Raging Bull Goes Bezerk in Tiger Locker Room

The 1966 Tigers had an up and down season in the season that preceded their 1967 title run. Bob Prather showed flashes of potential and got some playing time that year, but every game was a grind. 

The season started off with a 12-0 loss in Albany, in which they moved the ball up and down the field, but couldn’t score. They frequently finished games strongly; they fought Gallatin to a scoreless tie through three quarters before finally breaking through for two scores in the fourth to win 13-0. They were demolished 41-0 by Cameron, trailed 20-13 late against Hamilton, but scored in the closing minutes and converted the extra point to get the 20-20 tie.

The Homecoming game with King City was one of their best games they had played in several years, as they scored early against the Wildkats, and a stingy defense held them off the rest of the game as they got the 6-0 win.

A long road trip to winless Princeton was next, but the conditions were anything but ideal. The game was played in the rain and the mud, and Princeton looked anything but a winless team; they controlled the ball for the whole first half; try as they might, Worth County could not get off the field on defense and only ran nine offensive plays during the first half. Somehow, the game was still tied 0-0 at the half.

Bull Reece was beside himself and went totally bezerk, throwing the medicine kit and anything else he could lay hold of. For him, this was a letdown game after the Tigers had played so well the week before. Finally, he turned to his players and said, “Boys, if you’re going to play like this, I’m just going to go up and watch it in the stands.”

Sure enough, the Bull followed through on his threat and went into the stands and sat with his wife. The players had to warm up on their own before the second half. But a totally different half unfolded for the Tigers; Princeton got the ball and picked up two first downs, but finally, Worth County started stopping them on defense, and Bull came back down and started coaching again. In the fourth quarter, Frank Matteson aired one out to Ron Richards for 83 years and a score, Worth County converted the extra point, and then stopped a late drive to get the 7-0 win.

The rest of the season didn’t go the way the Tigers wanted to, as they still had to play Stanberry and Maysville, two title contenders, along with Bethany, who was an up and coming team. They were only down 12-6 against Maysville in the third quarter, but the Wolverines scored twice more to get the 24-6 win. Then, they fell behind 34-0 early in the third against Stanberry. But all of a sudden, Worth County started showing the form that would propel them to a 23-3-1 run the next three years, as they completely outplayed Stanberry, got to within 34-21, and were threatening again as time expired. 

Worth County came heartbreakingly close to beating Bethany in their final game. It was one of the hardest hitting games the Tigers had been part of recently, and it looked like a pair of heavyweights playing for the GRC title. Bethany took advantage of an early turnover to go up 6-0, and then the Tigers would come close all night. They would get to the 10, 17, 12, 3, 29, 15, the 5, and the 3 again. Finally, on the latter series, Bethany fumbled the ball back to the Tigers on the 1, and they got a late score to tie it at 6-6. They finished up 3-4-2, with two of their wins and both their ties coming on scores in the final quarter.