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Story Archives: Thanksgiving in Ferriday
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Thanksgiving in Ferriday
This is the 23rd in a 30-part series on the top football games played in Concordia Parish.
Nowadays if a high school football team is practicing on Thanksgiving Day, it means the team has had a successful season.
Ferriday High faced some high stakes on Thanksgiving Day of 1956. The Bulldogs were playing against Tallulah for the District 2-A championship.
Tallulah, which was coached by Racer Holstead, had two losses on the season, one to Mississippi Big 8 Champion Carr Central of Vicksburg and the other to Louisiana Class 2A defending state champion Neville.
A crowd of 5,000 people ate an early Thanksgiving dinner to pack the stands at Melz Field for the 2 p.m. contest.
Ferriday, going for its fourth straight state championship, was riding a 49-game streak of not losing a game.
Fans would have plenty to talk about afterwards while feasting on leftovers as both teams scored two touchdowns as the contest ended in a 13-13 tie.
Donnie Daye scored on a 72-yard run. He finished with 122 rushing yards on the day.
stiff arming guy nose nearly swung at him, caught him in noseguard
Tony Brocato returned a blocked kick by his brother, Frank, 39 yards for a score. Tommy Brasher kicked extra point.
Warren Enterkin played on all four state championship teams.
"Coach Robertson and Coach Lancaster were such a great team," Enterkin said. "They played football together at Northwestern and worked well together. Coach Robertson was very low-key, while Coach Lancaster was more aggressive and outgoing. Coach Robertson would walk the sidelines and talk to us, but I don't ever remember him screaming at the officials or complaining about a bad call."
Ferrday quarterback Jimmy Marks took a knee to the head trying to tackle Neumann.
"It knocked me 'cuckoo,'" Marks said. "And I stayed 'cuckoo' until after the game. They took me out and my 13-year-old brother (Freddy) came in to play quarterback. Coach asked me if I was OK and I said I didn't know what was going on."
Marks returned tot he game and the Bulldogs drove deep into Trojan territory but didn't score.
"I was calling the plays and asking the other guys, 'What do you want to do," Marks said. "On defense I was asking Butch what were we supposed to do. When we got the ball back, I called time out and they said we didn't have any more time outs and I called time out again. I asked the guys again, 'What are we doing? Donnie said, 'Just pitch the ball back to me.' I had to be playing with a concussion."
Tallulah scored both of its touchdowns in the second half. Wayne Hopkins raced 42 yards for the score and added the conversion kick.
Hopkins finished off a 72-yard drive in the final quarter with a 20-yard run to tie the game.
But a strong rush on the conversion by Frank Brocato, James Poole, Brasher and James Graves allowed Brocato to block the kick and keep the Trojans from taking the lead.
Ferriday was on the Tallulah 1-yard line when the final buzzer sounded.
Daye three carries from five to 2 yaras line Brashier stoped on 1 yard line
Tallulah's Danny Neumann chewed up a lot of yardage on the ground for the Trojans.
I'm sorry that I can't be more help, but I was one of the guys who was just lucky to be on the team. I remember tackling Danny Newman, and I wanted to kill him because of what coach Robertson did, it's just an example of what a great coach he was, he knew how to get to everybody.
Both coaches agreed earlier that if the game ended in a tie another game would be played the following week in Tallulah. If that game ended in a tie, the tiebreaker would be decided by first downs. Ferriday won that game 18-13. |
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