Game sparkle 2 bitter end1/3/2024 I remember little about the game being only 7 years old at the time but I vividly remember being cold, wearing 4 pairs of socks of course the shocking outcome. My Dad and I sat in the end zone 15 deep and watched the instant classic. One of my earliest memories of going to a high school football game is this match up. The match up on Thanksgiving Friday at Wofford's Snyder Field was played on a cold windy night before a capacity crowd. However over the next 10 weeks the Yellow Jacket defense came alive and pitched 8 shut outs in 10 games to run their record to 10-1. An early season loss to Northwestern had left many of the experts dismissing Coach Frasier's team. TL Hanna had only opened in 1970 and this was their 4th year of playing football. Hanna had spent most of the 1974 season flying under the radar. This set up a second round match for the Vikings against TL Hanna. The 5-5 Yellow Jackets put up little resistance against the Vikings and took a 35-7 loss. The Class 4A playoffs started with the Irmo Yellow Jackets coming to Wofford College for the first round of the playoffs. They had led every second of every game except for less than 90 seconds against Dorman. They had scored 595 points in 10 games while allowing only 35 all season and only 7 points were scored on the first team defense. The Vikings had finished the regular season with a perfect 10-0 record. Spartanburg would score on the next 9 possessions to take a 60-7 lead and would cruise to a 60-13 win. The Cavaliers scored on the first play from scrimmage to take a 7-0 lead but that lead was short lived. The final game of the regular season saw the Vikings travel cross town to face arch rival Dorman. Spartanburg scored over 398 points in 6 games for an amazing 68 points per game against 4A competition. Over a 5 week period the Vikings played 6 Greenville County schools and won by an average of 61 points per game. Over the next 3 weeks the Vikings defeated the Greer Yellow Jackets 62-8 at Snyder Field, Wade Hampton 61-7 on the road and JL Mann 53-7 at home. The game ended with another 76-0 win for the Vikings.Īnother trip waited for Spartanburg in Week 6 and once again the Vikings put a 70 spot on the board defeating the Eastside Eagles 70-6. The Vikings scored on 5 of their first 8 plays and jumped out to a 35-0 first quarter lead. Week 5 saw the Vikings travel to Simpsonville to play the Hillcrest Rams. The Viking started the streak with a 76-0 win over the Parker Tornadoes. Over the next 6 weeks the Vikings put together a run that was unparallel before or since in high school football. A home win over Byrnes by a score of 50-0 was followed by a win over Union (42-0) resulting in a 3-0 start by a combined margin over 134-7. The next 2 weeks were also cakewalks for Carr's team. The trip to the Reservation was an easy night for Spartanburg who took a 35-0 half time lead and cruised to 42-7 win. The team started the season against traditional rival Gaffney. Our goal was the state title and nothing less than that was going to be considered a success. After the way we lost in 1973, we were determined to win the title. "We wanted the title and felt we had the pieces in place to make it happen. QB Steve Fuller remembers the 74 team expected nothing less than a state title for the season. Going into 1974 nothing less than a state title would make the season a success for Coach Carr, his All American quarterback Steve Fuller and the 37 seniors on the 74 Viking team. The Vikings were heart broken that the title had eluded them but with virtually the entire team returning for the 74 season expectations were high. However on the ensuing kick off the Vikings were shocked when Spring Valley ran a double reverse kick off return for a touchdown to clinch the state title 20-17. With less than a minute to go in the game, Spartan High scored a touchdown on a 1 yard Steve Fuller quarterback plunge to take a 17-13 lead.
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