22 www.ReadMPM.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ShemCreekRestaurants.com Are you ready for some football? Those Friday night lights have finally arrived – and after a long, hot summer, they are exactly what we’ve all been waiting for. But even if you’re not a football fan, rooting for the hometown team is a must. For close to 50 years, the Wando Warriors football program was the only team in town. Now, with the Bengals of Lucy Beckham High, football fever will continue to rise. But this is not the first time Mount Pleasant has had two public high school football teams. The Moultrie Generals and the Laing Wolverines were the answer to residents’ zest for Friday night action for nearly three decades before Wando was established. And Moultrie’s 1950 season is one for the record books. The Generals went 12-0 that year and took home the state championship. It was the first time — and, to this day, the only time — a Mount Pleasant football team has won the South Carolina High School League state title. The start of that season foreshadowed even greater things to come for the Generals when they defeated the reigning two-year state champs, the Summerville Green Wave, in a regular season game. From there, the momentum escalated, sparking such a fervor that the home game against the St. Andrew’s Rocks of West Ashley had to be held at The Citadel’s Johnson Hagood Stadium to seat the crowd of 10,000, since Jasper Green couldn’t handle that many fans. The Generals’ final game of the season, a win over the Stags from Moncks Corner, clinched it and the team was off to Orangeburg to play the North Augusta Yellow Jackets in the state championship. That matchup proved to be a real nailbiter. On a bitter cold night with torrential rain, neither the Generals nor the Yellow Jackets were successful in recording any points on the scoreboard. When Moultrie’s Friday. Night. Lights. BY MARY COY Mount Pleasant Football Teams of Yesteryear
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