This is a story that must be told. It is the story of a football program that achieved excellence and was ultimately punished for being too good. The competitive nature of our society makes it hard to conceive that a team could be called “too good,” but this actually happened to the Martinsville High School football program in Virginia during the fall of 1977. Try to imagine a group of young men, who had grown up idolizing a coach and a football program only to be told they could no longer compete.
This is the story of the 1979 Martinsville Bulldogs.
As I started to tell the story of our team, I realized this story was much bigger than our 1979 football team. The story involved two dominant high school programs and two legendary high school football coaches. It involves the influences they had on the lives of many young men. Most important, it brings to life the lessons we learned through the game of football.
