Last Football Game For 71 Tryon Tigers

The Tryon Tiger seniors closed out their high school football careers against the East Yancey Panthers on Friday, October 30, 1970. The best they could hope for would be a Parkway Conference tie if East Henderson could pull off the upset of the year by beating Hendersonville. However, Hendersonville would still represent the conference in the playoffs by winning the head to head competition with Tryon.

With Rosman asking out of the last scheduled game, and East Yancey stepping in and agreeing to play at Harmon Field, the seniors had the benefit of "two" senior nights. The game was never in doubt as the Tryon defense completely shut down the Panther offense on a muddy field.

One memorable event during the game, the Tigers were driving for a score and quarterback Stuart Williams told something different to each side of the huddle. As the team was approaching the line he yelled out, "alright everybody, it's on one" (sequence was: down, set, one, two,......). The other team hollered out, "watch out, it's a trick". And it was - cause center Bob Willis snapped the ball on set.

Another event toward the end of the game, center Bob Willis moved to the backfield and ran the football. Coach Neal would have none of that foolishness and pulled the first team. At the end of the week, the tigers remained 4th in the polls.

From news reports:

• The Tigers scored in every quarter and completely bottled up the East Yancey attack.
• Perhaps the greatest defensive team in Tryon's history ended its season with an 8-2 record.
• The Tryon line was tough as usual and at the end of the first half held East Yancey to -14 yards. The only way for the Panthers to gain was for Coach Elmo Neal to send in substitutes.
• Coach Neal and his staff probably did its greatest coaching job on this year's team as the team had an excellent spirit and played as a unit.

Read a write-up of the game by clicking here.