Southwest District

[GC HOKE 27]

I was a freshman when Coach Colobro came to Gate City.  I think he wanted to establish his own identity, especially following Coach Fry.  He was also the AD, so he had the power to do this.  I hated the change of colors.  I played baseball, and I remember my Jr. year, we had navy blue uniforms, and my Sr. year, we had Carolina blue uniforms.  I think he changed it back to Royal blue in the early 90s.

[SXSW 557]

1 hour ago, 1inStripes said:

Football wasnt the only one sport at GC to adopt the carolina blue were they?

Back in the Tommy Musick, Chris Shelton and Kevin Morris days. Coach Mason was absolutely a blast to be around and watch coach.

[SXSW 557]

Maybe the reason Colobro left Tazewell is that he wanted to change Tazewell to Carolina Blue and the powers said no...

[RichlandsAlum 678]

19 hours ago, cityofRaven said:

Silver is still a school color and should be used more in my opinion.  That being the case, I would much rather have silver helmets as my 2nd than white. I remember the all silver unis with a silver helmet back in the 90's and those are one of my all time favorite in school history.

I would also love to see a full color pic of the old Carolina Blue unis they used to wear back in the 60's.

Richlands has kind of an unusual uniform history.  The "blue" of the Ernie Hicks era was a lighter shade (similar to Columbia, Carolina, and/or Honolulu for various sports at various times).  Once he retired, then there started to be some variation.

In football, Jim Hammond seemed to prefer Navy Blue with liberal amounts of red trim.  Although there was also one set of uniforms in at least the mid '70s that was light blue (with red numerals) which was part of the rotation.  Todd Heldreth instituted Navy and White as official colors (and essentially did so for all sports in his role as athletic director) when he arrived in 1979.  Billy Haun added a considerable amount of gray in his last season (1990).  Then Dennis Vaught morphed that into silver with his arrival.  Near as I can figure, since the switch from leather helmets, white is actually the color of the lids that Richlands has worn most frequently.

Basketball kept the lighter shade of blue up through Jack Lyons' first tenure in the late '70s.  Red was introduced into those uniforms as well along the mid '70s.  I believe the first Navy and White uniforms were introduced in 1980 (under the tenure of Coach Heldreth as AD).  Columbia Blue was used as an accent for a few years under Reggie Blevins and Jack Lyons.  Then it was back to Navy and White until Tom Rife introduced silver/gray into the mix.

Baseball uniforms in the 1970's (around the time the program was resurrected, apparently) had a similar motif to the football team.  Mostly navy and white with heavy accents of red.  Johnny Altizer brought in gray uniforms with Navy as the primary shade of blue in the early 1980's.  Not sure that this was an effort to introduce gray as a school color so much as the fact that gray is a traditional road color for baseball.

One other random thought about gray....  During the 1980's there was apparently a nationwide trend to wearing gray pants in football.  Most notable example I can think of is ETSU, who wore them for a couple of years even though I don't think that's ever been an official color of the Bucs.  During most of their '80s glory days, Tazewell donned the gray britches with green and yellow stripes (and it was a sharp look, IMO) -- but I don't think gray was ever part of their official scheme either.  Not sure why Colobro went there -- I figure it was either influenced by his dad's association with Concord or he was mimicking Graham.  Graham's use of gray always seemed clever to me, because I understand the distinction of academic and athletic colors there.

Sorry to ramble.  Just an odd stream of consciousness this morning.

[Bigrhsfan 884]

I played baseball for coach Altizer in 76 & 77 when we resurrected the baseball program and our first uniforms had the gray pants, dark blue tops  ( can't remember the exact shade name probably more of a navy )  and we had red hats and red shocks.  We just figured that they got those uniforms on sale somewhere.....lol,  but we were happy to have uniforms because we were not very well funded the first couple of years. 

  My lettermans  jacket back then was more of a Carolina blue but I like the newer navy blue they have now much better.

Man,  that first year of baseball was a little tough,  every one of our games were away games and double headers because we had no home field.  It was kinda nice in one way because we got out of school early on game days,  sometimes around 12:00 depending on where we were playing. Awwww,  the good old days.......sure do miss them !

[Chappy 72]

17 hours ago, blueinbama said:

I always preferred Maroon and Gray myself!  ;)

If you're going that route I'll take Burgundy/maroon and Gold/Yellow! :) 

[GC HOKE 27]

2 hours ago, SXSW said:

Back in the Tommy Musick, Chris Shelton and Kevin Morris days. Coach Mason was absolutely a blast to be around and watch coach.

Yes he was!  He was downright hilarious.  I always thought he could make a good living as a stand-up comedian. Of course, he would get in your grill sometimes as well.  He got all of our attention one day in volunteer workouts his first year.  He was disappointed in the effort which we were going after loose balls.  He showed everyone there how he wanted us to go after loose balls.  He rolled the ball down the court, took off in a dead sprint after it, and laid out in a horizontal dive on top of the ball.  I bet he slid 20 ft. on the gym floor.

[SXSW 557]

I had him for Biology 2 my Jr. year it was first period and if he had a game the night before, he would send me to the gym for the TV and VCR and would break down his game film while we had a reading or study assignment. He would get so upset that he would leave the room over something that happened on the tape from the night before, he would look at me and tell me your in charge I have to go cool off. I was in the stands at the night he got ejected and threw the chair but he was always the same no matter where you saw him at. You are right he could have been a stand up comic and have been very successful.

[Bulldogs52 482]

13 hours ago, SXSW said:

Maybe the reason Colobro left Tazewell is that he wanted to change Tazewell to Carolina Blue and the powers said no...

The uniforms that Tazewell will be wearing this season are of Coach Colobro choosing!

[starcityfootballfan 517]

Richlands will win the district ... Graham will finish at #2!

[starcityfootballfan 517]

The remaining teams will simply be a toss up!

[old_school 78]

1. Richlands

2. Graham

3. Marion

4. VA High

5. Lebanon

6. Tazewell

I honestly think Marion and Graham could be a toss up. What does Marion return this year? They were pretty good last year and if some of the same kids are back, they could surprise some people. Graham has the play makers though so who knows. Mance will just figure out a way to win, like he always does.

The Bulldogs are just too young this year to finish any better.

[Canes00 434]

3 hours ago, old_school said:

1. Richlands

2. Graham

3. Marion

4. VA High

5. Lebanon

6. Tazewell

I honestly think Marion and Graham could be a toss up. What does Marion return this year? They were pretty good last year and if some of the same kids are back, they could surprise some people. Graham has the play makers though so who knows. Mance will just figure out a way to win, like he always does.

The Bulldogs are just too young this year to finish any better.

Marion lost some lineman and a RB but will be very competitive and I think will surprise so people especially on the defensive side of the ball.