CRESTVIEW — John Ed Fountain, Ray Vaughn Kilcrease, Rhett Cadenhead, Jack Sanders, Ray “Red” Medley and Coach A.C. Koeninger: Their names are forever etched in Crestview High School football lore.
The Class of 1950 formed the nucleus of what might be the Bulldogs' greatest football teams. Many of its athletes — who played at the old Sandspur Stadium from 1946-1949 — have died, but for 84-year-old Jerry Parker, a former blocking back and linebacker, the memories are as fresh as yesterday.
CLEARING THE COMPETITION
Florida high school football teams didn’t start playing for state championships until 1963, so schools like Crestview settled for winning their league or conference.
In 1949, the Bulldogs ran roughshod over the competition, compiling a 9-0-1 record, giving up just nine points all year, while scoring 235 points and claiming the Northwest Florida Conference championship.
Parker believes the Bulldogs could have held their own with anyone in the state.
“We had a few years … we wouldn’t have backed (down) from anyone,” he said. “I tell you what it would have taken: It would have taken a good shellacking to convince us that we were not that good.
“I think … if they would have loaded us up, we would have played Miami High. You thought about it, but you didn’t give much thought process to it back then because that’s not how it was done.”
Bob Bumgartner coached the Bulldogs in 1946 and 1947; A.C. Hand served a one-year stint in 1948 — but Koeninger was the perfect coach at the time to take CHS's 1949 squad to new heights.
THE KOENINGER ERA
“We had a group of boys that had just been together so long,” Parker said. “Koeninger came in '49 and he inherited that team. We were ready for a good coach to take us so we could do some business.
“Koeninger wasn’t my favorite personality, but he could coach. He stayed in Crestview a long time and had some pretty good ball clubs. He was grumpy and rough, and he didn’t put up with any nonsense.”
Despite the coach's gruffness, he knew how to get the most out of the least talented players, Parker said.
“I never saw anybody that could take somebody that couldn’t walk straight and make a football player out of them, but he could do that,” Parker said. “Old Koeninger had a pretty good scheme. He was good. His personality drove me up the wall, but I wasn’t there for his personality.”
The only blemish on an otherwise perfect season was a 7-7 tie with Quincy in the season's last game. It also was the only game that other team scored a touchdown against the Bulldogs.
The only other points Crestview gave up that year was safety to Baker in a 47-2 season opening win.
“We were ready,” Parker said. “We blew everybody out. We just had a good ball club.”
A SPECIAL TEAM
The 1949 season was a culmination of the previous three years' work, Parker said.
“The year we won the conference, all those boys had played together three years,” Parker said. “Ray Medley, Tommy Settles, Jack Sanders, Bobby Campbell.
“Bobby Campbell, he was the team center. Jack Sanders played one end. He was a tall, big boy — maybe not college material, but he was a big boy.”
Claude and Walter “Red” Barrow were two of the running backs. “Claude was our fullback and he could run it,” Parker said. “He was just rough. Walter Barrow had an offer to go to Auburn. He could punt it as far as anybody today.”
Medley became the team's most accomplished player.
“Ray Medley, of course, had an offer from Ole Miss (the University of Mississippi) and he played at Ole Miss,” Parker said. “Tommy Settles had a couple of scholarship offers. But Ray was the only one that went to Ole Miss and had a couple of pretty good years before he got hurt.”
Parker said he seems to remember other Bulldogs getting scholarship offers, and some of them took the offers while others didn’t.
“Most of them did what a lot of boys did back then,” he said. “They got a job right out of high school and got married.”
LOVE OF THE GAME
Crestview’s biggest rivals in the late 1940s were Milton, Pensacola Catholic, Walton and, of course, Niceville, Parker said.
The Bulldogs played their home games at the old Sandspur Stadium, near present-day Richbourg E.S.E. School. “It was a pretty good place,” Parker said. “It was a board-fence stadium, and we had a few bleachers. I don’t know where they got the funds, but we had a little grass on the field."
The conditions back then show how much times have changed.
“When you got tackled, you didn’t worry about if you came up with a mouth full of dirt or a mouth full of grass. You didn’t care back then," Parker said.
The brand of football Crestview played 65 years ago was a far cry from today’s game.
“It was pretty much smash mouth football back then,” Parker said.
“The other teams knew when they played Crestview, they had better come to play."
1949 CHS football schedule
Baker 47-2
Frink 47-0
Bonifay 14-0
Fort Walton Beach 28-0
Niceville 13-0
Milton 12-0
Walton 27-0
Catholic 6-0
Chipley 34-0
Quincy 7-7
1949 BULLDOG FOOTBALL ROSTER
Head Coach A.C. Koeninger, assistant coach Louis McLendon. Players: John Ed Fountain, Ray Vaughn Kilcrease, Rhett Cadenhead, Junior McKee, Marcus Martin, Howard Powell, Leon Curenton, Dale Wright, Joe Curenton, Frank Keel, Herbert Adams, Robert Bradley, Hez Collins, Leron “Red” Beard, Mark Barrow, Derrell Delk, Joe Frank Plumber, Jerry Parris, John Martin Vaughn, Charles Lee, Jacks Sanders, Walter “Red” Barrow, Claud “Boug” Barrow, Bobby Campbell, Ray “Red” Medley, Glen Luker, Bob McGuire, Jack Stokes, Tommy Settles. Team manager, Billy Jolly.
Source: Jerry Parker
Schedule and roster
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: LOOK BACK: Remembering Crestview High School's incredible 1949 football team