Johnny Lipsey continued his assault on South Georgia
football teams in 1950. He took Pig Davis' team to
a 9-1 record losing 21-20 to Valdosta in the playoffs
despite beating the Cats 33-13 in the regular season.
Against
Valdosta in the regular season, Lipsey put together an
astounding stat sheet. His five rushing touchdowns
came on runs of 30, 35, 51, 60 an d92 yards. Would
you believe that he was named Georgia Player of the
Week? He was.
The week before
that, Lipsey put some unbelievable numbers on one of his
personal punching bags--Cairo. He had 210 rushing yards
and 129 passing. Tifton beat Cairo 52-0.
After the Cairo
game, Lipsey put together a string of 100-plus yard
games that caused a Fitzgerald paper to state that he
was better than Lauren Hargrove, who was a Fitzgerald
native and an All-Southern Conference running back at
Georgia.
Lipsey's high
school career even drew some professional attention.
His son Johnny recalls family stories about the San
Francisco 49ers calling for his services right out of
high school.
After a brief
stay at Georgia, Lipsey went on to all-American honors
in junior college ball.
Other big
contributors to the 1950 team were Wimpy Scott, Edwin
Revels, Royce Jones, Ray Grimsley and Bud Brogdon.
Along with
Lipsey, they were all named all-state by The Atlanta
Constitution.
After Lipsey
graduated, a letdown would not have surprised anyone,
but Davis' Devils kept right on going. In 1951,
Tifton went 8-2 before losing to Valdosta in the
playoffs. In 1952, they were 7-3 in an era when
only two teams made the playoffs. In 1953, the
Devils lost to No. 2 Americus in the playoffs after
putting together an 8-1-1 record.
In the early
50s, Sonny Lipsey, Lyndsey Bass, and a host of Devils
picked up where Johnny Lipsey left off. The 51-
team got its eighth win on Thanksgiving in the
annual brawl with the Purple Hurricanes. Tift won
that game 18-13 in front of over 4,000 people.
In 1955, the
Devils suffered their first losing season since the war.
The 1956 Devils didn't fare much better, but 1957 saw
Tifton comeback.
The Devils went
6-4 in 1957 but were 7-3 on the field. In their
opening game, the Devils played an ineligible player in
a 21-6 win over Warner Robins. The extra win
propelled Warner Robins into what could have been
Tifton's spot in the playoffs.
Vic Vickers was
Tifton's only all-state player in the late 50s.
Vickers was all-state in 1957 and went on to play
football at Alabama.
Tifton made the
playoffs in 1958 but lost to the Crisp County Rebels
13-0 in the playoffs. This came after playing to a
14-14 tie against the No. 8 Rebels in the final
regular season game.
Pig Davis' last
year as a Tifton Blue Devil was 1959. That season
started well as the Devils won four of their first six
games. Tifton stumbled down the stretch, however,
losing their final four games.
Davis would
finish his days in Tifton with the second most wins
all-time. His final record in Tifton was 91-50-3.
The bulk of his wins, 60, occurred during the 50s.
