50 years ago today the Red Raiders became football kings

Dec. 3—Ogle Stadium will be an eerily quiet place tonight.

It wasn't that way 50 years ago when the Decatur Red Raiders won a state championship at home in a game played on a wet, muddy field.

The record book shows Decatur beat Butler, 8-0, to become the Class 4A state championship. That was the highest classification in the state at the time.

Quarterback Eddie Mitchell connected with Jim Rankin on a 20-yard pass for the touchdown in the second quarter. The Red Raiders then converted the two-point conversion on a pass from Mitchell to Edwin Breland.

"Coach (Earl) Webb told us at halftime that if Butler doesn't score, they don't win and we were determined to make that happen," Decatur's Paul Brogdon said 50 years later after his interception near the Butler goal line sealed the win with 57 seconds left to play.

The Alabama High School Football website (AHSFHS.org) shows Decatur with six state championships. The first five came in 1932, 1933, 1947, 1948 and 1949 and are considered mythical championships because they were not decided on the field.

The Alabama High School Athletic Association did not start football playoffs until 1966 with four schools competing in Class 4A. The playoffs expanded to all four classifications in 1967. It increased to eight teams in each classification in 1970.

Decatur was one of the eight 4A schools competing in the 1970 playoffs. The Red Raiders were bounced in the first round by Scottsboro, 24-0. Decatur's only two losses in 1970 were to Scottsboro. That left a bitter taste that would help fuel the desire for success in 1971.

"We knew it was going to be another good team in '71," said Wally Burnham, one of Webb's three assistant coaches. "They were a united group determined to be a state champion."

Burnham, now 80, lives in Gainesville, Georgia. The other two assistant coaches were Paul Glover, who lives in Huntsville, and Jimmy Holley, who is deceased. Webb died in 2005.

"We coached the hound out of those boys and they never complained," Burnham said. "We coached them hard and loved them just as hard."

Decatur's starting lineup for the championship game on offense looked like this: tackles, Barry Brown and Rich Chenault; guards, Mark Anderson and David Mathews; center, Randy Bradford; tight end, either Preston Brogdon or Edwin Breland; quarterback, Eddie Mitchell; running backs, Paul Brogdon and Jerry Mizell; wingback, Jim Rankin; split end, Charley Kennedy

The Red Raiders on defense had ends, Breland and Stan Evans; tackles, Chenault and Curtis Rooker; middle guard, Mike Burnthall; linebackers, Frankie Williams, Preston Brogdon and Rankin; defensive backs, Kennedy, Paul Brogdon and Scott Wagner.

"We didn't have any superstars on the team," Paul Brogdon said. "We were truly a team. On offense we had a line that did a lot of double-teaming. We knew that we could always run up the middle. On defense we were just a bunch of fighters who got the job done."

Football 50 years ago was vastly different from the game played today. It was a more defensive oriented game. Shutouts were a realistic goal. A big game on offense was cracking the 30-point barrier.

Webb's Red Raiders had seven shutouts in the 1971 regular season. They beat Athens 14-6, and Scottsboro, 18-13. The one blemish on the record was a 17-8 loss to Cullman.

"We had a lot of guys that didn't play that night because of injuries," Preston Brogdon said. "I got hurt early in the season and that was the last game I missed."

Decatur bounced back with shutout wins over Deshler, Walker and Huntsville to claim the No. 7 seed in the 4A playoffs. The Red Raiders opened with a road trip to Birmingham's Legion Field to play No. 2 seed West End. In 1971, Legion Field was still a place where Auburn and Alabama both played several home games.

"A lot of us had never been to Legion Field and none of us had ever played on turf," Mizell said. "We had to order special shoes to wear on the turf. On Thursday we bused to Birmingham to practice on the turf."

West End was a big favorite despite losing its season finale to Berry, 35-6. The Lions had won their first nine games. Even the majority of The Daily's Panel of Experts picked West End.

"The trip to Legion Field on Thursday really got the guys excited," Burnham said. "You could tell it on the bus coming home. I knew then that I liked our chances."

Decatur used a powerful ground game to beat West End, 24-7, thanks to two second-half touchdowns. That set up a semifinal game vs. Grissom the next week at Huntsville's Milton Frank Stadium.

Grissom featured the top defense in the state with just 35 points scored on the Tigers in 11 games. Despite playing in a constant downpour, Decatur beat Grissom 38-0. So much for Grissom's defense being the best in the state. The Tigers were held to just one first down in the second half.

"That was our best game of the season," Burnham said. "After that game we knew we were going to win the state championship."

Unlike today, the state championship games in 1971 were played on the home field of one of the participants. Butler, which was the No. 1 seed, had hosted in the opening round. Decatur had traveled both rounds and thus got to host the championship game.

Just like rain was a key factor in the semifinal game vs. Grissom, it was a factor in the championship game. There was even talk about possibly moving the game to Saturday.

That Friday turned out to be a special night for Decatur. The city's annual Christmas parade was held earlier that evening. Ogle Stadium with the field's dirt and dead grass painted green three days earlier was packed for the 7:30 p.m. kickoff on the soggy evening.

"I remember that the city always sent a crew out to Ogle on Thursday to line off the field," Burnham said. "It was raining so bad on that Thursday that they couldn't do it. It ended up that us coaches got to line the field off on Friday afternoon. It was a big mess."

Because of Butler's size, Webb's original game plan was to throw the ball more, but the weather and field conditions changed that plan.

"The middle of the field was just a sea of mud," Preston Brogdon said. "At the start of the game, there were some places down the sidelines where you could get your footing. After the game, the field was pretty much destroyed."

Butler had the first scoring opportunity but missed a field goal. The Red Raiders started from their 20 and drove 80 yards in 14 plays to get the game's only touchdown.

The second half saw Decatur trying to keep the ball away from Butler. Jim Rankin turned into a key weapon as the team's punter.

"Jim was a great weapon all season for us as our punter," Preston Brogdon said. "He seemed to always come up with a big punt to pin the other team deep on their end of the field. He did that night against Butler."

The Rebels' last drive started on their 23 with three minutes left to play. They marched as far as the Decatur 33 before Paul Brogdon made his interception.

"It was absolute joy when the game ended," Mizell said. "We had worked so hard for it for really two years. It was an amazing feeling."

The official stats told an amazing story. Decatur had just six first downs and 143 yards of offense to Butler's 12 first downs and 287 yards of offense. Decatur completed two of four passes. Butler was zero for two passing. Decatur punted seven times to four times for Butler.

After five decades, some memories of that championship season have a somber side. The years have taken a toll on the team's roster. Mitchell and Rankin, who teamed up for game-winning touchdown, have both died. The surviving players are in their late 60s. The Brogdon twins and Mizell are 67.

The state championship game was Burnham's final high school game. He then went on a coaching odyssey through the college ranks that included stops at UNA, Delta State, East Tennessee, Memphis, Lamar, Florida State, South Carolina, South Florida, Iowa State and Arkansas before retiring in 2017.

The team had a reunion in October. There were 13 honored before Decatur's game on Oct. 29 vs. Huntsville. Perhaps appropriately that game was played in the rain as a reminder of the night 50 years ago.

— david.elwell@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2395. Twitter @DD_DavidElwell.