All-State defensive tackle Danny Winecoff.

 

Safety Ronnie Wood

By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Unless you were there, playing, coaching or just watching in awe from the bleachers, it’s hard to appreciate just how tough South Piedmont Conference football was 50 years ago.

I’m not sure the 1974 Salisbury Hornets ever will be fully appreciated because the only members of that back-to-back Western North Carolina High School Activities Association championship team that have been enshrined in the Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Fame are from the coaching staff — head coach Pete Stout and assistant coaches Aaron Neely and Charles Hellard.

The thing about the 1970s SPC was that if you lost twice in the league — and it wasn’t hard to lose twice when you were playing Concord, A.L. Brown, Statesville, Thomasville, Lexington and Asheboro — you probably were cooked. You probably weren’t going to the playoffs.

The Hornets of 1975, Stout’s final season at the helm, went 8-1-1 and were a handful of points from a perfect season — a 0-0 tie with Concord and a 17-14 loss to Lexington — but didn’t make the playoffs. The 1972 Hornets went 8-2, but dropped head-knockers to Concord and Statesville and didn’t make the playoffs.

In 1973, the Hornets made the WNCHSAA playoffs despite a loss and a tie in the SPC, and they made their good fortune pay off with a title. They annihilated Thomasville, 52-0, in the playoffs just two weeks after tying the Bulldogs in the regular season. Then Salisbury blew away Mooresville, 42-12. Then the Hornets shut out Watauga, 13-0, in the championship game.  Governor James Holsouser, a Watauga native, made the trip to Salisbury to watch his boys beat the Hornets. He exited Ludwig Stadium, like a lot of other visitors over the years, mighty disappointed.

But the 1974 season was rally remarkable. The Hornets (11-2) rose from the ashes to emerge as champions.

Fans of Rowan football probably know about the Salisbury-Shelby clash of titans that settled the 1974 WNCHSAA championship — the Hornets’ brightly painted red shoes against Shelby’s glowing gold shoes — as it’s still one of the most talked about games in county history.

But the Hornets’ road to get to that famed Shelby game 50 years ago, isn’t discussed much.

Concord was often the biggest obstacle for Salisbury and locked down the Hornets 13-0 in Week 2.

When the Hornets fell 7-6 to a Lope Linder-coached A.L. Brown squad in a brutal Week 7 game, for loss No. 2, the season  appeared to be over for the Hornets. That was an incredible game, as Salisbury had an overwhelming advantage in rushing yards and first downs, but couldn’t get points. The Wonders, who made three first downs against Salisbury’s 6-2 defense, scored their touchdown with a short field after recovering a muffed punt. Terry Cunningham, who would later star at Catawba College, threw the touchdown pass to a diving Greg Wagoner. Cunningham also intercepted two Salisbury passes and helped make the tackle that stopped Salisbury’s 2-point conversion attempt.

Salisbury quarterback Mike Cansler wasn’t healthy for that game. He did enter in the third quarter and tried to spark the team, but it was just one of those nights for the Hornets. Nothing went right.

The biggest hero for the Wonders, besides Cunningham, was Tim Davis, a lineman who kicked the decisive extra point and kept booming 50-yard punts to flip the field after Salisbury’s defense forced three-and-outs.

A.L. Brown had tied Asheboro, but the Wonders were still undefeated in the SPC after that triumph against Salisbury and were in the driver’s seat for the SPC championship with three weeks left.

But life was rarely routine in the SPC. Thomasville wrecked the Wonders’ homecoming, 16-0, the next week, while the Hornets got a little healthier and were able to beat Statesville.

The Wonders got back on track by routing Trinity, but Salisbury edged Thomasville 7-6 in Week 9 to stay alive.

On the final week of the regular season, Salisbury beat Asheboro by a touchdown, while Concord was knocking off its biggest rivals, the Wonders, spoiling their playoff dreams with a 14-6 victory.

Salisbury and Thomasville tied for first in the SPC with 6-2 records. A.L. Brown and Statesville were 5-2-1. Asheboro was 3-3-2. Concord and Lexington were 4-4.

Salisbury, Thomasville, A.L. Brown, Concord and Lexington won all their games against teams outside the SPC that season. Trinity went 1-7 in the league, but was 2-0-1 in non-conference games.

Some of the season stats for a Salisbury’s 1974 championship team look like typos by today’s standards. Salisbury threw nine passes per game and completed only 33 percent. The Hornets threw only three touchdown passes. Ted Bush led the team in the regular season with eight catches.

The Hornets did run the ball efficiently. for almost 200 yards per game in the regular season. Leonard Atkins, whose biggest season still lay ahead of him in the fall of 1975, pounded for almost 6 yards per carry. He got assistance from a committee of Tom McDaniel, Pete Hardin, Kevin Moss and Reggie Ponder. Ponder only had 22 carries, but he had 253 yards.

McDaniel picked up a third of his season yardage with 16 carries for 192 in the North Rowan game.

Defense is where the Hornets thrived. They allowed 6.0 points per game.

They were masters of the 6-2 defense constructed by coordinator Charlie Little. Every opponent wanted to run the ball, and the Hornets, with a six-man front, two aggressive linebackers and three fearless defensive backs, were built to stop the run. James Wright and Tony Leach were technically linebackers in the game program, but they played as stand-up ends, flanking four large, powerful men in the trenches.

All-South Piedmont Conference players on the Salisbury defense were Leach, Wright, linebackers Erwin Solomon and David Gibson, safety Ronnie Wood and tackle Danny Winecoff, who was All-State. Winecoff also was Salisbury’s punter.

Salisbury had only two All-SPC players on the offensive side of the ball — guard Vince Harris and center David Tennent.

Winecoff was named team MVP.

Harris was named the best blocker at the awards banquet. Wood got the Golden Helmet Award that goes to the player with the best team spirit. Solomon was named outstanding defensive player, while Atkins was recognized as the most outstanding offensive player.

In the South Piedmont Conference championship game, Salisbury beat Thomasville 7-6 for the second time in a three-week span. Both times the Hornets stopped a 2-point conversion run. Chuck Valley kicked the decisive PAT,

Atkins emerged as a major star in the second round, trampling North Piedmont Conference champion  Mooresville for 179 yards on 21 carries in a 33-14 victory.

Then Atkins blasted Shelby for 154 yards on 24 workhorse carries. Salisbury’s 14-3 victory against Shelby in the 1974 WNCHSAA championship game was the final great triumph of the Pete Stout Era. The Hornets relied heavily on their defense, but Atkins earned the Most Outstanding Player honor.

Six weeks after they were written off, the 1974 Hornets won their last WNCHSAA championship.

They beat a Shelby team that had to wade through its own gauntlet in the west — South Point, Kings Mountain, Crest, Freedom — to the get to that climactic game.