Introduction

When my father died in 2003, I noted in a memorial that “my life has been a poor attempt, to imitate the man.” At the time, what I meant was that I was going to seminary to become a pastor. What I did not realize at the time was that I was going to become the statistician for the Guntersville Wildcats.

But that is what I have become.

It began with Coach Phil Isom, who my father had worked for. When I moved from Atlanta back to Guntersville in 2006, I began working at the high school and Coach Isom and I decided it would be good for me to take my father’s place.

Since that time, I have seen a state championship, the best quarterback, running back, and receiver the school has ever been blessed with, and the retiring of Coach Isom and hiring of Lance Reese.

I personally have moved from Coach Isom’s personal statistician, to keeping the stats for two newspapers, the radio station, and the school. And that’s all in six years. It’s been a great ride so far.

I owe the idea of this book to Dr. John Boggess. During the 2010 season, the radio staff and I were discussing where Chris Daniel stood toward breaking Chaz Rogers yardage record.

Through this discussion, Dr. Boggess suggested that I begin to work on a book about the history of Guntersville football. We agreed that there would be no money in it, but that the historical value of the book would be worth the time.

After putting some (ok, just a tiny bit) of thought, I decided I would give it a try. Now most of the writing is actually going to a website first, and perhaps a book donw the road. Although I’m pretty sure that Doc had a bit of an idea of what this would be.

I, however, had a different idea.

One of my favorite authors is a baseball writer named Bill James. James’s idea of writing includes irreverent stories, interesting anecdotes, and fun labels of things. That is part of what the aim is with this website.

Part of the aim of this website is to find out what Guntersville football was like in 1965 or 1935 or 2005. Who were the people around the program that were important? Who were the players that kids in town wanted to be like? Who was the coach and what did he demand of his kids? These are the stories I hope to tell by building this website.

I want to create a history of the Guntersville football program that is both interesting and informational.

Even with a topic as small and specific as Wildcat football, there is no possible way to completely cover the all the information that would be interesting and informational. By no means is this meant to be a definitive history. It is meant to give you a picture of what Guntersville football was like in a specific time, be it 1935 or 2005.

Through people’s stories, research, statistics, photographs, newspaper articles and many other sources, I hope to bring you a glimpse into the lives of the people, players, and coaches of Guntersville Wildcat football.

To quote James from his Historical Baseball Abstract: “This book is not intended to be studied; it is intended to be enjoyed.” I hope you enjoy the website. Now let’s dive in.