Lawrence County High School Football History

06/18/2026

Remembering 1962-63 LCHS head coach Henry Hicks, who passed away eight years ago today on June 18, 2018.
Bridging the coaching gap between Moulton legends Jim Blevins and Grady Elmore, in two seasons at the Red Devil helm, the Columbus, Georgia native compiled a 4-15 record.

06/18/2026

Remembering 1917 LCHS coach John Ernest Kumpe, on the 77th anniversary of his passing.
Ernest Kumpe was born in Moulton in 1886 and graduated high school in Moulton. After attending A.P.I. (Auburn), he returned to Moulton and was working as a clerk/abstractor in his father, Probate Judge J.C. Kumpe’s office when, in 1917, he was tabbed by LCHS athletic director A.Y. Dowell to serve as volunteer coach for the third Lawrence County High School football team. LCHS had seen very little success on the football field other than a 13-0 win over New Decatur two seasons prior, but the 1917 team immediately found success, dominating Colbert County in a 10-0 season-opening shutout win.
The remainder of the season would be a struggle, not only in terms on winning games, but financially, as Kumpe would spend part of his time helping raising funds for the program, and becoming more than a “volunteer”, gave one of the largest donations himself. A fundraising game between LCHS and “a team composed of boys around town” was also played to help offset the program’s debt. The team finished the six-game season with a 1-4-1 record, and though the program’s debt had been erased, football was cancelled the following season when World War I called dozens of LCHS students into service.
By that time, Ernest Kumpe was himself Probate Judge, serving out the remainder of his father’s term after Judge J.C. Kumpe died in April 1918. After completing the term, Ernest Kumpe and his family would leave Moulton in the 1920s for Knoxville, Tennessee, and then Charlotte, North Carolina, where he worked as a proofreader for the Knoxville Sentinel and Charlotte Observer newspapers. He would remain in Charlotte, passing away on June 18, 1949.
Perhaps no tribute can speak to Ernest Kumpe’s devotion and contributions to the LCHS football program better than the words of athletic director A.Y. Dowell, written after the 1917 season’s conclusion: “The most deserving of public notice is the one who has not only given money, but he has spent his valuable time in coaching the boys. He labored faithfully with them during the period of training and refereed the games and when the team got in debt Mr. Earnest [sic] Kumpe gave $2.50 to help them out.”

06/17/2026

Remembering 1996-97 Red Devil tailback Donnie Aldridge

06/17/2026

Remembering 1996-97 Red Devil tailback Donnie Aldridge.
As a senior, Aldridge rushed for 1,078 yards, at the time, the second-highest rushing total in an LCHS season. Just the third Red Devil to rush for 1,000 yards in a season, Aldridge finished his two-year career with 1,910 rushing yards, at the time the second-most in program history. Aldridge also compiled a then-school record 518 kickoff return yards (including a 98-yard return that tied the school record), totaling 2,456 all-purpose yards, which is still the fourth-most all-time at LCHS. Almost three decades later, Aldridge still ranks sixth in career rushing yards at LCHS.
Donnie Aldridge passed away four years ago today on June 17, 2022.

06/11/2026

An article from June 11, 2008 - 18 years ago today - announcing New Brocton's Dirk Strunk as LCHS head coach, replacing the departing Ernie Ferguson. Strunk would compile a 3-17 record in two seasons at the Red Devil helm.

An article from June 11, 2008 - 17 years ago today - announcing New Brocton's Dirk Strunk as LCHS head coach, replacing the departing Ernie Ferguson. Strunk would compile a 3-17 record in two seasons at the Red Devil helm.

06/11/2026

Remembering Red Devil captain Glen Richards, who passed away eight years ago today on June 11, 2018.
Born Joseph Glen Richards in Lawrence County on October 8, 1931, Glen Richards grew up on a farm in the Mt. Moriah community and was a three-year member of LCHS football teams from 1947-49. First seeing significant action as a reserve quarterback in 1948 as the Red Devils completed a 23-game unbeaten streak, as a senior in 1949 Richards assumed the starting role and was named the team's captain. Known as "Corky" Richards during his LCHS athletic days, he passed for two touchdowns and rushed for another as a senior, intercepted a pass in both his junior and senior seasons, while handling all the team's punting for a school record 37.4-yard average, and serving as the team's part-time punt returner and placekicker.
Post-LCHS, Richards served in the US Air Force from 1950-54 before settling in Somerville where he worked at Wolverine Tube and owned Richards' General Store. He was also buried in Somerville upon his death at age 86.

Remembering Red Devil captain Glen Richards, who passed away six years ago today on June 11, 2018.
Born Joseph Glen Richards in Lawrence County on October 8, 1931, Glen Richards grew up on a farm in the Mt. Moriah community and was a three-year member of LCHS football teams from 1947-49. First seeing significant action as a reserve quarterback in 1948 as the Red Devils completed a 23-game unbeaten streak, as a senior in 1949 Richards assumed the starting role and was named the team's captain. Known as "Corky" Richards during his LCHS athletic days, he passed for two touchdowns and rushed for another as a senior, intercepted a pass in both his junior and senior seasons, while handling all the team's punting for a school record 37.4-yard average, and serving as the team's part-time punt returner and placekicker.
Post-LCHS, Richards served in the US Air Force from 1950-54 before settling in Somerville where he worked at Wolverine Tube and owned Richards' General Store. He was also buried in Somerville upon his death at age 86.

06/09/2026

After a 1957 football season led by temporary co-coaches Vernon Lang and Arnold Gordon (promoted less than two weeks before the start of fall practice to replace new LCHS principal Lewis Watkins), and the failure in May 1958 of what had appeared to be a certain Grady Elmore return to Moulton, the program looked for stability in a pair of young coaches, Head Coach Kenneth Nimmo and assistant Sherrill Smith. The two, officially hired 68 years ago today on June 9, 1958, would lead the Red Devils through the remainder of the 1950s. Nimmo, a 27-year-old Nashville native, had one year of coaching experience, going 5-5 at Falkville in 1957, while LCHS was the first coaching assignment for 23-year-old Athens High and new Florence State-graduate Smith.
A prediction by Lang, after leading the Devils through spring training, that prospects looked "kind of lean" but "good for year after next," proved true, as LCHS struggled in 1958 to its first 0-10 season since 1929. Nimmo would rebound a 5-5 season in 1959 (the Devils' last .500 season until 1964), before leaving coaching, replaced by hometown hero Jim Blevins.
Like his predecessor Lang, Nimmo found greater success as the Red Devils' basketball coach, leading LCHS to winning seasons in both 1958-59 and 1959-60, falling a sudden death, 3OT loss to Coffee shy of reaching the state tournament in Nimmo's final game as LCHS coach.

05/30/2026

Remembering one of the few LCHS players (Roy Byars being another, as posted yesterday) to score a touchdown against a collegiate opponent, Clebie Wallace, who passed away 39 years ago today on May 30, 1987.
Halfback Clebie Wallace actually scored one of the LCHS touchdowns in the program's only WIN over a college opponent, a 26-7 victory over Florence Normal (now the University of North Alabama) in 1920.

05/30/2026

Remembering one of the few LCHS players to score against a collegiate opponent, team captain, quarterback, and later, "revenooer", Roy Byars was born 123 years ago today on May 29, 1903.

05/28/2026

Remembering LCHS captain Dwight Smith, born 98 years ago today on May 28, 1928.