‘We Are The Champions, My Friends!’ Remembering Cook High School’s 1949 State Football Champs

“… Though much is taken, much abides; and though

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

– “Ulysses,” Tennyson

‘We Are The Champions, My Friends!’
Remembering Cook High School’s 1949 State Football Champs

By Charles Shiver

“Isn’t it great to be a Hornet and in Adel and Cook County tonight?” William “Billy” Emrich, a member of the Cook High School state champion football team of 1949, asked at the team’s 50th reunion dinner held at King Frog Restaurant in August 1999.

After crushing Newnan 19-7 in the “Class B” state title match-up (held in Albany), the Hornets went on to such outstanding life paths as bank executive, minister, soldier, insurance salesman, local and state government official, and associate director at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (Alan Parrish).

Members of the Cook High School Hornets football teams of 1947 and ’48 (Sparks-Adel High School) joined the state championship team of ’49 at the reunion. Greeley Ellis, valedictorian of his class in Cook County, became a Superior Court judge and candidate for Governor of Georgia. As a trial judge, he tried the first RICO (racketeering) case in the State. The case was against members known as part of the “Dixie Mafia” and lasted over six weeks. A Covington attorney, Mr. Ellis escorted Mary Broadhurst, his and many of his teammates’ teacher back in the 1940s, to the 1999 anniversary banquet. He passed away on Dec. 30, 2022, at the age of 90. So many of the championship team members are gone now …

Some on the state championship team continued to live in Cook County, but some ended up moving to such distant places as Connecticut and California.

The ’49 Hornets never forgot their home community and the coaches who helped put them on their life paths, “Knuck” McCrary, E.P. Burt, and George Kemp Greene, the latter who joined the team’s effort as an unpaid volunteer.

The 1949 team finished the season with a 10-0 record. They defeated Jesup in Valdosta, 26-13, for the South Georgia Championship. They finally defeated Newnan 19-7, in Albany for the State Championship. In the 10 regular season games, the Hornets scored 414 points and allowed only 12.

During the reunion dinner, the state champs looked over photos and memorabilia displayed from that time, recognized their teachers and 1949 fans who could attend, and reminisced about the nearly military-style coaching discipline – combined with caring – that made them so successful.

The champion Hornets present included: Allen “Head” Parrish, End; Leroy Gray, Tackle; Harry Vanbrackle, Guard; Bobby Daughtrey, Center; Pat Milikin, Guard; Jimmy George, Tackle; Larry “Mitch” Flowers, End; Billy Burt (Co-Captain), Back; Charles Maloney (Co-Captain), Back; V.L. Daughtrey, Back; Faye Carroll Hayes, Back; Jim Tom Lastinger, Back; Charles Cox, Back; Bobby Allen, Back; Doug Carmichael, Fullback; Charles “Brother” Shaw, Back; Billy Dean, Back; Gene Maddox, Guard; Calvin “Bruiser” Butler, Guard; Winston Sumner, Guard; Homer Nelson, Guard; Willard Butler, Tackle; Brinson “Smiles” Taylor, Tackle; Billy Ray NeSmith, Tackle; Dale Clark, Back; Billy J. Hancock, Tackle; and Billy Emrich, Team Statistician and Reporter.

The men took time out from the 50th anniversary celebration for a moment of silence in honor of their teammates who had passed away. The ’49 Hornets also paid tribute to their coaches and were proud to host the widow of Coach McCrary, Charlotte (better known as “Cap”) McCrary of Moultrie, at the reunion.

“I became very attached to all of the boys on the football teams,” Mrs. McCrary told the gathering of Hornets. “It was great fun. I loved every bit of it. I loved Adel and all of you.”

Local historian Dillard Ensley (now deceased) remarked about McCrary in a prior issue of the Adel News: “A tremendous player! A tremendous coach! A tremendous man!”

McCrary coached Sparks-Adel High School in 1948; that first year, the Hornets were 8-2. The next year, the school changed names to Cook High School, and the team was 10-0, winning the state championship. He coached one more year at CHS, posting a record of 9-1.

McCrary went on to coach the Moultrie Packers after leaving Adel. His overall coaching record was 111-55-7, or 66 percent wins. He died after suffering a heart attack during a 1964 game in Colquitt County. He was only 41 years old. Coach McCrary was followed as Packer coach by his assistant, Virgil “Bud” Willis.

According to the local high school newspaper from ’49, “The Sparkler,” it was Billy Burt’s passing and Charles Maloney’s running that brought the biggest offensive gains of the championship night. (By the way, Cook High beat the dreaded Valdosta in a preseason game that year.)

Mr. Burt, son of Coach Burt, was quarterback for the Hornets. He graduated from Cook County High School in 1950 as valedictorian. He went on to play football on a scholarship at the University of Georgia. He served in the Air Force as an active duty officer for three years, flying planes for the Strategic Air Command. He retired from Bank of America in 1994 as Executive Vice President, after 37 years of service. He and his wife Harriett Allen Burt resided in Dawson County. Mr. Burt passed away on Dec. 11, 2024, at the age of 92.

Charles Shaw “Charlie” Maloney, who turned in a 82-yard run for the final Cook High touchdown of the championship game, went on to play football at Clemson University. He retired as a State Farm Insurance agent after 30 years of service and resided with his wife Sue in Greenwood, S.C. He passed away on Dec. 24, 2014, at the age of 83.

“We came from nothing and went to the top,” Maloney told the Adel News in 1999. “We had good parents and good fans, and the support of everybody. Because of this team, I got an education, and Billy got an education. … We were the team that just did it together.”

Mr. Burt recalled that Cook lost the first game of the 1947 season 64-0. “I saw that game flat on my back,” he said. The Hornets, reformed after sports activities ceased during World War II, won only one game in 1947. In 1948, they only lost two games, and they won every game the next year.

In a 2011 issue of the Adel News, Leroy Gray described the championship game versus Newnan. The Cook line averaged 150 pounds, and the Newnan line averaged 190 pounds. The Hornets still won by 13 points.

Allen “Head” Parrish, who played left end, was one of the ’49 Hornets who stayed in the community. He earned the nickname “Head” because he was a head taller than anybody else at the high school, and many people thought Head was actually his real first name because that was how it appeared in the football program books.

Mr. Parrish was a three-sport athlete, football, basketball, and baseball, at Cook High School. After graduation, he lettered in baseball and basketball at the University of Georgia. Returning home, he served as mayor of the City of Adel and as a Cook County Commissioner (including County Commission Chairman). He served for years as president of Adel Banking Company.

“We didn’t just win the championship,” Mr. Parrish told the Adel News in 1999. “We only had 12 points scored against us the whole season.” He noted that he was especially pleased to see one of his teammates there who had never before been to a class reunion or football team reunion, but perhaps recognized the significance of the 50th anniversary.

Mr. Parrish remarked following the Hornet football alumni reunion in 2011: “What I remember most is that Coach McCrary had us run 100 yard dashes after our practices. No matter if you came in first or last, he was not satisfied. If you came in first, he thought you were loafing during practice, and if last, you weren’t trying hard enough.”

The late Dillard Ensley remarked about Mr. Parrish in a prior Adel News issue: “He has supported youth programs, high school programs, and worthy charities, never seeking to be seen of men. He has been and is still a great role model.”

Mr. Parrish passed away the age of 91 on Nov. 12, 2024.

The Hornets earned their share of scars while pushing forward to their greatest season. V.L. Daughtrey broke an arm during the final game.

Faye Carol Hayes earned the nickname “Lightnin’ ” not because of his speed, but because he narrowly survived a bolt from a thunderstorm at football camp during the summer of ’49 in Twin Lakes.

On a certain day, lightning came up. A stroke hit Mr. Hayes and left him lying on the ground. Teammate Leroy Gray put Mr. Hayes on his shoulders and took off for help. They say that the motion of carrying the player on his shoulders resuscitated him and he recovered. Mr. Hayes spent one night in the hospital, and only missed one practice.

“We were crazy, but we were like brothers,” said Eugene Maddox, who owned a car lot in Adel. He recalled the contributions of W.E. “Bull” Summerlin to the team’s success. Mr. Summerlin, high school principal at the time, would scout out the opposing teams to see what the Hornets would be up against.

The hardest training for the Hornets was called “skull practice” because the players would knock their skulls together while blocking and tackling each other, Mr. Maddox said.

The Hornet champs remembered Coach McCrary correcting them by tapping them on the heads with biggest college ring that they had ever seen, as well as a 100-vehicle motorcade going to the Albany field for the showdown with Newnan and a deserted town of Adel on the night of the championship game.

The state champion Hornets went on to play Fernandina’s Pirates, the Florida Class “B” champs, in the first annual Gum Turpentine Bowl (the most Southern name for a bowl game I have ever heard!) at Valdosta’s Cleveland Field on Dec. 16, 1949. Halfback Frank Jackson was the fastest man on the squad and scored 99 points that year. Eugene “Bull” Yorke, the Pirates’ fabulous 230-pound fullback, totaled 109 points during the season. Fernandina ended up tripping Adel 19-14. A Cook fumble set the stage for the Pirates’ winning touchdown.

On Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011, the state champion Hornets, Coach McCrary, and Allen Parrish were inducted into the Cook County Sports Hall of Fame at the first annual banquet.

The ’49 Hornets should be great role models for the 2025 Cook High School Hornets as they start their new season at Cook High Memorial Stadium. Also, the state champion Hornets’ highly supportive fans should be great examples for Cook fans this fall 76 years later. The Hornets could have as good an opportunity as ever at bringing home the State Football Trophy BEFORE the 80th anniversary of the last Cook High team reaching that level of excellence on the gridiron. After all, in 2024, the Hornets made the state playoffs for the 25th year in a row. Cook went to the State Semifinals in 2000, 2001, 2007, and in 2023, the latter under current Head Coach Dr. Byron Slack.

As the old saying goes, “What has been may come again.”

In addition to the 1949 football team, Cook High School’s state champion sports teams have included the Lady Hornets basketball team of 1949-50; the 1988 State Champion Wrestling Team under Coach Davis; Coach Raley’s 1992 baseball team; and Coach Vashaw’s baseball team in 2000. (Of course, there have been individual state champions in high school sports from CHS.)