Lanier High School has excelled in athletics from its inception through the 1960s, winning numerous state championships in all high school sports. In 1966, Lanier was triple state champs, winning top honors in football, basketball, and track and field. 1966 was the first of three successive state championships in football, with the school’s last state championship occuring in 1968.
Coaches Bobby Wilson (football) and Bill Joiner (basketball) dominated high school football and basketball in the state for most of the 1960s, winning 6 football (Wilson) and 4 basketball (Joiner) state championships in the large high school category.
Wilson led Lanier to state championships in 1957, 1961, 1964, 1966, 1967, and 1968. Joiner led Lanier to state championships in 1962, 1963, 1965, and 1967, and he played on the first Lanier state championship team in basketball in 1949. His teams were state runners-up twice.
Lee - Lanier Rivalry
The Lee-Lanier rivalry in Montgomery was unmatched in the state in the late 1950s and through the 1960s. For years, Sidney Lanier was the only public school for white students in segregated Montgomery. As Montgomery’s population began to increase, another school for whites was built in 1955 - Robert E. Lee High. Its arrival gave birth to one of the state’s great high school football rivalries.
At one time they were the two largest high schools in the state. All the white students in Montgomery went to one school or the other, and when they played football against each other it was the “only show in town.” 25,000 paying fans came out every time they played. You had to stand in long lines to get tickets.
The most dramatic game of the rivalry occurred in 1966 when the Generals and Poets played for the first state championship of the newly adopted Alabama High School Athletic Association state playoffs.
The Generals had been ranked No. 1 all season and the Poets had been No. 2. Lanier then beat Lee 10-0 in the final game of the 1966 regular season, with both teams advancing to the four-team state playoffs. In the semifinals, Lanier and Lee won by wide margins to set up a rematch. Lanier won over Shades Valley of Birmingham 47-7 and Lee beat Huntsville 46-7. The rematch was televised - the first high school football game to be televised in Montgomery. In the fourth quarter, the Generals drove inside the Poets’ 5-yard line, but an interception by Lanier on a deflected pass ended the threat and sealed Lanier’s 1966 championship. Lanier prevailed 9-7, to claim the state title before more than 25,000 packed-in spectators. The game was remarkable because it was the first championship playoff game, it pitted the state’s two largest schools, both from the same town.
The Poets won the next two Class 4A titles as well (1967, 1968), proving at the time that truly “The Pen is Mightier than the Sword.” The Generals ascended to the throne in 1969 and 1970. After 1970, Montgomery schools would win state championships again, but never again would Montgomery dominate football in Alabama like it did in the 1960s. Racial integration and the emergence of Jeff Davis High School as a football power in 1970 diminished the Lee-Lanier rivalry.
The Lanier Dynasty
Lanier started its tradition of winning State Championships in prep football in 1920, winning the first recognized state championship in Alabama. Lanier was champion again in 1922 and 1939. Later, in the mid 1950s, came the "Wilson Era" in Lanier football.
Bobby Wilson had a distinguished football career as a player, especially in college at the University of Alabama, where in 1953 he was Captain of the Crimson Tide’s 1953 Orange Bowl championship team. He also ranked third in the nation in punting that season, and he ended his collegiate career as a member of the College All-Stars that played the Detroit Lions at Soldier Field in Chicago.
But what he did as head football coach at Lanier was even more remarkable. He arrived at Lanier in 1956 as an assistant, moved up to head coach the next year, and turned the Poets into a dynasty. During his 13 years at the helm, the Poets won six state championships and compiled a 92-24-6 record, including a 33-game win streak in the mid-late 1960s, one of the longest in Alabama high school football history.
Wilson’s first three titles - in 1957, 1961, and 1964 - were determined in various newspaper polls throughout the state, but the next three - 1966, 1967, and 1968 - were decided on the field, representing the first three years of Alabama High School Athletic Association state playoff system.
Lanier also achieved a sustained dynasty in basketball, playing in more state championship games and winning more state championships in the large high school category than any other high school from the 1920s through its most recent championship in 2001. In the early 1950s Sidney Lanier High School won the state championship in baseball 6 years in a row (1950 - 1955).
Famous Players
Famous players at Lanier abounded, but two stand out in particular: Bart Starr and Richmond Flowers.
Bryan Bartlett Starr was a Sidney Lanier athlete in the early 1950s. It would be in the NFL where Starr would make his mark. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 17th round in 1956, arguably the best bargain in NFL draft history. Playing under legendary coach Vince Lombardi, Starr guided the Packers to six Western Division titles, five world titles, and two Super Bowl victories. He played for Green Bay until retiring in 1971. Six years later, Starr was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. He served as the Packers’ head coach from 1975-1983. In 1976, he was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.
Richmond Flowers Jr. was the original “Super Recruit.” Flowers attracted the attention of college coaches from California to Maine. He earned All-America football honors at the University of Tennessee and was drafted out of college by the Dallas Cowboys in 1970. He was a member of Dallas’ Super Bowl V team. In 1999, he was named one of the top 25 collegiate receivers of the 20th Century by “Athlon Magazine".
As a track star, he was unparalleled in Alabama prep history. The focus of a national recruiting battle boiled down to LSU, Alabama, and Tennessee. He landed at Tennessee where he went on to become an NCAA track champion and SEC football star. He was an NCAA hurdles champion and was chosen All-SEC by his sophomore year in football.
It was at Lanier where the legend began. Young Flowers was a great hurdler - the greatest high school hurdler of his time - owning the fastest times in the nation in the 120-yard and 180-yard hurdles. His father, Richmond Flowers Sr., was the state’s attorney general at the time and a bitter political foe of then-popular governor, George C. Wallace. That conflict - and young Richmond’s rise to stardom - was later documented in a movie entitled, “Unconquered.”
In addition to Starr and Flowers, Johnny Davis (San Francisco 49ers), Reggie Barlow Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and Jeno James (Carolina Panthers) have also represented Lanier in Super Bowls; all except James were on winning teams. Current Minnesota Vikings quarterback, Tarvaris Jackson graduated from Lanier in 2001.
Athletics After the Wilson Era
Coach Bobby Wilson retired after the 1968 season and was replaced by Bill Joiner. One of Coach Joiner's most successful teams was the 1971 team, led by future University of Alabama All-SEC running back Johnny Davis. The first African American from Lanier who received an NCAA Division I scholarship, Davis went on to star with the Cleveland Browns in the NFL. Davis was joined at the University of Alabama by All-State Kicker Bucky Berry, who kicked the game winning field goal in the Poets' 24-23 upset of Jeff Davis in 1971. Coach Joiner retired from his football coaching duties after the 1973 season.
Joiner's replacement was Cliff Little, former head coach at Montgomery Catholic High. Coach Little's 1977 and 1978 teams reached the state semifinals and won the Region 4 Class 4A titles. The overall record for those two teams was an excellent 21-5. The 1977 squad was eliminated by Berry Birmingham (Hoover), and the 1978 team was eliminated by Jeff Davis in a hard fought 14-6 game. Both Berry and Jeff Davis went on to win the state title games with relative ease.
Coach Little resigned after the 1979 season, and his replacement was long time GW Carver defensive coordinator Charles Sikes. Coach Sikes' teams showed steady improvement for the first 3 seasons, posting a combined record of 17-13. His best team was the 1987 squad who finished with a 7-4 mark.
Coach Sikes relinquished his coaching duties after the 1989 season. His replacement, after much controversy, was long time Lanier assistant coach, Robert Fuller. Coach Fuller's first 4 seasons marked the worst 4-year span in school history with a total of 9 wins. But the 1995 squad was much improved.
The most notable game of the 1995 season came on a fall night in Cramton Bowl between an undefeated Sidney Lanier team and cross town rival Jeff Davis. Lanier had lost 21 consecutive games to Jeff Davis, but that streak came to a halt in '95 with Lanier beating Jeff Davis in a hard-fought game. The Poets then possessed a 7-0 record and Number 4 ranking in the state. Although it was already a stellar season for the Poets, they dropped the remaining two games to Prattville High and Robert E. Lee High, costing them a shot at a state championship. The Sidney Lanier Poets finished 8-2 in 1995.
Coach Fuller's 1999 and 2000 teams were his most successful. The 1999 squad won the 6A Area 6 Championship by upsetting Robert E. Lee in the season finale, and went on to record 3 playoff wins, setting up a rematch with Archrival Robert E. Lee. The Generals won the rematch in a slugfest 14-12. The 2000 squad entered the season finale at 9-0 and Ranked No. 2 in the state against Robert E. Lee. But, reflecting the unpredictability of this fierce rivalry dating back almost 50 years, Lee upset Lanier. The Poets still made the playoffs, but the Poets were eventually eliminated by Daphne.
Coach Fuller resigned after the 2004 season. His replacement, Richard Moncrief, was released after his 2005 team lacked the discipline and character that Lanier's proud football program demanded.
Moncrief was replaced by former Alabama State Head Coach, L. C. Cole, who engineered one of the more remarkable turnarounds in the program's storied history. After struggling to a 1-3 record in the first 4 games, the Poets upset Jeff Davis, continued to win games, and advanced to the playoffs as area runner up. After a first round playoff victory over Theodore, the Poets went on the road and upset highly ranked and defending state runner-up Daphne, before being eliminated in the quarterfinals by Opelika. During his brief 2 year tenure, Coach Cole won 2 City Championships, never losing to the other Montgomery schools. In 2008, Coach Cole Left Lanier to become the defensive coordinator at Texas Southern University after having restored Lanier to its place as Montgomery's high school football powerhouse.
On April 28, 2008, after a long and tiring search, Lanier found its new head coach was already working at the school. Former Jeff Davis and Tennessee State University standout tight end Steve Holloway, a long time assistant to 3 previous head coaches, finally got the call to lead the Poets.
In other recent sports, Lanier won the 2001 boys basketball state championship (coached by Floyd Matthews) and the 2005 girls basketball state championship (coached by the aforementioned Steve Holloway).
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