CLAYTON— Clayton High School’s first football team, which went on to earn a state championship in 1952, will celebrate a 60th reunion tonight, according to the Raleigh News and Observer.
The Clayton team played six-man football and will be honored before the homecoming game with Smithfield-Selma.
Clayton had only 68 male students in the fall of 1952, according to the News and Observer article, but over one-third of them played on the football team. There were 25 members of the team and 10 are deceased, but many of those who are still alive are expected to return to the high school for the ceremony.
Joe Hicks was the head coach of the 1952 champions. Clayton defeated Hildebran 20-14 on a snowy Thanksgiving afternoon for the state title in a game in Hickory at Lenoir-Rhyne College.
