1956 Mount Holly Hawks Football

Fall Phenomenon: The success story of the ’56 Hawks

They were invincible, in September and October. The 1956 Mount Holly Hawks football team won its first eight games by a total of 175-0 including a 50-0 whupping of Cramerton on a warm Friday night at home.

“We had a lot of talented young men,” says running back Perry Toomey.

“A really good team and two superior coaches who did an excellent job of getting us into the right positions at the right times,” says quarterback Tom Wilson.

The team was, literally, perfect.

Until the huddle play.

It was the first game in November. Clover tried the huddle play twice.

It worked once.

“They get in the huddle and call the play, and the center breaks and goes to the ball and the whole rest of the team goes away from the ball. The whole team,” Wilson says. “And the center picks up the ball and throws it to some guy who’s way over there, and that’s how they scored. Our defense didn’t go to where their offense was. The center didn’t have to snap the ball. He just picked it up and threw it.

“That’s what football is. It’s trickery.”

Mount Holly beat Clover anyway, 19-13, tied Davie County 6-6 the following week, then beat SW Forsyth 19-0 in the first round of the Class AA-C Playoffs before losing 13-6 in the western conference final to Granite Falls, which advanced to the state championship.

For their efforts in that 10-1-1 season, the team coached by Vernon Morrison and W.T. Wright has been inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.

“I feel fortunate,” says Wilson, 82. “And I’m sure the other team members, and those who are still around, would feel fortunate, too.”

“A number of them went on to college and played football and some went on to play pro baseball,” says Toomey, 84. “We had talented athletes playing, and the camaraderie we had, and the cohesiveness of the team, that’s the main thing.”

Toomey could see the football field from his childhood home. He got interested, he says, in about sixth or seventh grade, and also played some baseball – shortstop and pitcher from 1954 to ’56. He boxed to stay in shape, and took up golf, which he still plays well.

“I had some talent, or so they say anyway, and the football coaches asked me to come out in seventh grade, and I would dress out with the high school team and scrimmage with them. I couldn’t play, but I’d travel with them,” he says. “I even had a uniform. And I wouldn’t walk anywhere… I ran to stay in shape.”

By eighth grade, he already was 5-foot-8 and 182 pounds. “A good-sized boy,” he says.

Which helped him get the nickname ‘Cannonball.’

“We were playing one game at home, and I got the football and was running downfield with it, and one of the opposing players was the only one between me and the goal line, and I just ran through him and pushed him down and scored,” Toomey says. “I hit him hard.”

He remembers a time when teammate Max Davis did the same, in a 31-0 win over Stanley.

“We were playing Stanley, and Max – he was an outstanding Golden Gloves boxer; we were on the same team, and he went to New York as a Golden Gloves participant. Anyway, we were playing Stanley, and Max went down the field and tackled a guy who was like 6-foot-2, and Maxi s about 5-7. Max flipped him completely in the air, hit him below the knees and completely flipped him in the air and he landed on his back,” Toomey says. “Max could hit you like a ton of bricks. Max is a good athlete.

“It’s people like that who I remember most about the team. Just a good group of guys.”

 Toomey and Wilson each were awarded scholarships to Appalachian State University.

“Part of mine was an academic scholarship,” Wilson says, “but we both had a full ride.”

Wilson played quarterback for the Mountaineers for four years and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education with a minor in Social Studies. He coached football at West Henderson High School for 12 years and started its track, wrestling, golf and cross-country programs. After a year at Asheville High, he was principal at Hendersonville High for 21 years.

Toomey became ill with heat exhaustion as a college freshman, came back as a red-shirt but didn’t play. He was offered a role back home with Duke Power, and took it. It turned out to be the better path. “I’m blessed to have progressed through the training school, and they usually don’t put people into that without a college degree. I was in training for construction organization, then a maintenance organization, then into a claims job and safety position, then back to the field as management and supervision.”

He was there 40 years. He also was on the Mount Holly City Council and served as Mayor Pro Tem.

Duke employees built the Cowans Ford Country Club golf course, and Toomey and Wilson played frequently. Toomey’s brother Pat, a member of the ’56 Hawks who was offered a football scholarship to Lenoir-Rhyne, became county senior golf champion and tried out for the U.S. Open Championships, Perry Toomey says.

He says teammate Robert Jenkins was offered a football scholarship to UNC-Chapel Hill.

So many success stories.

Today, Tom Wilson lives in Hendersonville on 31 acres. He and his high school sweetheart, Phyllis, have been married almost 64 years. They have apple orchards, though the weather the last few years has affected the crop. “I can’t complain about anything,” he says.

Toomey has a family of athletes – a nephew who played for Bobby Bowden at Florida State, a niece whose son played soccer for Belmont Abbey. He and his wife Betty had two children, and Toomey still spends his free time on the golf course. In mid-July, he says, he shot two over par.

“I think it’s really a positive thing the people in Mount Holly are doing with the Hall of Fame,” Wilson says. “They do an excellent job. I’m very fortunate.”