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In many ways Fridays meeting between host Lineville and Clay County the 91st game between the two will have an air of familiarity.
Once again, Harold "Buster" Parker, the most faithful fan of the Lineville Aggies, will be there as he has every year since 1948. Parker, now 85, has been a regular at Clay Bowls since he was six, when his father took him to the game at the old Clay County fairgrounds in Ashland. Only military service in Europe during World War II and a two-year stint with Railway Express in Milledgeville, Ga., immediately thereafter has kept Parker away from The Game.
Once again, cheerleaders from both camps will have their respective towns decorated festively, Lineville in red and black and Ashland in blue and white.
Once again, the team that lost last year Clay County has grown tired of hearing about the loss and is determined to reverse the flow of Clay Bowl conversation.
Once again, one of the teams also Clay County this year has an undefeated regular season on the line. But that has become a regular occurrence, too. This is the sixth time since 1995 that at least one of the teams has been officially undefeated. Incredibly, in 1996, 1997 and 1998, both Clay County and Lineville were 9-0 when they met.
But those who witness this years event may witness more than another classic game in a classic rivalry. They may see Clay County-Lineville history made.
Should Clay County win, Clay County coach Danny Horn would have the most coaching wins in the history of this rivalry that began in Lineville on October 20, 1922, and has seen the two schools play at least once each year since that initial meeting.
Horn-coached Panther teams have 10 wins over Lineville. Horn is tied with Richard Beverly, Horns coach when he quarterbacked Clay County. Beverlys 10 wins came in 22 games, while Horn is 10-6 against the Aggies in his first 13 years as Clay County head coach.
A Clay County win wont come easily.
Linevilles got a great team, Horn said earlier this week. All of us coaches agree theyre the best team weve played so far. They have a lot of speed and quickness and do so many different things with it. And they have a great defense.
At one time The Game ended the season and the outcome set the tone of off-season discussions between fans of both schools. Now it can become a springboard for statewide recognition.
The Clay Bowl makes both teams better, Horn continued. It shows once you get to the playoffs.
I think you can measure the success of teams by what you did in the playoffs. Youre not going to win all the time actually there will be very few times you can win, but thats how you measure success. The Ashland-Lineville game, it's important to people around here, but people around the state measure your program on how you do in the playoffs.
Dont get me wrong, Horn added. I love to beat Lineville, but I love to win state championships, too.
Among Lineville coaches, Troy Barker remains the man who has guided the most Aggie victories (seven). Barker was a Lineville native and early graduate of Linevilles State Secondary Agricultural School, as Lineville High was then known. He lettered in football at the University of Alabama as a guard in 1931-1933. After coaching at Cleburne County in 1933, Barker returned to coach his alma mater in 1934. The year before Barkers return, Clay County had taken the Clay Bowl 34-0. Barkers teams promptly ran off six wins in six tries before he left coaching for military service following the close of the 1939 season. After his release from active duty in World War II, Barker coached one more season (1945) at Lineville. That Aggie team split two games with the Panthers.
Legendary coaching great Jack Stewart, also a Lineville graduate, led Lineville to six wins over Clay County. Stewart lost his first Clay Bowl appearance as a coach in 1959, then clicked off six consecutive wins before leaving for Saks after the 1965 season.
Allen McNees coached the Aggies to six wins over the Panthers during his tenure from 1946 through 1952. Richard "Red" Littleton led Aggie teams to wins in the series five times in two stints as Lineville coach.
Other than Horn and Beverly, Chad Hawkins is the only Clay County coach with as many as five victories over Lineville. Hawkins, who served as both principal and football coach at Clay County from 1942-43 through 1947-48, scored five consecutive wins during 1943, 1944 and 1945.
Horn believes time and the arrival of the state playoffs have brought a different perspective to fans in both towns.
I think the two communities really respect each other. Both communities can really be proud of the accomplishments of each.
And those 10 wins over Lineville?
I hope I have 10 more before it's over, confessed Horn. Or at least 11 altogether. | 