Jags in the Wiregrass: South Alabama’s Dothan Blowout
The Battle for the Belt has only, and likely will only, take place in three places: The Vet, The Whit, or formerly, Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
We’ve discussed Troy’s record in Mobile, from the Spring Hill sweep before WWII to the COVID-era blowout that sent Steve Campbell packing.
On the other side, South Alabama’s first game in Troy was the 2013 Homecoming Miracle.
That wasn’t the Jags’ first game in the Wiregrass though.
In fact, South Alabama’s first road trip took place in a venue familiar to Troy, just down the road.
Dothan’s own Rip Hewes Stadium.
Before both wars, Troy began a series with Dothan High School. The Trojans won 25-0 in 1912, but that was the only win in the Circle City for 57 years.
Troy did return to Dothan for a series from 1921-1924, but Dothan won the only game that didn’t end in a tie.
Rip Hewes Stadium was built in 1963, named after the late Dothan High football coach.
The year after Troy’s 1968 national championship, Coach Billy Atkins and the Trojans picked up a yearly game down at Rip Hewes. That tradition continued into 1976, when former Kentucky head coach Charlie Bradshaw made his debut in Dothan.
A certain Hilltopper legend was in attendance that day too. Fortunately, Troy came to impress, routing Angelo State 38-9.
Famous evangelist Billy Graham impressed Dothan on his 1953 visit, pushing a local church beyond capacity. 23 years later, Dothan instead used Rip Hewes to host Graham’s event. Despite the rain, the stadium too filled up.
That wasn’t the only non-football event at the stadium at the time. In 1979, Hulk Hogan (then known as “Terry Boulder”) beat Harley Race in the stadium for the NWA World Championship.
It was overturned because Hogan used a then-illegal move.
The Trojans didn’t return to Dothan until 1980, part of a two-year series. The 1984 eventual D-II National Champions ripped Valdosta State in Dothan, but on the return trip, the defending champs fell apart.
It was only Troy’s second loss at Rip Hewes. The Trojans never returned, and likely never will.
24 years later and 200 miles away, the University of South Alabama kicked off its first football game. The Jaguars, who were a founding member of the Sun Belt and competing there in every other sport, chose to take a few transitional years before diving into FBS.
South went 7-0 that season, even beating two-time D-II national champion Troy quarterback Mike Turk and his Huntingdon Hawks to end the season.
The Jags played every game at Ladd-Peebles Stadium that first year, though. Eventually they would have to hit the road.
The first travel game South agreed to was a matchup with NAIA HBCU Edward Waters out of Jacksonville, Florida. At some point though, the Tigers moved the game to Dothan.
EWU had grown a bit fond of the Circle City. In 2008, the Tigers played Concordia College of Selma in the South Alabama Heritage Classic, an HBCU matchup with an emphasis on education.
Each game drew about a thousand people.
“The game was very much a success,” Larry Patrick, a representative of Dothan Leisure Services said in 2009. “As a result of that game, there were seven young men that got football scholarships.”
The two teams held a rematch in Dothan the next year, this time under the banner of the “Wiregrass Football Classic.” The emphasis was the same: “It’s more than a football game.”
“I wanted to make sure when we came back we made a great impact on the city of Dothan,” Edwin Waters assistant AD Henry Smith said. “I had a professor tell me in the field of education, you’ll never be rich, but you’ll enrich lives.
“I will make sure I enrich the youth that come aboard. I don’t care if they attend Edward Waters or attend Concordia or attend Troy or Alabama State. I’d just like for them to attend somewhere and become someone.”
It’s fortunate that EWU wasn’t concerned about the outcome of the game, seeing as the Tigers hadn’t beaten Concordia, a program that went under in 2015.
“Coming to Dothan has been exciting because we wanted to branch out and let people know about our college,” Smith said. “The only way you do that is come out of your comfort zone.
“By coming to Dothan, we’ve got people now playing on our football team and in our band from this area. You can’t ask for anything better.”
He probably should have.
The Jags’ biggest win in program history was Edward Waters’ third loss in Dothan, and more than 4500 people saw it.
South shut out two teams 56-0, and the Jags hung 64 on two different teams in year one. This was, and still is, the best performance by a South Alabama team.
The Jags put up 503 yards of offense, including 391 yards rushing, the record until South broke 400 against Jackson State in 2019. The Jags passing offense was 8-for-16 (both top-ten records for fewest passing attempts and completions) with just 113 yards… but the defense held Edward Waters to 144 total yards.
The defense also grabbed four picks, returning one for a touchdown. That pick-six made it 29-0 at the end of the first quarter.
It was 43-0 at halftime.
This game in many ways felt a lot like South’s DeVry moment: an under-the-radar blowout win against an opponent who wasn’t nearly qualified to take the field, but both teams gave it their all.
Most importantly, it was chronicled on a YouTube video that deserves an annual rewatch.
The blowout must have been enough to change the EWU athletic department’s mind about “asking for anything better.” Even though Dothan native Lorenzo Capehart was the defensive player of the game, the Tigers never returned to the Circle City.
The Jags were also scheduled to host EWU in 2011. The two teams “mutually agreed to forgo the second game in the original contract between the two schools.”
EWU hosted Concordia the next year in Jacksonville… and lost a third time. The Tigers finally got its win over the Hornets, only for the program to fold the same year.
The Wiregrass Football Classic also died, as searching for a 2011 game yields no results.
More than likely, this means South Alabama’s first road game will also be the last college football matchup in Rip Hewes Stadium.
