The 1940's began with a BANG! The Blue Devils
under second-year head coach Newt Godfree went 10-0 in
the regular season with scores like 39-6, 35-7, 39-7,
40-0 and 48-6.
Unfortunately,
Tifton ran into Valdosta in the South Georgia Football
Association playoffs. The game was played in
Albany, and a huge crowd was expected. Seating was
increased to 3,000 for the contest, but according to
reports in local papers, 5,000 people showed up.
Valdosta won that game 13-0 and went on to win the state
Class B Championship 21-0 over Cedartown. That
game was also played in Albany.
All of the SGFA
title games and the Class B title games were played in
Albany during those years with just a few
exceptions.
Godfree left in
1941 and Tifton hired the legendary Alvin "Pig" Davis.
Davis' Blue Devils went 5-4-1 in the fall of 1941 behind
the play of stars like Henry Bostick.
On November
21st of that year, Tifton defeated Fitzgerald 37-12 on
Thanksgiving Day. On December 7, the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor.
The coach and
several of his players left Tifton for the war before
the next season.
The next few
years were lean ones for the Blue Devils in numbers and
in wins. Some schools ceased all sporting
activities, but Tifton carried on. The Blue Devils
went 7-12-3 during the next three years under three
different coaches.
The team was so
small, the name "Imps" was used to describe the "Baby
Devils" in the local press.
In 1945 a new
coach came in -- M.T. McDaniel. Ticket prices had
soared to 60 cents for adults and 30 cents for students,
but the price of admission was well worth it.
Tifton was becoming one of the powers in high school
football.
In 1946, Tifton
went 8-3-1. The Devils were 8-1-1 in the regular
season before losing to eventual state champion Cairo in
the South Georgia Football Association title game.
Tifton was then
invited to play in the Strawberry Bowl in Hammond,
Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The Devils
took on Bogalusa in the Strawberry Bowl losing 26-12
after long road trip.
1946 marked the
year the Devils relearned how to win. It started a
streak that still stands as arguably the greatest run in
Blue Devil history.
Pig Davis
returned to Tifton in 1947 and led his troops to an 8-2
record. Among the notable players on that team was
a sophomore named Virgil "Bud" Willis and little
freshman named Johnny Lipsey. Willis went on to be
a captain at the University Alabama during the Bart
Starr era and Lipsey went to the University of Georgia
and eventually started at South Georgia.
The 1947 and
1948 seasons were marred by a pair of tough losses to
Fitzgerald. The Hurricanes had not beaten the
Devils in Tifton on Thanksgiving in a decade when they
defeated the Devils in 1947. Fitzgerald not only
defeated Tifton in 1948, the Hurricanes were state
champions in that year.
In 1949, the
Devils would not be denied. In just their second
year in the GHSA, they would go 11-1 beat Albany 33-6 in
the conference championship. Decatur managed to
win the first of two consecutive state titles in 1949 by
beating an injury-riddled Tifton 21-19.
Seniors Willis,
and Bobby "Big Boy" Griffis and junior Lipsey were named
all-region and all-state. Sam Rigdon, Edwin
Revels, Lamar Palmer, Lindsey, and Eugene Wood were also
named to all-star lists.
Despite his
penchant for poor mouthing, Davis was named Coach
of the Year. In an article entitled "Pig Davis is
the master bull-shooter of all time," The Albany
Herald's Harley Bowers quotes Davis as saying that
"...every time I mention Albany, we have to lock the
gate to keep them from running. They won't cause
your boys any trouble."
He also stated,
"Griffis won't hit anybody, faints at the site of blood
and Grimsley is just too nice a guy to be playing
football." It seems Pig Davis invented poor mouthing
before Vince Dooley even left Auburn.
Some of
Lipsey's numbers that year need repeating.
Described as an eel in a football uniform after the
Valdosta game, Lipsey gained 166 yards in 21 tries in a
20-6 win over the Cats. Against Cairo, Lipsey
gained 131 yards and scored five TDs rushing on only 9
carries. He was also 6 for 10 passing for 190
yards and 2 touchdowns. He rushed for 221 yards on
nine carries against Americus.
