Former Red Tornado star Bob Reed knows the feeling. He played his final game as a Tornado back in 1947, but remembers it all as if it happened only last year. For former players like Reed, this time of year is also
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one for reflecting on the past. Like so many others, he has experienced Red Tornado football as a player, as a player’s father, and as a fan. Two of his sons, Dana and Kyle, played for legendary Tornado head coach Frank Barger in the 1970s. "It was different when I was growing up," said Reed, "there was no organized football for kids before they reached the eighth grade. We just played sandlot ball all the time. We were just a bunch of country boys playing the game."
When Bob Reed went out for the Hickory varsity squad in the fall of 1944 the world was literally turned upside down due to the world war still raging in Europe and the Pacific. The Red Tornadoes had a new head coach that season, Doc Kanupp, who replaced Bill Scarborough, who had joined the war effort. Reed and his classmates could not know at the time that Kanupp would be just one of three different head coaches to guide the team in the next four years.
Personnel turnover like that has always been rare at Hickory High and the situation definitely had an impact on the fortunes of the team. The Red Tornadoes went from an 8-0-1 championship campaign in 1943 to a dismal three-year run of bad luck and losing records, including back-to-back losses to archrival Newton-Conover. After two years of Kanupp, the team was taken over by the basketball coach, Lloyd Coley, whose 1946 squad stumbled to a 3-6-1 record.
That’s when former Duke star Buddy Luper stepped in.
"Luper was very strict," Reed remembered. "The first thing he ever said to us was ‘I’m Coach. I’m not Buddy to you. I’m Coach Luper.’ And boy none of us ever called him Buddy. Luper didn’t run a lot of elaborate drills. We would just run and run and then run some more."
Luper and his assistant, Troy Washam, quickly whipped the 1947 Tornadoes into shape. But Luper and Washam also had plenty of talent on that squad. In addition to Reed, who was the starting fullback, the senior group included husky Lamar Dowda, a bruising lineman, along with top backfield men Paul "Cooter" Jones and Glenn Ray Yoder, better known as "Lefty." The starting lineup also included a ferocious sophomore center/linebacker by the name of Gene Frye.
Lamar Dowda"Lamar was a big old boy," remembered Reed. "He made the varsity team as an eighth grader, which was perfectly within the rules back then. He was probably the toughest guy on the team. Right there with him, though, was Gene Frye. He was just mean. We used to get into fights all the time when we were younger. We were all a little afraid of him, actually. But he was a great player and we were happy that he was on our side."
Both Dowda and Frye would eventually be selected to play in the Shrine Bowl: Dowda in 1947 and Frye in 1949.
"Our first game in 1947 was against Forest City," said Reed. "That was the game when Cooter Jones got his leg broken returning a punt early in the game. His season was over just like that. Fred Lail came in for him. I scored the only touchdown and we beat them 6-0."
The second game of the season was against Statesville and Reed still winces at the memory of it. Over 3,000 fans were on hand at College Field to witness the contest between the two old rivals.
"I never will forget that game," said Reed. "Gene Smith played for Statesville. And I was on defense, playing right corner. I got crossed up and Smith went down the sideline behind me and caught the pass that put them ahead for good. Oh, I was sick about that."
The following week saw the Red Tornadoes battle conference rival Lenoir to a 6-6 tie. Fred Lail scored Hickory touchdown on an eight-yard run, helped along by the fine blocking of Lamar Dowda and Harold Deal. Dowda’s potential game-winning extra point attempt was wide to the right.
A 13-0 victory over Charlotte Tech in the season’s fourth contest marked the debut of Glenn Ray "Lefty" Yoder, who came off the bench in the second quarter of his first varsity game and rushed for 105 yards, including a sparkling 10-yard touchdown run. The Red Tornado victory set up a confrontation with the Newton-Conover Red Devils, who were looking for a third consecutive win over Hickory.
When asked how Hickory and Newton-Conover fans got along in those day, Reed just shook his head and chuckled.
The Tornadoes were especially keyed up for the contest and they literally exploded on the Red Devils immediately. Lefty Yoder returned the opening kickoff to the Hickory 26-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage he scooted around right end and broke loose on a 74-yard touchdown jaunt, with Reed, Dowda, and Bobby Shores providing an escort of blockers. That play set the tone for the game as Yoder ran wild, scoring two more touchdowns before it was over. Thanks to Yoder’s heroics and a brutal defense led by Dowda and Frye, Hickory rolled to a very satisfying 20-2 victory.
"Fred Lail got hurt," Reed recalled, "and Glenn Ray came in at tailback in the old single wing formation. We beat them 20-2 and put five of them in the hospital. They were laid out all over the field. Those guys were just not in shape."
The brutal loss at the hands of their archrivals was seared into the minds of Newton fans. It would take another 30 years before the Red Devils could once again claim victory in the bitter rivalry.
If the Red Devils were out of shape and unprepared to face the Red Tornadoes, the same could not be said of Hickory’s next opponent, undefeated Shelby. The Golden Lions, led by running back Billy Meggison, slipped past the Tornadoes, 13-0.
The following week Hickory was its own worst enemy, fumbling away an opportunity to defeat the Lincolnton Wolves on the road. The hometown Wolves won the hard-hitting contest by a score of 13-7. It was Bob Reed who scored Hickory’s lone touchdown.
Hickory closed out the 1947 season with victories over Marion and the NC School for the Deaf. The Marion Rippers came to Hickory and brought their usual brutal style of football with them, but the Red Tornadoes beat them at their own game, 13-7, in what came to be known as the "Mud Bowl."
"It rained three days and three nights before that game," remembered Reed. "It was the only game my mother ever saw me play in was that Marion game and I was covered in mud. She could hardly tell which one was me. I will never forget that game."
The season finale against N.C.S.D. was played up in Morganton and was another important game to the Hickory boys. It was usually no picnic playing the Bears of N.C.S.D. and Hickory had lost to the Bears in 1945 and 1946. But the 1947 game was a memorable one for Red Tornado players and fans alike. The team put it all together that day and rolled to a most satisfying 54-6 victory, the most lopsided Hickory victory in nearly 20 years. Joe Shook was the star of the day, racking up over 100 yards in pass receptions. Reed scored two touchdowns in his final high school game.
"That was a sweet victory," said Reed. "We had lost to them two years in a row and we wanted that game. It was a road game and for road trips one of the school janitors would drive the old bus that we had. We got a meal after the game on road trips. I don’t think we ever had a meal before the games like they do now. But I remember they gave us each 50 cents on trips. But you could get yourself a pretty good meal for 50 cents back then. You could get a hamburger and a drink with that, easily."
For his consistently excellent and dependable play throughout the season, Reed was honored to receive a new award, instituted by Coach Luper: the team’s Most Outstanding Player trophy.
"Well, I did pretty well that season," Reed recalled. "We had a play called the Reed Special. It’d be a very simple play now. I was the fullback in the single wing. I’d run up to the line and turn around, the halfback would hand it off to me and then I’d lateral the ball to someone coming around the end. We did well with that play.
"Also, I was fortunate to get through the season without any real injuries. I don’t know I managed that because back then you could hit a man pretty much however you wanted to. With no facemasks and little pads, people got hurt all the time.
"With all the talent we had on that team, I was very proud of winning that award. I’m still proud of it because that was a great bunch of guys that I played with then. And I still have that trophy.”
That is what it’s all about. A football game lasts 48 minutes on the scoreboard, but the memories last a lifetime.
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