By Mike London
Salisbury Post
SALISBURY — It’s A.L. Brown at Mooresville week.
It’s not expected to go very well for the Wonders (1-1), who still lead the series 26-20 but have lost seven straight to the Blue Devils. Mooresville (1-1) is a whopping 34-point favorite, according to the Massey Ratings. A.L. Brown is given a 2 percent win probability. That’s not much better than the odds of Martians landing on Friday night at Coach Joe Popp Stadium.
But you never know what will happen when teenagers take the field.
A.L. Brown’s biggest victory against Mooresville may have been one that occurred nearly 65 years ago, late in the 1960 football season.
Mooresville squared off with A.L. Brown in the Western North Carolina High School Activities Association playoffs, a much-hyped matchup that drew a crowd of 6,500 fans to Kannapolis.
A.L. Brown had fought Asheboro to a scoreless tie during the South Piedmont Conference season, but the Wonders and Blue Devils both were still undefeated when they reached the playoffs.
Both teams had legendary skill players — Mooresville had its famed 3D backfield of Herky Doster, Jim Deaton and Ronnie Dyson. A.L. Brown had players such as Harry Greene, Grey Clarke, Ronnie Barlow, Don Whitmire and Harry Mills.
Both teams boasted Shrine Bowl linemen. A.L. Brown’s Wesley Grant and Mooresville’s Tommy Brawley were headed to the big game.
Both teams were coached by former Catawba College stars — Mooresville by Joe Popp and A.L. Brown by Ed Edmiston.
As is often the case in marquee match-ups, early momentum turned into a snowball and made it a shockingly one-sided game that none of the experts saw coming. A.L. Brown’s Bobby Compton intercepted a pass on Mooresville’s first play. Compton intercepted four that night. That’s probably still the school record. The Wonders rolled 26-0 and advanced to take on Hickory in the WNCHSAA championship game. That title game ended in a 0-0 tie.
Compton died in a plane crash in 1968, but he is still remembered in Kannapolis for the Mooresville game.
Another interesting note is that about seven months after that football game, Mooresville and A.L. Brown football players (with some help from Landis, China Grove and Troutman) came together as a great American Legion baseball team. That team won the state championship in 1961, the last team representing Kannapolis to do so.
