When the 1966 basketball season began, there was a lot of excitement as the fans & the team knew there would be an opportunity to break the national high school home court winning streak record.

When the curtain opened on the 1966 season, our team & fans knew they had a lot to live up to.

In the spring, Mr. Johnny Smith, the headmaster of Piedmont Academy in Monticello, Ga., called, needing a coach/AD to be responsible for their athletic program.

Each year I always tried to meet the families of any new players. If a player was in our program for four years, we had figured out that he would be under our direction for about 2000 hours.

I have always encouraged our young students to "dream as far as they can see! And, if you reach that dream, get a new dream!" DREAMS FUEL DESIRE!!

Back in 2002, I wrote a poem to Jan, & in it was a part that told about our boys. I would like to share that part of the poem on this special day:

Gib was a highly-regarded company executive from Missouri who had been sent to Georgia with the directive, "You have a free hand to do what you have to do to make a success of our large plant there, & if you can't, we'll shut it down!"

With 127 varsity teams, nine schools, & a 50-year career, there were a lot of stories to share.

When George Walton Academy Board Chairman, George Hearn, came to Covington he encouraged me to come to Monroe & help build a program that would benefit the area youngsters

Most of my coaching career was in the Covington, Monroe, & Loganville area, but one of my All-State players had a teammate in college that influenced my opportunity to teach/coach in the Dublin, Ga., area.

Basketball has always been very important to them, as Julian's H.S. Coach (over 70 years ago), asked him to take a young girl basketball player--Johnny Kathryn, to the Jr.-Sr. Prom.

The 1965 Rams continued to build on their outstanding tradition as they won 69 of 70 games! NCHS had big hopes for adding another State Title to the previous year's State Championship (but we know championships don't always go to the best team).

We are continuing the story of the Rams' 1964 season & their attempt to win the 1st major state championship in the school's history.

The 1964 season began with high expectations and a chip still on their shoulder of the Rams after not going to the big dance the previous year in spite of the 29–3 record.

After 2 straight region titles, we thought we had this "championship" thing solved, but we had a set-back in 1963 even tho' we had a very good team.

1961 season with Bob Mitchell (15 ppg), Alan Rowe (15 ppg & 15.2 rpg), & Billy Shaw (14.2 ppg) finally made "the year" happen! The Newton Co. Rams swept through 26 straight opponents to reach the region finals undefeated to face Madison Co in their new gym

In my 17 years as head baseball coach @ NCHS, we had a lot of outstanding talent, especially our pitchers, Haskel Johnson, Larry Parnell, Richard Moore, Larry Wagner, Tony & Grant White, & Randy Quintrell.

When I was a little boy, baseball was the only game we knew. I always loved to ride the Exposition Mills' company truck that carried the baseball players to their games.

WARNING--today's story is X-rated! Do not let young people read or attempt to duplicate ! You could also be arrested if you try to sneak any of these items discussed into a school, airport, courthouse, etc.

Today's story is about one of our sons, Coach Bill Bradley's players @ Thunder Ridge H.S., whom we watched in the state finals one snowy night in Boulder, Colo.