Things we need to know and things I would like to find out???(“I oughtta know”)

PAGE, RAGSDALE, DUDLEY, SMITH, DOUG HENDERSON?????
“I oughtta know”…
There’s always several things I would like to know and things I feel we need to find out and some may not give a flying horse biscuit about these items, but I do care and I want to know, and as a man once told me down on East Market Street, “I oughtta know!”….Who won that Page-Ragsdale girls basketball game last Friday night, have not seen a score on that one anywhere, and “I oughtta know”…What about the boys basketball scores on Saturday from Dudley and Page at the Tourney Town event at UNCG??? “I oughtta know”….And we need to know how the Smith girls did at the Tourney Town? “I oughtta know”…..(Just got the Smith girls score coming in and thanx.)

Lots of inquiries about Doug Henderson today…..Is the ‘old ball coach’ sick??? Have seen his name show up in our question box(from stats) at least 10 times today and he was one of the toughest coaches to ever come down the pike or pile or whatever….I remember one night he had this runningback named Herbert Pressley run for 360 yards and 7 touchdowns in one game versus the Randleman Tigers and Pressley did all of that on just 10 carries…(Henderson probably would have run him for more, but he thought those records would be around for a while and they were.)
Randleman was coached then by the legendary Charlie Gregory and Henderson beat him two straight years 56-0 and 45-0 and those were considered high-scorng games back in those days….Funny thing is, the Randleman Tigers’ defensive coordinator from the 56-0 and 45-0 games showed up, up in Virginia, at a college I was attending and I played some football for that school and that coach comes in as the linebackers coach and I’m thinking, didn’t Western just hit you guys for 101 points in just two games and now you are here in Virginia to save this team’s defense???(I’m doing this off of memory, but I think the coach from Randleman, that came to Virginia, was Coach Ken Redding. Good man and he had a good plan, just had to get the plan, in the right time span.)

Hey, you never know, but Doug Henderson knew what to do, to get a team ready to play and I will give ‘the old ball coach’ that…Hope he is OK and not fading away…..

“I oughtta know”…….

18 thoughts on “Things we need to know and things I would like to find out???(“I oughtta know”)

  1. Andy, Nice speculation that Henderson would have run Pressley more but he thought the record would be around a while. Those who knew Henderson knew he didn’t care a hill of beans about individual records as he taught that football was a team sport. He likely pulled Pressley because that is what a coach with good sportsmanship does. Based on recent post I have read from you, you would have been ok if Henderson would have let Pressley run 20 times instead of 10 for maybe 600 yards if it meant obtaining a record.

  2. I’m glad Coach Henderson spread it around like he did. Because of that my older brother made the Allstate check list every week. He was a fullback and still managed over a hundred yards every week even though we took huddles. (Less snaps per game)

  3. Hey pacman thanks and get me a score if you can find it on that Page-Ragsdale game…

    I was in the game the night that Herbert Pressley set the record and at the game the night Anthony Saunders tied the TD record with 7 for WG and he broke the rushing record with 420 yards…

    The night Saunders broke the record it was obvious that they went out to break it….Coach Charlie Griffin(the Western coach at the time) left Saunders in the game long enough and gave Anthony enough carries to make sure he broke the record that night….

    They all thought that Saunders had broken the TD record with 7 but he only tied it…..

    Some of the fans were saying Saunders was left in the game to get enough carries to break record and he was and he did…The 7 TD’s still stands with Pressley and Saunders tied at that mark and Saunders has the single-game rushing record…

    Some folks don’t like change….Just ask the Miami Dolphins about that…Every time somebody comes close to tying their mark as unbeaten team in the NFL, the Dolphins go crazy….Then the team loses and does not complete the entire season at (17-0) or better like the Dolphins did and Miami raises a toast in honor of themselves….

    Some folks don’t like change or what it takes to get it….

    Doug Henderson was a very good coach and turned out some outstanding players, but he wouldn’t have been the coach he was without his trusty assistant, Bill Hollifield and I think Coach Henderson would be the first to tell you that….

    Long live those Hornets of yesteryear…….

  4. Andy check the records on former running back and NE grad Jimmy Walden. He made sports illustrated on about 15 carries and over 400 yards in the late 70’s. I was on that team. And heres the thing. He didn’t play much at all the last quarter. If my memory is correct and lord knows it’s getting old, the third was limited. It was on homecoming night against Rockingham. And I had the privledge to block for on of the all time greats. Many that saw him run would argue one of the top 5 of all time in NC.

  5. 77 Hornet. I played against the 77 state champs that year. One of the best teams I have ever seen. They were amazing.

  6. NEGRAD, 77 Hornets were good but they lost their opener that year to a Page team that didn’t make the playoffs.

  7. I remember Walden he was fast as lightning and may have seen him when he was a sophomore…NEG had no luck vs. Western Guilford 73,74,75,76,77 and I never remember losing to them…Hornet 77 probably never lost to them either….

    NEG did have Jimmy Walden and I believe somewhere in the that stretch they had a kid named Jimmy Womack too….

    The kid NEG didn’t have was Bobby Hedrick and many NEG fans from around his time feel he along with kids like Walden, would have made NEG possibly the top 3-A team in the state/area…..

    Hedrick was sent to Eastern Guilford and many have told me when Hedrick was at NEG in junior high, the Rams did not lose and then they lost Hedrick to redistricting….

    That is what I have been told over the years…Hedrick probably would have been at NEG 75-77…..They say he was a real good and I saw him as a sophomore and he didn’t do much on that night, as I remember….

    One of the tougher big men I remember from Northeast was big Ricky Apple and was across from me one night and he weighed around 240-250 and I was at 170 soaking wet….

    That night Mr. Apple was calling me a few names that I heard before, but not at church….That is the way it goes…He was very mad at me for contolling what we called our big line, that averaged about 165 per man….

    In a wrestling match Mr. Apple would have probably killed me, but in the game of football, many times a smaller man can overtake the bigger man, due to blocking, speed and crazy things like that….

    I can’t explain it….One year I saw two Ragsdale lineman and they both played end the ACC and they ended up on their backs when I was against them…They were good, Mitch Johnston and Barry Sykes….Maybe it was Johnston to East Carolina and Sykes to Wake Forest…I sure it was Sykes to Wake, cause he was a punter and a linemen….

    If Johnston went to ECU, I’m pretty sure Walden went to East Carolina too…Walden was a great one, and you are right that kid could fly….

    Still interesting how the re-districting hit NEG hard back around 1974/1975 and it sent Hedrick to Eastern Guilford and the NEG Rams lost him in the process and then Northern Guilford opens and NEG gets raided again…..

    Bobby Coltrane was at NEG when this all went down back around 1975 and he knows the whole story on NEG/EG Hedrick and more…..

    Ragsdale got raided by re-districting when Southwest Guilford opened and the Cowboys got the Ragsdale Tigers three best players cause they were brothers, Calvin, Amos and Stefan Adams….All three brothers to Ricky Adams, the All-American runningback from Ragsdale….

    Never could completely slow him down, they called him ‘Buck the Truck’ and would he was one of the best-ever in Guilford County, along with Ted Brown(High Point Andrews), but that was before I saw TJ Logan come along…To be TJ is now the best-ever and I either saw or played against most of the other great ones…..

    You are right about Walden and it would have been something to see if they could have worked it out to have Walden and Hedrick in the same backfield at NEG for the Rams….

    It was always interesting to me that NEG was great up until that 1973 timeframe and then they had that drop-off and later on I found out how the re-districting had changed everything…NEG rebounded around 1977 I believe and by that time I was down or up the road….

    Long look back, but this is a good topic, how re-districting can effect certain schools….NEG got hit hard and Ragsdale did too in the mid to late-70’s…..Ragsdale had been the State Champs and then they had a big drop-off too, right when Southwest opened……

    I think for SWG it was Calvin Adams from Ragsdale at QB when the Cowboys got rolling, with Stefon and Amos at Wide Receiver and all three were from Ragsdale and headed over to SWG when their doors first opened….Calvin might have been the only one to make it to the NFL and I’m pretty sure he went as WR….Ricky, Amos and Stefon all missed out on the NFL, if I’m not mistaken….

    Long look, but a long road…..

    I even remember Coach Bill Bookout from NEG when was coaching their Junior High team and they were still real good there then too with Bookout in charge….Good many who didn’t mind talking to the players, even the ones on the other team…..

    For some crazy reason a lot of this stuff is right down my alley……

  8. NE beat Western in 78 and 79. Walden and Roger Carmack were both in the back field at the same time. Roger was a senior and Walden a Junior. 78 NE goes 9-1 and doesn’t make the playoffs. Man how times have changed. Carmack got a full ride to NC State and Walden to ECU. NE alumni will tell you that both were a version of TJ at Northern. Without any doubt the 2 best Backs in a backfield at once. There was a young man at that time that was an assistant coach on that team. His son just won his 3rd State title in a row. COLTRANE!!!!!

  9. In 77 Western started 0-2 to Page and Ragsdale, but that was a year after I graduated since that would have been the class of 78. I don’t remember losing to NE, but what I do remember about the Rams is what they did after we won the conference. NE had some students bring a banner over to our school during a pep rally for the playoffs. The banner said congratulations and good luck! That was very classy of NE and we never forgot it.

  10. Who was coaching NEG back in those days??? I remember they had a head coach there at one time by the name of Fred Styles and I think he later on became an assistant coach at Western Guilford….

    I think Mr. Coltrane was a tall skinny receiver for them for a few years too….

    Rusty Lee, Jesse Cocklereece, Zear Russell, Ricky Apple, Jerry Cook, Anthony Graves, and another Jimmy they had during part of those runs was Jimmy Robinson….Jimmy Walden, Jimmy Womack and Jimmy Robinson too…..

  11. I remember the Oakley kid. He wrestled too and was tough as nails. Didn’t Darrell Barnes Coach the 78 team that didn’t make the playoffs because they drew straws that year since there was a 3 way tie? Only one team from each conference went back then.

  12. And Coach Barnes took them(NEG) to the playoffs too…Anybody remember BIG Jeff Bunton up front for the Rams? That kid must have weighed 340 pounds and I think he later played for a while at Winston-Salem State in college…

    Coach Barnes took NEG and Southern Guilford to the NCHSAA playoffs….

  13. Roy Boyles coached from about 74 to 77. He went to SW when they opened. Terry Kelly was head coach from about 78 to 82 or so. I played with Oakley. He was a beast on the football field and your right a really good wrestler. He passed away a few years ago.

  14. What about the kid/man Joel Oakley from Northeast Guilford???

    Did he play football there? Did he wrestle there? I know he was a small man and he later became a big-time rugby player with the Triad Rugby Dawgs, I think it was….

    Is he still alive? I was thinking Joel Oakley was still an attorney here in town…Thought I saw him on TV a few weeks back, maybe not, but is he GONE?

    He was NEG, right?

  15. Joel Oalkey didn’t play football. He was a wrestler. You are right. Joel is a well known and respected attorney in Greensboro. Billy Oakley was a few years behind Joel. He is the one that was a beast on the field and a good wrestler.

  16. Thanks for clearing that up…

    I didn’t know Billy, but I remember Joel being a tough little rugby player back in his day and I believe he began his rugby playing career up at Appalachian State….

    Joel Oakley could scrap with the best of them and long live the memory of Billy Oakley from NEG….

    *****I never was a rugby player, I just read many articles about it over the years and knew Mr. Oakley and his former legal associate Donald Rumsey from that rugby research….*****

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