MaxPreps National High School Football Record Book: Daingerfield, Bedford County Training are shutout kings

Nothing says defense better than nothing. The opposing team can't win if it has a zero on the scoreboard and Bedford County Training and Daingerfield (Texas) were the best in high school football at doing nothing.

Bedford County Training, an all-black school that played during the segregation era in Shelbyville (Tenn.), holds the national record for consecutive shutouts at 32 in a row. Meanwhile, Daingerfied set the record for shutouts in a season with 14 during the 1983 season en route to winning a state championship.

MaxPreps National High School Football Record Book: Most Consecutive Shutouts

Both Bedford County Training and Daingerfield are the top teams in their respective categories for the most recent additions to the MaxPreps National High School Football Record Book.

Bedford County Training holds one of the longest unbeaten streaks in high school football history at 82 games (78-0-4) from 1943 to 1950. During that streak, the Tigers went 32 games without giving a point. For nearly 50 years, however, the streak was thought to be much longer.
Mentioned only a handful of times in newspapers from the 1960s to the 1990s, Bedford County Training's 52 straight shutouts began to trend in newspapers more often in the 2000s after appearing in Doug Huff's High School National High School Football Record Book. The record was also listed in the National Federation of High School's record book and the Tennessee state association record book.

Recently, however, the discovery of an article in the Kingsport Times from 1945 cast doubt on the length of the Tigers' streak. Full disclosure, yours truly found the article on newspapers.com listing Bedford County Training's shutout streak ending at 32 in a row, not 52.

Thus for now, unless further evidence emerges to the contrary, the record for consecutive shutout wins stands at 32 in a row.

MaxPreps National High School Football Record Book: Most Shutouts — Season

Grand Junction (Colo.) has the second-longest consecutive shutout streak in a row at 22. The Tigers set the national record for shutouts in a season at 13 in 1936 and then shut out nine opponents to start the 1937 season. Grand Junction broke the previous record of 11 shutouts in a season, which was held by nine teams and was first set in 1907 by Berkeley (Calif.).

Daingerfield, meanwhile, blanked 14 opponents in 1983, breaking the record for most shutouts in one season that was then held by Grand Junction and Americus (Ga.). Now known as Sumter County (Americus, Ga.), Americus tied Grand Junction's record after recording two shutouts to start the season, allowed eight points in a win over Dothan (Ala.), and then posted 11 straight shutouts to finish the season in 1975.

Google the term, "greatest high school defense of all-time" and Daingerfield comes up high on the list. The Tigers scored 631 points and gave up eight in going 16-0 with a state championship. Daingerfield allowed a safety in its opener, posted a shutout, and then gave up a long pass for a touchdown in the third game against Carthage before running the table with 13 straight shutouts.

Few teams have come close to threatening Daingerfield's record. Perry Traditional Academy (Pittsburgh, Pa.) nearly came close to tying the record in 2002 when it won its first 13 games by shutout before falling to Hopewell (Aliquippa, Pa.) 20-3 in the state semifinals.

Smith Center (Kan.) outscored its first 11 opponents 760-0 in 2007 before giving up points in its final two playoff games during a 13-0 season. River Hill (Clarksville, Md.), also in 2007, allowed single touchdowns in three of its wins during a 14-0 season. Roncalli (Aberdeen, S.D.) only played 12 games in 2006, starting the season with 11 straight shutouts before winning the state championship game 27-13 over More (Rapid City, S.D.).

the most recent team to post a long shutout string is Stratford (Wis.), which won 12 shutouts in a row to start the 2019 season before eventually falling in the state finals.