THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610220106
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 15 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 143 lines
Forty years ago, Booker T. Washington and Norcom enjoyed a football rivalry marked by aggression, frenzied passion and hyperbolic trash-talking.
And that was just among the fans.
The football teams themselves, both undefeated and driven toward winning a black schools state title, were even more emphatic in their desire to impose their will on each other. And this combination of wildly energized fans, nearly 15,000 of them, and fiercely determined players made for one of the most memorable, albeit under-reported, football games in South Hampton Roads annals.
Today, the segregation that made this game the province of blacks only has long since passed. And for black residents of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Norcom-Booker T. football is no longer the only game in town. But when the two teams meet for the 64th time Friday (the series is tied, 30-30-3), a lot of the magic surrounding the legendary 1956 game will be in the atmosphere again.
Both teams are undefeated in the Eastern District. The winner will slap a choke hold on the race for the district title and a Division 5 playoff spot; the loser becomes a long shot for postseason play. In short, it's the most significant game the teams have played since the all-black Virginia Interscholastic Association merged into the Virginia High School League in 1968.
Furthermore, the game will be played at Booker T. Washington's intimate new on-site stadium, which in one game has already proved to be a boon to Bookers' attendance. More than 4,000 people jammed into the 2,500-seat facility when the Bookers opened it against Wilson two weeks ago. With Norcom coming in, Booker T. Washington athletic director Charles Harvin said he won't be surprised if 5,000 turn out Friday.
All of which means that for the first time in the integration era, the Booker T. Washington-Norcom rivalry has returned to center stage.
``All I can say is, the more things change, the more they stay the same,'' Norcom coach Joe Langston said. ``Forty years later, it still comes down to Norcom and Booker T.''
Of course, only front-runner status in the Eastern District will be at stake Friday. In years past, the schools often played for state titles in the VIA. The VIA had no playoff system; state champions were determined based on regular-season results. The fact that the Bookers and Greyhounds played on the final day of the regular season heightened the drama.
Fans of the two teams talked up the game for months, then flocked to Norfolk's Foreman Field or Portsmouth's Lawrence Stadium by the thousands to see the spectacle. Black-owned businesses would close while the teams played. The Turkey Classic, as it was called, was played either the night before Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day.
``It was a black extravaganza,'' Harvin said. ``Whatever you were doing, you made sure you went to the Booker T.-Norcom game.''
The spectacle surrounding the Norfolk State-Hampton football game is reminiscent of the old Norcom-Booker T. scene, former Bookers coach Cal Davidson said. But the intensity with which people followed the teams - which sometimes led to fights in the stands - remains unmatched, he said.
``You've got to understand, this game was the only pride factor we had in the cities,'' Langston said. ``Norfolk had Booker T. and Portsmouth had Norcom. There was nothing else for blacks. That's why it was such an intense rivalry.''
The teams began playing in 1926, and the Bookers quickly established themselves as the superior team. Booker T. Washington won the VIA state title five straight years from 1930-34, beating Norcom in the season finale each time while deflecting rumors they'd fortified their roster with a slew of ineligible players.
``They held an almost unimaginable advantage over us in the victory column,'' former Norcom coach Horace Savage said.
By the mid-50s, however, the Greyhounds were on par with the Bookers. And in 1956, they clearly believed they were better. The Bookers, they reasoned, were just undefeated. Norcom came into the season finale undefeated, untied and unscored upon. No opponent had even penetrated the Greyhounds' 20-yard line.
``On offense and defense, that team was something,'' then-Norcom coach Walter ``Doc'' Hurley said.
Even so, Bookers' running back William ``Shorty'' Gray said his team was confident as they rode the bus, in full uniform, to take the ferry to Portsmouth on game night.
Official reports estimate the crowd at just over 14,500 that Thanksgiving Eve. Many who were there say that's much too conservative. All agree it was one of the largest crowds ever at Lawrence Stadium. So important was the game that The Virginian-Pilot, which generally ignored the activities of VIA schools, dispatched veteran reporter Abe Goldblatt to the scene.
Early in the first quarter, ``Shorty'' Gray ripped off a 53-yard gain, penetrating the Greyhounds' 20 for the first time all season. Later in that period, Cal Davidson and John Hobbs trapped Norcom's Joe Burden in the end zone for a safety, wiping out the Greyhounds' unscored-upon streak.
``Hobbs and I still argue about who got to him first,'' Davidson said.
The Bookers continued dominating through the next three quarters, then celebrated their VIA championship-winning 20-12 victory. Meanwhile, the Greyhounds, their perfect season shattered, were left groping for answers.
According to Hurley, a loose-lipped traitor from Norcom did the Greyhounds in. Hurley said he'd installed a new offense for the game, a modified version of the shotgun with wide lineman splits. An alleged Greyhound backer familiar with the new scheme tipped the Bookers off.
``He admitted it a few years later,'' Hurley said. ``I mean, it was like they knew exactly what we were going to do.''
Davidson scoffs at such talk.
``I don't nothing about that,'' he said. ``And what's he changing his offense for, anyway? He should have danced with the one that brung him.''
The following year, the Greyhounds brought another undefeated record into the final game against the Bookers. This time, in front of an estimated 14,000 at Foreman Field, Norcom rolled, 25-9, to nail down its first VIA state title since 1935.
But the humbling nature of the 1956 defeat hasn't gone away yet.
``People still ask me, `What happened?' '' said Hurley, who moved to Hartford, Conn., a few years later and resides there still. ``Whenever I return to the Tidewater area, I find people just can't believe we lost that '56 game.''
The rivalry continued until 1973, when the schools, now members of the VHSL, ceased playing each other for six years. With Lanston's help, Davidson, who became Booker T. Washington's head coach in 1974, was able to revive the Bookers-Greyhound series. Unfortunately for the Bookers, Davidson was unable to do the same with his now-dormant program.
``Norcom was still Norcom. It still had that spirit of yesteryear,'' Davidson said. ``But it was different at Booker T. I remember kids upset and crying because Norview or Maury had lost a game. They still identified with the schools they used to attend. The school song was gone; nobody knew it anymore. Even the Booker T. band wasn't the same. It used to be 120-strong, invited to play all over the country. Norcom kept that. Somewhere along the line, we lost that.''
They also lost a lot of games, nearly 70 percent of them under Davidson's 19-year stewardship. Davidson's teams also lost their last seven games to Norcom.
But the team's fortunes improved dramatically under new coach Larry Stepney. After two losing seasons, the Bookers went 6-4 and won the Eastern District title in 1994. Last year, they improved to 9-1 and beat Norcom for the first time in 11 years. The team had to forfeit that win, along with five others, for using an ineligible player. But over their last 21 games, a period spanning three seasons, the Bookers are 17-4 on the field, with the losses coming to area powers Hampton, Deep Creek (twice) and Indian River.
The stadium's opening and the subsequent attendance boost symbolically underscored the point that the Bookers, indeed, are back. Meanwhile, the Greyhounds, Group AAA state champions four years ago and perennially ranked among the area's top 10 teams, went away.
Could it be that a rivalry that once flourished at the center of the black football universe in two cities is poised to enter another glorious era? ILLUSTRATION: File photos
For the first time in the integration era, the Booker T.
Washington-Norcom rivalry returns to center stage Friday. Norcom
coach Joe Langston, left, and former Bookers coach Cal Davidson,
right, agree it's the game to see.
KEYWORDS: HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL by CNB