1973, 74 Newton County

From 9-1-14

The '73 season opened with only one senior, Scott Price, leading the way. When the Rams defeated R.E.Lee, 84-47, Scott broke the school scoring record with 47 points. The Rams went on to win their 1st 7 games, before losing at Newnan, 95-85, as Greg Christian & Scott scored 28 pts. each. When Newton won their last game of the regular season at Forest Park, 79-67, it looked like the Rams were ready for post-season play! When the Rams were upset, 49-48, by R.E.Lee, it ended a string of 11 straight trips to the state tournament! Scott Price had a great year as he set several school records. In the R.E.Lee win, he broke records for--most pts. in a qtr. (19), most points in a half (31 points), most field goals in a game (19), most points in a game (47). He also broke season records with an average (26 ppg), & set a new field goal record of 58%, and he was named to the All-Region team for the 2nd straight year! The 19-4 final record would have been outstanding at many schools, but it was the fewest wins in 16 years for a Newton High team! (Lagrange-Newton Film).

Now we move on to the final year (1974) in the old Newton County High School:

We had become aware that our basketball teams' toughest opponents that we faced were not on the basketball courts. Our Rams had a group of young men who "battled hard" & had an outstanding year (despite adversities they faced). For the 1st time in 17 years, we lost our home opener to a strong Cedar Shoals team (68-66). Carl Stevenson showed his talents early in the season as he scored 42 points in a 66-61 win over N. Clayton. In the final game at "Death Valley", in front of a large crowd of fans, Newton defeated Forest Park, 69-51. Kenneth Henderson scored 22 pts. & had 17 reb. (& the Rams had actually dropped out of the Top10 rating for the 1st time in 14 years). The '74 seniors, Greg Christian, Carl Stevenson, Mark Byrum, Kenneth Henderson, & Scott Maloney, got together prior to the Region Tournament & vowed to "go down battling!" In the opener of the Region Tournament, the Rams upset Newnan 55-52, then upset LaGrange 67-65, & with dreams of another Region Championship, the faced neighbor, Rockdale Co. in the region finals & lost, 58-56 in a valiant effort! Greg Christian was the leading scorer in all 3 tournament games with 19, 25, & 17 pts. In the Rams' 13th trip in 15 years to the state tournament, the Rams lost to Cedar Shoals 55-53. Stevenson ended up with a 21.2 avg. as he was named All-Region, & Christian avgd. 15 ppg. Even tho' the Rams finished with their worst record in 17 years, the accomplishments of this year's team was recognized when Coach Bradley was named Statewide Coach of the Year by the AJC!f

In our next story, we leave behind our 18-year coaching career at NCHS (to be cont'd)—