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PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT Purple and Gold Boys
By C.R. Adams, Jr.
Fort Valley, GA: Garret Publications, Inc., 1996
In the early moments of the New Year on January 1, 1946, the author saw
the first Atlantic Coast Line train pass through Fitzgerald, Georgia,
following the merger with the Atlanta, Birmingham, and Coast Railroad.
What I had witnessed was not the passing of a freight train but the
passing of an era…Within a few short years, the Coast Line would
reconstruct the roadbed between Atlanta and Jacksonville and lay down
heavy-duty track to carry the diesel-electric locomotives and larger cars
that came into service in the postwar boom. The railroad shops with their
roundhouses and turntable would be abandoned, and the steam engines that
the "hostler" (his name during my childhood was Mr. Baston) had
carefully brought in for maintenance and repair would be scrapped, the
sound of their whistles on the midnight air existing only in the memory of
its hearers. The railroad families would move to Waycross or Atlanta, and
their sons and daughters would go to other schools with other people.
But
before all that could happen, Fitzgerald was to enjoy a unique adventure:
Its high school football team was to win the Georgia High School
Association Football Championship in 1948. The railroad boys, farm boys
and town boys were to find common ground on an old baseball outfield, and
common colors: Purple and Gold.
After a brief presentation of the history of the region from its first
mapping by Emanuel Bowen in 1748 through the creation of Irwin County in
1818 and the incorporation of Fitzgerald in 1896, this book presents a
historical summary of the game of football through the fielding of the
first team at Fitzgerald High School c. 1910 and the pre-World War I
references to the "Purple Hurricane" of that era. From 1919
through 1947, a year-by-year narrative sets forth the activities of the
Purple Hurricane teams after a summary of world, national and local
events. The rise of world dictatorships, the onslaughts of the Great
Depression and the advent of World War II all had their effects on
Fitzgerald and, to a lesser degree, on its football teams. Events such as
the construction of the lighted football field, Fitzgerald's first air
raid drill, and the temporary commandeering of the football field for a
POW compound are presented in detail, together with a game-by-game
narrative of the activities of each football team and its featured
players.
The state championship season of 1948 was played against the backdrop
of the Berlin Airlift and the Truman-Dewey presidential campaign. A
week-by-week narrative traces developments on the national and
international scenes, followed by a play-by-play account of each game of
the season and the playoff victories over Thomasville and Decatur. A brief
epilogue shows the changes that have taken place in Purple Hurricane
football over the past half-century.
Available at these locations:
The Blue And
Gray Museum
229.426.5069
Dove's Nest
P.O. Box 5006
Fitzgerald, GA 31750
229.423.8900
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