In the fall of 1970, the Oakshire Raiders football team went undefeated. Coached by Coach Doug Daniels (full time postman and part time coach), the Raiders won the Whitehaven Elementary Athletic Association Football Championship. Oakshire Elementary is still located on Holmes Rd, near where it crosses I-55. In the late 60s and early 70s, Oakshire was a football powerhouse in it’s conference. Just like Whitehaven High’s incredible Coach Ray, Oakshire ran the old Single Wing formation.
I played on that team in 1969 and 1970. I was the second string tailback. Our starting tailback was a kid named Larry Britt. He was a pretty good athlete. A kid named Ricky Huddleston was the towering anchor of the defense. More than anyone, those two guys are why we were undefeated champions.
In the Single Wing, the tailback is effectively the ‘quarterback’ of today’s game. We had a pretty good running game. A kid named Clifford Merriman was the starting full back. He was a bit small, but ran like a bowling ball. Clifford had a very pretty sister, if I remember correctly.
The second team’s strength was the passing attack. The second team had a kid named Jimmy Stegall who could catch a football thrown any where near him no matter what. You could cover him with a blanket and he would still catch the ball.
Those were the days when Archie Manning was playing at Ole Miss. After one game at Ole Miss, I met Archie in the Grove. I was fortunate enough for Archie to give me a 2 minute tutorial on how to run a roll out pass play. The secret was to be running toward the line of scrimmage when you threw. That changed everything. That made Jimmy Stegall damn near unstoppable on an 8th grade football team.
Jimmy and I only got in the game when it was third down and long yardage. I’d throw the ball, and Jimmy would get the first down.
I’m trying to find Jimmy. I haven’t seen him or spoken with him since 1971. Jimmy would have been in the graduating class of 1975 at Whitehaven High School. I doubt he played football in high school because, even though he could catch better than Jerry Rice, he just didn’t have much in the way of foot speed. At Whitehaven, Coach Ray really valued foot speed.
My new novel, My Particular World (Available on Amazon), is set during my years at Oakshire and I base a number of characters on friends from Oakshire. The book launches on April 30 and is available now for pre-order on Amazon. I’d like to find Jimmy before the launch.
It’s been a long time. I’d love to catch up with my old friend.
Where in the world is Jimmy Stegall?