Pre-game party Friday to honor Oak Ridge High 1958 football team, "national champions"
A pre-game tailgate party honoring the 1958 Oak Ridge High School Wildcats football team, which recently received an award from the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, will be held prior to the current Wildcats' first football game of the season Friday.
The pre-game event will be from 5 p.m. to the football game's 7 p.m. start, thanks to the ORHS Class of '89. The location will be a new Class of '89 Pavilion on Kentucky Avenue at Blankenship Field. And if you want to meet members of the '58 team, you'll want to arrive before they have to leave the pavilion to make their way to the sidelines in preparation for being publicly honored prior to the kickoff.
In an invitation to the 725 Oak Ridge Schools' employees and their families, organizers said Tennessee Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House of Representatives leader Cameron Sexton, both ORHS alumni, will be on hand, as well as Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, new Head Coach Derek Rang and the Wildcat Band. Cardinal and gray attire is required.
There are also hopes of building the biggest student section in Tennessee at the ORHS-Jefferson County game, the invitation said.
As previously reported in The Oak Ridger, in a story by Jerry Harris and Earl Nall, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame honored the 1958 team with the 2023 David Williams Significant Historical Achievement Award. The presentation on July 22 was made before a crowd of more than 800 people at the Hall of Fame’s annual Induction Award Banquet at Nashville’s Omni Hotel.
The award comes 65 years after the team was the first Tennessee high school football team to be selected as national champions. The team members were state champions and had 16 players go on to play college football, seven of them on Southeastern Conference teams.
While introducing the team, Mike Keith, voice of the Tennessee Titans and banquet host, said the 1958 Wildcats were the first team in Tennessee high school football history to win a mythical national championship. He also pointed out the success of the players, citing careers in nuclear physics, architecture and professions such as doctors, engineers, educators, entrepreneurs and business owners. He also noted that one team member served as science and technology advisor to two U.S. presidents and chaired the committee that transformed portions of some obscure internal government communication systems into what eventually became known as the Internet.
Seven of the original members were present: Woody Barwick, Mike Brady, Skip Brinkman, Jimmie Culp, Howard Dunnebacke, Sam Owen and Larry Richards.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Pre-game party Friday to honor Oak Ridge's 1958 football team
