Find of the Day: PH Football Title, 1973 (Want It?)

It continues to amuse and amaze me what I find on my little excursions to flea markets, yard sales and recycling businesses like Goodwill (GWLtd. to the initiated).

The little collage above is the Roanoke daily newspaper's account of the 1973 state championship football game, won by Patrick Henry High of Roanoke over Lafayette of Williamsburg, 23-0. This newspaper account was written by me, which makes my eyebrows rise, even if it doesn't do anything to yours. I have no idea who put this together or why he gave it to GWLtd., but the players in this game are now pushing 60 and maybe the owner died and his decendents didn't much care for this.

Patrick Henry's team was probably the most dominating football team ever in Roanoke and it scored three shutouts in the playoffs to win the title. Lafayette, which was also undefeated going into the title game, had a player named Ron Springs who went on to become an All-Ameircan at Ohio State and a long-time pro player. He gained 11 yards running against PH.

The Patriots were so dominating of this fine team from Lafayette that they allowed three first downs,  30 yards rushing, four pass attempts that resulted in three interceptions and an incompletion and so few offensive plays that the stats looked more like a halftime accounting. PH's Don Smith threw but one pass (incomplete), but the running game was dominant, as Merrill Gainer's teams tended to do. PH's football field these days is named for Gainer, whose teams were always small (size and numbers) and always tough as hell.

Interesting find. Now, I need to find somebody from this team who wants this marvelous memento.