The game program cost 25 cents. The front was block letters, black type:

NCHSAA 3-A Football Play-Off

Statesville Greyhounds – Vs – East Gaston Warriors

Senior High Stadium | November 10, 1978   8 p.m.  

East Gaston (9-1) coach Jerry Adams brought 21 seniors, 14 juniors and five sophomores to the Warriors’ first state playoff game in school history. The Greyhounds (9-1) brought a team that had outscored its opponents 359-120, including a 61-8 win over Mooresville the week before.

“I think we’ll represent the (Southwestern) conference well, but we’ve got an awfully tough first-round opponent,” Adams told the media before the game. “We don’t have any real superstars. We just play together very well as a team.”

But the Warriors did have superstars.

They were the first EG team to beat rival South Point.

They were the first to win a conference championship.

They finished with the best record in school history (10-2), a mark that lasted until 2006.

Their coach was Southwestern Coach of the Year.

And with a 21-20 victory that November night over Western 3-A Piedmont Conference champs Statesville, the 1978 East Gaston High School football team got its first post-season win.

For all its accomplishments, the 1978 team is inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.

“There were some exceptional athletes they had to compete against. It was not a cakewalk by any means to win the conference,” says Hall of Fame member Doug Smith, who was EG’s junior varsity coach at the time. “We came back and rallied and beat Statesville and the place went crazy. The school went crazy. The community went crazy.”

Statesville led 20-0 in the first half before wingback Tracy Black and tailback Richard Dill, who finished with 179 yards rushing, scored to make it 20-13 at halftime. Dill scored again with 5:28 remaining to make it 20-19, setting up the chance to go for 2.

Sophomore quarterback Derek Spears ran it in.

“I had no qualms about going for the two-point conversion,” Adams told the media. “Spears had the choice of either pitching out or running in for the score. It was beautiful to see him race into the end zone for that two-point conversion. I must have jumped about 3 feet in the air.”

“I slid into the end zone like I was stealing second base,” Spears says. “That was exciting. We got the option run pretty well, and Richard went like, 20, 30 yards … boom, boom, boom… and we came back at the end.”

“We practiced this play,” Dill says, “and they said, ‘Don’t go the wrong way!’ But guess what, I went the wrong way, and their guy followed me, and it turned out really good.”

The game would be the last win for East Gaston, which lost the following week to Brevard 42-0.

Five players – end Vance Luckey, tackle Billy Joe Davis, Dill, linebacker Allen Lewis and Black – were named to the All-Gazetteland all-star team.

Some played ball after high school: Dill at East Tennessee State, Black at N.C. State for baseball and Spears at Clemson for baseball.

“What I remember, more than anything, is that we were a real close-knit group up guys,” Dill says. “And that year was just an amazing, special year. It was like everything was right. Coach Adams had everything going the right way, and a great deal of that was the way we practiced, the way we conducted ourselves at practice and around school. You have to give Coach Adams credit for that. With us being young men it’s so easy to get sidetracked, but he kept us focused.”

In the spring, the East Gaston yearbook paid tribute to the team:

“The East Gaston Warriors Football Team ended this season with the best record in the school’s seven year history. Their conference record of 8-1 gave them the conference co-title and a berth in the state playoffs for the first time in East Gaston history. In the playoffs, the Warriors defeated Statesville and then lost to Brevard in the second round. This ended their season at 10 wins and 2 losses.

“The football team consisted of 21 seniors, 14 juniors, and 5 sophomores. After working hard during the summer lifting weights and running, the Warriors prepared for what was to be a prosperous season. The long hours of practicing and viewing films of opponents paid off for the Warriors. Giving up 81 total points, they scored 194 total points.

“The dedication and pride exhibited by all of the team members should be a guide for future Warriors. Their total commitment to the football program has lifted the sights of any pessimistic followers. The East Gaston football team has instituted a winning spirit that shall grow in the coming years.”

“That senior class was a good class,” Spears says. “And our baseball team came in second that year.”

East Gaston opened its season with a 28-0 win over East Lincoln and followed with victories over Burns, R.S. Central, Shelby and North Gaston before losing 26-7 to Chase. They followed that with a 20-15 win over rival South Point and finished the regular season by beating Crest, Kings Mountain and East Rutherford.

Dill, who got an invite from the Houston Oilers after college and previously was inducted in the MHSHOF as an individual, says the 1978 team earned its place in the Hall.

“I look back, and look at some of the other classes that have come through there,” Dill says, “and there’s never been another team like that. I tell my friends all the time, the Lord was on us that year.”

The picture in the EG yearbook doesn’t list first names under the players’ picture. It merely reads:

1st row: S. Burrell, D. Bynum, D. Spears, C. McGee, T. Black, E. McCorkle, R. Dill, M. Robbins. 2nd row: M. Schronce, H. Underdown, A. Lewis, J. Baker, L. Isley, R. Ferrell, K. Cornwell, J. Morris, B.J. Davis. 3rd row: R. Patterson, K. Ottinger, D. Smith, S. Farmer, D. Duncan, R. Randolph, R. Wooten, C. Guice, D. Chriswell. 4th row: M. Webb, C. Anderson, B. Pritchett, B. Coble, V. Luckey, B. Thrower, W. Hall, M. Pressley. Not pictured: S. Devinney.

Dill mentions someone valuable to the team’s success who isn’t in that photo.

“There’s somebody that was very much a part of that team, who never played. Miss (Edie) Adams,” he says. “A lot of times, people don’t realize how much time a coach spends away from their home, with other people’s children, and not a lot of time with their own children. So I really want to say thank you to Miss Adams for her willingness to stand beside and with Coach Adams through those years. He taught school; we’d be out on the field all day…and you just have to be a special wife to understand that, you know?”

And understand the extended family her husband was creating through football players.

“I was talking to someone a few years back,” Dill says, “about how special we were, and I have to give credit to God for that. We had a lot of special people, and everyone did their role, whether it was to get water, or pick up footballs, everybody participated. And that, in itself, is special. Everybody’s important.”