Matthew Osborne
In 27 years of high school football, I have seen my share of one-sided rivalries. And one thing holds true with all of them – the more lopsided the series or advantage, the sweeter the win.
When I started my professional career in Lake City, Fla., Columbia High was the only high school in the county. My second year there, Fort White opened and put together a football team of its own.
Columbia and Fort White were seemingly natural rivals, but the two did not play each other for the first four years of their existence. There was always a bit of a little brother complex, and neither could see the advantages of playing one another, even though it would be an obvious huge gate no matter who won.
Anyway, you had Columbia – one of the all-time winningest high school programs in Florida – and a fledging school from the south end of the county with mostly farms around and one heck of a country eatery.
They first played in a kickoff classic, won handily by the Tigers. They sprinkled a couple of regular season games in here and there but still seemed reluctant to play each other much.
My old and dear friend Tim Kirby, former sports editor of the Lake City Reporter, covered the Columbia Tigers for nearly 25 years at the paper. I was one of many partners he worked with in a two-man sports team over his long time there, and one year, another new guy came in just before football season in 2009.
The editor called the two sports guys in for a chat, and he said he wanted to “shake things up a bit.” So, he put the new guy on the Columbia beat and moved Tim to cover Fort White.
Needless to say, this did not sit well with Tim at first, but he was always a team player. And so, he packed up his boxes and boxes of “Tigers through history” and got ready to cover the Indians.
As it happened, the two teams played each other in the kickoff classic that same year. In a shocking upset, the Indians knocked off the mighty Tigers, 13-12. It is still Fort White’s only win against Columbia in football.
Walking out of the stadium, Tim saw an old friend, as he almost always does. The
gentleman said something like, “Hey, I saw you are covering Fort White now.”
Tim chuckled and quipped, “Looks like I got promoted.”
Someone else I worked with down there asked me some time later how big a win that was for Fort White, even though it was a kickoff classic.
“Well,” I pondered, “It’s like this. If you find a lost ATM card in Fort White and for some reason you need the pin, you should probably try 1312.”
Before I came to beautiful Habersham County, I covered the Andrews Wildcats, who went 40 years without beating their chief rival, the Murphy Bulldogs. Same situation here – little brother mentality, dominant larger program, etc. Throw in David Gentry, North Carolina’s all-time winningest coach leading the Bulldogs, and you have a recipe for a one-sided series.
I was there in 2015 when the Wildcats were stopped at the 1-yard line in the rain in the final seconds, leading to a 14-7 loss. It was clear how much the game meant to the kids and the community.
Gentry retired after the 2020-21 spring pandemic season, leaving undefeated against Andrews all-time.
Sure enough, the Wildcats struck last fall and knocked off the Bulldogs for their first win over them since 1981. I had everyone I know from up there texting me about what a big win that was for the school and community. This year, they will try to make it two in a row.
It’s a sweet taste to knock off someone who has had your number. Maybe this year is Habersham Central’s time to start turning things around against Stephens County.
Matthew Osborne is the editor of The Northeast Georgian. Reach him at 706-778-4215 or editor@TheNortheastGeorgian.com.