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Undefeated and Untied Teams in our Coverage Area


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I did my best to find them all. If I missed one let me know. Only goes back to 1920. Undefeated AND untied.

Virginia--------------------------------------------------------------

Graham    1958    10-0    Burrhead Bradley

Saltville    1930     8-0    Ray Buchanan
                 1934     9-0    Leonard Mauck
                 1935     9-0    Leonard Mauck
                 1953     9-0    Jessee James
                 1954     9-0    Jessee James
                 1966    10-0    Harry Johnson

Richlands    1992    14-0    Dennis Vaught
                    2006    14-0    Greg Mance

Virginia High    1933    11-0    Pidney Porterfield

Appalachia    1932     9-0    Don Fletcher
                      1941     9-0    Billy Hicks
                      1966    10-0    Jim Riggs
                      1969    10-0    Jim Riggs
                      1971    13-0    Jim Riggs

Powell Valley    1990    14-0    Phil Robbins
                         1995    14-0    Phil Robbins
                         1997    14-0    Phil Robbins
                         1998    14-0    Phil Robbins

Castlewood    1965     9-0    Tommy Fletcher

Clintwood    1962    10-0    Ralph Cummins
                    1975    13-0    Ralph Cummins
                    1978    13-0    Ralph Cummins

Coeburn        1938     9-0    Bill Bowman

Dublin           1958    10-0    Gene Crookshank

Garden         1959     8-0    P. L. Williams

Gate City      1965    10-0    Harry Fry
                     1967    10-0    Harry Fry
                     1970    13-0    Harry Fry
                     1974    13-0    Harry Fry
                     2003    14-0    Nick Colobro

George Wythe    1947    11-0    Les Parson

Giles        1980    14-0    Steve Ragsdale
                1993    14-0    Steve Ragsdale
                2013    15-0    Jeff Williams

Glade Spring    1958     8-0    Roy Miller

J. I. Burton    1972    13-0    James Dotson

J. J. Kelly     1944     6-0    Verlin Gilliam
                    1956     9-0    Gothard Bays

Narrows        1938     7-0    Harry Ragsdale
                      1939    10-0    Harry Ragsdale
                      1960     9-0    Harry Ragsdale
                      1961     9-0    Harry Ragsdale
                      1962     9-0    Harry Ragsdale

Pulaski          1951    11-0    Vic Kreiter

Rich Valley    1943     7-0    Leon Noel

Radford        1971    13-0    Norman Lineburg
                     1972    13-0    Norman Lineburg

West Virginia--------------------------------------------------------------------

Bluefield    1940     9-0    Bill Dole
                  1959    11-0    Merrill Gainer
                  1960    10-0    Merrill Gainer
                  1962    11-0    Merrill Gainer
                  1965    11-0    Merrill Gainer
                  1967    11-0    Merrill Gainer
                  1968     9-0    John Chmara
                  1997    14-0    Fred Simon
                  2004    14-0    Fred Simon
                  2007    13-0    Fred Simon
                  2017    14-0    Fred Simon    

Princeton    1943     8-0    Lee Patton

Big Creek    1932     9-0    Tubby Law
                    1934    11-0    Tubby Law
                    1955     9-0    Merrill Gainer
                    1957    10-0    Merrill Gainer

Athens        1928     7-0    Joe Vachon

Northfork    1973    12-0    John Brandt

Gary           1950    10-0    Bob Goosens
                   1970    11-0    Sid Cure

Welch         1963    10-0    Tony Colobro    

Union          1938     8-0    Haskell Shumate (six man)
                    1941     8-0    Rufus Houchins (six man)
                    1963    10-0    Leonard Houchins

Peterstown    1948    10-0    Tom Ballard (six man)
                      1950     8-0    Tom Ballard (six man)
                      1991    14-0    Donnie Jackson

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11 minutes ago, BigWinners said:

And from 1994 thru 1998, five seasons, PV lost only six games. And four came in one season, 96. Pretty incredible run, they had only two more losses than state titles (6-4)

2 NFL tailbacks certainly helped with that run!

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16 hours ago, BigWinners said:

Tom Turner never had an undefeated season? That's crazy. Looks like he had a good chance in 1993, undefeated going into the state title game but lost 10-6. They won a state title after going 5-5 in the regular season, talk about getting hot at the perfect time.

Never did. With PV and GC on the schedule there weren't many years conducive to an undefeated season. It takes a lot of talent and some luck. Undefeated with a State Title is a VERY impressive feat. An undefeated regular season is hard enough.

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52 minutes ago, jonah58 said:

2 NFL tailbacks certainly helped with that run!

Absolutely it did. But other schools around had elite talent too, tons of guys that went to places like VT, WVU, UVA, etc.. If it was just either Jones brother and a mediocre team surrounding them, no way the team succeeds at such a level. Too many great teams around that could beat them.

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1 hour ago, BigWinners said:

Absolutely it did. But other schools around had elite talent too, tons of guys that went to places like VT, WVU, UVA, etc.. If it was just either Jones brother and a mediocre team surrounding them, no way the team succeeds at such a level. Too many great teams around that could beat them.

Agree with this. Across the board, talent in SWVA was at a high point in the mid-late 90s...at least in the ‘recent’ era. 
 

Maybe it’s the Devil in me, but I’d take the ‘70 GC team over any other on that list. Hard to compare, I know, with the change in the game and athleticism, but based on overall dominance, it’s hard to stack up against that bunch. 

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2 hours ago, Blue Cannonball said:

Agree with this. Across the board, talent in SWVA was at a high point in the mid-late 90s...at least in the ‘recent’ era. 
 

Maybe it’s the Devil in me, but I’d take the ‘70 GC team over any other on that list. Hard to compare, I know, with the change in the game and athleticism, but based on overall dominance, it’s hard to stack up against that bunch. 

 

I know nothing about the 70 GC team, but I'm usually more inclined to side with more recent teams for the reasons you mentioned. Rule changes, more kids training from earlier ages and improving their athleticism, developments in schemes and philosophy, etc... But 25 years isn't a huge gap and it's entirely possible the best of the 70s could beat the best of the 90s on the right day. The best of the 40s or whatever gets smashed by the best of the 90s or 00s, but by the 70s the game was evolving and players (while usually being smaller) were trained pretty well.

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3 hours ago, Liam McPoyle said:

I agree. The Narrows players would be in their mid-80s by then. No way they catch Caleb Jennings.

Hah touche. I meant prime v. prime, but you knew that. teams with a 120lb C and 20 pass attempts for a season would get murdered by a good team now. Imagine them trying to cover a four wide spread set lolol

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That Narrows team would also being running basically the same offense Giles still runs to this day with at least one lineman that went on to play at South Carolina.  Also a team speculated in the press back then of possibly being the first to win 20 straight games.  But agreed, the comparison is just silly. 

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The historical comparisons are not only impossible to prove, but interesting to argue. I would use GC 1970 as an example.  That team is unquestionably a juggernaut in comparison to its time, and was likely the most dominant team in relation to its peers in SWVA history.  However, kids today as a collective are much faster and much more athletic (though on a whole for this region smaller and not as physical) than back in the 1970s.  My honest opinion, I don’t think GC 1970 could beat teams like Graham 2001, Bluefield 2004, or Richlands 2010.  Those teams were not only big and physical, but had insane athleticism.  
 

Like I said, though...impossible to prove.

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28 minutes ago, UVAObserver said:

The historical comparisons are not only impossible to prove, but interesting to argue. I would use GC 1970 as an example.  That team is unquestionably a juggernaut in comparison to its time, and was likely the most dominant team in relation to its peers in SWVA history.  However, kids today as a collective are much faster and much more athletic (though on a whole for this region smaller and not as physical) than back in the 1970s.  My honest opinion, I don’t think GC 1970 could beat teams like Graham 2001, Bluefield 2004, or Richlands 2010.  Those teams were not only big and physical, but had insane athleticism.  
 

Like I said, though...impossible to prove.

I agree, but I think the 70s is just far enough back to be competitive. Any older and it's not even close. I think the 70s is about as far back as you can go and still find competitive teams. 

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3 hours ago, UVAObserver said:

The historical comparisons are not only impossible to prove, but interesting to argue. I would use GC 1970 as an example.  That team is unquestionably a juggernaut in comparison to its time, and was likely the most dominant team in relation to its peers in SWVA history.  However, kids today as a collective are much faster and much more athletic (though on a whole for this region smaller and not as physical) than back in the 1970s.  My honest opinion, I don’t think GC 1970 could beat teams like Graham 2001, Bluefield 2004, or Richlands 2010.  Those teams were not only big and physical, but had insane athleticism.  
 

Like I said, though...impossible to prove.

Good points and you are right in that a team from 1970 would struggle to deal with the athletes, formations, and play calling that weren’t around in their time. In that sense, most ‘modern’ teams would have the advantage...think ‘72 Dolphins vs a team like the ‘19 Chiefs. 

The specific question for any team that played the ‘70 Blue Devils is could they load the box and actually stop what everyone knew was coming...Phil and Stan Rogers behind a big, strong offensive line (even by today’s standards). 
 

I bleed blue, so I’ll take GC, but like you said, impossible to prove. 

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Comparing decades is not easy, especially in certain towns and areas in SW Va..  I lived in Saltville from 1960 until 1966, and some of those teams (Shakers) would have destroyed the Saltville (Northwood) teams of today...mainly because of the decrease in population since the early '70's and the closing of Olin-Matheson Chemical Corporation.  The talent, probably due to numbers, back then was just better than it is today.  Other areas are just the opposite.  Some of those football teams in the 1960's were very good, and could compete with any team in the 1970's and probably beyond.

That said, I do agree as a whole that teams of the 70's and beyond are better (bigger, faster, stronger), and have utilized the passing game more than they did in the 1960's, but that's not true in every case...Saltville being a good example. 

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16 hours ago, Blue Cannonball said:

Good points and you are right in that a team from 1970 would struggle to deal with the athletes, formations, and play calling that weren’t around in their time. In that sense, most ‘modern’ teams would have the advantage...think ‘72 Dolphins vs a team like the ‘19 Chiefs. 

The specific question for any team that played the ‘70 Blue Devils is could they load the box and actually stop what everyone knew was coming...Phil and Stan Rogers behind a big, strong offensive line (even by today’s standards). 
 

I bleed blue, so I’ll take GC, but like you said, impossible to prove. 

Always a fun conversation.  Stan and Phil were amazing.  I've always thought the '88 GC and '97 GC teams would have interesting matchups against the 70s group.  Both of those teams (although neither was undefeated) had multiple D1 starters at OL, DL, QB (counting Shoe as a basketball) and LB.  

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3 hours ago, RCITYHOO said:

71 & 72 Radford teams were loaded. In the 2 years they had like 20 players go D1. That's loaded.

Thats insane. I know Radford had a much larger enrollment back then but still, thats like big time Texas school numbers

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41 minutes ago, used2blarge said:

Always a fun conversation.  Stan and Phil were amazing.  I've always thought the '88 GC and '97 GC teams would have interesting matchups against the 70s group.  Both of those teams (although neither was undefeated) had multiple D1 starters at OL, DL, QB (counting Shoe as a basketball) and LB.  

Agree with those as interesting matchups — would be some fun Blue-White games at Legion! 
 

Splitting hairs, but I think you mean the ‘96 team. Even though ‘97 won the Div 3 title, I think the ‘96 team that lost to Brookville in the semis, was a more talented, dominant team — Shoe, Beasley, and some other big linemen were seniors in ‘96. Just goes to show you anything can happen in the playoffs...I say we beat Brookville 9 out of 10 times in ‘96, but Jefferson Forrest (who we beat in ‘97) probably gets us 9 out of 10 times. 

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