EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 10th in a series counting down the area’s top 12 prep dynasties of the past 50 years.
SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. — Although the school has one of the smallest enrollments in the Chattanooga area, there is nothing minimal about the extended excellence achieved by South Pittsburg High School’s football program.
The Pirates have more than twice as many total wins in program history (748) as the school has students (303) and lead the area not only in that category but in every other imaginable statistic. That includes the most state championship game appearances with 13 — which also ranks fourth all-time in Tennessee — the most state titles with six, and their 91 playoff victories are 27 more than the area’s next closest — Calhoun — and tied for fourth in state history.
The Pirates also lead the state in number of mercy-rule wins and have claimed 33 district or region titles in program history, including 15 in the past 17 seasons.
The program also has produced more individual player accomplishments than any of the area’s 54 other programs with an incredible 105 all-state players and 20 Mr. Football finalists — including six award winners.
Perhaps the stat that details the Pirates dynasty best is that they are the only program in Tennessee that has played for a state title in all seven decades the TSSAA’s playoff format has existed.
“The thing I’m most proud of is that our program always avoided having multiple bad seasons back-to-back, which is highly unusual for small schools,” said former Pirates coach Vic Grider, who along with his father, the late Don Grider, own more combined wins (424) than any father-son coaching tandem in state history and were the first father-son coaches to be elected into the TSSAA Hall of Fame.
“A lot of that goes back to the fact that, while we’ve had some really talented players, the program is really built on the fact that our kids were just hard-nosed and refuse to quit. The odds are pretty good that every year we have several kids whose dads or older brothers or uncles played for the Pirates, so they didn’t want to let down their family or the town.
“They know how important football is to the whole community so they play for something bigger than themselves. That’s been the heart of the program since it started.”
South Pittsburg played its first football game in 1923 and went on to finish that inaugural season unbeaten — outscoring opponents 196-32 — to set the program standard. The first state title came in 1969, the inaugural season of the TSSAA’s playoff format, and the last was in 2021, with the Pirates having played for a title in all four championship sites, plus two more when title games were held at home fields.
Beyond the title games, the program has reached the semifinals 19 times, the quarterfinals another 10 times and failed to win at least 10 games only six times in the last 30 years.
Another aspect that sets the program apart is that despite the school’s size, South Pittsburg rarely plays non-region competition from its own classification. Over the past 10 seasons, the Pirates have played a non-region game against another 1A team only twice (Huntland in 2019-20). During that span the Pirates were 44-18 against teams from larger classes, which included facing perennial 6A monster Murfreesboro Oakland and Division II power Lipscomb Academy.
“Our kids have always had the mindset where they love to load up and go play bigger schools because they took that as a challenge,” Grider said. “It was a way to prove themselves and show how tough they were as a team.
“I’ve had so many coaches through the years tell me how they wish their kids would play with the same type of grit as ours do on every snap. That’s been what our program is known for for as long as I can remember. It’s part of that tradition that separates us from everybody else.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.
READ MORE: DYNAMITE DOZEN PREP DYNASTIES
No. 12: Baylor boys’ and girls’ tennis
No. 10: Bradley Central wrestling