Five decades removed from their greatest high school glory, the 1973 State AAA Championship Football team from Indianola Academy will gather one last time on Friday night during the Colonels’ home game.
Twenty of the original 35 players along with their cheerleaders will be celebrated at halftime. Several players couldn’t make it and seven players have sadly passed away.
The Colonels went 11-0 that magical season putting up impressive numbers on both offense and defense that would stand in any era of high school football.
The offense averaged 40 points per game and had a total of 435 points in the season with game highs of 63, 62 and 49.
The defense only allowed a mere seven-points-per-game average with five shutouts during the season.
They allowed only 72 points the entire season. Two of the shutouts were for the semi-final playoff game and the state championship.
Led by fifth-year Head Coach Bill McGuire who had come to the Delta after his playing days at Mississippi State, McGuire was first an assistant coach for a Bulldog teammate who was leading Indianola High School, Bobby Stacy. McGuire was an assistant for two seasons at Indianola High School before taking over as head coach at the newly-created Indianola Academy. The Tupelo native brought his competitive spirit and soon hired another young teachable coach, Johnny Parker from Shaw. Parker’s first task was working with the junior high team and notably said he was “the sprint line marker” for the players.
“I saw something in him that I liked. I saw he was eager to learn and eager to do good and wanted to take care of the kids,” McGuire said. “We elevated him to varsity. I spent a lot of time coaching the coaches and I helped him.”
Parker ran with the opportunity given him and traveled the country and even internationally and became a world-renown weight lifting coach. With stops at South Carolina, LSU, Indiana and a few others, Coach Parker would soon find himself in the NFL and would retire after nearly two decades on that level with four Super Bowl rings to show for his efforts.
The 1973 Championship began the day after the 1972 season ended – a 21-14 defeat to archrival Jackson Prep. Players gathered in an empty classroom and the two coaches laid out a plan – a tough plan but one that would reap success if followed. Thirty-five players picked up the challenge that day.
“We were building that in ’’72. We could see that good things were on the way,” Coach McGuire said.
The plan started with an off-season weight lifting program – the first in the state.
“They bought into it and Coach Parker was gung-ho and they all got gung-ho too. They were loyal too. They came after work covered in dirt and worked out,” McGuire said.
And one machine in particular – a thrust machine that was created by then-farmers Scott and Will Green Poindexter, was loaded with tractor weights. The unique machine sculpted each Colonel into a stronger, faster and dominating player.
“Boy, those squat racks got plenty of use,” Parker said.
When he moved up to varsity, Parker took it personally that Jackson Prep had defeated them in 1972.
“I felt like it was my fault. There were two plays that they ran that we didn’t stop. One was a weak side option that schematically we couldn’t stop. The other was a fullback trap over on the strong side,” he said. “We had a little mistake there and it opened things up wide open for that fullback trap. I felt like that was my fault and I just thought that I owed it to those kids to come back. I made a vow that I was going to do something every single day to help us beat them next year.”
Parker watched Prep film and knew the weight program needed to improve.
“We used Universal Gym because that’s what they did. I thought we don’t need to do what they’re doing. We need to do something better than what they are doing,” he said.
He traveled to Louisiana to see the guru of weightlifting programs and training, Alvin Roy. After purchasing free weights to work into their training, they also added total body explosive exercises.
“Our guys just worked so hard,” Parker said. “These guys have always been my heroes. They sacrificed so much.”
Junior Bill Lancaster, a split end and tight end who wore #42 was one of the dedicated 35 who sat in that classroom and he compared it to Shakespeare’s King Henry speech.
“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother.”
“It’s a way of talking about commitment. He who has made the same commitment to this goal is my brother,” Lancaster said. “Everybody was all in.”
The season began with a 28-12 win over Greenville Christian and then a 26-0 blowout over McCluer Academy. Louisiana’s Sam Barthe Academy came to Indianola and left with a 42-0 whooping. Bayou Academy was trounced 62-7. That was followed by a 28-6 win over Washington School and then a trip to Leflore County.
The receiver especially enjoyed that Friday night in Greenwood taking down Pillow Academy, 48-14.
“That’s seven touchdowns and I always kid RV (starting tailback, #23 Robert Van Poindexter) and I say, ‘yeah, that night RV and I combined for seven touchdowns. He scored six and I scored one,’” Lancaster said. “I still remember the play, 35X Across. That play was money. We were always running the tailback off tackle or a sweep. As soon as RV started to his left, the whole defense would run that way.”
Lancaster was wide open on the right side of the field after releasing his block.
“Only thing I could think of was, ‘oh my God, I hope I don’t drop this.’ I think I ran about 40 yards,” he said.
The following week, the Colonels took down Manhattan Academy, 42-21. Then Skyview Academy in Tennessee took on a 63-0 loss. But then came the one game that nearly derailed the season and the goal of a state championship. A trip to Clarksdale to take on Lee Academy on a cold Friday night in early November.
Details of the game are scant but the Colonels held on for a 14-12 victory, a win that was nearly drawn out when the Colts set up to go for two. For 50 years there have been urban legends about who made the actual game-saving tackle. The game film shows an angle of the tackle but the jersey number can’t be seen. But now 50 years later, the urban legend met up with the truth.
“There wasn’t much time left and they scored and made it 14-12,” then sophomore cornerback #30 Jarratt Price said. “The quarterback ran off to the running back and he started running to the opposite side but then they reversed it.”
Price had been flowing with the play and was out of position when the Colts then reversed the ball with a running back already at full speed headed to Price’s right corner he had vacated.
“I looked over at the right corner, my corner and there wasn’t a soul over there. The North AAA Championship came down to me and all I could think of was the chewing out at the film session I was going to get from Coach McGuire. I made a bee line for the corner and hit him just before he stepped in the end zone and took him out of bounds.”
The win was preserved and IA would then take on Central Academy for the Semi-Final and take them out 49-0 but Price was still a bit shaken at almost possibly messing up the season.
“At the film session, the camera was on the far side of the field so nobody could see who made the tackle. You couldn’t see my number and so somebody else, I won’t say who, got credit for the tackle and I never said anything. When I went back to the reunion that same person got the credit. Then at another reunion someone else got the credit. I made that tackle and I don’t know how anybody can argue it wasn’t the most important play of the season. I’m taking my credit. I’ve shut my mouth for this long.”
Starting quarterback David Sykes, who had masterfully run McGuire’s nearly two dozen play offense like a symphony, hurt his knee the following week against Central and stayed out of practice most of the week. Sophomore Jim Lear ran the offense in practice. But no one had any qualms or doubts about him doing so. But much like Rocky, The Natural and every other great fictional movie, #12 Sykes taped up and ran the show against Jackson Prep on the Patriots’ home field.
“I was taped up tight and was probably 75 to 80 percent,” Sykes said. “Playing in that game was really, really important to me. We would have beaten Prep with Jim at quarterback. Anyone could have played quarterback that night. We really dominated them.”
Dominated 33-0. Prep never had a chance from the opening whistle. With the Colonels’ physical strength, speed and coaching talent, the Patriots didn’t stand a chance that night.
Senior tackle #74 Burton Ely reflected on the Prep win and the team.
“My teammates and I could not have had better mentors to achieve our goals of that year,” Ely said. “Every week our coaches helped us have a single purpose which was to focus on the coming game to win and take our next step toward the championship. We made that happen 10 times and we headed to Jackson to meet our rivals, Jackson Prep, on their home field. This was the most important game of our high school football careers as we, IA, wanted to repay Jackson Prep for the loss we suffered at home the prior year. Then to our surprise we not only beat them, we destroyed them, winning the State Championship 33 to 0 and finishing our season undefeated, 11 and 0. My biggest takeaway from our 1973 football season that has stayed with me throughout my life, is that hard work and team efforts toward a goal is rewarding for all involved.”
The stands were packed and overflowing around the Patriots’ field on the Colonels’ side. Scott Poindexter was deep into his cotton harvest. His brother, Will Green asked what they were going to do the Friday of the Prep game.
“We’re going to Jackson,” Scott said.
The duo were the older brothers of RV and on the way to the capital city saw one of their own transport trucks taking cotton seed to a mill south on Highway 49. They didn’t even stop but waved as they passed on the way to the championship game.
RV ran wild that night just as he had all season. Poindexter ran for 1,392 yards in just nine games and scored 31 touchdowns and held the single-game scoring record with his 38 points against Pillow. Those stats though are skewed. With so many lopsided games, RV and other starters were on the bench early in the third quarter of most games. If stats had been a priority, a 2,000-plus-yard season could easily have been had for the senior.
“Coach McGuire was not out to embarrass people,” RV said. “He didn’t like running up the score on people.”
But he didn’t originally start at tailback. Junior #31 Jon Maddox was the starter but hurt his knee in the first game and McGuire moved RV from split end to tailback. The speedster ran through holes his dominating offensive line opened inside and out. Fullback #44 Tim Horn opened holes and led the way and “toted the mail” on occasion gaining major yardage throughout the season as well.
“I liked getting my hands on the ball all of the time. I was All Conference the year before at split end. I led the North AAA in receptions and yardage,” RV said. “When I got on the field, I was in a zone. I didn’t talk to anybody. I very seldom said anything in the huddle except, ‘Sykes, don’t run me this time. I’m tired.’”
The 1973 team had 18 players receive scholarship to go on and play at the next level D1, D2 and other levels. Six of them played on the SEC level. They will be honored and remembered along with their cheerleaders Sharman Randall Gray, head cheerleader, Elizabeth Ann Phillips Robertson, senior assistant head cheerleader, Marsha Hull Tindall, senior, Tomilyn Webb Duke, senior, Kim Williams Truesdale, junior, Margie Bonner Randall, junior, Judy Allen Alexander, sophomore and Stacy Randall Weems, sophomore.
This story is a small portion of the championship season. A larger full-length project is in the works with interviews from every living player, coaches, fans and more. If you’d like to contribute to the project, please reach out to Mark Stowers at 662.352.3446 or ia73champs@gmail.com. There is also a Facebook page to gather memories and photos.
