Strange is sure going to miss broadcasting 'The Golden Herd'

Oct. 18—MOULTRIE — Darrell Strange remembers when he was a youngster and Moultrie High School produced a paper called the Pack o' News.

The publication covered all manner of school events, especially, of course, the school's athletic teams.

And the Packers football team was often referred to as "The Golden Herd."

"I just liked it," said Strange, a former Packer football player himself who is retiring after this season after 31 years with the WMTM-FM radio crew helping call Colquitt County football games.

"You know, I just liked that phrase. I sorta wish I had come up with it myself."

While to most fans, the Colquitt County football teams are the Packers, or the Pack.

But for the last 65 years or so, they have been The Golden Herd to one of the program's most ardent supporters.

Radio listeners can count on hearing "Here comes the Golden Herd!" before the opening kickoff.

WMTM owner and station manager Jim Turner handles the electronics, "Voice of the Packers" Durwood Dominy does the play-by-play and, since 1992, Strange has been the color man, helping describe the action.

And after each game, he has interviewed Packer head coaches Jim Hughes, Mike Singletary, Tim Cokely, Rush Propst and Sean Calhoun.

"A couple of times, I did the play-by-play and I did not like that," he said. "I don't have the attention span for that."

So he adds color to Dominy's calls and the two have become familiar voices in Colquitt County and throughout the station's Friday night coverage area.

And for the 1960 Moultrie High graduate and end on the 1958 and 1959 football teams, being part of the broadcast team has been, well, Hawg heaven.

His time behind the microphone has coincided with Colquitt County producing some of its most successful teams.

He was in the booth when the Packers won their first state championship in 1994.

And he called the 30 straight wins for the 2014 and 2015 state championship teams and the 2010, 2017 and 2018 state runners-up.

He also played on a pair of pretty darn good football teams coached by Knuck McCrary.

And he enjoys talking about them.

An end who played both ways, he was a member of the 1958 team that went 7-2-1 and got a big 19-13 win over eventual state champion LaGrange when Travis Allegood famously caught a tipped pass and ran it 42 yards for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown.

Moultrie went 7-3 the next year and although a loss to Albany cost the Golden Herd the region championship, the game has been among the most- talked about in Packer history.

An estimated 9,500 people saw the game at Mack Tharpe Stadium and a photo shows fans lining the field and sitting on the fence.

"It was unreal," Strange remembers.

Don Porterfield returned the second-half kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown, but the Packers could not hold off the Indians.

The team featured such outstanding players as Porterfield and Mac Faircloth, both of whom went on to play at Georgia, Billy Chesnutt, Dewey Cobb, Danny Hortman, Richard Byrd, Charlie Marshall and others.

Strange ranks Porterfield with Ray Mercer and Gene Littleton as the best backs to come out of Moultrie. And he was fortunate to have seen all three carry the ball for Moultrie High.

Strange said he became a Packers football fan when he was in sixth grade and helped out in the locker room at the city pool.

Many of the football players were lifeguards and one, Littleton, used to ride Strange's bicycle to Funston and back to help keep himself in shape.

He also was one of the first boys to be part of the Moultrie Recreation Department's youth football program headed up by Jim Buck Goff.

After graduating from high school and briefly attending Norman College and South Georgia College, he worked with future Packer head coach Bud Willis, who was then operating the county recreation program.

Strange went on to work for the Moultrie Recreation Department, serving a number years as its athletic director under Goff.

After seven years, he became the purchasing director for the City of Moultrie and then became a successful salesman for Momar, which deals in industrial maintenance supplies.

All the while, he has been one of the Golden Herd's biggest supporters.

Strange also was fortunate to follow the Packers when his son Doug was an offensive lineman for the team from 1984-1986.

Doug's oldest daughter is at Georgia and his twins David and Ashley are Colquitt County seniors. David is on the golf team and Ashley is a senior cheerleader and usually is not far from her grandfather when he talks with coach Calhoun after games.

"Ashley sent me birthday card that said 'Thanks for sharing the football team with me,'" Strange said.

Strange has enjoyed following the Packers over the last three decades and has found the people he has met in press boxes across the state to have been welcoming and friendly.

But at 81 and with some health problems, he thinks the time has come to quit climbing those stairs to broadcast booths.

"It's been a great," he said of the time he has shared with two good friends and describing the action of the team he loves.

"I wouldn't give anything for it."