Folks still shake their heads at 1986 Lewisville state championship team’s football dominance

Lewisville will celebrate its 1986 football state championship team this Friday night, but Troy Greene has been crowing about the team’s dominance for over 30 years. His coworkers at a mill in Chester can’t mention football without the former Lions standout chiming in with a story or claim about that ’86 team that won all 14 of its games, the majority in totally dominant fashion.

The surviving players from that team – most of them fortunately – will gather Friday to be honored before Lewisville hosts Lamar in a matchup of top-4 teams in the state. It will feel like a throwback to the era when Jimmy Wallace and Bennie McMurray prowled the Lions’ sidelines and Lewisville had the most feared defense in the state. Lewisville and Lamar’s current players weren’t even twinkles in their parents’ imaginations yet, but there will be no shortage of people there Friday night ready to offer up memories of the school’s first football state championship team to the younger generations.

“It was just a joy to be a part of that group and coaching staff at Lewisville,” McMurray said this week. “We caught fire and just kept going.”

Trace the 1986 Lewisville football team’s journey to a state championship with this interactive:

When Wallace was hired in 1981 by principal Randy Fitzpatrick, a former college football player from Georgia, the Lions were stuck in a 20-game losing streak. Only 14 players were available to Wallace, but he quickly grew the program by incubating junior-varsity, youth and middle school football, and hiring defensive coordinator McMurray from Buford High.

The Lions reached the state finals within three years. They got blasted in the 1984 title game by Blackville-Hilda, then fell in the playoffs to eventual state champs East Clarendon the next year.

You’d never know it from Wallace’s bland coach-speak in The Herald’s 1986 high school football preview, but that year’s group of Lions was one of those elusively perfect amalgams of everything sports success requires: innovative and inspirational coaching, covalent team chemistry, unusually athletic and large players, and unwavering community backing.

“During training camp, we just had that special feeling,” said Greene.

Just three of the 14 games were close. Wallace’s 27-man team allowed 3.4 points per game and shut out seven opponents. McMurray’s defense – led by players like Greene, Brian Roddey, Michael Jordan and Jerome Howze – ate steaks every time they blanked an opposing team. The steaks were provided by a couple of the players’ parents, just one example of the immense support the team received from the Richburg area. Fans followed the team to its five road games and bulged the fences surrounding the field for home games played across the street from the intimidating Union Church graveyard.

“We used to come out to the best pregame fireworks show of any high school, and most colleges today,” said Jerry Thomas, who was an offensive lineman on the ’86 team and now coaches the school’s softball team. “We would have two or three news helicopters flying and sometimes landing at the stadium to cover us. Football on Friday nights at Lewisville was the place to be. The energy around the team was amazing. If you weren’t at the game Friday night you were really missing out.”

The ’86 Lions were innovative, running a version of the spread offense years before most other schools adopted it. That was thanks to a fine dual-threat quarterback in Jon Robinson, and wide receiver talent in Greene and Anthony “Tap” Dunham. He earned the nickname “Tap” as a kindergartner when a friend noticed him constantly rapping on his desk. Dunham tapped his feet in the end zone 12 times in 1986, part of a Lions’ offense that averaged over 30 points per game.

“I loved the high-powered offense,” he said. “We spread it out, but we had a running game too.”

Robinson and company were protected by a monster offensive line, led by the late Chuck Mozingo, who later starred at Wofford, and Tommy Buckson. Michael Heath stood 6-foot-8 and over 300 pounds and a number of other players contributed on both the offensive and defensive lines. Converted running back Otis Hall helped replace graduated star Wesley McFadden and rushed for over 1,000 yards, while also kicking a game-winning field goal in a 3-0 win over No. 2-ranked Jonesville.

Bennie McMurray’s advice to the current Lewisville team, ahead of its game against No. 1 Lamar:

The “Hogbone” was another of the coaching staff’s innovations. In short yardage situations, Lewisville would send Mozingo, Buckson and Heath out to pave the way for Hall, a nearly 900-pound personnel group that never failed to achieve the few yards needed.

The whole operation was wrangled together by the man nicknamed “Moose.” Wallace’s neck strained as he shepherded his young men through a season of football they’ll never forget.

“He was a teacher and as a kid, I didn’t understand,” said DeeDee Howze, a receiver and defensive back on the ’86 team who helped organize this week’s reunion. “He was a little intimidating but that’s why you didn’t want to fail.”

That year was current Northwestern coach David Pierce’s second season working under his mentor and former offensive line coach at Rock Hill High, Wallace. Pierce had just graduated from Winthrop and was only about six years older than the oldest Lewisville players. He poured concrete during his day job and showed up to practice with hardened concrete covering his legs. He was a young pup of a coach that Wallace put in charge of the offensive and defensive lines.

“What was he like in 1986? That guy was 25 hours a day, 100 miles per hour,” said Pierce, who later followed Wallace to Northwestern where he’s coached the last 30 years. “He hasn’t changed much. He’s always been an evangelist for football.”

Wallace’s former players gushed about him, and they mentioned with awe his propensity to headbutt them – with their helmets on – for pregame motivation. If Wallace was ready to spill blood for the cause, shouldn’t they be?

“Moose was still Moose,” said McMurray. “Probably a little wilder than now because age slows everybody down.”

When asked how excited he was to see his former players Friday night, Wallace’s eye shimmered and he grinned. Everyone who talked to The Herald for this story had the same crackle in their voice about the reunion, as they blew the dust off of glorious and yellowed memories.

“I could talk about that all day, man,” said Greene. “All day.”

He’ll get the chance to Friday.

Watch the entire 1986 championship game:

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 6:10 PM with the headline "Folks still shake their heads at 1986 Lewisville state championship team’s football dominance."