With this in mind I encourage everybody to check out the Tornado History page on TornadoPride.com because it has grown into an absorbing visual record of Hickory's long athletic history. Hickory alumnus Bob Duckworth, a longtime supporter of Red Tornado athletics, has done an outstanding job of gathering and scanning all the photographs you will see on the History page. And, of course, it is my pleasure to provide the forum with which to make these treasures accessible to all visitors to the site.
One of my original motivations for creating TornadoPride.com in 2002 was to make current Red Tornadoes aware of the long-standing tradition to which they contribute when they put on the garnet and gold colors of Hickory High. I felt at the time that not enough was being done to "bring to life" Hickory High's sports tradition and make it real for the players and fans. It's an ongoing process which, fortunately, is my great hobby and passion.
On the Tornado History page you will also see some photographs from the days of Ridgeview High School, which was the traditional African-American high school in Hickory prior to integration. Gathering additional information and pictorial mementos from Ridgeview's impressive sports history is also an ongoing process to which I look forward as time goes by. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Ridgeview's Panthers now proudly wear the colors of Hickory High but they are also heirs to a tradition that produced the likes of Coach Samuel W. Davis, Sr.
Coach Davis was the longtime Panther football and basketball coach as well as Ridgeview's athletic director. He did it all for many years. His Panther football teams in the 1950s and 1960s still hold the North Carolina records for consecutive regular-season wins (74, from 1957-1965) and consecutive shutouts (14, from 1964-1965). His 1964 Panthers had the ultimate perfect season, compiling a 12-0 record and outscoring the opposition by 446-0. That's right...unbeaten and unscored upon. Did Zero Bars exist back then?
Just two years later the Red Tornadoes and Panthers were finally united into one single football juggernaut that also went 12-0 and won a state championship. I'd love to see a movie called Remember the Tornadoes of 1966!
Learning more about Hickory High's football traditions will introduce you to men like Carl "Willie" Wakefield.
Wakefield was once described as a hustler of the "rock 'em, sock 'em" type and was a terrific lineman for the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears back in the late 1940s. He was a standout on the undefeated Red Tornado squad of 1943 that won the Western Conference championship.
After his high school playing days were over Wakefield's life took a fascinating but not unfamiliar turn for kids of his generation. The world was at war and like so many others Wakefield joined the military. He signed up with the Air Corps, ending up in Okinawa. He survived the fighting and at war's end a service football league was organized on the island. Wakefield was a key member of a team known as the "Okinawa Flyboys." The Flyboys eventually won the South Pacific Air Force championship.
Wakefield returned to Hickory and entered Lenoir-Rhyne in 1947 on the GI Bill and, of course, continued to play football. He earned a letter his first season as a 2nd-string guard. The 1st-stringer ahead of him was a senior and fellow war veteran by the name of Frank Barger. Wakefield became a starter himself on Clarence Stasavich's 1948 and 1949 Bear teams.
This is just a small sample of Hickory's football tradition. Like they say, it never graduates.
It's that time of year again...
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