Has Big Time Football Come To Harmon Field?

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Led by senior captain Susan Rutledge, the cheerleaders had been practicing all summer. They were ready for the first game of the season.

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Pep Club Officers: Michelle Williams, Sec. Treas; Mary Powell, Pres.; Debbie Goode, V. Pres.

Led by seniors Mary Powell and Debbie Goode, the students were ready!

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Senior Majorettes Judy Hutcherson and Bunny Henson. The band, under new leader Bryant Poole and with senior majoretts Judy Hutcherson and Bunny Henson was ready. 

The best comments probably came from Curt Eargle, long time Harmon Field Commisoner and owner of the Home Ice Plant in his newspaper communication: "every seat filled on both sides of the field","Last  Friday night when Tryon High won over West Henderson, I had the best feeling of satisfaction I have ever had over the past 40 years I have been associated with Tryon High Football as their former coach and personal supporter. This was not only because we won, but because it was the first time it really looked like big time football.", "the home fans, band and cheerleaders were having a wonderful time"

And win they did. As one newspaper put it, Tiny Tryon Finds Right Combination. Click here to read write-ups of the game (including a picture of Mike Leonard running the football).

The football programs had also been upgraded. Click here to see what the West Henderson game program looked like. Look through the ads and see how many businesses no longer exist. Just to show how times have really changed.

Below is Kenny Chesney's video, The Boys of Fall

Class of 1971 Begins Final Year at Tryon High School

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Senior Class Officers; Stuart Williams (VP); Mary Powell (Secretary); Susan Morris (Treasurer) and;  Mike Burns (President).  Looks like Mike is having too much fun with the trash can!
In addition to picking class officers,  Tonya Pearson and Austin Neal were chosen as class mascots and Susan Rutledge was chosen as the class beauty sponsor.

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Susan Rutledge, Senior Class Beauty Sponsor

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Sissie Barber showed  that the class of 71 could do well outside the classroom when she won the open jumper class at the third annual Blue Ridge Vale Riding Academy Horse Show. She also finished first in two other classifications.

War, by Edwin Starr was the top song, a reminder that the war in Vietnam was still going strong. Girls still couldn't wear pants to school (and the dresses were still short) and boys had to keep their hair cut.

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1970 Tryon Tigers Were Not On Anyone's Radar

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The 1970 Tryon Tigers were small in size and numbers, and on top of that, kind of slow in speed. There was some talk they would not be able to field a JV team. The preseason write-ups were not very encouraging....and probably for a lot of good reasons. Going back to the 1968 team (click here for 1969 sports banquet program), the season started with a lot of promise. This was the first year the school moved up to the 2A Parkway conference and was coming off a successful year in 1967 where the team went a couple of rounds in the state playoffs. However, the untimely passing of Coach Bill Barry was a blow the team couldn't overcome.

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The 1969 season (click here for 1969 newspaper pictures) was to be a rebuilding year, and it was. Although the team was in most games, it was blown away by Hendersonville and couldn't beat rivals Landrum or Polk Central. They were able to give Coach Neal his 100th career win.

Football Practice Begins for the 1970 Season

The big day came for the football team on August 5. This was the first day of practice (Close to You by The Carpenters was the number one song).  Led by a small but dedicated senior class, the team showed up for 5 days of one-a-days in helmets and shorts at Harmon Field. The small but dedicated group of seniors was joined the first day by only 18 others to make up the varsity and JV teams.

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The team welcomed Tryon legend, Duke Fisher, into the coaching ranks (Joining Neal, Pearson, and Tennant). Duke had played freshman basketball at the University of North Carolina and later coached Kevin Garnett in basketball at Mauldin High School.

Also new this year were playbooks. Not that I can remember actually using them - it still was a first.

The team loaded up and went to three-a-day camp outside of Charleston. Arriving late on Sunday, we started with a practice in shorts, then up before daylight for another 90 minute practice in shorts, breakfast, skills practice from 9:30 am until lunch, and a scrimmage practice from 5 pm until dark and supper. We also had free time after lunch to go to the artisan filled pool or to the beach by team bus.

The camp was famous for mosquitoes and cold sulfur water. Located right on the inter-coastal waterway, near Mount Pleasant, SC, I doubt it exists today. Meals were provided for the team from donated food which was prepared by parents enjoying their "vacation".

I believe Coach Neal's favorite drill was, "Head-on-tackling". As freshmen, he had gotten so mad  we were not doing it correctly, that he demonstrated (without pads) on fellow classmate Mike Burns, breaking some ribs. But as seniors, he stopped the drill early, worried that someone would get hurt because of the drill intensity.

Camp broke after a Saturday morning scrimmage and lunch and everyone headed back to Tryon - a lot battered and uncertain what the season would bring.

It Was A Hot Summer - The Summer of '70

The Vietnam war was still going on, Congress was talking about giving the vote to 18 year olds, The Beatles had broken up and their last song, The Long and Winding Road, was at the top of the charts, and the class of '71 was preparing for the upcoming year in a still relatively new school building. Susan Rutledge was getting the cheerleaders ready for  camp in Leesburgh Florida and the football captains were getting the team ready with work-outs at Harmon Field. Most boys got a nickel post card from the football coaches like this:

Several football players had been running 5 miles a day at Harmon Field on a course that Shank Hipp had marked off with his car (to verify the distance). We thought we were in pretty good shape and talked about demonstrating our ability with a run to Spartanburg........and back!

Talk about frontal lobes not working!

Anyway, with the arrival of the post cards, time was running out. Michael Burns and Jim Vining took off on a Saturday a little before noon to make the trip. No water - no id - very little money - and they didn't tell anyone what they were doing.

The route was to be down US-176 to Heron Circle (in Spartanburg) and back - about 50 miles.

The pair made it to Landrum and stopped in Tasty Freeze for something to drink. Then to Campobello to a peach packing shed for water (out of a hose) and a peach. By the time they made it to the I-26 bridge, they knew a round trip was not going to happen. The choice became - turning around or going forward.

What would be the achievement in turning around? The honor of saying we had run to Spartanburg won out (where were those frontal lobes?).

When we finally made it to Heron Circle, it was late in the day - we had no money, no way to call anyone, and no way back except the way we had come. We did what everyone did back then - started thumbing our way back to Tryon.

Remember, we had just come 26 miles on a hot day, we were not in the best condition to catch a ride.

Surprisingly, we got a ride pretty quick which took us from Heron Circle to Pine Street. From this point, the wait was a little longer. Finally, a car headed toward Spartanburg (with 4 people), crossed over the median and pulled up beside us - asked us if we were going to Tryon (one or both of us was wearing an old Tryon Jersey) - they said they recognized the jersey. We said yes, they told us to get in - which we did.

On the way back, they invited us to go to a dance with them to the "Moon-Lite Grill" in Tryon. They said they would set us up with some girls. The Moon-Lite Grill was in the old Edmund Embury School - a former all black school.

We declined because we were in no shape after going 26 miles on a hot summer day.

Take aways from this experience - You are never in as good a shape as you think, I doubt either of us has ever run a long distance since, distances seem much shorter now, we were extremely lucky that day and - maybe this was an omen of the football season to come.