Fort Mill High School honored one of their past championship teams celebrating a 50-year anniversary this season.
The 1974 2A state champion boys’ basketball team was honored at halftime of the boys’ basketball game against Gaffney. Former members of the team showed up to be recognized during the Friday, Dec. 6 game at Fort Mill High School.
At the halftime ceremony, ‘Voice of the Jackets’ John Turner called members of them team individually to halfcourt. The state championship trophy they won had been removed from the cabinet in the gymnasium lobby and represented to them along with the 50-year-old net that still covered the trophy. A moment of silence was held for those who had been on the team, but have since passed away including Danny Chapman, Melvin Dixon, Head Coach Wes Murphy and Assistant Coach Zeke Neal.
While the ceremony was brief, it gave time for friends and family to take pictures and trips down memory lane to begin. For some it was a time to catch up with old teammates, for all of them it was a time to remember just how good they were 50 years ago on the hardwood at the corner of Banks and Academy Street.
That 1974 team went 23-1 to win the state title beating Edisto in the state championship. Their lone loss that season was to Andrew Jackson, then just a 1A school. Fort Mill nearly repeated as state champions getting back to the finals in 1975 before falling to St. Matthews in the state championship game for their only loss of the year.
On Friday, things were different for that team that dazzled the hardwood a half century ago. Their hair a little more gray, their step a little slower, but their memories were just as strong as ever. At the time, three sport athlete Randy Smith was a junior on the 1974 team. He said there are about 10 members of the team that are still alive. About eight of them attended the ceremony.
“I remember everything about it,” Smith said. “I remember games. It was a magical year. It was one of the best years of my life. We went back to the championship game as seniors and lost by four points.”
Smith said he was honored to be a part of the event and that the school took the time to put on the event.
“We are thankful they remembered us after 50 years,” Smith said. “We were all Fort Mill guys. We were born and bred here. For them to have us back, we are on cloud nine. It is really cool. We love it.”
Martin Bouler was another member of that championship team. He said a lot has changed since then with so many people moving to Fort Mill, not many people would probably even know about the team and what they had accomplished.
“We worked hard,” he said. “Just about everybody in there (the gym) won’t know any of us. Probably a handful of people in there will know who we are or what we did.”
The state championship team that year was from a small 2A school, but beat bigger schools in the process of winning the title.
“We beat teams that were 4A teams like Northwestern and Rock Hill,” he said. “Andrew Jackson had the toughest team I ever played against in my life. We were able to be successful over all of those teams.”
Chuck Stegall was a manager on the 1974 team. He said the lessons he learned from Murphy and what took place for him that year helped to mold him into being a state championship coach himself.
“The most fun memories were being inside the Banks Street gym and not being able to pull another person in there and everybody on our whole side singing the song Jacket Ivy and just cheering and it being so loud,” he said. “We had a pep band that would come in and play. It was a rocking atmosphere form start to finish.”
Stegall said a lot has changed in Fort Mill with the growth of the town reflecting upon the growth at the high school from a 2A school then to a 5A school now.
“Being a part of the 74 team was special,” he said. “We were a small school and everybody knew everybody. When we grew to a 5A school like we did with me coaching and being here 20 something years, there was people you didn’t even know in the hallway.”
Stegall guided the Fort Mill High softball team to a state title at the 5A level in 2022. He said that group reminded him a lot of the 1974 state basketball team.
“It felt so right,” he said. “We had so much and were such a tight knit group for five or six years. It was the same type of feeling I got by being a part of the 74 group. These guys believed in themselves and when Coach Murphy came in, he added a whole new atmosphere to the game.”
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
