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Anniston's First Grid Team



Anniston's First Grid Team

The fall of 1920 marked the first time Anniston High fielded a football team. Members of that first group of gridiron warriors were Raymond Ross, Sam Britton, John Coleman, Jack Clegorn, Millard Glass, Lonis Rowle, Robert Leary, Sidney Levy, Julian Mansfield, Robert Pace, Harvey Strickland, Joe Henry Rutledge, Don Sharpe, John Thompson, Goodwin Castlen and Clarence Williams.

John D. Anthony was the coach of that first team and remained at the school through the 1922 season.

The Anniston team only took eleven players to their game with Disque High in Gadsden which would turn out to be a problem for them. On the opening kickoff one of the players was hit so hard he walked off the field and refused to play again. Fortunately, Hayden Reaves, who had driven the team to the game in his father's taxi suited up and entered the game. He would later become one of Anniston's finest linemen. Disque High eventually won the game 45-0 according to the Anniston Star.

That first team was poorly equipped because each player had to provide his own equipment. Only one player had a set of shoulder pads and no one had shoes or a helmet. The Anniston team ended up winning only two games that first season but would take the lessons learned and produce some excellent teams during the 1923-1925 seasons.




Some information came from an Anniston Star Article dated October 30, 1959
   




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