Mt. Gilead’s ‘flawless’ football team reunites

By Tay­lor Kaser –

50 years after Mt. Gilead crowned their unde­feated sea­son by best­ing Card­ing­ton in 1962, play­ers and cheer­lead­ers from the team reunited for the anniver­sary game on Sep­tem­ber 21 at Mt. Gilead high school.

Team­mates trav­eled from all over the coun­try to meet up at the field, that 50 years ago was packed with thou­sands of spec­ta­tors to see the rival teams face off.

The team gath­ered for a din­ner at the Cor­ner­stone Cafe before board­ing a bus to the foot­ball field to watch Mt. Gilead play Pleasant.

After being intro­duced to the crowd at half time, the team and cheer­lead­ers met inside the school to watch a video record­ing of the game. The class­mates also looked at old pho­tos and told “fish tales.”

Head Coach of the team Hart­sell Dodrill said that one of the best rewards of his time coach­ing, was the close rela­tion­ship he had with all the boys. He said that even after 50 years, they all still shared that bond.

Dodrill coached the Mt. Gilead foot­ball team for six years, and never had a los­ing season.

After their unde­feated sea­son, Dodrill left coach­ing, he said it felt like the best time to quit, on top.

He then went on to take a admin­is­tra­tive posi­tion and even­tu­ally went on to become the Super­in­ten­dent of Schools in Jef­fer­son County. After retir­ing, Hart­sell and his wife, Dare, moved back to Mor­row County.

Posted by Rob Hamilton on Oct 3 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.