the Mansfield passing attack that finally showed up as Beebe engineered two short scoring drives, both of which highlighted Beebe’s throwing arm. Sandwiched in between those two Mansfield scores was a 13-play, 88-yard drive that was capped when Tinnerello dropped back to throw from the Mansfield 17, pulled the ball in and eluded tacklers on a twisting run for a touchdown.  In the end Winnfield prevailed in a 20-13 nail-biter.      

     The Tigers had managed to walk away with win number two and an early lead in the district race. However, both wins were less than dominating. More specifically, the Tigers weren’t scoring as well as the early season hype built them up to be capable of. In two games, the Tigers had scored six touchdowns, which for most teams was not a bad start to the season. However, this team seemed to have the capability of putting up big numbers on the scoreboard. All of that would come later.    

     On the other hand, against Mansfield the Tiger offense had managed to put together one of the best rushing nights in school history when they piled up 457 yards rushing. Mack Martin led the rushing attack by picking up 141 yards in only 14 carries. Melton toted the ball 23 times for 92 yards. Tinnerello had the highest per carry average, gaining 95 yards on only 8 carries for a 12-yard per carry average. Bolton, with 55 yards in 11 carries and Collins with 68 yards in 16 carries also contributed to the 457-yard total. But, for all that yardage, the Tigers only managed to push over three touchdowns, with those three touchdown runs accounting for only 22 of the 457 yards.     

     In week three, the Tigers traveled to one of the hardest places to win a football game in the twentieth century, that being the home of the Homer Pelicans. Homer High School had a football program steeped in tradition and had already competed in five state championship games by the 1961 season. Winnfield and Homer had already met four times on the football field, all occurring between 1936 and 1939. Homer defeated Winnfield in all four games, whipping Winnfield by a combined total of 97-0 in those games.    

      The first half of the Homer game played out like the first two games of the year. Winnfield moved up and down the field, again displaying an ability to move the ball but showing weakness inside the red zone. The Tigers were winning the field position war but not scoring points. Then, late in the second quarter, the Tigers downed a Tinnerello punt at the 6-yard line. Three plays later David Adams delivered a blow that caused a fumble, which rolled into the end zone where an alert Rodney Lenard fell on the ball to finally give the Tigers a touchdown. Carroll Long’s kick was no good but the Tigers had taken a 6-0 lead which they carried to the locker room at halftime.      

     Winnfield’s defense had limited Homer to only three first downs and had kept the Pels far away from the Tiger goal line. Meanwhile, Winnfield was piling up the yardage and had gotten inside the Homer 30 three times. The Tigers had the lead in the game but it was the defense that had provided the points.    

     The Tiger offense finally got going on their first possession of the second half, not only for the game but also for the whole year. If there is such a thing as a turning point in a season, the second half of the Homer game would be the turning point in the 1961 Tiger season.   

     The Tigers scored the first two times they had the ball in the second half, with Melton capping the first drive and Bolton scoring from 2 yards out to end the second drive. That gave the Tigers a 20-0 at the end of the third quarter.     

     Later in the game Ronald Skains dropped the Homer punter on the Homer 6-yard line. The Tigers capitalized on that blunder with Tinnerello going in from the 4 on third down. Long’s kick was no good, leaving the score 26-0 with less than two minutes to go in the game. After that, the Tiger reserves helped run out the clock     For the third straight week the Tiger defensive performance was nothing short of amazing. Winnfield allowed Homer a mere 5 first downs and only 54 yards rushing for the night. Meanwhile, the Tiger offense seemed to get jump-started in the second half.      

       The fourth game of the year would be the game where the team put it together in all phases for a whole game. In that game the Tigers played district foe Coushatta. It had been against Coushatta that the 1919 Tiger team set a single-game scoring record, winning by a margin of 94-0; a record that would last throughout the twentieth century. In the 1961 game with Coushatta the Tigers wouldn’t break that record but they would score more points than any other Tiger team had scored in 29 years.    

     Winnfield jumped to a 33-0 first-half lead by scoring on all but one of their five first half possessions. Scoring for the Tigers in the first quarter were Jimmy Bolton (26 yd. run) and Mike Tinnerello (19 yd. run). Then the Tigers used three second-quarter interceptions to set up three more touchdowns. The first interception came courtesy of Billy Barton, after which Tinnerello connected with James Lloyd Collins at the 25, where he shook off one tackler and ran into the end zone for the Tigers third touchdown.      

     On the next Coushatta series, James Lloyd Collins caught another pass, this time from the Coushatta quarterback. That gave the Tigers the ball at the Winnfield 32 yard line. Two plays later Tinnerello connected with Mack Martin for a 59 yard pass completion that got the ball all the way down to the Coushatta 9-yard line. Martin gained those 9 yards in two carries to up the Tiger lead to 26-0 with under a minute to go in the half and Coushatta reeling.     Coushatta returned the kickoff to the 29-yard line and, with six seconds left on the clock, had time for one play. They elected to pass and that was a mistake. Mike Tinnerello jumped in front of the Coushatta pass at the Choctaw 37-yard line and went the distance. He also threw to Billy Barton for the PAT to make the score 33-0 at the half.    

      It was the most dominating display of football by a Tiger team since the 1920s. Coushatta had not been past midfield all game long and Winnfield was all but unstoppable on offense. The 33 points the Tigers posted in the first half were the most first half points scored since the ninth game of the 1928 season. The Tigers were rolling, and with Ruston looming the next week, Coach Newman knew he had to protect against injuries. He had the option of playing his reserves in the second half and that is just what he did. There wouldn’t be much of a drop off.    

     In the second half the Tiger reserves scored three more touchdowns with a backfield filled with a slew of sophomores, including quarterbacks Bob Wyatt and Cully Warren, and running backs Jimmy Bolton, Ronnie Parker, Harley Gordon and Jerry Price. Scoring for the Tigers were Bolton, Price and Wyatt.       After Winnfield had moved to a 46-0 lead, Coushatta averted a shutout when they put together a 10-play drive with 46 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The Tiger reserves scored one more touchdown in the fourth quarter to make the final score 53-7. That allowed the Tigers to move their record to 4-0-0 for the season and 2-0-0 in district play. The win was the sixth regular-season win in a row for the Tiger program, when the final two regular season games of the 1960 season are taken into account. That marked the longest regular season win streak since the 1928 season.     

      After a somewhat sluggish start to the season, the Tigers were on a roll. The second half of the Homer game and the entire Coushatta game were perfect tune-ups for one of the biggest games a Tiger team had ever played. The fifth game of the year was not a district game and it would have no bearings on the Tigers district title march. Of course, it wasn’t a playoff game, because the playoffs were still two months away. What made the fifth game of the year so important was the opponent - the Ruston Bearcats. 

      Poor Many. Winnfield headed into their sixth game of the season and their third district game of the year with an overall record of 5-0-0, a 2-0-0 record in district play and a No.1 ranking in Class A. Many hoped to derail the Tigers, though they were looking for their first win of the year. Many was hoping Winnfield would be looking past them. Sometimes, teams will suffer a letdown after a big win and Winnfield was coming off one of the schools biggest. On the other hand, sometimes they won’t.     

     Winnfield traveled to Many and played as if they were competing against a junior varsity team. Good teams can make inferior teams look that way. The Tigers had the ball eleven times in the game and they scored on nine of those eleven possessions. A total of eight different players got in on the scoring parade. In a game like that, the outcome of the contest was clear by the end of the first quarter. The only question at that point in the game was how many points the Tigers would score.    Winnfield scored on all four of its first half possessions, with two being of the long-range variety (55-yard run by Mack Martin and 69-yard run by James Lloyd Collins) and the other two coming on much shorter runs (5-yard run by Tinnerello and 17 yard run by Bolton). Linebacker Gerald Long added a touchdown on a 35-yard interception return and his brother Carroll added three PAT kicks to account for the Tiger’s 33 first half point.      

     Since the beginning of the second half of the Homer game (the third game of the year), the Winnfield offense had taken possession of the ball 27 times and scored on 17 of those possessions. That meant that the Tigers were scoring almost two out of every three times (63%) they had the ball. The Tiger opponents during that span were Homer, Coushatta, Ruston and Many. The Tigers had only been forced into a punting situation on 5 of those 27 possessions and 2 of those possessions came at the end of the game when Winnfield was simply running out the clock.     

     The Tiger defense gave up a touchdown just before the half when Many resorted almost exclusively to a passing game, with the touchdown coming on a 20-yard completion. Charles Machen, Tiger defensive lineman, broke through and blocked the PAT kick, leaving the score 33-6 at the half.   

     Though Many added one second half score against the Winnfield reserves, Winnfield added four more touchdowns, with one coming on a five yard run by fullback Rusty Melton and two by Bob Wyatt, Melton’s replacement. Also, on Winnfield’s final possession of the night Ronnie Parker became the eighth Tiger to score a touchdown when he bolted in from 5 yards, making the final score 58-12.     

     The 58 points the Tigers scored was the most single-game points a Tiger team had scored since the second game of the 1933 season when the Tigers defeated Grayson 59-0. Already, the team had scored 194 points in six games, an average of 32.3 points per game. They were easily on pace to become one of the most prolific scoring teams in the programs history.                     

     Against Many the Tigers ground out 356 yards rushing and gained 16 first downs. So proficient was their rushing attack that they only attempted 2 passes and completed one of those for 11 yards. Tinnerello, who had shown so much skill through the air as a sophomore, was hardly ever called on to throw the ball as a senior. That was due to one thing - the Tiger offense didn’t have to throw the football.     

     The win upped the Tigers record to 6-0-0 and their district-leading mark to 3-0-0. The Tigers were one win shy of tying the school record for most wins to start a season, a record set by the 1919 state champion team. They could tie that mark and avenge one of their losses from the season before the following week when they traveled to Pineville to play the defending Class AA State Champions.     

     Winnfield was still riding high from their big win against Ruston two weeks earlier and they hoped that win would propel them to similar success against their fourth AA opponent of the year. Pineville was 4-2-0 for the season, but their two losses had come against AAA competition. Sulphur had defeated the Rebels 34-7 and Lake Charles eked out a 9-0 win.     

     Pineville had to be aware of Winnfield’s gaudy record. In fact, Pineville had to be thinking the Tigers would be a challenge. That is exactly what the Tigers wanted Pineville to be thinking. Champions have the opposition doubting themselves before the game ever starts.     

     Winnfield had avoided the one thing that had plagued the 1960 team and so many other Winnfield teams - injuries. The Tigers came into the seventh game of the year with all of their starters healthy and in the game. Coach Newman needed all of those players because Pineville was just the type of team that could derail the Tiger express.                                                                         

      As expected, the game was a bruising defensive battle throughout. That would not be so evident in the final score, as the Tigers used touchdowns in the second, third and fourth quarters to take a 20-0 win over Pineville. Tinnerello and David Adams hooked up on two scoring passes (one from 11 yards out and the other from 30 yards out) to account for two of those scores. During his sophomore season Tinnerello had three games in which he threw multiple touchdown passes. This would be the only other game in his career where that would happen.     

     Tinnerello was also in on the only other score of the night, that coming in the fourth quarter when he  picked off a pass at the Pineville 45, got into the open, and returned the ball the distance for the Tigers final touchdown of the night. Long converted on two of three PAT attempts.     

      Talk about momentum - the Tigers were on a roll. With four games remaining in the regular season, Winnfield had made it to the eighth game with an undefeated record. In doing so they had beaten most of the strongest teams on their schedule by whipping Mansfield, Ruston and Pineville. Mansfield’s stock rose the same night Winnfield defeated Pineville when the Wolverines ran all over LaSalle 27-0 to take over sole possession of second place in the district. The district race could still end up in a three-way tie for first place if LaSalle could beat Winnfield in the closing game of the regular season. However, since Winnfield had handed Mansfield a convincing defeat, most assumed that Winnfield had already faced their biggest challenge for the district title. Winnfield’s third straight trip to the playoffs lay in their own hands, though the Tigers still had some other business to take care of.     

      Riding a seven-game win streak and filled with a ton of confidence, Winnfield had an opportunity to accomplish something no other Winnfield team had ever done. With consecutive non-district games remaining against Natchitoches, Jonesboro and Jena, the 1961 Tigers had a chance to be the first Winnfield team to go through the season undefeated against every single one of their rivals. Through the first 52 two years of Winnfield High School football (1909-1960) Winnfield had played 6 teams 15 or more times. Understandably, those six teams became Winnfield’s biggest rivals. Included in that bunch were the following:

1909 to 1960 

No. Games                               Series Record

Played              Team                For Winnfield

33                     Ruston                3-24-6

32                     Jonesboro         11-19-2

31                     Natchitoches     14-10-7

23                     Bolton                 4-18-1

16                     Winnsboro          7-  7-2

15                     Jena                   4-  9-2     

     During the 1961 season, Winnfield was scheduled to face four of those six. Winnfield had already beaten one of those when they whipped Ruston in week five. Weeks eight through ten had the Tigers playing Jonesboro, Natchitoches and Jena. So, the Tigers had a chance to knock off all of their closest rivals before they met LaSalle, a team that had become one of the biggest rivals to the seniors of the 1961 team.     

     Coming into the 1961 season, the seniors had never played on a team that had beaten Ruston, Pineville or Natchitoches; not only in the same season but even a single time. The Tigers had already knocked off Ruston and Pineville, and Natchitoches was two weeks down the road. Before the Tigers played Natchitoches, they had a little matter to settle with a team just up the road - the Jonesboro Tigers.    

      The 1961 group of seniors had a chance to go through their sophomore through senior seasons with the claim of never having lost to Jonesboro, as Winnfield had a two-game winning streak against Jonesboro. No other group of seniors could make that claim. Jonesboro led the overall series with a 19-11-2 record.  Jonesboro came into the game with a 3-4-0 record, with all of their losses coming to larger schools. Had the Winnfield players known how Jonesboro was going to close out their season, they would have known they were about to play a very good Jonesboro team. History would show that after playing Winnfield Jonesboro would defeat Pineville (14-6) and Ruston (19-7). Then, Jonesboro would end the season with a 7-7 tie against Mansfield. So, this was no ordinarily Jonesboro team - they were good.    

     The crowd for the Jonesboro game was believed to be the largest for any Jonesboro - Winnfield game or any other game in the two school’s history. It was homecoming night at Jonesboro’s Caldwell-Peacock Stadium and post game attendance figures estimated the crowd to be close to 5,000. Though it would be hard to find a bad game in the series, this one would end up being one of the classics.    

     Coming into the game you knew that both teams had excellent defensive units. Therefore, the contest was “supposed” to be a defensive battle. The first quarter lived up to that expectation, as Jonesboro was the only team to score. When the quarter ended with Jonesboro leading by a score of 7-0 that marked only the second time that Winnfield had trailed in a football game.     

     The remainder of the game was anything but a defensive show because the two teams combined to score three touchdowns in each of the three remaining quarters, making that ten touchdowns in a game that was “supposed” to feature two outstanding defenses.     

     Sometimes a high scoring game does not necessarily indicate poor defense. Such was the case in this game. In fact, the Winnfield defense stopped Jonesboro cold throughout the first half as the first quarter touchdown that Jonesboro scored would be their only score of the first half.     

     In the mean time, Winnfield’s offense finally got cranking in the second quarter when the Tigers scored three unanswered touchdowns to move to a 21-7 halftime lead. The first two of those touchdowns were products of long drives, with the first score coming on a 9-yard pass from Tinnerello to an open Billy Barton in the back of the end zone and the second coming on a 5-yard keeper by Tinnerello. Long booted both PATs to give Winnfield a 14-7 lead at the five minute mark of the second quarter.    

     Then, after Jonesboro moved deep into Winnfield territory Gerald Long came up with an interception and returned it to the Jonesboro 19-yard line. The Tigers then drove the length of the field where Rusty Melton capped that drive with a 2-yard plunge. That gave Winnfield three touchdowns in three consecutive possessions. Long was 3 for 3 on the extra point conversions.    

     Though Winnfield appeared to have full control of the football game, the second half would be a lesson in playing four quarters of football. That became immediately clear when the two teams exchanged touchdowns in the third quarter.  Jonesboro got the first of those touchdowns which temporarily made the score 21-14 Winnfield.  However, Winnfield answered that score when Mike Tinnerello connected on his fifth touchdown pass of the year and second of the game when he hit a streaking David Adams near the goal line. The touchdown came from 22 yards away and moved the score to 27-14.    

     The 14 points scored by Jonesboro was already the most points Winnfield had allowed in a single game up to that point of the 1961 season. Jonesboro was just getting cranked up, though.     

      Jonesboro erased half of the 13-point deficit when they scored on their opening possession of the fourth quarter. The score was set up when Jonesboro returned the kickoff following Winnfield’s fourth touchdown to the Winnfield 12 yard line. With the score reading 27-21 and a whole quarter to go it was still anyone’s ball game.     The Winnfield defense took over at that point as they stopped two fourth down conversion attempts by Jonesboro on consecutive possessions. Both stops enabled Winnfield to gain good field position and the Tiger offense took advantage of that by posting two more touchdowns; both by Bolton. Jonesboro did score on the final series of the night to make the final score 39-28 Winnfield.     

      The win wasn’t as sweet as the Ruston win but it wasn’t far behind. The victory over Jonesboro allowed the 1961 team to join the 1923 and 1928 teams as the only squads to defeat both Jonesboro and Ruston in the same season.     

       In a season filled with highs, the Jonesboro game offered a thrill a minute, or so it seemed. Winnfield had possession of the ball ten times in the game. Six of those possessions ended in a touchdown, with one other ending in a fumble. The Tigers got the ball right back after that fumble and went on to score.    

     Winnfield had a breakdown in the kicking game, allowing Jonesboro to get off two good returns - one for 76 yards and another for 79 yards to set up two of Jonesboro’s scores. By allowing Jonesboro to score 28 points, Winnfield nearly doubled their points allowed total for the season, moving from 38 points allowed to 64 points allowed.    

     Winnfield’s record improved to 8-0-0 for the season. The eighth win gave the 1961 Tigers the distinction of opening the season with the most number of consecutive wins of any team that had played for Winnfield High School, surpassing the 7 wins of the state champion 1919 team. Talk increased of the Tigers chances of repeating the 1919 team’s feat of completing the season with an undefeated record. The 1919 team had been the only team in Winnfield High School football history to complete the regular season undefeated. One thing was becoming clear by the week – the 1961 team was staking a claim to being the best Winnfield team the program had ever fielded up to that point in time.    

     When you are having a good season you often begin talking of “streaks” and records. Such was the case with the 1961 team. The win over Jonesboro increased the program’s regular season win streak to 10 games. That broke the school record 9-game win streak set during the 1927-1928 seasons. There were other team accomplishments that were within sight of the 1961 team. As the final games of the season approached, the Tigers were closing in on virtually every school record. The 39 points the Tigers put on the board against Jonesboro moved the team past the 1960 team into second place on the all-time single-season scoring list with 256 points. The record holder was the 1928 team who scored 385 points. The 1961 Tigers needed to score 130 more points in the final three games to surpass that record. To accomplish that they would need to score at a 43.3 pace per game. That seemed like a bit much to ask, but everyone knew that was not out of the question considering how proficient this offensive unit was. With ten possessions a game, the Tigers would have to average scoring after at least half of those to catch the 1928 Tigers. The Tigers had scored after 14 of the previous 21 possessions, so the scoring title was certainly within reach.     

     The Tigers would begin that quest against Natchitoches, a program that held a four-game win streak against Winnfield. It was Winnfield’s homecoming and the fans were pumped for the game. Principal Eugene F. Love made sure the fans weren’t too pumped. He issued a letter to the fans in the local paper asking for the supporters to “refrain from doing anything that might cause Winnfield High School to be penalized and eliminated from the state playoffs.” He went on to caution the fans that "hazing the coach, players, or official’s decisions could lead to (Winnfield’s) disqualification.’ What prompted Mr. Love’s plea was a warning the Winnfield program had received from the Louisiana High School Athletic Association following a complaint filed by Pineville High School. Winnfield fans have always been very serious about their football team.    

     Winnfield scored on the first play from scrimmage when Jimmy Bolton broke clear for a 67-yard run. Carroll Long kicked the extra point while fans were still filing into the stadium. After that, Winnfield went at Natchitoches like they had something to prove. The first half of the Natchitoches game was arguably the most dominant display of football by any Winnfield team up to that point in history. The Tiger starters had the ball for four possessions and scored on each of those on drives of 67, 55, 89 and 5 yards. Other than Bolton, other players scoring for the Tigers were Tinnerello (1 yard run), Mack Martin (15 yard run), and David Adams (5 yard pass from Tinnerello). Carroll Long converted on three of four extra points to contribute to Winnfield’s 27-0 halftime lead.     

     But, it was the Tiger defense that played like a college-level team. That defense held Natchitoches to no first downs in five first half possessions. In doing so, Natchitoches ended the half with a net gain of minus 33 yards of offense. In five possessions, Natchitoches only ran 13 plays from scrimmage.     

     It was more of the same in the second half. About the only thing Natchitoches was able to do in the second half and fourth quarters. James Lloyd Collins got the first of those when he scored from 50 yards away. That was followed by a 25-yard scoring run by reserve quarter Cully Warren later in the third.     

      The reserves repeated that performance the next two times the Tigers had the football when Bob Wyatt scored on a five-yard run and Ronnie Parker scored from 15-yards away. Carroll Long connected on four of five extra point kicks and Jerry Price ran in the extra point after the final touchdown to make the final score 53-0 in favor of Winnfield.     

     The win moved Winnfield to 9-0-0 for the season and extended the regular season win streak to 11 games. The playoffs were still three weeks away and Winnfield was playing championship level football.     

     Against Natchitoches, the Tigers had the ball for 11 possessions and scored on eight of those. The starters scored on all six of their possessions and the reserves scored on two of their four possessions.  Winnfield’s first and second team offense combined to rush for 450 yards, a new school record. They added 31 yards passing for 481 total yards, also a school record at the time.      

     The 53 points Winnfield scored against Natchitoches moved the season total to 309. That made the 1961 team only the second team in school history to score 300 or more points in a season. With two games remaining they were 76 points shy of the school record for most points scored in a single season.     

     Having knocked off Ruston, Jonesboro and Natchitoches, the lone remaining rival on the Tiger schedule was the Jena Giants. That is who the Tigers would face next.     

     Jena came into the game holding an overall record of 9-4-2 in the series. All of those wins came during the 1950s when Jena beat Winnfield 9 times in 11 meetings. Recent Tiger fortunes had changed when the 1960 Winnfield team beat Jena 21-6. Never in the history of the series had Winnfield defeated Jena in consecutive seasons. The 1961 team had a chance to change that.      

       It would be easier to summarize what Winnfield did to Jena with a simple chart. Here is a summary of the first quarter:                                                                                                 

Possession             Plays      Yardage    Result                                                                                Score       

Winnfield               2            65             60 yd. TD run by Mack Martin; Long kick                        7-0       

Jena                      3            5               Punt       

Winnfield               1            75             75 yd. TD run by Mike Tinnerello, Long kick                   14-0       

Jena                      3            1               Punt       

Winnfield               3            40             5 yd. TD run by James Lloyd Collins, Long miss               20-0           

     The summary of the first quarter would be simple. Winnfield ran six offensive plays and scored touchdowns on half of those on runs of 60, 75 and 5 yards. Jena had run six offensive plays as well with only 6 total yards gained and no first downs. Winnfield hadn’t gained a first down either to show how misleading that statistic can be. The rest of the first half looked like this:                                                   

Possession             Plays      Yardage    Result                                                                     Score       

Jena                      2            2               Fumble       

Winnfield               2            15             10 yd. TD run by Jimmy Bolton, Long kick             27-0       

Jena                      3            2               Punt       

Winnfield               1            46             46 yd. TD run by Ronnie Parker, Long run              34-0       

Jena                      3            6               Punt       

Winnfield               9            35             2 yd Td run by Harley Gordon, Long Kick                41-0     

      After the Natchitoches game it hardly seemed possible that Winnfield could duplicate that dominating performance. By this point in the season, Winnfield was not only winning, they were completely controlling the opposition and, in the process, completely demoralizing them.     

      In the first half of the Jena game Winnfield set a school record for most first half points scored. They did that by scoring 6 touchdowns in 6 possessions. Winnfield scored touchdowns on five of the first 9 plays from scrimmage. Those scores came on runs of 60, 75, 5, 10 and 46 yards. It took Winnfield 9 plays to score their sixth and final touchdown of the first half, making that 18 plays and 6 touchdowns in half.    

     In the five offensive possessions by Jena, the Tiger defense held the Giants to net gains of 5, 1, 2, 2 and 6 yards for a total of 16 yards gained. Jena punted five times and fumbled the ball away to end the other first half possession. Not only had Jena not been in Tiger territory, they had not moved past their own 35-yard line. Dominant would be one word used to describe the No. 1 Class A team in the state.    

      Coach Newman stayed with his reserves in the second half and by doing so gave Ronnie Parker the opportunity to gain some notoriety. On the first play of Winnfield’s first series of the half Parker broke through a hole opened on the left side of line and ran 85-yards for a touchdown. Parker's run was tied for the second longest touchdown run from scrimmage in school history. John G. Jackson held the record of 97 yards set during the 1943 season. The second longest run since then had been an 85-yard run by Dan Carr during the 1948 season. In fact, there had only been eight touchdowns scored by any means that were longer than Parker's run. Three of those were scored on kickoffs and two more on interceptions. The two additional scores were made on punt returns and, ironically, one of those had been scored by Eddie Parker, Ronnie Parker's father. During the 1943 season, Eddie Parker ran back a punt for 87 yards and a score.     

     Parker's run made it 47-0 Winnfield midway through the third quarter. The attempted run for the PAT failed but the stands were still electrified by Parker's run. Combined with his other touchdown run of the game, the junior running back had gained 131 rushing yards on those two carries alone.     

     Winnfield intercepted a Jena pass in the fourth quarter and Coach Newman did everything he could to call off the dogs at that point. He sent in Carroll Long to attempt a 32-yard field goal on first down, also thinking he might need a field goal somewhere down the road. Long sailed the ball through the uprights, making that the first field goal ever made by a Winnfield football player.     

     The kick made the score 50-0. That marked the fourth time the 1961 team had scored 50 or more points during the season. Prior to 1961 only eight other Winnfield teams had scored 50 or more points in at least one game. Included in that group were the 1924, 1927, 1926 and 1929 teams who did that once. Only two teams had accomplished that feat twice, including the state champion 1919 team and the 1923 team. However, it was the 1928 team that had scored 50 or more points the most times in route to their 385 points for the season when they scored 50 or more points in three different games. So, the 1961 became the first Tiger team to score 50 or more points in four games.     

     Those 50 points gave the team 359 points for the year. That put them only 27 points behind the school’s single-season scoring record of 385 points, scored by the 1928 team. With one regular season game and at least one playoff game, the Tigers seemed to be a cinch to get that record also, needing only 41 points to become the first team to score 400 points in a season.    

     Jena got their lone midway through the fourth quarter. When Winnfield got the ball back they did something no other Winnfield had ever done, or ever had the need to do when the Tigers punted on first down. Coach Newman was trying to hold the score down the best way he saw fit. Some people wouldn't see it that way, thinking Newman was trying to show up Jena. At those times a coach is often in a no-win situation. In the end Winnfield manhandled Jena in a 50-6 win.    

     The win by Winnfield had been completely and utterly overwhelming. Winnfield gained 353 yards rushing and only lost yards on one play. That rushing total pushed the season total to 2,704 in 10 games. That was already a school record and the team still had games remaining to be played. Against Jena, the Tigers scored 8 of the first 9 times they had the ball and they punted the ball away on first down the tenth time they had the ball.    

     The 6 points given up to Jena moved the total points allowed to 72 pts. Only four teams since the 1920s had held their opponents to under 100 pts. for the whole season, including the teams of 1932 (96 pts.), 1933 (75 pts.), 1940 (94 pts.) and 1946 (95 pts.).     

     The win enabled the team to move to 10-0-0 for the season. That gave them the most wins by any Winnfield High School team in a single season, surpassing the 9 wins posted by the 1923 and 1928 teams. Four more wins would give the Tigers a state championship but the Tigers had a more immediate win in mind. The Tigers had to beat LaSalle in the regular season finale the following week to sew up the schools fourth district title and third consecutive crown.    

     In the final week of the regular season the possible outcomes needed explanation. Winnfield faced LaSalle, with the opportunity to clinch the District 1A title with a win. A Tiger loss meant a one-game playoff against Mansfield for the district crown. The District 1A champ would face the District 2A champ in the first round of the playoffs. In District 2A Tallulah would close their season against Delhi, with the District 2A title on the line. If Delhi pulled an upset and beat Tallulah, the Trojans would face Ferriday in a one-game playoff to determine the champion of that district. Regardless of any outcome, the winner of the District1A crown would host the first round playoff game.     

     Winnfield also had the opportunity to complete the regular season with an undefeated record, an accomplishment made by only one other Winnfield team - the 1919 team (7-0-0). Comparisons between those two teams began to be made, but few people had first-hand knowledge of the 1919 team since they had played 42 years earlier. Besides, a comparison between two teams in general is virtually impossible, much less two teams from a different era. Nevertheless, all of that talk about undefeated teams and "best team" in Winnfield history would all be a moot point unless Winnfield got past LaSalle in the final game of the year.    

     LaSalle, and especially their head coach Lowell Morrison, came into the Winnfield game wanting nothing more than an upset win over Winnfield. In the previous two seasons, Winnfield had knocked off LaSalle in district competition, but then again Winnfield hadn't lost a district game in over three years. The Winnfield High School football program was riding a 14-game win streak in district games, with the last district loss coming in the third of five district games played in the 1958 season. That district loss had come at the hands of the LaSalle Tigers. Winnfield had rolled over LaSalle by a score of 25-6 in the 1959 match-up, but the Tigers had eked out a 7-6 decision over LaSalle to just barely take the district crown in 1960. Since the series began, Winnfield had won 6 of 9 games, but it was the chance to knock off the No. 1 team in the state that motivated Coach Morrison, as well as the opportunity to shut down Mike Tinnerello and the Tiger offense. Coach Morrison of LaSalle stated that he believed Winnfield's No. 1 ranking gave his team an edge. "The kids feel they've got something to work on," said Morrison in an interview for The Enterprise.    

      Winnfield, on the other hand, had been both the irresistible force and the immovable object in their previous three district games. In those three games, Winnfield had possession of the football 24 times. Those possessions produced 18 touchdowns, meaning they scored a touchdown 3 out of every 4 times they touched the football in district competition. Only three of those series ended in punts and only one ended in a turnover. Winnfield won those three games by a combined margin of 121-32.  

      Winnfield's defense hemmed up LaSalle throughout the first half, but Winnfield only scored two first-half touchdowns themselves to take a 14-0 lead into halftime. It was as if everyone expected Winnfield to score every time they had the ball and it was the Tigers themselves who had created that persona.     

      The two touchdowns were products of short drives, with the first coming after an interception was returned to midfield and the second coming after Winnfield downed a punt at the LaSalle 33 yard line.  James Lloyd Collins got both touchdowns, with one coming on a 1-yard run and the other coming from four yards away. Carroll Long booted both extra point tires.     

     The Tiger offense stumbled out of the blocks in the second half, going three and out on their first series and fumbling the ball over to over to LaSalle on another series. In spite of themselves, the offense did manage to put together one third quarter scoring drive which was capped by a 27-yard Tinnerello-run on a now-familiar bootleg that Coach Morrison had vowed to stop. Long's kick was wide but the 20-0 lead now seemed like a comfortable margin. The Tigers had now scored 379 points for the year, which was six points (or a single touchdown) from tying the school scoring record.    

     Heading into the fourth quarter, Winnfield had been held on downs three of their first nine possessions of the game and been forced to punt after two other possessions. A fumble on one drive and penalties on another killed two other drives. All of that is the kind of play that sends teams packing early in the playoffs. Coach Newman was not getting the kind of game he wanted in preparation for the playoffs.    

     The story was different on the defensive side of the ball. Up to that point in the game LaSalle had been in control of the football for ten possessions. Seven of those possessions had ended after three plays and one other possession had ended with a punt. Two other possessions ended after two plays and an interception. Those ten possessions had netted LaSalle a total of minus 7 yards. LaSalle’s longest drive of the game came when they moved from their own 16 to their own 43-yard line, for a total of 27 yards. So, it was the lack of productivity of the Tiger offense that concerned Coach Newman the most.     

     Winnfield did score three more touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but give credit to the Tiger defense for two of those. After the Tiger offense pushed the score to 26-0 at the start of the fourth quarter on a touchdown by fullback Rusty Melton the Tiger defense went to work.    

     First, Bob Wyatt intercepted a LaSalle pass at the Winnfield 34-yard line and returned it 66 yards for a touchdown. Long grabbed a high snap from center and ran for the extra point to up the Winnfield lead to 34-0. Then, with less than three minutes to go in the game, Jimmy Brazzell blocked a LaSalle punt and the ball was recovered at the LaSalle 10-yard line. The Tiger second unit came in and rolled in for the 399th point of the year when Ronnie Parker dove over from the 1-yard line. Bob Wyatt added the extra point to give the team an even 400 points for the season, enabling the 1961 team to become the first Tiger team to score 400 points.    

     The win gave the team the school its third consecutive district title. It had been over forty years since the program had put together three straight winning seasons, much less three straight district titles and three straight playoff appearances. That is how far the program had come. Three titles in three years had brought the program recognition. Winnfield had been picked as the No. 1 team in Class A in the preseason poll and had held on to that ranking all season long. In the process, the team had broken nearly every school offensive and defensive team record.     

     The team became the schools second team to go through the regular season undefeated. In compiling their 11-0-0 record, the Tigers had beaten four of the program’s biggest rivals in Ruston, Jonesboro, Natchitoches and Jena. The team’s 11 wins represented two more wins than had ever been won in a single season. They accomplished that with the strongest rushing attack that the school had ever produced. The team rushed for 2,975 yards during the regular season, by far the most productive rushing total ever achieved. An additional 436 passing yards were added to give the team 3,411 total yards for the regular season, another school record. Coach Newman didn't use the pass much and in 1961 he didn't need to. There was only one game where the Tigers threw 10 or more passes, that being the Mansfield game where the Tigers completed 9 of 16 passes for 140 yards, by far their most productive night passing of the season. Otherwise the Tigers averaged throwing just over 4 passes a game in the other ten games. Winnfield didn't have to punt much in 1961. In only 3 of the 11 games were the Tigers in punt formation more than three times. For the eleven game season, Winnfield only punted 28 times.     

      Winnfield’s ability to score once they had the football has been documented. The final regular season tally reads as follows: 

      Most (59%) of those 54 touchdowns covered over half the field, with the breakdown of Winnfield's scoring-drives being as follows: 26 (48%) being 60 yards or longer, 40 (74%) being 40 yards or longer and 46 (85%) being 20 yards or longer. So, only 8 of the Tigers 54 scoring drives were under 20 yards. Defensively, the Tigers gave up 72 points, the fewest number of points given up in over thirty years. The starting defensive unit only allowed 7 touchdowns all year, with 5 of those coming in two games - the Mansfield and Jonesboro contests. For the season, the starting unit allowed 4 touchdowns in the first half of play and 3 in the second half, however, 2 of those second half touchdowns came against Jonesboro. The team combined for 5 shutouts, the most by any team since the 1920s.    

     No opponent managed to rush for over 200 yards against the Tigers, and only two teams put together a 200+ yard total yardage game, with those being Mansfield (214) and Pineville (228). All total, the defense allowed the opposition to gain 1,119 on the ground and only 360 yards through the air for a total of 1,479 yards. Winnfield's defense intercepted at least one pass in every game, ending the season with 26 interceptions, a school record. The defensive gems of the season were the Natchitoches and LaSalle games, where those two teams rushed for -17 and 13 yards respectively.    

     There were only two times Winnfield trailed in a football game, that being early in the first quarter of the Ruston and Jonesboro games. Otherwise, the Tigers had leads of over 30 points at halftime of most games.     

     But the Tigers hardly had time to sit back and gloat over those numbers. They moved to the playoffs and a chance to be the first team to win a playoff game and the first team to win a state championship on the football field. The 1919 team was declared the state champion after the end of the season when Winnfield had no takers in their challenge to play anybody.    

     To realize those dreams Winnfield would have to get by their biggest playoff nemesis - the Tallulah Trojans. In two of the Tigers three previous playoff appearances they had played Tallulah. The Trojans had won both of those games and had done so in convincing fashion, winning the 1957 game by a margin of 27-6 and the 1960 game by a score of 32-7. In both of those years, Tallulah went on to capture the Class A state title.      

      In a perfect world, Winnfield and Tallulah would have never met in the first round. Winnfield and Tallulah were arguably the best two teams in Class A, prompting some people to say that the “real” state championship game would be played in the first round of the playoffs.     

     Despite being the defending state champions, Tallulah began the preseason ranked No. 2 in the sportswriter’s poll behind Winnfield and had stayed in that position all season long. These clearly seemed to be the strongest two teams in Class A. The winner of the contest would have a big edge in the championship race and would be the biggest contender for the crown.    

     Tallulah had put together a season much like Winnfield, though not nearly as impressive. The Trojans record for the season was 9-2-0, with the two losses coming to Neville (13-0) and to Vicksburg, Ms. (46-7). During their eleven-game schedule they scored 285 points.     

     Like Winnfield, individual stars were in abundance on the Tallulah squad. Their strongest player was returning All-State fullback Leonard Neumann, who was the leading ground-gainer for Tallulah. However, Tallulah was known more as a defensive team. Like Winnfield, they had shutout five opponents during the season and had given up a total of 85 points. Only 39 of those points came against teams other than Vicksburg. During the eleven game schedule, only Neville and Vicksburg had scored more than two touchdowns against Tallulah. The team had struggled somewhat offensively during the final three games of the season; closing the year with a 21-0 win over Winnsboro, taking a close 13-6 decision over Ferriday and finishing with an 18-0 victory against Delhi in the season finale.    

      On paper the Tigers were the favorites. Tallulah wasn't the scoring unit that Winnfield was. Winnfield’s defense had proven they could shut down anybody and had certainly stopped other offenses tougher than the one Tallulah appeared to possess. When comparing Winnfield’s defense to Tallulah’s offense, the edge clearly went to Winnfield.     

     When Winnfield got the ball it was strength against strength. It appeared that was where the game would be decided. The Tigers ability to score was well proven. Winnfield had not been held to under three touchdowns all season long, so Winnfield's offense seemed to have a much stronger chance of putting points on the board than did Tallulah’s. However, Tallulah represented the strongest defense Winnfield had faced all year. In comparing Winnfield’s offense to Tallulah’s defense, that appeared to least be a standoff. It was hard to conceive of a defense that would completely shut down Winnfield.    

      The Tigers were fairly healthy for the game, with every player suited up. The most severely injured player was offensive and defensive lineman Don Jones. He had injured his ankle in practice two weeks before the contest and basically had to put a wrap around his ankle to immobilize that joint.     

      When you add to the mix the fact that the game would be played in Winnfield, virtually everything indicated that the Tigers had an edge. One thing was certain - this would be the biggest football game ever played on Winnfield’s home field.    

     Like the season before, the game would be played on Thanksgiving Day, with a 2:30 kickoff. The largest crowd to ever watch a football game on Winn Parish soil showed up, filling every seat in the stands and taking up standing room space around the field. The playing conditions were ideal so weather wouldn’t be a factor.     Winnfield looked like they were going to jump to an early lead when, on the Tigers second play from scrimmage, Jimmy Bolton burst through a hole opened by Cecil Taylor and ran 42 yards before he was downed at the Tallulah 3-yard line. After that Tallulah stuffed Winnfield in four straight line plunges, meaning Winnfield squandered their first scoring chance. That would be a pattern that would repeat itself time and time again in the first half. Two other times in the first half the Tigers moved the ball near the Tallulah 20 yard line only to be repelled by the Trojans when a fourth down play failed. All total, Winnfield had the ball for seven possessions in the first half. None of those drives produced points as the Tigers had to punt the ball away five times and turned the ball over on downs the other two times they had the ball. The first half was a game of field position, which Winnfield won decisively, but they didn’t capitalize on that. What was most frustrating about that was the fact that Winnfield had begun five series in are near Tallulah territory, yet Winnfield never crossed the goal line. At halftime the Tiger offense was one frustrated bunch.     It was an equally frustrating first half defensively for the Tigers but for an entirely different reason. Tallulah also had the ball seven times in the first half and punted the ball six times. The Trojans net gain for six of those series reads as follows: 1, 2, 6, 5, 4 and 30. In other words, Winnfield’s defense held Tallulah to 48 yards, 20 plays and two first downs on six of their seven first half series. It was that other first half possession that was the deciding series of the first half. On Tallulah’s third series of the game, the Winnfield defense had Tallulah in a third and six situation from the Tiger 31. On the next play, Neumann got the first down and then some after he broke through the Winnfield defensive line for what would be one of the key plays of the game. The Tigers were weakened on that series when solid defensive lineman Don Jones was relegated to sideline duty after he aggravated his ankle injury when he was clipped. Though Jones was the type of player you practically had to tie to the bench to keep him out of the game, his lack of mobility was of enough concern that Coach Newman had no choice but replace him.     

      Winnfield’s defensive backs didn’t make many tackles in 1961 because the ball carrier seldom got that far down the field. But, it was Tiger defensive back James Lloyd Collins who had to be the one to stop Neumann on the big third down play and that wouldn’t happen until Neumann went 33 yards, giving Tallulah the ball at the Tiger 36-yard line. That was Tallulah’s first and what would be only venture into Winnfield’s end of the field in the first half.    

     Two plays later Neumann took a handoff, swung to his right and rounded the corner. What he saw was an open field and he took full advantage of it, racing 26 yards for the score. Tallulah tried to run for the extra point but the Tiger defense stopped that, leaving the score 6-0.   

     You couldn’t have asked much more from the Winnfield defense. It was the Tiger offense that simply had to execute better in the second half, particularly when the Tigers got into scoring position. Since the Tiger offense had moved into scoring position three times in the first half, it only seemed to be a matter of time before the Tigers cashed in on that kind of field position    

     Momentum quickly shifted to the Winnfield side of the field on the opening drive of the second half when Tinnerello recovered a fumble at the Tallulah 45 yard line. That gave the Tigers their fourth starting position inside Tallulah territory.   

     After Winnfield moved to a first down at the Trojan 16-yard line, the Tallulah defense buckled down and gave up only three yards in four plays. Neither team did anything offensively the remainder of the third quarter.     

     At the start of the fourth quarter, it appeared that the Tigers got what they were looking for when Neumann coughed up the ball and Rodney Lenard fell on it at the Tallulah 26-yard line. After three plays netted 7 yards, the Tigers were back in a fourth down situation deep in Tallulah territory.      

     Coach Newman called for Tinnerello to throw on fourth down. The play was designed for Billy Barton and he was open momentarily but that was all. Tinnerello drilled the ball to Barton but the defender got a hand on it, ending the play and yet another Tiger scoring opportunity.    

      When Tallulah took over there were but four minutes remaining in the game. The strategy for Winnfield had boiled down to two basic premises. The Tiger defense had to stop Tallulah and the quicker the better. Then, Winnfield had to score the next time they had the ball because it would likely be their last opportunity. With the score still reading 6-0 in favor of Tallulah it was white-knuckle time.    

     Winnfield accomplished the first task, holding Tallulah short of a first down in three plays and forcing a punt. The Trojans ate two precious minutes off of the clock so Winnfield needed a good return. What you need and what you get are two different things and Winnfield found that out when the worst happened. The Winnfield return man fumbled the ball away, which Tallulah recovered less than 25 yards away from the Tiger goal line.    

     Just prior to the fumble, the fact that the Tigers would likely gain possession with nearly the whole length of the field away from a touchdown seemed like a tall enough mountain to climb. But, in football, possession is everything. So, failing to gain possession, when every tick of the clock is precious appeared to be the final, killing blow. Never mind that Tallulah had the ball in immediate scoring position and that a score by Tallulah would almost completely put the game out of reach, barring a total miracle.     

     The Tigers did hold the first down play to a 1-yard gain, but Tallulah made sure of the outcome on second down when Neumann bolted 22 yards for a touchdown. The attempted PAT kick sailed wide, but Tallulah had moved to a 12-0 lead with just over a minute to go in the game.    

      Two touchdowns in sixty seconds suddenly seemed more difficult than walking to the moon. It would take a full scale Tinnerello-aerial assault to get back in this game and that is what Coach Newman tried. The Tigers went nowhere on the next series and the clock ran out with Winnfield in possession at their own 26-yard line.  

    A large amount of credit is due to the play of the Tallulah defense throughout the game. They simply did what they had to do to stop repeated Winnfield scoring threats. Winnfield began four series inside Tallulah territory, including two starts at the 45-yard line, one from the 34 and the other from the 26. Winnfield never scored on any of those or any other drive.    

     Likewise, the Winnfield defense shut Tallulah down all game long. The Trojans had to punt the ball eight times in the contest, which was more than any other Winnfield opponent had been forced into. The Trojans put together a seemingly impossible 73-yard scoring drive, which alone was enough to win the game. There were only two other drives during the game when Tallulah picked up a first down. Tallulah’s second touchdown was, for the most part, simply a side note in the game.    

      The game boiled down to two main factors then. First, Winnfield did not capitalize on the great field position they had all game long to start most possessions. Secondly, they did not execute once they got into scoring position. Tallulah put together one great drive that produced a touchdown. Had the Tigers stopped that drive, like they had all of the others, the game could have very well ended in a 0-0 tie. Ironically, had that happened, Winnfield would have won the game by virtue of having more first downs. To make matters better or worse, however you look at it, two weeks later Tallulah went on to repeat as the Class A state champions when they defeated Plaquemine 14-7. Winnfield players and fans had every reason to think they were just as good as the state champions.    

     The 1961 season brought the Winnfield High School football program to the highest level it had ever been and the brand of football played was as good as had ever been witnessed. The team accomplishments would live on for years to come and the players would serve as standard-bearers for the next wave of Tiger football players, all who drew inspiration from the feats of the 1961 team.     

      Prior to 1961, only seven Tiger teams had a single player score 50 or more points in a game and no previous team had more than one player score more than 50 points. The 1961 team had three players who accomplished that feat, with Mike Tinnerello leading all scorers with 66 points and Jimmy Bolton and James Lloyd Collins scoring 54 points each. Tinnerello’s total was the second-most points ever scored by a Tiger player in a single-season up to that point; trailing only Frank Brewer’s 69 points scored during the 1928 season. But the scoring for the 1961 team didn't rest in those three players.     

     A total of 15 players scored points for the team. That was, by far, the most players to score from one team up to that point in Tiger football history. Prior to 1961, the leaders in that category was the 1928 team that had 12 players score points.    

     During the season Tinnerello rushed for 9 touchdowns, giving him 16 rushing touchdowns for his career. That tied him with Hovey Harrell for the most rushing touchdowns in a career. It was, by far, the most touchdowns ever scored by a quarterback up to that time and that record remained intact throughout the remainder of the twentieth century.  But, Tinnerello's most impressive individual record was for passing, something he did very little of his junior or senior seasons. For his career he threw for 21 touchdowns. The previous high career mark was 8, set by Dan Carr between 1948 and 1950.     

     Other individual leaders during the season included Jimmy Bolton, who was the Tigers leading ground gainer. He rushed for 696 yards in only 58 carries, for a 12.00-yard per carry average. Carroll Long set a school record by kicking 31 extra points, which shattered Durwood Swilley’s school record of 22 set during the 1948 season. Long ended his career with 48 extra point kicks, also a school record. Additionally, Long kicked the school’s first field goal during the season, a 32-yarder against Jena.    

     The team established new records in virtually every category that mattered. Some of the more impressive records the team set are: (* Includes part of the 1960 & 1962 seasons) ( ** Includes part of the 1960 season.) 

Highest Winning Percentage – Regular Season               1.000 (tied with the 1919 team)

Most Wins In A Season                                                 11

Most Wins To Start A Season                                        11

Longest Regular Season Win Streak                               14*

Most Points Scored – Reg. Season and Overall               400

Most Consecutive Home Wins                                       7**

Most Touchdowns                                                         60

Most Rushing Touchdowns                                            46                                                        

Longest Scoring Streak                                                  23**

Most Rushing Yards (Season)                                        3,133

Most Rushing Yards (Game)                                          450 vs. Natchitoches

Highest Rushing Average (Season)                                261.1 pg

Most Total Yards (Season)                                            3,602

Fewest Total Yards Allowed (Game)                             -17 vs. Natchitoches

Interceptions                                                                 26     

     The Tiger football program went 19-4-1 (.813) between the 1960 and 1961 seasons. That was the most successful two-year run in the school’s football program up to that time and was the seventh best two-year winning percentage in the twentieth century. The highest two-year winning percentages include:  

 Pct.           Years                     W/L Record                                                 

.889          1981-1982               24-3-0                                                  

.885          1978-1979               23-2-0                                                  

.880          1982-1983               22-3-0                                                  

.875          1971-1972               21-3-0                                                   

.826          1979-1980               19-4-0                                                                 

                1980-1981               19-4-0                                                 

.813          1960-1961            19-4-1     

     Above all, the biggest effect that the teams of the late 1950s and early 1960s had on the Winnfield High School football program was that they changed the entire psyche of the program. Many of the teams prior to the late 1950s hoped to win but just couldn’t/didn’t. Beginning in 1959, Winnfield teams began to expect to win, and win they did, posting 25 wins between 1959 and 1961. Winning begets winning. Winning gets the talent out and it’s much easier to keep the talent out when the program is successful. The mood of the fans is so much different with “winning programs”. During the last half of the twentieth century, Winnfield football became synonymous with winning football. That all began with the teams of the late 1950s and early 1960s.               

      The lettermen of the 1961 season included the following: 

Seniors: Cecil Taylor, James Lloyd Collins, David Adams, Mike Tinnerello, Gerald Long, Wayne McFarland, Billy Barton, Carroll Long, Mack Martin,              Don Jones, Rusty Melton, Don Garrett, Richard Evans, Charles Machen, Eugene Edmonds, Jimmy Brazzell 

Juniors: Ronnie Parker, Jimmy Bolton, Rodney Lenard, Bob Wyatt, Jim Warren, Ronnie Skains 

Soph.: Tom Trawick  

Post Season Honors:                 

David Adams                    End                        All District, HM All-State                

Wayne McFarland            Tackle                   All District, 2nd Team All-State                              

Carroll Long                     Center                   All District                

Don Jones                         Guard                    All District                                    

Rusty Melton                    Back                     All District                

Jimmy Bolton                    Back                     All District                        

Mike Tinnerello                QB                       2nd Team All District                

Cecil Taylor                      Guard                    2nd Team All District