Photo shows Decatur High School Football field( circa 1940's or 50's) from Ga State Library collection.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Bill Banks
For the AJC
Around 5:30 p.m. Friday, a dozen or so members of Decatur High’s remarkable 1949 and 1950 football teams, along with a team manager and a couple of cheerleaders, will gather at their old stomping grounds, possibly for the last time.
Now in their late 70s, once again they will shake loose the cobwebs of distant, and for some, rapidly dimming memories of those back-to-back state championships. More than that however, as they line the field before Decatur’s game against Lovett, they will offer a tangible link to an era that has almost vanished.
“We played in leather helmets, no face mask,” said Bob Reed, a starting guard on the 1950 team. “My senior year we got black plastic helmets, and we were uptown. But they still slid all over your head. After a game, you knew you didn’t do a good job without having scrapes all over your cheekbones.”
It was a time of obsessive segregation, where not only Decatur and all opponents were white, but Decatur High itself had separate buildings for boys and girls. Back then the city closed shop on Friday nights, except for a clothier named Ted Levy, who gave the star of the game a free sweater.
“I had mine for years,” Reed said. “Made of wool, but it wore like iron.”
Decatur went 25-0 in 1949-50, but that was merely the golden harvest of an extremely fertile period. From 1943-53 the Bulldogs went 103-11-6 and never lost more than three games in a season. No one can explain what was in the city’s water back then to reap such a luxurious crop.
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