By Dan Cobb - Staff Writer Northwest Alabamian as printed in October 1994

Who did it? That has been the question since 1961 when an undefeated Addison team had to forfeit four games because of an ineligible player. Addison was ultimately denied the mythical state championship that year because of the incident.

A Double Springs resident, Deloyd McCullar, who died about five years ago of cancer, was accused of turning the Bulldogs into the State Athletic Association. However, Tyre Hyche, McCullar's former brother-in-law, and now a resident of Addison said that McCullar had always maintained his innocence in the matter.

McCullar now has a daughter, Jessica McCullar, who is a varsity cheerleader at Winston County. Last spring I was photographing Jessica and asked her what she knew about the incident and she said she had never heard about it. As a former Addison football player, this had always been a thorn in the flesh of most Addison players and fans, so I decided to review the matter for history's sake ( If you believe that I have a house in Miami I would like to sell you).

A.G. Hicks, who was the head coach at Addison at the time said he had used the incident to fuel the rivalry between the Bulldogs and the Jackets. "We got out share of wins from the Deep South situation," said Hicks.

The interesting twist to the matter was that because McCullar delivered Deep South milk to Addison, the community boycotted Deep South products in the local stores.

In fact, according to Roger Gutherie a fellow worker of  McCullar's, they often found the coolers filled with milk from  punctured milk cartons. He said that once someone even connected the battery cables to the seat springs in McCullar's truck giving him a shock when the ignition was turned on.

Hicks said he never had any reason to believe that McCullar was the one. But the matter got so bad that Deep South even came to Hicks and offered to fire McCullar if he would straighten things out with the community. Hicks refused telling them he had not started the matter.

The incident involved a senior, Bobby McCombs, who lived in the Grayson community. Grayson was in the Addison school district, but the Grayson sawmill had a school bus which they sent to Moulton. The rule stated that if a student attended a school which was served by a certain school's bus in one year, and the student moved to another school the next, that student had to set out a year of eligibility. The student in question moved out of Grayson, but then moved back to Grayson shortly thereafter making him ineligible.

Hicks said that McCombs was a second string running back who averaged playing only a few plays in the four games Addison had to forfeit. Hicks stated, however, that he was proud to have McCombs on the team. McCombs was later declared eligible that year for basketball where he was a standout player for the Bulldogs.

So who was the person who made the call to Montgomery? Until now no one had admitted to it. However this week Larry Yancey, the former head football coach of the Yellow Jackets from 1961 to 1964 and now a teacher at Haleyville High School admitted to me that he was the one.

Yancey had just replaced the legendary Bill Doty who left Winston County High after winning the state championship in 1960. The new coach himself had just graduated from Florence State (UNA) the prior year and it was his first coaching job.

Well the mystery has finally been solved and Deloyd McCullar's name is cleared. But Addison fans will still be able to blame Double Springs for turning in the matter. This should make for a little more fuel on the field Friday night as the Bulldogs visit Winston County. The arch rivals will be playing for the Winston County championship.

Who is WCHS

Biggest Rival?

Documented Games:

WCHS/Addison

59 Games Played

Addison leads series 35-24

Addison gave up the most points in it's history to any Team  when they lost in 2000 to WCHS 62-26

WCHS game up the most points in it's history to any Team  when they lost in 2006 to  Addison   64-27

WCHS/Haleyville

41 Games Played

Haleyville leads series

27-13-1

WCHS won 5 games in a row from 1997 to 2001

Haleyville has won the last 6 games in a row from 2002 to 2007

Annual Game Between Haleyville And Double Springs Ends In Fuss

Printed in the Haleyville Advertiser (Northwest Alabamian) November 1941

The annual football game between Haleyville and Double Springs, played Tuesday following a postponement because of bad weather last week, ended in an argument.

With the score tied 6-6, and time for only one or two more plays remaining, Haleyville tried a field goal and it was blocked. Gilbreath of Double Springs grabbed the ball and started for Haleyville's goal.

The referee blew his whistle, but Gilbreath did not stop until he had crossed Haleyville's goal line. It is believed that the referee blew his whistle not knowing a missed field goal could be returned by the opposing team. After realizing his mistake in blowing his whistle, the referee refused to make a decision on the play.

Double Springs supporters contend that the referee had no right to blow his whistle and that the Double Springs team should have a touchdown. Haleyville supports contend that when the referee blew his whistle, the play was stopped.

The Game:

Double Springs recovered a fumble by Haleyville on the Yellow Jackets' 37 yard line. By a series of determined attacks, and a long pass, the Winston County eleven finally got the ball on Haleyville's 3 yard line in the middle of the second quarter. From that, it was easy for Gilbreath to carry the ball over for a touchdown. Israel knocked down the ball and thus prevented the extra point.

Hyde returned the Double Springs kickoff for about 20 yards when the Yellow Jackets again intercepted a pass. The half ended with the Winston High eleven in possession of the ball.

Double Springs again kicked off at the beginning of the second half. Howell received and returned the ball to the 35 yard line. With short, sure plays, the Lions took the ball deep in the opponent's territory to the 27 yard line, where the Yellow Jackets took over in their own territory.

They took the ball back to the 35 yard marker where Hyde again intercepted a pass and ran to the ten yard line. Howard Howell took over from the Lions and made their only score of the game. The extra point was no good, making the score, 6-6.

The fourth quarter began in the same way as the others had. Hyde intercepted another pass. Israel intercepted a pass on Double Springs' 25 yard line with only 5 minutes remaining to play. McCrary took the ball to the 3 yard line where it was fumbled with Double Springs recovering. Hyde intercepted a pass to put the ball again in Haleyville's possession.

Not making much headway, the Lions elected to try a field goal, which the Yellow Jackets blocked. It was here that all the argument began.

Passing, intercepting passes, fumbles and hard breaks for both teams seemed to be characteristics of the entire game. The Yellow Jackets outplayed the Lions during the entire first half with Haleyville making only one first down.