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Ladonia News
"The Only Newspaper In The United States
That Gives a Hoot About Ladonia And Her People"
Friday, May 30, 1947

page 2 of Ladonia abstracts
Transcribed by Kay Haden
Please use the Search or find function
of your browser to find a name on any of the pages.

Newspaper listings of Graduates of
Ladonia High School
1895-1954
[Spelling, punctuation, grammar as in newspaper. This email
is dedicated to any of us that played football, cheered with
pep squad, marched with
band - surely you remember Friday nights!]

"Rattlers"
By Roy Bartley

Checking upon the Rattlers, we go back to the days before they were

called the Rattlers.But they were still a true Ladonia football team.

Back in 1915 the Ladonia boys hitched 4 mules to a wagon and went over muddy roads to Wolfe City to play. The score was 12-0 for Ladonia.

Some of the boys on that team were John Scott, Andy Routt,Carl Weldon,

Earl Priestly, Harry Merrill, Sim Hulsey,Bose McFarland, Will Nunn Graves,

Hershal Fowler,Ben Neilson and Edgar Little.

That same year Wolfe City came to Ladonia and got beat 12-6. We skip

from here to 1921 when football was recognized in Ladonia. Buck Neilson

was the coach. A meeting was held and the name "Rattlers" was chosen for

the team. At this time Mr. Neilson was farming at Ladonia and took over the

team just to help the boys. Coaching free of charge, he was assisted by Sam

and Hendrix Merrill. The first "Rattlers" were Lee Morrow, Joe Beall, Vache

Bartley, Grady Bass, Herman Switzer, Elsin [? hard to make out] Fowler,

Melvin Howse, Maynard Miller, Oscar Bramlett, Alvin Bramlett, Ebb

Bartley, Foute Eagleton, Brandy Womack, Howard Thornton, Lefty Ross,

Jeff Fraley, R. D. Fowler, Jack Morrow, Whatley Little and Tom Stovall.

These boys played some 13 games that year,of the 13, they lost 9, tied 1,

and won 3. But they beat Wolfe City 7-0. Now the 1922 team was just about

the same bunch of boys. They were a little better organized now and did a

little better playing. They won 8 games, lost 1 and beat Wolfe City 36-0.

In '23 Joe Beall was acting as coacher to help the boys. Not much can be

found out about this year. However, in 1924 Allen Moxley was hired

to coach the Rattlers. He became the first hired coach at Ladonia. In

'25 and '26 O. P. Smith was the head coach. He was relieved in '27 by Loren

Francis. Crain was coach in '28 and Verde Miles in '29. Then Ladonia

entered Conference play in 1930 under head coach Emmit Wishard. Mr.

Wishard stayed on as head coach here until 1933, when he went to coach

Paris Hi School. It was during Coach Wishard's stay here that Ladonia won

the much talked of game from Honey Grove.

In 1934 Harve Light took over the head coach job with Milton Buchanan

as an assistant. They stayed until Arvil P. Green took over in 1937. Coach

Green had J. E. Fuller for an assistant. Coach Green turned out to be one of

Ladonia's most colorfel coaches. His 1937 team was an average team. But,

with practically the same squad, in 1938, the boys played an undefeated,

untied, and unscored on season. Also this season they beat the Goodland

Indians from Oklahoma.

This was the only Ladonia team ever to defeat the Indians. The standing

lineup for 1938, was: Vernon (Dog) Montgomery and Alvin Pike ends, Jesse

Newman and Bud Cathey, tackles, Cheezy White and John H. Rattan, guards,

Freeman Braley, center, Joe Boyd and Franklin Scott, half backs, R. C.

(Sharkey) Shelton, full back and Bob Bartley quarter back. Others on the

team were: James Boucher, Neil Conine, Bill Bell, Roy Newman, Alf Robardey,

J. Middlebrooks, A. Meaders, Jack Gilbert, David Myrick, J. M. Moody, and

Newton Bartley.

After having such a perfect season of play, it all came to a bad end when Ladonia was ruled out for playing ineligible players, At the same time L.H.S.

was ruled out so was every other team in the Conference except Leonard.

Leonard became District Champs and had not won a game all season. To

satisfy his feelings, Coach Green came back in 1939 to win B. District from

Deport.

Mr. Green left us in '40 and went to Arkansas A. & M.at Magnolia, Ark.

Woodrow Henderson coached the '40 team, with just an average season.

Charles Gaulden came to us in 1941 and turned out the'41 District Champs.

In the early part of '42 he left to fight for his country, and was relieved of his

coaching duties by R. B. (Buck) Neilson, the same one who was here in 1921.

With his first year of coaching after this long absence, the boys won B.

District again. They won this title by defeating McLeod, coached by Lloyd

Kerbow, an ex-Rattler. By this time the war was well on and lots of the

schools Ladonia had been playing had stopped having a football team. In

1944 the boys won district, in '44 and '45 they automatically won district

since they were the only team left in this district. With the end of the '45

season came the end of a long line of ball players, the Bartley boys. Ebb and

Vache Bartley started off in 1921.

Then there was a skip to '29. From '29 up until '45 there was always from

1 to 4 Bartleys on the team. In 1946, the first postwar Rattlers came back

true to form and won the District Championship. They also picked up, where

others left off back in '41, the rivalry with Wolfe City. The '46 boys won from

W. C. What the boys do in '47 is yet to be seen, but there will be the true

Rattler spirit behind them, just as the past 27 years have shown.

Let 'er go Rattlers -- and watch 'em go!

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