Longest Consecutive Boys NC High School Basketball Wins

The Beaufort Seadogs, Beaufort High School, Beaufort, NC

93 Straight wins including Three Consecutive State Championships (1959-1961)

 by Allen Autry, Sr.

 These are my memories of what some young boys in the fifty’s  felt was one of the great accomplishments of their young lives. Later, their youthful elation was to be validated by sports authorities who prophesied that their basketball team had set a sports record that would probably never be broken.  It has been fifty years since that time, but I can still hear the dribbling of the ball at practice, can still see our fans and friends on game night at our small gymnasium and I remember so well the final night of the season when our dream of being champions became a reality. It set a mantra in all of our future lives that “what can be visualized can be accomplished”.

The following account is how I personally remember that wonderful era. I have no notes or diary to be assistance in this undertaking. So, if there are some errors in my accounting of the events that may be dulled by the years I apologize to my team members and friends.

Although no longer in use, Beaufort High School was located in the seacoast Town of Beaufort NC, gateway to the Outer Banks.  The little settlement is the oldest town in North Carolina and is surrounded on three sides by its provider and source of recreation, the Atlantic Ocean.  The town was an enchanted place for young boys lucky enough to grow up there. The warm seasons of spring and summer were filled with days of fishing and swimming at the surf of the sparkling Atlantic. At night there would be camping on the Outer Bank islands under the canopy of brilliant stars never dulled by pollution. And of course, hours were spent outside playing basketball on the packed hard black eastern North Carolina soil.

Back then, the small town of Beaufort, population 1200, was remote and Beaufort High School during the fifty’s only had 180 students in the 9^th-12^th grade. Crime was non-existent and folks did not lock their doors for fear of offending their visiting neighbors, who would shout “Yoo-hoo” and walk in to your house. Road rage did not exist, because neighbors had to meet each other on the sidewalks the next day. Children were expected to go to church or be labeled a “heathen”.  Team-mate, Sammy Merrill and I belonged to First Baptist Church of Beaufort, where later we would receive our Eagle Scout badges in a joint ceremony

Rock n’ Roll had just been invented (much to the dismay of our parents) and was being evangelized by some cats by the names of Elvis Presley, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.

When my Dad first saw Elvis Presley on our little black and white television, he was stunned. He told my mother and me how awful it was to see those “unholy gyrations” and immediately turned off the television. In a panic, I ran across the street and finished seeing Elvis’s first television performance the home of my friend, Jerry Fulford. I was eleven years old, and had just received my first guitar for Christmas and I had never heard music like that!

Much of the town’s income came from commercial fishing. Many residents were employed by the menhaden fish plant which made fertilizer out of the oily fish. During some days, it emitted a putrid odor, which residents of the town proudly explained to the tourists was “the smell of money”. Other townspeople earned their wages as commercial fisherman; their skin burnished dark brown by the Mid-Atlantic sun. These men of the sea would toil in backbreaking work during the week on the rough Atlantic Ocean in order to bring home fish and shrimp to sell at the seafood markets to residents and tourists. Shrimp sold then for $.15 per pound.

In l955, against this idyllic background, four of us young Eighth Grade boys in Beaufort who were fast friends, became inspired by the event that the 1955 Beaufort High School team had just won the NC Basketball State Championship for the first time under the leadership of Coach Tom McQuaid. 

After listening to the exciting championship game on the radio in 1955, these four young boys,  Larry Dudley, Frank Potter, Sammy Merrill and I  decided right then and there that when we were seniors that we also would win the State Championship in basketball. We all held hands between us and made that pledge to each other. We were thirteen years old and serious about this mutual pledge. It was probably the first commitment any of us had ever made to anyone.

Little did these excited and determined boys suspect that this decision would set into motion an incredible North Carolina basketball record that exists until this day. They began practicing at every opportunity, at recess, after school and on week-ends. Outside of their Eighth grade classroom, next to the football field existed two basketball goals with rusting rims and a dirt court to play on. When they returned from recess each day after playing on the dirt court, their teacher would grimace at their grimy black hands and would once again remind them to wash the dirt off of their hands and leave the blackened basketball outside the classroom. 

Four doors down the street from my home on Circle Drive in Beaufort lived the legendary North Carolina high school coach, Tom McQuaid (Now inducted into the NC Sports Hall of Fame). Next to Coach McQuaid’s house in an empty field, belonging to George Huntley, Sr., was a basketball goal. We boys would often play there, with Coach McQuaid occasionally coming over watching and giving basket ball tips.

The four close friends would sometimes be joined in their games by another young basketball wannabe, Butch Hassel, who would later become a NC All-State High School player both in football and basketball, as well as becoming a member of the Wake Forest Basketball Team.

When we were seniors, Butch Hassel was a junior and his cousins Charles “Pud” Hassel was a sophomore and Ray Hassel was a freshman. All of the Hassel’s were extraordinary athletes. All of them received basketball college scholarships to major universities. Not bad for a school with thirty nine students in its graduating class in 1959.  Incredibly, in 1959, Beaufort also won the state championship in football, behind the quarterbacking of Butch Hassel. 

In the ninth grade, the four of us, played junior varsity together and had our first winning season together. The next year Coach McQuaid took us up to the varsity squad. Assistant Coach Jimmy Fodrie was a big asset in helping to train all the boys in the fundamentals.

Then, out of nowhere came some totally unexpected bad news. The results of our team medical examinations nearly terminated our youthful aspiration. In our junior year, the team doctor, Dr. Luther Fulcher, told the parents of Larry Dudley, Frank Potter and me that all three of us had heart irregularities and needed further examinations. Larry, who had the best jump shot on the team was never able to play again. The coach, much to our gratitude, made Larry the team manager. Larry never complained about his fate and encouraged us at every game. Frank had a hole in his heart and was operated upon, after which he was allowed to play, but Frank never seemed to have the same intensity that he had before the operation.  As to myself, I was able to continue playing and the doctor said that the condition should be monitored but was not life threatening. 

Completing the rotating first string was a transfer in to Beaufort in his sophomore year, Leon Thomas, who was in the same class as the four of us. He brought some mature ball handling skills to the team.

In the 1959 basketball polling, Beaufort was not favored to win the state championship. In fact at the beginning of the season, the coach later stated that he was looking at the year after the four of us graduated that possible could be a trip to the state finals. However, as the season warmed up, Beaufort was beating other teams so badly that the competitive coaches and parents were getting angry at Beaufort for “running up the score”. So Coach McQuaid started taking some of his first string out early. I personally knew the drill, The seniors would play the first quarter or so and then set on the bench unless the game became challenging. The games were not close until the state tournament, then the coach played his seniors for the full game.

Sammy Merrill and I roomed together in the hotel in Winston-Salem during the state finals. The night before the final game with St. Paul’s, Coach McQuaid came into our room and sat down to chat with us a few minutes. He told us, “You guys were not supposed to be here this year, no one expected it, and if you lose, you should still be proud because you have accomplished what no one thought that you would.”

After he left, Sammy and I looked at each other and said, “Is he kidding? Was that some kind of psychology? If so, we don’t need it. After tomorrow night we will be State Champs.” We said it and we meant it, we had spent four years practicing it and planning it. It was ours!

The favored team was St. Paul’s High School led by High School All-American  Gene Jackson, (also on scholarship later to Wake Forest) and an outstanding guard Pug Ivey.

They were an excellent team, but the iron will of our teammates, led by the best coach in the state, was going to be the dominating force in the encounter. We won by eight points in the final night of the state championship and there the legacy was born and the record began of 93 straight wins and 3 consecutive championships began.

Strangely enough on my first day of College the following September, when I arrived at my dorm on a basketball scholarship, the very first person I saw was Pug Ivey from St. Paul’s, whom we had just beaten in March for the State Championship. We were both stunned and speechless. Finally Pug broke the silence with, “Oh no! Not you! I am going home.” Then we both broke out laughing. We played together on the College team and became good friends.

What happened to the four friends who pledged to win that first championship for Beaufort High School?   Three of us, Frank Potter, Sammy Merrill and I graduated from Wake Forest University. I had transferred from Chowan in my junior year. In 1998, our friend Frank Potter passed away on the golf course while playing with his lifetime friend, Larry Dudley. Then in 2005, Larry passed away, but maintained his humor and optimism through a debilitating illness. He and Frank Potter both died early and are sorely missed by their family and friends.

Larry Dudley had a successful career as a supervisor with the federal government in Cherry Point, NC. He continued to live and to enjoy his home town area until his untimely death.  He told me that one of his greatest pleasures as a grown man was fishing on the Ocean with his brother.

Sammy Merrill taught at Wake Forest University. He later received his doctorate and  became Chairman of the German Department at William ad Mary. Sammy continued to run in marathons and win, even during his sixties. His wife Betty was a school teacher and they had two children, a boy and a girl.

Frank Potter graduated from Wake Forest and stayed in Beaufort NC, where he raised his family. His father James Potter, a former grocer, whom I worked for as a youth plays golf with Coach Fodrie on a weekly basis.

Yours truly went to Chowan University on a basketball and track scholarship (shot put). I transferred to Wake Forest in my junior year and graduated from Wake Forest Law School. I live in Florida and retired from a career as a state and federal lobbyist. Also along the way I wrote a book which had a good run, “Miracle in a Small Mountain Town” My wife Dee Autry retired as a Psychotherapist. We have one son, who owns and directs a music school.

Coach Tom McQuaid died before his induction into the NCHSAA Hall of Fame in August, 2005.  He was a great leader and teacher for the hundreds of boys that he coached during his magnificent career. He loved Beaufort and although he had college offers, he preferred to continue his career as a high school coach. He lived in Beaufort with his wife Pearl until his death.

In November of 2005, in Beaufort, North Carolina, there was a reunion for all the members of this special team and Coach Fodrie which spanned three perfect seasons. Each team member received a Championship ring with three stones in the center of the ring representing the three consecutive state championships and the 91 straight wins. Unfortunately, I could not go to the reunion as I was in Florida preparing for a devastating Hurricane which hit on the same day.

 Those were the Glory Days! Hail Beaufort High School!

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Other younger team members on the team were:

(I apologize to the younger members of the team, some whose names have slipped my memory, please email Ms. Melissa Vincent, the webkeeper to add your names to the list of players on the 1959 team.)

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Tom McQuaid named to join the NCHSAA Hall of Fame
[Aug. 18, 2005] Tom McQuaid of Beaufort NC has been selected for induction into the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame. Also inducted were Tim Brayboy of Cary, Jim Burch of Cary, Dick Knox of Chapel Hill and Mike Raybon of Jamestown who have been chosen as the 19th group of inductees to join the prestigious hall. The new inductees will be honored during special halftime ceremonies at a football game at Kenan Stadium on Saturday, November 12, when North Carolina takes on Maryland.

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Updated  10/31/2010
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