When coaches have a football team like Druid Hills’ Coach Jim Rakestraw had this year, they sometimes find it hard to point to one or two factors and/or individuals that made things happen the right way.
Rakestraw is no exception, and had superlatives for everybody this week as reflected on his team’s wonder year in 1973. Druid Hills finished the season with a 9-1 record after whipping arch-rival Shamrock, 49-0, in the season finale, two very unusual occurrences.
And, although David Middour and Tommy Southard provided the lion’s share of the offensive power and Glen Bourgeois and Al Shepherd led the Devil’s defense, Rakestraw found it hard to single out any one of his “Dinky Devils” as one sportswriter tagged them early in the year.
“When you win you win because of good athletes,” said Rakestraw. “We had some small kids, a lot of small kids, but most of them were good athletes, and that’s why we won.”
“The backs had experience, and though they were tiny (178, 158, 165 and 155 pounds), they were real quick and we used that quickness to our benefit,” Rakestraw continued.
“We played as a team against Shamrock, just like we did against everybody we played,” said Rakestraw, who completed his fifth year at Druid Hills helm. “Different kids came through and stood out from week-to-week, but overall, it was a team-type thing. The kids were close and they worked together for what they got.”
The 9-1 record, reportedly the best record in the history of the school, included wins over Lithonia, Briarcliff, North Cobb, Tucker, Cross Keys, Gordon, Ridgeview, Marist and Shamrock.
The lone loss came at the hands of AA state champion Southwest DeKalb.
“We felt as the season progressed we had a shot at ending up like we did,” said Rakestraw. “We felt like if we won the Lithonia and Tucker games, we could go into the Southwest DeKalb game with a 5-0 record.”
“Our early season is really what made us go this year,” the likable Druid Hills coach continued. “We got confidence early and the kids found out they could play football.”
“The ball bounced our way all year, we didn’t have many serious injuries and we worked hard,” Rakestraw continued.
Against Shamrock, though Rakestraw doesn’t like talking about individuals, David Middour and Tommy Southard passed personal milestones in their high school careers.
Middour, who called the signals brilliantly for Druid Hills throughout the year, completed nine of 12 passes for 154 yards, including four touchdown passes. The four scoring strikes marked the second straight week the Druid Hills quarterback had thrown for four.
The effort against Shamrock gave Middour 1,168 total yards for the year, 1006 through the air and 162 on the ground.
Southard, who almost broke the 1000 yard mark last year gained 176 yards rushing against Shamrock to push his rushing total to 1019 for the year and his total offense total to 1176.
Against Shamrock, Southard scored twice, once on a 43-yard Middour pass, and the other on a nine yard run.
After that, Druid Hills got excellent effort from halfback Keith Honeycutt and fullback David Adams.
Randy Tanner caught two touchdown passes against Shamrock, and Tripp Childs was on the receiving end of five Middour passes for 81 yards and one touchdown.
Defensively, Glenn Bourgeois intercepted one pass and ran it back for a 45 yard score. Al Shepherd, playing middle linebacker for the Druids, had perhaps his best night with 12 individual tackles and six assists.
Cary Ullman, Pat Kelley, Alfred Key, Robert Hall, Dennis Yarborough, Richard McDermott, Ward Gober and others all received Rakestraw’s praise following the Shamrock game.
Rakestraw talked glowingly of his offensive line, which may go down as the smallest offensive line in high school history. The weights were 165, 131, 157, 150, 153, 144, 165. The names were Win Jackson, Sam Robertson, Steve Mullins, John Stillwell, Kendall Sherrill, and Bob Manross.
Rakestraw praised Mike Cutting, Tom Stubbs, and Richard Fears, Mike Goodwin and others “who worked hard all year to do what people thought was impossible.”
“Cutting played his last game at Druid Hills Friday night, and he didn’t play particularly well against Shamrock but he has had some good ones in the past, and he’ll play well for somebody in college,” said Rakestraw.
“We’ve not only got good players but I was fortunate to have the type assistants it takes to win,” Rakestraw praised. “Kent Manwaring, Ken Townley, and Raymond Farmer did one fine job all year.”
