Anyone who knows me knows that I have been the press box announcer at Murphy High School football games for almost 40 years and have become famous – or infamous, depending on which fan base you are talking to – for the sayings, “This is Bulldog country,” and “First and tennnnn, Bulldogs!”
I’ll claim the second one as my own, but I copied “This is Bulldog country” from an announcer in the 1970s by the name of Paul Ridenhour, who owned WKRK radio at that time. Did you know Murphy hasn’t always been the Bulldogs? I’m sorry, but I don’t know if I could do, “First and tennnnn, Boomers!”
If you were a Murphy fan in 1937, you wouldn’t have been rooting for the Bulldogs but the Boomers. At that time, the red squirrel was referred to as a Boomer, which was the high school’s mascot. The name wasn’t changed to the Bulldogs until Oct. 23, 1938, which is also when officials also raised the price of admission from 25 cents to 40 cents. Evidently, it caused major complaints.
There was an article in the Oct. 27, 1938, edition of the Cherokee Scout that explained why there was a need for the gate increase. Murphy lost its last game as the Boomers to Andrews, but Murphy won its first-ever game over the Copper Hill Copperheads 13-0 on Oct. 23, 1938, as the Bulldogs. We couldn’t find any information of what caused the change in mascots.
As far as I can tell, Andrews has always been the Wildcats, but Robbinsville hasn’t always been the Black Knights. It seems up until 1965, they were the Blue Devils.
Don’t know why Robbinsville decided to change their mascot, but when it was changed to the Black Knights in 1965, it was hailed in their annual that it was the first time they had beat Murphy in nine years. Modeal Walsh, father of Robbinsville football head coach Dee Walsh, was the head coach back then.
Robbinsville would also claim its first state title in 1966. Back then, there wasn’t a 1A state champion, but a Far West Regional champion and a Midwest Regional championship, a Mideast Regional championship and a Far East Regional championship.
Robbinsville won the Far West Title in 1966 and became a powerhouse in 1A football starting in the late 1960s, ‘70s and early ‘80s. However, another Smoky Mountain Conference 1A team ruled the early 1960s.
Andrews won the Far West Regional title in 1964 and 1965. The Wildcats claimed the Midwest title in 1966, the same year the Black Knights won the Far West Title.
Andrews defeated Drexel to claim the title by a score of 35-6 in 1964, beat Mars Hill 30-27 to claim the title in 1965 and defeated Glen Alpine of Morganton to claim the title in 1966. I’m not sure why two SMC teams ended up in different regions that year, but N.C. High School Athletic Association records say it did.
Murphy started competing for state titles in 1961 in the 2A division and, just as the 1A was split up into regions, so was 2A. The Bulldogs won the SMC title in 1962 and went on to defeat the Reynolds Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, but lost to Appalachian High School in Boone in the Far West Championship Game.
Murphy’s John Snow, who later went on to become a judge and state senator, played on that team; he would get a scholarship to attend Wake Forest University. Appalachian had a player by the name of Bob Matheson, who later would be am outstanding linebacker for the Super Bowl champion Miami Dolphins.
In conversations with Snow about Matheson, he had nothing but praise to say. Chuck McConnell was coach during both of those years, and he was assisted by a young man from Andrews named Dave Bristol, who would later go on to manage the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves.
The next time any SMC team competed for state titles was in 1970. In 1967, the state went to two divisions in 2A, East Division championship and West Division championship.
A new coach showed up at Murphy High School in 1966. He had grown up playing for the Bulldogs’ cross-county rival, Andrews, but now was the head coach of the Bulldogs. Terry Postell would go on to give Murphy its first 2A state championship.
Another coach showed up a year later and became Postell’s lines coach. Bob Hendrix would go on to become principal at Murphy High School.
Murphy made the playoffs in 1967, ’68, ’69 and ’70. The Dogs fell to T.C. Roberson the first year and to Hendersonville the next two years.
Maurice Kincaid, one of the players on that team, described the Hendersonville game this way: “We went to play football and a track meet broke out.”
The third time was the charm, and the Bulldogs got by their stumbling block in the 1970 football season – but the next season is another whole story.
When he’s not announcing games, J.R. Carroll is a staff correspondent for the Cherokee Scout. Email him at jcarroll8760@gmail.com.