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Friday, September 26, 2008, 10:40 AM
1978 Warriors an improbably special team By Paul Durham | Sports Editor The inaugural Hunt varsity football team reconvenes today to observe its 30th anniversary and the names of the players on that team still cast an impression. Despite a rocky start to this season, the Hunt football program has enjoyed its share of success over the past three decades. The original band of Warriors can lay claim to getting it started as they won all 10 regular-season games to take the 2-A Eastern Plains Conference championship before being upset by Lejeune in the first round of the 2-A playoffs. "I would say the first team set a tone of wanting to win and that Hunt was supposed to win," said Bill Williamson, an assistant in 1978. "I think it started us on a good foot." Williamson should know. In 1979, he took over for Lawrence Edwards who left for Southern Nash with the best career winning percentage at Hunt. Williamson was Hunt's head coach for 11 seasons then served as principal for eight years. Williamson talked about the talent level on that first Hunt team. "I would have to say my defensive backfield was as close to being the best that's ever been," he said. There was Dwight Taylor at free safety, Willie Harris at strong safety and Robert Wells and Linwood Holiday at the corners. Taylor, now Hunt's varsity boys basketball coach, played at Elizabeth City State University and for the Denver Broncos briefly. Wells earned a baseball scholarship to East Carolina University and Harris would become a two-time first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference performer at the University of North Carolina. Bruising tailback Frankie Hinnant played at then Liberty Baptist College while center/kicker Whitley Willkerson was the long-snapper at East Carolina University for four seasons. Then there were guys like Mike Wells, John Taylor, hard-hitting Robbie Raper (the brother of current head coach Randy Raper), Brian Horton, Will Webb, Ricky Hicks, Ronnie Lucas, George Mincey, Lyndon Sidelinger, Billy Eatmon, Mike Lewis, Jerome Bullock, Linwood Holiday and the Kennedy brothers, Greg and Tim. The players who would have gone to Fike came to Hunt with the knowledge they could have been part of possibly another powerhouse 4-A Fike team had merger not happened. "We had good teams leading up to our senior year at Fike and I think we would have had a really good team," said Wilkerson. Robert Wells, another member of the Warriors who would have gone to Fike, recalled the situation. "Gosh, it was bittersweet to say the least. Most of us didn't want to go," Wells said. "We all grew up in Wilson and we all had dreams of finishing our careers at Fike High School with all the traditions it had. Then to get split up our senior year with all the players we had coming back to a school with no tradition and no history was bittersweet." Beyond that, the pre-merger teams at Fike were the beneficiaries of a dedicated booster club, the type of which was still years away at Hunt in 1978. John Taylor, the starting quarterback, said he never had to buy football shoes as a Fike junior varsity and varsity player. "Yeah, it was kind of different because you went from riding Trailways buses to games with offense on one and defense on another and eating pregame meals at the Rib Room to riding the school bus," Dwight Taylor said. The 1978 Warriors quickly showed what they were made of, outscoring their first two opponents 48-0. In the third game, nose guard Hicks suffered a broken leg which had a galvanizing effect. "That was probably the turning point when we all came together," Wells said. Hunt ran off six shutouts and earned a reputation as a hard-hitting defensive team. There was fun along the way. Williamson instituted a weekly practice ritual. "Before games on Thursdays, he would dress up as a different mascot of the teams we were about to play," Webb recalled. "Before Roanoke, he came out of the woods as an Indian in full war paint and loin cloth and Lawrence Edwards yelled, 'Get him!' And we all chased him." Williamson admits now he put himself in a tough spot. "Back then in those younger days, I'd do just about anything to win a game," he said. "After that first one, the kids got a kick out of it and then it became pressure to top it every week." The only thing that first Warriors team didn't do was get a chance to beat Fike. With the former Titans staying at the 4-A level, Fike didn't play either Hunt or Beddingfield, both EPC members, in a regular-season game in 1978. There was a preseason scrimmage against the Golden Demons but that was it for the 1978 Warriors who would clearly like to see their alma mater pick up a much-needed win against Fike tonight, weather permitting. "Well, we hope so," Dwight Taylor assured. paul@wilsontimes.com | 265-7808
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