Where were you on November 3, 1978? Jimmy Carter was president of the United States, the television show "Different Strokes" was making its network debut, "Grease" was No. 1 at the theaters and a sophomore quarterback in Texas named Todd Dodge was trying to lead Port Arthur Thomas Jefferson to its first win of the year.
Dodge's Thomas Jefferson team lost to Forest Park 10-0 a week later on Nov. 10, 1978 while
Westlake (Austin), the team he currently coaches, was blanked 10-0 by Lockhart on Nov. 3.
Westlake has scored in
every game since, a streak that has lasted 42 years and nearly 11 months. That's 561 games in a row, according to Chris Doelle of
Friday Night Legends.
Dodge overcame the loss to Forest Park, led the state in passing as a junior and then set state records in 1980 as a senior while leading Thomas Jefferson to a 14-1 record and a runner-up finish to Odessa Permian in the state final.
As a coach, he's won national coach of the year honors twice, most recently last year when MaxPreps tabbed him as Coach of the Year after leading Westlake to a Class 6A state championship over his old school Southlake Carroll, where he had previously won four state championships.
Todd Dodge with his Westlake team after winning the state championship last season.
Photo by Robbie Rakestraw
Now, Dodge is reportedly in his final year at Westlake and the Chaparrals are off to another strong start at 3-0 and ranked No. 4 nationally in the MaxPreps Top 25.
Westlake has had just one losing season in the 42 years since the shutout loss to Lockhart and that was in 1986 when the team went 2-8. No other Westlake team has finished with less than six wins and 24 teams have won 10 games or more.
Lufkin (Texas) is believed to hold the nation's second-longest streak of consecutive games scoring with around 360 games in a row - nearly 200 games less than Westlake's streak.
Here's four more football fun facts leading into another big Friday night under the lights:
Presidential pigskin
Way back in 1960,
Archmere Academy (Claymont, Del.) completed one of the greatest football seasons in the school's history with an 8-0 record. The reason that record is notable is because of the player who led the team in scoring that year.
Before going on to become a senator for over 40 years and currently the leader of the free world, a halfback by the name of Joe Biden scored 12 touchdowns on the season for Archmere with a team-best 60 points that included three touchdowns in the final game of the season.
Biden was also an all-conference baseball player in the spring of 1961 for league champion Archmere, playing, where else, left field.
Close rivals
Crosstown rivals
Trinity (Louisville) and
Male (Louisville) battled for the state championship in Kentucky last year, which brings up the question, which two teams playing for a state championship were separated by the least amount of distance between the two schools?
The answer is Boys High School and Tech High School in Atlanta. In 1946, the two teams played for the state championship in Georgia with Tech edging Boys. How far apart were the two schools located? Zero feet. Boys and Tech were housed in the same building for over 20 years yet operated as separate schools until the two schools closed in 1947 to form one school.
Historic high school scandal
The Bishop Sycamore controversy may rate as one of the bigger scandals in high school history, but one that might rank even bigger is one that involved the National Football League.
In 1925, the Chicago Cardinals were half a game ahead of the rest of the NFL with two games left to play, one of them against the Milwaukee Badgers. According to Bob Carroll in his article for Football Researchers called "Red Equals Green," a former
Englewood Stem (Chicago) player named Art Folz contacted four current Englewood players and was able to convince them to play for the Badgers (player contracts and signings were a little bit more relaxed in 1925), who had recently disbanded and were in need of players. In doing so, Folz was hoping to give the Cardinals an easy opponent and put them one win closer to a league championship.
The Cardinals played the Badgers and won 58-0, but the four Englewood players, who played under assumed names, were discovered and the game reportedly would not count in the standings. Folz was thrown out of the league for his participation in the scandal, but the players were able to go back to Englewood and finish the season.
Southern Columbia Area opponent cuts it close
Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa, Pa.) owns the longest active win streak in the nation at 63 in a row. However, last week Wyoming Area (Exeter, Pa.) did something no other SCA opponent has been able to do in over four years - get within 20 points of the Tigers.
Prior to SCA's 37-30 win last week, no opponent had finished closer than 20 points and the 30 points scored is tied for the highest total SCA has allowed during the streak. SCA's average margin of victory is 42.5 points per game while its average points scored is 52.0 and its average points allowed is 9.5.
How does that compare to other teams with long winning streaks? Here's a look at the teams with the top 5 longest 11-man winning streaks and their averages for points scored, points allowed and win margin.
Streak: 151 Scoring Average: 47.0 Points Allowed: 8.8 Average Margin: 38.2
Independence (Charlotte, N.C.)Streak: 109 Scoring Average: 45.9 Points Allowed: 11.4 Average Margin: 34.5
South Panola (Batesville, Miss.)Streak: 89 Scoring Average: 35.8 Points Allowed: 10.2 Average Margin: 25.6
Smith Center (Kan.)Streak: 79 Scoring Average: 51.2 Points Allowed: 6.9 Average Margin: 44.3
Streak: 74 Scoring Average: 36.8 Points Allowed: 10.4 Average Margin: 26.4
