Before 2025 Buford, there was 1991 LaGrange — a team that ‘stayed hungry’

Buford recently ended the state’s 34-year drought of consensus high school football national champions.

The last team was 1991 LaGrange, a Class 2A school punching well above its weight class that pulled off one of the most storied playoff runs in GHSA history.

It wasn’t a “Cinderella run” by any means. The Grangers were a top-five team entering the season with several future Division I players.

LaGrange quarterback Rodney Hudson, who then-assistant coach Steve Pardue likened to Michael Vick, led the offense. The later-named AJC all-classification player of the year was a true dual-threat quarterback, a rare commodity in the early 1990s.

Hudson completed 92 of his 195 passes for 1,343 yards and 20 touchdowns in 1991. He added another 789 yards rushing and 16 more touchdowns on 125 carries.

At the time, Hudson’s 93 career touchdowns were the second-most in GHSA history, according to records kept by the 1991 edition of Peach State Football.

Eventual NFL first-round draft pick and Pro Bowler Walter Harris led LaGrange’s defense at cornerback. Harris, who went to Mississippi State with Hudson, played alongside future Alabama defenders Paul Pickett and Andre Short. That LaGrange defense also sent players to Troy, Valdosta State and Western Kentucky.

For all its talent, LaGrange wasn’t known for scaring opponents when it got off the bus. The Grangers weren’t particularly large in size, but they compensated with their athleticism.

“I do remember the first time I saw the team. I was a little surprised because we weren’t as big as I was anticipating us being,” Pardue recalled. “But I also remember the first day we timed them in the (40-yard dash). My job was to record the 40s, and I bet half our team ran 4.75 (seconds) or better.”

LaGrange’s biggest disadvantage was its depth. The Grangers had the enrollment of a Class 2A school but electively played at the state’s highest level at Class 4A.

“Back then, the big schools had 1,800 students, maybe 2,000,” said former LaGrange assistant and current baseball coach Donnie Branch. “And we had, like, 1,000.”

Lacking numbers didn’t dismay the Grangers. Pardue said it was rarely discussed, though it is a point of pride looking back.

“This group wanted to be pushed, and we pushed them really hard, and we stayed hungry,” Branch said. “It’s hard to stay hungry for 15 weeks, and we did. We stayed hungry.”

LaGrange dominated most of its opponents, winning by an average margin of 22.5 points. The Granger defense allowed a touchdown in its first game before shutting out all of its opponents in September. That included a 21-0 win over No. 6 Clarke Central, LaGrange’s first of four wins over Class 4A top 10 teams that season.

The Grangers rolled into November with an 8-0 record. They were set to face their toughest test since Clarke Central: No. 4 Newnan.

Coached by Georgia Athletic Coaches Hall of Famer Max Bass, Newnan posed the strongest threat to LaGrange’s hopes of a region championship. The Cougars had a future Georgia Tech starting receiver in Derrick Steagall at quarterback.

LaGrange led Newnan in the fourth quarter when Steagall had a great chance to make a game-changing play.

“We were up 20-14, and they hit us on a naked bootleg late, and there was no way Andre Short should run down Derrick Steagall, but somehow, he ran him down,” Pardue recalled. “We were able to hold them on defense, and it was just a great, great win for us.”

LaGrange rode that momentum through the rest of the season and into the playoffs. The Grangers dominated all season but had only just started to get recognition from the most famous national poll, USA Today’s Top 25.

“That was the deal in that poll, and it gave you notoriety and a program,” said Scott Sickler, LaGrange football historian. “There were two other polls, but they didn’t carry nearly as much weight as the USA Today did.”

Once the Grangers broke the top 25, they skyrocketed up the rankings. They were ranked No. 8 by the quarterfinals, setting them up against national No. 2 Valdosta. The Wildcats rolled into town with the No. 1 ranking in the state, 16 state championships and three national titles.

“Valdosta, they’re still really good, but back then, they were iconic,” Branch said. “And we beat them 6-0 with the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at the stadium.”

Pardue recalled LaGrange’s defense delivering in the clutch yet again, as a late goal line stand protected the small lead. The Grangers moved into the semifinals and the national spotlight.

“We kind of flip-flopped with Valdosta when we beat them 6-0,” Sickler said. “We moved from eighth to second and replaced Valdosta.”

LaGrange beat McEachern in overtime the following week to clinch a spot in the state championship. USA Today ranked LaGrange the No. 2 team in the country behind Rialto of California, which would play for its state title on Friday, Dec. 13, the day before LaGrange did.

A national title remained possible, but a Rialto loss was certainly unlikely. The Grangers were focused on winning a state championship. A “mythical national championship,” as head coach Gary Guthrie called it, was never the focus.

“I don’t ever remember talking about the national ratings,” Pardue said. “We just kind of downplayed that and worried about the football part on the field. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember (Guthrie) ever mentioning it.”

Then Mater Dei upset Rialto 35-14 that Friday night, and national title talks exploded in LaGrange hours before the state championship.

“When we went to bed that night, we were number two in the country and a team out of California was number one,” Pardue said. “And you woke up, and the news all over LaGrange was the number one team got beat. And we felt like if we could win, we could be number one.”

LaGrange did exactly that, as Hudson and Harris led the way to a 17-16 championship win over Colquitt County, a game that ranks No. 2 in the AJC’s list of greatest state finals of all-time.

Hudson captained an 83-yard game-winning drive that ended on Scott Simons’ go-ahead 24-yard field goal with 13 seconds left. The drive featured an infamous fourth-and-11, as Hudson made numerous defenders miss in the backfield before finding Russ Davidson for his only reception of the year.

Harris made several key plays, too, including two interceptions and a blocked extra point that made Simons’ field goal a game-winner instead of a game-tier.

But Harris’ most legendary moment of the day came before kickoff. The senior had to take the ACT at Newnan High School that morning, roughly 31 miles from LaGrange.

According to Pardue, Harris got an escort from the chief of police to and from Newnan to ensure he made it to the game on time. A LaGrange librarian later penned a poem about Harris’ feat of student-athleticism.

“They said (they drove) about a hundred miles an hour on the interstate getting back to catch the bus,” Pardue said. “And later on, the poem the guy wrote said Walt passed the ACT, blocked a PAT and had two INTs.”

The 1991 team helped build LaGrange into an perennial state title contender in the early 2000s. Pardue, who went on to win state titles as head coach in 2001, 2003 and 2004, still credits the 1991 championship team for his success over a decade later.

“For years, we’d be working at practice, and sarcastically, we would always say to the player, ‘Ah, don’t worry about this. Extra points aren’t that important. Now, we got a national championship ring because we blocked one one time, but they’re not that important. Y’all are a lot better than that team,’” Pardue said. “And that was kind of a motivational deal for us for the rest of our career.”