(Birmingham News file/Charles Nesbitt)Once the game did start, Banks built an 18-0 lead on a pair of 21- and 16-yard touchdown runs by fullback Jerry Murphree and a 32-yard TD pass from Rutledge to Grefseng, who also doubled as a back-up tight end. The coach, Tandy Gerelds, tells the team to use their shared anger to unite them, but black and white players clash on and off the field.
When he retired from football, Nathan also got into coaching - first with the Dolphins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and then at Florida International University. The game was played on Nov. 8, 1974.
"It was Banks-Woodlawn. )Something else special happened that week, too. If all of the gates had been open, they would have had 60,000 people. I could hear the voice of god reverberating through steel:I remember blue and red ribbons labeled "Pop the Colonels," which in retrospect makes as much sense as "Salute the Kernels. Or was it 17-7? It was the biggest in Alabama high school football history. Wow. Nathan scored Woodlawn's only touchdown on a 13-yard run in the fourth quarter. She jumped right in, 40 years later.Gallery: Epic 1974 Woodlawn vs Banks High School Football Game At Legion FieldTalk to people who went to that game and you hear the same kind of bits and pieces from memory. It was like pouring peanut butter through a funnel.But that crowd. Gosh, that game was 40 years ago, which is unbelievable.
(Charles Nesbitt/The Birmingham News)In those days - hard to believe it's 40 years ago -- steel beams rose from the stands to hold the massive upper deck that made Legion Field seem a Football Capital of the South. David Peel Best Clips High School Football The Best Films Lower East Side Cultural Diversity Big … (Photo courtesy of Banks High School Facebook page)The two schools were just 10 minutes and less than four miles apart.Banks High School - named for school superintendent L. Frazier Banks - opened in 1957 in Birmingham's South East Lake neighborhood and fielded its first football team three years later.The athletic teams at Banks adopted the name Jets, and in 1961, the Alabama Air National Guard loaned the school a Korean War-era F-86D Sabre jet, which was painted in the school colors of Columbia blue and scarlet and prominently displayed on campus, making it an inviting target for practical jokers from rival schools.Banks alums included Jimmy Sidle, an All-American quarterback at Auburn; Johnny Musso, an All-American running back at Alabama; and David Cutliffe, who became the head coach at Ole Miss and later, Duke.Woodlawn High School had a much longer history that went back to 1916, when the community of Woodlawn was annexed into Birmingham.The main building, built in 1922, was a grand, three-story structure that always looked more like a palace than a schoolhouse.The sports teams at Woodlawn became known as the Colonels and the school colors were green and gold, the same colors that student pranksters sometimes painted that Sabre jet at nearby Banks.Woodlawn grads included Harry Gilmer, who was an All-American at Alabama and the MVP of the 1946 Rose Bowl, and Bobby Bowden, who coached Florida State to two national championships on his way to becoming the winningest coach in college football history.By his senior season in 1974, Woodlawn running back Tony Nathan was one of the most sought-after high school football players in America. "We were out there playing in the mud and the rain," Woodlawn's Ragland says. Stearns recalls. "Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our "That's why, for two years, we had a lot of focus and attention on Woodlawn. (Birmingham News file/Charles Nesbitt)On the bus ride to Legion Field, the Woodlawn players knew it was a big deal when they got a police escort to the game, which was also a first for them.As the teams went through their pre-game drills, Woodlawn's Stearns noticed another assistant, Mike Logan, staring up into the stands with his mouth agape. The attendance was out of this world. That iconic Banks jet was turned over to the Southern Museum of Flight, where it has been restored to its Korean War glory days.Meanwhile, Woodlawn High School stands majestically in the same location on First Avenue North, just like it has since 1922, and the football team is still sending players to the NFL, including Chris Davis, the Auburn cornerback who was the last-second hero of the 2013 Iron Bowl.That 1974 Banks-Woodlawn game would be Shorty White's 100th win at Banks, and his last. "The Colonels had something else going for them, too. I was Banks through and blue, though I wouldn't get to put on the uniform for another few years.But I was asked something this week that made me pause.But somehow this game came to mean something even bigger than winning or losing. Tom Parrish, a center who played mostly special teams on the Banks squad that year, recalls the whole team stopping in the tunnel to stare. Hank's speech mov… "We both started to laugh. "I remember cheers of the cheerleaders - I was only 11, but I'm sure I had an eye out for them. Of course I did.
"It was supposed to be a quick pass but somebody got in there and almost sacked Jeff. The year before, Logan had coached at rural Locust Fork High School in Blount County. "But it didn't bother me that I was forced to go to Woodlawn because a lot of my friends were at Woodlawn, too. "The following Friday night, Woodlawn closed out its season on a cold, rainy night at Fair Park, defeating Carver 12-0.
"I said, 'If we win (the next game) and they win, we are both going to be undefeated when we play each other, and it's going to be the biggest high school crowd there ever will be,'" White recalls.White says he was assured by the Legion Field crew that it would be able to handle the crowd.The week of the game, Jerry Stearns, who was an assistant coach at Woodlawn that year and later became the head coach there, recalls selling advance tickets at the school, something he says never happened before. More than 42,000 people showed up and the city opened only Gates 7a and b. "There are people who went to that game that I've heard from all my life," Rutledge says.