By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — Samuel Wayne Loflin, a powerful All-State lineman who was one of the stars of Boyden’s 1957 state championship team and went on to play football at the University of North Carolina, died recently.
Services will be held Saturday, July 26, at 2 p.m.at Rowan Memorial Gardens Mausoleum Chapel in Salisbury, followed by a Celebration of Life at DJ’s Restaurant from 3:30 until 6 p.m.
Loflin passed away at 85 in High Point.
He played high school football at Salisbury’s Boyden High for head coach Bill Ludwig. There’s a reason Salisbury High plays its football games now in a venue known as Ludwig Stadium.
Coach Ludwig’s Boyden High Yellow Jackets won two 3A state titles in a three-year period — 1955 and 1957 — when 3A was the NCHSAA’s largest classification. Boyden was the smallest school in a conference that included Charlotte Central, R.J. Reynolds, Greensboro, Asheville, High Point, Burlington and Gastonia.
Those were much different times. Schools were segregated. Boyden employed the single-wing, a run-run-run, smash-mouth offense. Scores were low. Defense ruled.
Boyden went 10-1-1 and took the 1955 state title while averaging 18 points per game. The Yellow Jackets were a bit more explosive in 1957 because they had sophomore Eddie Kesler taking the snaps and the famed Touchdown Twins — wingback Bobby Crouch and fullback George Knox — carrying the ball. All three played high-level college football. That team went 9-1-1 and averaged 24 points.
Neither of Ludwig’s championship teams allowed opponents much. Opponents scored 5.25 points against Boyden in 1955 and averaged 4.7 per game in 1957. Boyden’s defense posted five shutouts in 1955 and seven in 1957.
Most of the players from that era are gone now. Ronnie Bostian, a ferocious lineman, probably was the best player on the 1955 Boyden team, as he was good enough to start for the Duke squad that played Oklahoma in the 1958 Orange Bowl. Bostian died in 2021.
Crouch, a standout for The Citadel team that won the 1960 Tangerine Bowl, died in 2022.
Kesler, a Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Famer who had some huge days in the UNC backfield and scored a touchdown in the 1963 Gator Bowl, died in 2023.
Knox, rated by many as the best back in the state as a high school senior, also went on to play for the Tar Heels. He died young in a jeep accident in 1983.
Now Loflin has passed. He was a rock on offense and defense for Ludwig and was third in conference player of the year voting in 1957 — behind teammates Knox and Crouch. That was an extraordinary measure of respect for a lineman. Loflin and Knox made the All-State team published by the Greensboro Daily News. That team was recognized as the official All-State squad.
As a jayvee lineman, Loflin learned the ropes from Bostian and took a daily pummeling from the veteran in practice. Bostian pounded him senseless. Loflin charged at Bostian high the first time, but that was the last time. He went at Bostian low after that.
“George Knox feared no man and challenged Bostian the first day,” Loflin said when he was interviewed by the Post for a story in 2008. “Bostian just laid George out, knocked him cold. “Flattened him like a piece of paper.”
Fortunately, the Boyden jayvees played games against varsity teams from the smaller schools around the county. Loflin had no clue he was any good at all at football until he started lining up against people other than Bostian. That’s when he began to figure out he was significantly stronger and tougher than most of his opponents.
“What a relief that was,” Loflin said.
Bostian had made Loflin’s head ring and his bones ache, but he also had started the process of turning Loflin into a great player.
Boyden practiced on a field with more rocks than grass. They all got tough.
“We only had seven seniors starting on the 1957 team, but we were more agile and ran more plays than the guys who won the state in 1955,” Loflin said. “Crouch ran away from people and Knox ran through them. Kesler had hands the size of fruit baskets, and they didn’t know if he was going to run or throw.”
The fourth member of the backfield was Ed Julian. He was the blocking back and called out audibles based on colors, depending on the defense he was looking at.
“One lineman would post and one would drive, and we could double-team anyone,” Loflin said. “And if we needed 4 yards, Knox could get 4 yards.”
Loflin was smart but didn’t take school seriously for a while. Ludwig and assistant Derwood Huneycutt straightened him out, convincing him he could play college football if he would apply himself in the classroom. Loflin listened.
The 1957 state champs had a tie to start the season. Knox was out with the flu, and A.L. Brown tied Boyden 6-6 in a non-conference game.
The only loss that season came on the road in Week 3. Ironically, that loss is remembered by more people than the triumph in the state-title game. The defeat came on the road against a Wilmington team led by Roman Gabriel, who would become a legendary quarterback at NC State and in the NFL. Knox ran back the opening kickoff for a touchdown and Boyden scored again on special teams when Jim Edmiston blocked a punt, but Boyden was 2-for-17 passing. Boyden rushed for 277 yards, but Gabriel eventually got the upper hand.
“I had my arms around Roman’s waist, and he still threw a ball 60 yards,” Loflin said. “We had stayed in a hot hotel all day thinking about the game we would be playing that night. Temperatures were in the 80s. Sand and fleas everywhere.”
Boyden spent the rest of the regular season with one mission — a rematch with Wilmington in the state title game.
Boyden destroyed Charlotte Central 34-0, setting the tone for an undefeated run through the conference.
Boyden’s defense posted five straight shutouts. Down 39-0, Burlington scored on a Hail Mary to end the shutout streak or it would have been six in a row. Bill Torrence intercepted three passes in the regular-season finale to shut down Gastonia’s passing game.
The NCHSAA playoff system in 1957 wasn’t complicated. The Western Conference champion — that was Salisbury’s conference — played the Eastern Conference champion for the state title.
Wilmington didn’t get to that game. Wilmington and Fayetteville tied on the last night of the regular season and shared the Eastern Conference title. Then Fayetteville beat Wilmington 13-7 in a playoff game staged in neutral Goldsboro. Fayetteville, not Wilmington, would be coming to Salisbury for the title game.
The 1957 state championship game was played in pouring rain on Nov. 22. Boyden dominated 21-0, with Crouch breaking two long runs for touchdowns. Boyden rushed for almost 300 yards, while stifling Fayetteville’s small backs.
“Our field was standing water, and I think the game would have been postponed, but the people in charge didn’t get into town until late,” Loflin said. “Cioach Ludwig told us we were good mudders. He was right. The single-wing was mostly power. We had a great offense for bad weather.”
Boyden had seven senior starters. Six, including Loflin, were offered college scholarships.
He matured fast. He married a Boyden girl, Carolyn Jean Spencer, at Salisbury’s St. John’s Lutheran Church during the summer between high school graduation and his freshman year at UNC. They had two sons by the time he graduated from UNC.
Loflin’s degree from UNC was in mathematics. He went to work for Duke Power after college. He worked for IBM for 30 years, retiring in 1992. Then he owned and operated a business in Kingsport, Tenn., for many years.
Loflin is survived by his wife, two sons, grandchildren and great-granchildren.
