| Current Poll |
Who do you think should manage Ferriday water?
View Results
|
|
Story Archives: Hounds have hands full with Amite
- 2013 - 340 articles
- 2012 - 856 articles
- 2011 - 635 articles
- 2010 - 1276 articles
- 2009 - 1591 articles
- 2008 - 1763 articles
|
Hounds have hands full with Amite
Huntington High had a jamboree contest and one game under its belt before getting set to travel to Liberty, Miss., for a contest against Amite Private School in its first year of existence in 1970.
The Hounds and Briarfield played to an 8-8 tie in the jamboree at Huntington Field on Lake Concordia before the Hounds defeated Tensas Academy 30-8 to capture the Jaycees Trophy in the very first football game played by a Huntington team.
But considering how new everything was back then, Hound head coach Bobby Marks was unsure what the Hounds would be facing in Liberty.
"I'm almost ashamed to tell it, but I sent Bill Jones, our trainer, over to Amite to watch them practice," said Marks, who was co-head coach with Eddie Hunter. "Nobody had seen anybody else so no one knew what to expect. I expected them to have a good football team, but Bill came back and said, 'They ain't got nothing and y'all are going to have a field day.'"
That may have been Jones' last scouting trip.
Huntington scored the only touchdown with four minutes remaining and defeated Amite 8-0 to improve to 2-0.
"Russell (Huber) saw them boys coming down the hall and he told me that some of them looked so old that they had to have false teeth," Marks said. " I told Bill I did not want him scouting again. Russell said he was glad of that."
"Frank Wilson came back to the huddle in the first quarter and said that their safety didn't have a mouthpiece because he had no teeth," Huber said.
With the game tied at 0-0 in the fourth quarter, Bobby Byrnes forced a fumble and Chris Williams recovered it on the Amite 45-yard line.
Huber, who went on to play college ball at Tulane, capped off the drive with a 21-yard touchdown run and ran in the conversion for an 8-0 Hound win.
Huber finished with 83 rushing yards. Charles Clayton and Frank Wilson had 35 rushing yards each.
"They were a heckuva hard-hitting team," Huber said. "We earned that win, but they didn't go down easy."
Huntington finished 8-3 in 1970. The Hounds went 7-0 in the North District, but did not advance to the playoffs because both Claiborn and Briarfield had better overall records, even though both had one district loss each. Games against North and South teams counted as district games. Huntington defeated Leland (Ms.) 20-6 in the MIss-Lou Bowl to end its season.
Huntington won its only state championship in football the following year.
"Back in those days college could watch you practice," Marks said. "We had LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Mississippi Southern come watch us practice. I had a coach tell me that Huntington and Jackson Prep had more SEC-caliber football players than any other school in Louisiana and Mississippi. Prep had nine kids sign with colleges and we had five." |
|
| Frank Morris Murder Series |
|
|
E-mail Story
Print Story
