Showing posts with label "decatur bulldogs". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "decatur bulldogs". Show all posts

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Decatur High football reunion recalls different time

Photo shows Decatur High School Football field( circa 1940's or 50's) from Ga State Library collection.
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by Bill Banks

For the AJC

Around 5:30 p.m. Friday, a dozen or so members of Decatur High’s remarkable 1949 and 1950 football teams, along with a team manager and a couple of cheerleaders, will gather at their old stomping grounds, possibly for the last time.

Now in their late 70s, once again they will shake loose the cobwebs of distant, and for some, rapidly dimming memories of those back-to-back state championships. More than that however, as they line the field before Decatur’s game against Lovett, they will offer a tangible link to an era that has almost vanished.

“We played in leather helmets, no face mask,” said Bob Reed, a starting guard on the 1950 team. “My senior year we got black plastic helmets, and we were uptown. But they still slid all over your head. After a game, you knew you didn’t do a good job without having scrapes all over your cheekbones.”

It was a time of obsessive segregation, where not only Decatur and all opponents were white, but Decatur High itself had separate buildings for boys and girls. Back then the city closed shop on Friday nights, except for a clothier named Ted Levy, who gave the star of the game a free sweater.

“I had mine for years,” Reed said. “Made of wool, but it wore like iron.”

Decatur went 25-0 in 1949-50, but that was merely the golden harvest of an extremely fertile period. From 1943-53 the Bulldogs went 103-11-6 and never lost more than three games in a season. No one can explain what was in the city’s water back then to reap such a luxurious crop.

ajc full story

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

DHS Boy's Basketball

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Decatur Boys Down Chattooga 58-43 - Advance to Sweet Sixteen


By Bill Banks |

Nic Wilson claims that last Monday's 29-point loss to Greater Atlanta Christian was dead and gone and thoroughly buried even before the final buzzer sounded. "By the fourth quarter [on Monday]," he said, "by our last two timeouts, we weren't even thinking GAC. We were already talking about tonight (Friday)."

Friday, in the first ever on-campus state playoff game, this is didn't even look like the same Decatur squad. Playing with confidence, authority, and a defensive mastery not always seen on the high school level, Decatur thoroughly dispatched highly-strung Chattooga, out of Region 7B-AA, 58-43.

The Bulldogs roared to an 11-1 lead as Chattooga, averaging nearly 70 points a game, didn't get its first field goal until 1:25 left in the first quarter. Even after a frenetic, nearly desperate 2:18 surge -- much like a horse that's been given a sudden, deep stroke of the whip -- that saw the visitors tie the game, it was only a matter of time before Decatur took control of the reigns and wrestled all drama out of this one.

Chattooga was simply too small, too loose defensively, and displayed a way-too-erratic-shot selection, to stay in this game for long. Plus, the one player who caused Decatur legitimate match-up concerns, 6-1 post Spencer Williams -- he finished with 15 points, the only Chattoogan in double figures -- spent much of the night benched due to either foul problems or a bloody elbow.

The result was a win that, if not easy, was at least professionally accomplished with a sleeves-rolled-to-the-elbows manner of efficiency. It was by the far the fewest points scored all season by Chattooga, a team that had never fallen below 53 points, and had been held to below 60 points only seven times in 26 games before Friday.

Therefore Decatur, 22-5, advances to the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive season. The Bulldogs will play 18-7 Callaway in Hogansville Tuesday night (game time still undecided, though it appears it will be no later than 7:00 p.m. and possibly as early as 6:00 p.m.). After seeing a large lead cut to two with 1:30 left Friday, Callaway eventually prevailed over Dawson County 59-50

Though Chattooga deflected Decatur's early flurry of blows and even delivered a few of its own - typing matters at 11 -- the home team never buckled at the knees. "We wanted to knock ‘em out early," Nic said, "but they came back. They hit some shots. At that point the game is tied and you want to hit a 10-point shot to get your lead back. But, you know, there's no such thing. Besides this is playoff basketball. You have to get one basket at a time, you have to chip away, and that's what we did."

When Trumon Jefferson scored on a drive -- a lunging burst where he bobbled the ball, regained control and then shot, all while in midair -- Decatur led 13-11 with 5:06 left in the first half and never trailed again. From there the lead was built to 25-16 at halftime, which surely must've been Chattooga's lowest-scoring half in recent memory.

"They're used to getting at least 16 a quarter," head coach Carter Wilson said. "It has always been my belief that victory almost always favors the team that defends. Tonight we just did a great job. We made every shot tough for them, and we made every catch tough.

"The player who worried us the most," he added, "was [6-1 wing Rashad Ramsey, Chattooga's leading scorer at 19 points]. When we scouted him, we saw where he could shoot from out, or take it to the hole. But tonight he gets only 8 points. I think that sums up our entire effort tonight."

Decatur systematically increased its lead, eventually to 20 points at 54-34 when Nic hit Ron Boyd for a lay-up with 4:11. Later in the quarter Nic, starting from the high post, rumbled past his man for a one-hand dunk and Decatur's final basket. Nic finished with a game-high 22 points, while Trumon had 16, and must've corralled around 15 rebounds.

Currently ranked seventh in the state, Decatur officially closed out it‘s first home season in the brand-new, sparkling Decatur High School Performing Arts Center and Gymnasium, and did so before one of the larger crowds all year. But as Wilson told his team after the game, "This is only one pebble tossed into pond. We still have another four to go."

Tuesday's opponent is likely a far heftier stone. Callaway reminds assistant David Harbin -- who scouted the Callaway-Dawson County game Friday -- of Manchester, the team Decatur beat in last year's first round. Harbin (who, incidentally, was the starting point on Decatur's last Final Four team in 2003) said that Callaway is another up-and-down team, with good shooters and superb athletes who press most of the game. He also said Callaway will frequently change defenses from man, to 2-3, to 1-2-2 and others.

Looking at the scores, once again this appears to be team averaging around 70 per game. Decatur and Callaway do have one common opponent in Lovett, which Callaway beat 84-67 back on Dec. 22 (Decatur played Lovett three times winning by 20, 32 and 21 points).

"The ideal that we strive for," Carter Wilson said, "is that we want our best game to be the last game of the season. Well, we sure haven't played our last game yet. And I'm convinced we haven't come close to playing our best game yet, either."

Clean Sweep for Region 6-AA

After Friday's victory over Chattooga, we asked Wilson how he compared Region 6-AA with the state's other double-AA regions. He replied that "I think every coach out there will tell you their region is the toughest. But I look at our region with the talent, the depth of coaching and the tough defense that just about everyone plays, and I don't see how anyone can be better than us this year."

He said this before later learning that all four Region 6-AA teams won their state playoff games What some may consider the biggest upset of the night (though Wilson certainly wouldn't agree) Westminster abruptly eliminated powerful Dade County (25-4, ranked third, and ranked anywhere from one through five almost all season) 83-81. Greater Atlanta manhandled 8-21 Temple, 87-27 (no surprise there) while Blessed Trinity destroyed fifth-ranked and 23-6 Rockmart 65

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Decatur Bulldog Booster Club


From Scott & Bailey Pendergrast

The Booster club is having their spring fund raiser March 27th at the Church of the Epiphany. If anyone has any items that they would like to donate to our auction it would be very helpful.It can be anything from a special cake you bake to donating a week at your mountain house.Or if you would like to donate time,that would help also. The money goes to student athletes of Decatur High and Renfroe. Please contact Bailey Pendergrast
-sbpender@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

DECATUR SPIRITFEST Friday @ 6:00 PM




SpiritFest is Back on the Calendar!

Please plan to attend a good old fashioned SpiritFest Pep Rally on Friday, October 16. The festivities will begin at 6:00 p.m. and run until it's time to go see the Bulldog Gridders take on Westminster. The action starts at the Promenade outside the new gymnasium.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The New DHS Gym-Auditorium Open to Public Oct 11, 2009


October 11, 2009 Public Opening of New DHS Gym/Auditorium

The doors will be open to the public on Sunday, October 11th from 2-4 p.m. Go check out the new place and join in the celebration.




http://www.decatur-city.k12.ga.us/

Monday, January 19, 2009

Close Up program at Decatur High School going to Inauguration.

DECATUR, Ga. -- Students from across Georgia are getting ready to go to Washington for the Obama Inauguration, with their families, and with school and church groups.

Thirty-three of them are with the Close Up program at Decatur High School. They're actually looking forward to the cold, the crowds and even controversial demonstrations and protests.

"It's a really historic election with Obama winning, and I'm really excited to see what's going to happen," said one of the girls going on the trip.

The students will remember the year they came of age, politically -- arguiing and debating with each other about the Presidential campaign.

"There was extreme adulation for Obama," one boy said, not approvingly.

They're still debating each other -- about whether Obama's going to be able to cut it as President.

11 alive
Full story and video

h/t Decatur Metro

Saturday, September 20, 2008

The Decatur High School Stadium's Grand Opening.



It was a great Grand Opening for Decatur's new Stadium. The weather was perfect.
It was packed.
The Decatur Bulldogs lost to Hillgrove Hawks
35-15
More photos here.




For more photos click here.

Special note: I finally got to meet David at the inDECATUR we both had a great spot for taking photos, A place I like to call "The Fifty Yard Line"
Be sure to check out his photo's and videos he took.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Remember these types of Team Spirit Paper Footballs. GO DECATUR !


I remember helping my brother make these types of team spirit paper footballs. They were made on Thursday's to hand out to the students on Friday
for the week-end game.
You just pinned them to your shirt.

Do you Remember ?
All the Cool Kids had them at Decatur High.

When I helped make them with with my brother , I took some to my school ,Winnona Park, and passed them out to my classmates , I thought I was (B.M.O.C.)
for those of you who don't know what that stands for it's BIG MAN ON CAMPUS.



GO DECATUR !