The 1973-74 yearbook calls it the “Year of the Massacre.” A two-page photo spread commemorates the occasion. Indeed, the Hawks’ 38-14 victory against North Side was cause for celebration.

The first football win over its oldest rival propelled the Hawks to a 7-3 record, the best in the school’s 17-year history. The yearbook staff couldn’t have known it at the time, but the win also marked a turning point in a series that hadn’t been competitive since 1956.

The rivalry resumes Friday as South Side (3-5) travels to North Side (5-3) for a non-region game with the Madison County Commissioners Cup at stake. Kickoff is 7 p.m. Tickets must be purchased online. None will be sold at the gate.

It’s the 56th meeting of the teams. North Side leads the series 31-24. Since “The Year of the Massacre,” though, the Hawks lead 24-23.

What follows is a brief narrative of the early years of the rivalry as gleaned from the South Side archives, Jackson Sun archives and the school’s institutional knowledge. Our story begins in the fall of 1956 and ends with a thrilling double overtime win in 1978, the pinnacle of coach Bobby Wilson’s tenure.

IN THE BEGINNING

Jack Brown had a tough task in the summer of 1956. Brown, who left Henderson to become the Hawks’ first coach, was putting together a team before South Side officially opened. It helped that assistant Wayne Jones had coached the Bemis Cats the previous year.

South Side was formed from the consolidation of Bemis, Mercer, Malesus and Pinson, but only Bemis had a football team. The new Hawks inherited players from the 1953, ’54 and ’55 Bemis Cats, which “didn’t have an enviable record,” according to the Sun, but did have several “top-grade players,” including Don Vailes, Richard Fisher and Gerald Ross, among others. The team was low on reserves. There were days at practice when only one full team was present.

In addition to Vailes, R. Fisher and Ross, the 1956 Hawks team also included Terry Robinson, Ronald Brooks, Mickey Sadler, Harold Patrick, Jimmy Mitchell, Rayford Collins, Jimmy Thrasher, Gayle Ellington, Kenneth Fisher, Johnny Alexander, Billy Nerren, Jewel Watson, Donald Newsom, Sonny Evans, Fred Jones, Gerald Eubanks, Murray King, Tommy Hurt, Robert Myracle, Larry Henderson, Johnny Morgan and Bobby Eads.

The first game was scheduled for Friday, August 31, 1956 at Rothrock Field with a 8 p.m. kickoff. The Sun ran preview articles the week of the game.

“This will undoubtedly start off a new rivalry which can be a big bread-and-butter game for both schools,” the Sun noted in one article. “The Hawks just aren’t ready this year, so make it North Side by 24-0.” In the paper published the morning of the game, the Sun noted, “This will be the first major function of the newly formed South Side High School, which has yet to open its doors to classroom activities.

For the record, North Side’s 1956 team included Larry Sanders, Bill McClain, Frank Bell, Henry Brooks, Ben McLeary, Ira Childress, Richard Shortreid, Bobby Brown, Mark Gregory, Harold Mayfield, Jimmy Jimmy Rushing, Ran Inman, Jerry Drews, Joe Bobbitt, Billy Crawford, Thomas Scarborough, Robert Faulkner, Ronald DeBerry, Marshall Duffy, Jimmy Moore, Ray Childress, Alan Droke, Akle Nance and Jimmy Watson.

Sun sports editor Jack Hilliard describes the first game in an article published Sunday, September 1.

North Side scored all its points in the last three minutes of the second quarter and held on for a 12-0 win. “For South Side Rayford Collins was particularly impressive both on offense and defense until he sustained an injury in the second quarter,” Hilliard wrote. “He was especially tough on North Side backs trying to skirt the ends. Big Richard Fisher and quarterback Don Vailes played up to expectations.”

North Side also won in 1957, 1958 and 1959 by scores of 14-9, 14-6 and 34-16, respectively. The teams did not play from 1960 to 1968. The Hawks were on their fourth head football coach when the rivalry resumed in 1969, which was Bill Whitehurst’s first and only year as coach. North Side won that game 20-0.

Bobby Wilson became South Side’s fifth head coach in 1970 and had three consecutive losses to North Side: 34-16 in 1970, 24-0 in 1971 and 14-0 in 1972. But the tide was about to turn.

‘THE YEAR OF THE MASSACRE’

Several key factors helped the Hawks beat North Side for the first time.

First, a junior high program was started in Wilson’s first year as head coach. Second, there had been an increase in enthusiasm for football since the school’s new stadium opened the previous year. As a result, more students were coming out for football.

For the record, these were the South Side players on the first team to beat North Side: A. Emison, J. Love, V. King, B. Johnson, S. Hulsey, C. Williams, E. Humphrey, D. Garner, T. Love, W. Taylor, R. Hinson, J. Towater, J. Crawford, J. Mayes, J. McKnight, B. Sisco, D. Little, T. Jernigan. M. Greer, M. Smith, C. Coley, J. Allen, S. Murley, B. Thomas, S. Butler, B. Wilson, P. Murley, J. Hardee, T. Tyler, R. Hearn, B. Richardson, S. Marberry, K. Kee, M. Edwards and N. Chism, as well as managers P. White, B. Gordon and F. Rankin.

The team is pictured as the main photo to this article.

PINSON RURITAN BOWL

The Hawks beat North Side twice in 1974. Both games were close.

The Hawks won 22-21 on September 20 in a contest South Side’s yearbook would call the “Indian Massacre 2.” Brothers Hank and Phillip Murley each caught a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter as the Hawks erased a 13-point deficit to win on the road.

“Our kids showed a lot of character,” Coach Wilson told the Sun. “They could have quit in the third period when we were down by two touchdowns, but they didn’t. They came back.”

The teams played again in inaugural Pinson Ruritan Bowl on Saturday, November 23 at South Side. In the next day’s paper, Sun sportswriter Billy Ray Cox provided a recap of South Side’s 25-20 win. North Side took an early 13-6 lead before the Hawks mounted a comeback. South Side’s Clifton Chandler scored on a 9-yard run with less than two minutes to play to lift the Hawks to victory.

South Side finished the 1974 season with a 9-2 record, and Coach Wilson was named the Volunteer Conference’s coach of the year for a second consecutive year.

FRIDAY THE 13TH

The Hawks beat North Side in 1975 and 1976 to extend their winning streak four games. North Side broke the streak with a 10-7 win in 1977.

In the 55-year history of the rivalry, three games have gone to overtime, with two of those going to double overtime. The first overtime – and double overtime game – came in 1978. Friday, October 13, to be exact.

The Sun’s Dan Morris described it this way:

“As an overflow crowd encircled the field and screamed with delight, South Side and North Side fought through two overtimes before the Hawks squeezed out a 12-6 victory and a state playoff berth Friday night at the Indians’ reservation.”

Teddy Austin scored both touchdowns for South Side, the first on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter and the second on a 10-yards run in the second overtime.

South Side finished the season with a 10-2 record. It was the pinnacle of Wilson’s coaching career at South Side.

Wilson stepped down as head coach – but stayed on with the school – after the 1984 season. Jerry Hayes was the head coach in 1989, when South Side and North Side played their second double overtime game, this one a 9-6 win for the Hawks.

The third and final overtime game was played in 1994. The Hawks won 37-31.

It Hawk Nation history tells us anything, it’s this: you can throw out the records, because anything can happen when South Side plays North Side.

The 56th chapter in the Hawks’ oldest rivalry will be written tomorrow night.

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