That win made Kirkland’s forces (he was assisted by Earl Ruth and Chub Richards) the undisputed kings of small college southern football. Wofford finally stopped the streak at 89 games in 1949.Ĭatawba, which hadn’t been able to field a team in 1943 due to World War II, went 6-3 in 1944 and got rolling again with that spectacular 10-1 in 1945.īolstered by returning veterans, the Indians capped a 10-2 season in 1946 ( the losses were to VMI and Presbyterian) by smashing Maryville College’s previously undefeated Fighting Scots, 31-0, in the inaugural Tangerine Bowl on New Year’s Day, 1947. The Indians would break the national record for scoring in consecutive games. Catawba wouldn’t be blanked again until after Kirkland retired following the 1948 season.
Kirkland considered that Richmond game his greatest victory - at least until the Indians won back-to-back Tangerine Bowls.Įlon shut out Catawba late in the 1939 season. Among others, Catawba’s 1945 team beat Richmond of the Southern Conference and went 10-1. Legend has it that he directed the rest of that season from a bed in his home, not far from the field, communicating instructions to the team during home games via messengers who raced back and forth. He suffered a heart attack following Catawba’s loss to William & Mary the third week of the season. He was the first at Central Cabarrus High when it opened in 1966.Ĭoach Kirkland, an Elon graduate who coached Salisbury’s Boyden High before being hired at Catawba prior to the 1934 season, also barely survived 1945. He would become a school principal at a lot of places. He’d survived Japanese bullets at Iowa Jima and Okinawa, and he’d been on the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill when it was attacked and set on fire by Kamikaze suicide bombers.Īfter surviving that, no college football game could’ve been overly stressful for Barnes, who would go on to a splendid career in education. but he already had fought with the U.S. Catawba tackle Martin Luther Barnes was 25 years old and had a less colorful nickname than “Wildman” - M.L. While Willey turned 20 shortly before his 1947 college season with the Thundering Herd, some Catawba players who carved out a legendary 11-1 record (with nine shutouts) for coach Gordon Ashby Kirkland, were considerably older. Many had served in World War II before returning to Catawba to finish their degrees. It’s still arguably the greatest victory in school history. Seventy years ago, on New Year’s Day, 1948, Catawba College was fortunate enough to dodge the “Wildman” and won the Tangerine Bowl against Marshall in Orlando, Fla., 7-0.