What was the final score from the 1927 Evergreen-Foley football game?

The Evergreen-Conecuh County Public Library attracts visitors from all over the place, and one such visitor recently was there on a sports-related research trip. About a week ago, football researcher Keith Smith, who lives in Foley, paid a visit to the library in search of the final score from Nov. 4, 1927 game between Foley High School and the State Secondary Agricultural School in Evergreen. Smith was at the library continuing the research his dad began on the history of Foley football in the early 1970s.

“He found most of the scores by the end of the decade,” Smith said. “I have been able to locate a few other scores as well. To the best of my knowledge, the only outcome that we are missing is that of the Foley-Evergreen game played in Evergreen on Nov. 4, 1927.”

Evergreen’s head coach in 1927 was J.E. “Abe” Robinson and players on that team included Buster Ellis, Cecil Goodson, Andrew McCreary, Claude Murphy, Mabry Murphy, Leon Salter, Egbert Sanders, Bill Stallworth and Thomas Waller.

Evergreen started the season on Oct. 1 with a 20-0 win over Hayneville in Evergreen, but lost 19-0 to Red Level on Oct. 1 at the McKenzie fair. On Oct. 7, Evergreen beat Castleberry, 6-0, in Evergreen and followed that with a 42-0 win over McKenzie in Evergreen.

Evergreen suffered their second loss of the season on Oct. 14 when they fell, 20-0, to Brewton in Brewton, and the following week they played Andalusia in Andalusia. The end result of the Evergreen-Andalusia game also remains unknown. On Oct. 28, Thomasville beat Evergreen, 57-0, in Thomasville, and the following Friday afternoon, Nov. 4, Evergreen played Foley at Gantt Field in Evergreen.

The next week, Evergreen downed J.U. Blacksher of Uriah, 13-0, on Nov. 11 in Evergreen and then played Camden in Evergreen on Nov. 18. Like the Andalusia and Foley games, the result of the Camden game is also unknown.

On Nov. 24, Evergreen was originally scheduled to play Jackson, but that game was cancelled by Jackson. As a replacement game, Evergreen played an “all-star” team from Castleberry, which included players who weren’t necessarily students at the school in Castleberry. The result of that game is also unknown.

In the edition of The Evergreen Courant leading up to the Nov. 4 game between Evergreen and Foley, the newspaper noted that the team was looking forward to playing a home game because they’d been on the road for the past several weeks. They were also expecting a big crowd for the game, and the newspaper encouraged even more fans to “put in your appearance at Gantt’s Field Friday afternoon and help the boys win the game.”

In the end, I’m putting all this out there in hopes that someone in the reading audience will know the final score from the 1927 Evergreen-Foley game or from Evergreen’s games against Andalusia, Camden or the Castleberry All-Stars. Maybe some of you out there who are related to members of Evergreen’s team that year will have a yearbook, a memory book or some other written record that includes these final scores.

If so, please let me and Smith know. Smith can be reached by writing Keith Smith, 320 North Pine Street, Foley, AL 36535. You can also call him at 251-943-6561 or you can e-mail him at ksmith@bcbe.org. You can contact me at The Courant at 251-578-1492 or by e-mailing courantsports@earthlink.net.