Newton Nation lets look back on that magical season of 1974. The Eagles first state champion title. The Eagles record would wind up being 14-1-0 for the year. That one loss was in the season opening game with the highly ranked Hampshire-Fannett Longhorns. The score was 13 to 8. The Eagles regrouped and started a winning streak that would carry them to the title game. As they reeled off regular season wins, many as shutouts by the defense, to arrive at the Bi-District game with a rematch of those Longhorns that had beaten this team early in the year. Hampshire-Fannett was ranked number 1 in the state and had a powerful ground game. All the Eagles had was making sure that the Longhorns did not repeat their earlier win. It was a hard fought contest that when the final seconds ticked off the game clock, the scoreboard said, Hampshire-Fannett 13 Newton 14 !! The mighty Eagles had knocked the highly ranked Longhorns off in the first game of the playoffs! The Eagles then blasted Colombus 33 to 0 and came up against the Cameron Yoemen. Oh what a game! Matt Ward said that Mark Walker had been playing both ways all night when he was called on to kick a field goal for the win with only 35 seconds left. His legs were exhausted from the game play as he lined up to attempt the kick. Matt Ward placed the ball as Mark Walker put his all into the end of his toes. The ball flew upward and barely cleared the cross-piece of the goal post for the win!! This Eagle team had destiny on their side as they took control of the next 2 games. They beat La Grange 17 to 7 to advance to the championship game. It was played in Wichita Falls on a cold day, but those Eagles were on fire! As they shellacked the team from Spearman 56 to 26 for the title. The team, the school, the community, and the area all celebrated and enjoyed that first title. Sadly the success Head Coach Lidney Thompson had in turning the Newton program around from perennial losers to state champions made him a target of every school football program in the area. He moved on to Coach the next year at Beaumont Forest Park. This left Superintendent MM (Smokey) Davis to have to hire another Head Coach. Could he possibly hire someone else that could continue what his last hire had started? How does he accomplish this? In the next few days we will examine his new hire in great detail! Purple Pride Never Dies!!
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 13:05:00 +0000