Dear editor:

Football season is in high gear and the Packers are off to a good start. Everyone loves a winning team.

I would like to tell you about a local football team that won all their games and the state championship in the 1961-62 season.

I know a lot of you must be saying, the Packers didn't win the state title in 1961/62. If you said this, you would be correct, but the William Bryant High Rams did.

Coached by Mr. A.F. Shaw and Mr. Ralph Taylor, the Rams went 9 and 0 that year.

In their first five games of the season the Rams did not give up a touchdown. In this streak, the Rams defeated the Washington Tigers 39 to 0, the Hutto Tigers 12 to 0, the Douglass Lions 31 to 0, the Sumter County Trojans 34 to 0 and the Magnolia Buccaneers 33 to 0.

The First team to score against the Rams was the Camilla Pirates and they only scored 6 points. The Rams defeated Camilla 20 to 6.

The Rams went on to defeat the Center Tigers 14 to 6, the McDuffie County Rams 19 to 0 and then played the Lemon Street Hornets for the state title in Moultrie. The Rams defeated Lemon Street by the score of 12 to 0 at Mack Tharpe Stadium to claim the Class A State Championship.

What a season the Rams had. In all, the Rams scored 214 points and gave up only 12 points during the season.

Some of the players on the team were Amos Walker, George Turner, Willie Harris, Willie Fred Daniels,

Pete Turner, James Brown, Willie Buie, Willie Motley, Willie Robinson, Roosevelt White, Eugene Watts, Cleveland Hunt, Shelley Neal, Willie Roney and Clifford Melvin.

I do not know who else was on the team, so it you played on the 1961/62 championship team, please let me know.

I would like to thank Mr. Dale Williams for his help with information for this article.

As someone who loves local history and especially sports, I am always amazed at what I find by doing a little research and by talking to different folks.

’Til the next time, may God bless all of you.