Published: 09:21 AM, Thu Mar 11, 2010
Terry Sanford fan hopes to get to use his championship plates
By Kim Hasty
Staff writer
In 1981, Edmund Grady was so enthused about the prospect of Terry Sanford winning the state 4-A high school football championship that he had hundreds of license plates made.
The plates, which sported the school mascot Bulldog, read, "Terry Sanford State Champs.''
He planned to donate the red, white and blue plates so the Terry Sanford cheerleaders could sell them and make money for the school.
But Terry Sanford didn't win.
Grady packed the plates away in cardboard boxes in a storage shed in his backyard.
This year, with the Bulldogs one game away from a state championship, this time in basketball, Grady has taken out the boxes of plates again. He's hoping that after nearly 30 years, the words on those plates will finally prove true.
"I think we've got a good chance,'' Grady said. "I know we've got a great coach.''
Coach Bill Boyette's Bulldogs, 31-0, are scheduled to play Mooresville Lake Norman at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the 4-A state title game at N.C. State's Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. It will be Terry Sanford's second consecutive year playing for the state championship, giving the Bulldogs the edge in experience.
Then again, the prospect of a state championship had been promising for the football Bulldogs back in 1981. Terry Sanford, led by players such as Dwight Richardson and Tim Morrison, was undefeated going into the state championship game against South Mecklenburg in Charlotte. The teams had spent the entire season holding onto the top two spots in the weekly state high school football poll.
Grady, a salesman for M.J. Soffe sportswear at the time, paid the company's artist to come up with the design on the license plate. He figures he had about 500 plates printed.
But Terry Sanford fell behind early and went on to lose, 27-14.
Terry Sanford would come close again in football in 1986, losing to Greensboro Page, 26-20.
Through it all, Grady and his family have remained faithful fans. Grady, who grew up in Fayetteville, attended Terry Sanford before graduating from Stanton Military Academy. His wife, Betty, taught English, journalism and Latin for 35 years at Terry Sanford. And their three daughters all graduated from Terry Sanford in the 1980s.
Hence the reason he never could bring himself to dispose of those license plates. Hope, after all, endures. Even after nearly 30 years. He's hoping the school will have a chance to make a little money off the plates after Saturday's game.
"We've laughed about those plates often through the years,'' he said. "Betty's tried to get me to throw them out.
"But here they are,'' he said, with a nod toward one of the boxes. "And they're welcome to them.''
Community news editor Kim Hasty can be reached at hastyk@fayobserver.com or 323-4848, ext. 478.