Archer and Mount Paran Christian are two of the youngest football programs ever to reach a state championship football game, but putting their achievement in historical perspective is more difficult than it would seem. For example, Brooks County played in the 1959 state finals in the school's first year of existence. But Brooks was formed from the consolidation of old Quitman High, which won a state title in 1949, and other smaller schools that didn't have football teams. Quitman's coach in 1958, Walter Foy, was Brooks County's coach in 1959. Archer and Mount Paran themselves are apples and oranges. Archer was a new school in 2009. Mount Paran was established in 1976 but began varsity football in 2008. Below, we have three lists to help cover the bases.
New schools: Here are first-time finalists whose schools were the youngest, but without consolidation. Brown's 1949 state championship team was a famous one. Pepper Rodgers was the team's quarterback, and several of its star players, including Rodgers, ended up at Georgia Tech and played on Tech's 12-0 Sugar Bowl championship team of 1952. Seven new Atlanta schools opened in 1947, when the school system broke up Boys', Tech, Girls and Commercial high schools and formed seven new co-educational high schools. Also note that Feldwood, the 1979 runner-up to Herschel Walker's Johnson County team, was really in its fourth year as a school, but third year of varsity football. The years below are based on when the new schools played their first varsity football games.
3 - Brown 1949*
3 - Feldwood 1979
3 - Redan 1979*
4 - Peachtree Ridge 2006*
5 - O'Keefe 1951
6 - Archer 2014
6 - Murphy 1952*
6 - North Springs 1969*
7 - Brookwood 1988
7 - Flowery Branch 2008
7 - Grady 1953*
7 - Lakeside, Atlanta 1970*
7 - Northside, Atlanta 1956
8 - Douglass 1975
8 - St. Pius 1968*
8 - West Rome 1965*
9 - Harrison 2000
9 - Wheeler 1973
10 - Dykes 1970
10 - Mount Zion Jonesboro 1999
New programs: The GHSA organized football on a statewide basis in 1948 by placing teams in four classifications for the first time. Football was popular before then, but the new statewide playoffs were a catalyst for several start-up programs. Some of them were pretty good pretty quickly. Forest Park defeated Cuthbert 32-7 in the Class C championship game in 1951. Both had started varsity football the previous season. Fort Valley won Class C in 1948 in its second season of football. This list also ignores the fact that Fort Valley and Cuthbert had played a few football games many years earlier. They didn't start in earnest until two years before their titles.
2 - Cuthbert 1951
2 - Forest Park 1951*
2 - Fort Valley 1948*
3 - Cook 1949*
5 - Lovett 1964
6 - Hogansville 1952
6 - Stone Mountain 1955
7 - Coosa 1961*
7 - Mount Paran Christian 2014
7 - Roswell 1956
7 - Southeast Bulloch 1971
8 - Prince Ave. Christian 2012
10 - Avondale 1958*
10 - Mount de Sales 1970*
New, consolidated schools: Athens, Lincolnton and Lanier were state powers in the 1960s, so it was no surprise when their successor schools were major forces in the 1970s under the names of Clarke Central, Lincoln County and Central of Macon. All were the result of mergers among existing schools or student bodies.
1 - Brooks County 1959
2 - North Cobb 1959
2 - Irwin County 1953
3 - Central Macon 1972
3 - Dooly County 1983
3 - Mitchell-Baker 1983*
4 - Ware County 1961
4 - Washington-Wilkes 1960*
5 - Lincoln County 1974
7 - Warren County 1964
8 - Clarke Central 1977*
8 - Morgan County 1955*
9 - Jenkins County 1960
10 - Central Gwinnett 1966
*State champions
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