By the time they gathered on Saturday evening, members of the Clinton Red Devils’ 1975 AAA State Championship Team knew that the 2025 version of the Red Devils had lost to rival Newberry the night before. This was a rival football program that they had beaten 13-12 on Sept. 26 of that championship season.
The ’75 Red Devils won that game on a Binky Shealy PAT kick with 5 minutes to play, after a Tony Hunnicutt touchdown run. On this Golden Anniversary Night - Sept. 6, 2025 - Binky Shealy was seated right there, in the auditorium of “the new” Clinton High School.
Event Emcee Buddy Bridges called the 1975 season “redemption” for the kicker Shealy, who had missed the field goal that caused Clinton to lose to 1974 state championship game. Shealy redeemed himself by scoring the only points of the season-opener, a 3-0 win over Woodruff, on Sept. 12. This was a 26-yarder with :05 on the game clock, in the first game ever played at Clinton’s new Wilder Stadium and it was a never-to-be-forgotten moment for the 6,500 in attendance that night. In the defensive battle, Shealy - the kicker - recovered three fumbles for the Devils D.
And so it went for 2 hours, players and coaches reciting remembrances, reliving their Glory Days and, in the end, hearing from members of the 1972 team - also State Champions - about the chance to give back to the community and the athletics program that had done so much to shape their young lives into the grown men that they are today.
Of course, relating to that final game of 1974, football fans know that in a contest it is rarely “just one play” that loses a game. A missed tackle here, a missed assignment there, a mind-wandering penalty somewhere else - coaches can see where games “slip away”.
But in 1975, it all seemed to come together. This team had an overall record of 13-1. They were 6-1 in their region, but they were not region champions (Byrnes claimed that distinction with a Nov. 14, 14-6, win - the Byrnes Rebels scored twice in the second quarter, and Clinton could not manage a touchdown until time expired; Byrnes is now one of the largest 5A schools in the state.)
After that defeat, Clinton Football Head Coach Keith Richardson was reported to have told his players, “I’ll take a state championship over a conference championship any day.”
The ’75 Red Devils never lost again.
Byrnes bowed out in the first round.
Losing a game actually might have “taken the pressure off” the Red Devils, as they went 4-0 in the playoffs.
This team, gathered for a golden anniversary, defeated Chapman, 34-0 - the Chapman Panthers are the Clinton Red Devils’ opponents this Friday night at Wilder Stadium.
In fact, this team outscored its opponents, 292-74. Players remembered that they had a pretty good offense, but — man! — that defense. In nine consecutive wins, they pitched six shut-outs. They held 11 opponents to one touchdown or less.
Richardson remembered that his team opened each game with The Lord’s Prayer, but he let them know in no uncertain terms, “You don’t pray for a win. You have to earn that.”
He told his assembled players, coaches, families, and families representing those who have passed away, “I was not a very popular coach in 1974. People said, ‘Keith can’t win the big one’ (after falling in state championship games of 1973 and 1974). We won 13 games both of those years. After 1975, I didn’t hear that much any more.”
He gave his players a coin - it said “Back on Top”.
“We climbed that mountain,” Richardson said. “We came back.”
The 1975 Quarterback Jimmy Miller remembered that Richardson also had been the baseball coach — once when Andy B. Young was called up for National Guard duty. Richardson also coached the boy’s tennis team to 4 state championships, although his players now say all he had to do was roll out the balls because “we all were going to play (and win).”
The players also remembered The County Fair and The Dungeon Room and The Monkey Roll and 36 Power. They remembered Roscoe Wilson blocking kicks when it mattered most. They remembered Richardson tearing down a sign on the bus ride back from Boiling Springs - they had seen it coming into town, its message was “Burn Clinton.”
Richardson responded, “You don’t need to tell everything.”
They remembered playing in York when the lights went out. They remembered teasing assistant coach Melvin Bouknight with a newspaper clipping - a column that used to run in The Greenville Piedmont entitled, “Blame it on Melvin.” They remembered the game against Laurens when the whole home sideline fence was a banner that said, “Superman Is Gone” - the Raiders were referring to Harold Goggins, but that night they got a whole fistful of C.W. Wilson.
“We had a bullseye on our back the whole four years,” Miller said. “We were able to win because of our preparation.”
“We had a whole community that followed us,” said Denny Layne, showing a plaque that each championship player received from Clinton Mill, and his only piece of Red Devil memorabilia that survived a house fire. “Coach Richardson set a high bar. He never lowered it.”
Remembering how he was an outsider, coming to Clinton as a 7th grader from Summerville, Layne said, “All I wanted to do was play for the Green Wave, and now that wasn’t going to happen … (but) I got a lot better ride in Clinton than I would have gotten in Summerville.”
After the 1975 season concluded, and the players had their eyes on spring sports and graduation, Layne noticed something about Coach Richardson - “He started talking to me, in the halls. I realize now that it was because I was never going to play for him again. It was different.”
And, that difference has stayed with these young men all throughout these 50 years.
Then it was time for the Boys of ’72 to talk to this group - they have formed a legacy group since their honoring weekend in commemoration of their 1972 AAA Football State Championship. Robert Scott said Coach Richardson was “a father to me as we went through integration. We don’t have no hate. We still don’t have no hate.”
The ’75 players were reminded that the next legacy group meeting will be Sept. 16 at the Joanna Fire Department - where a lot of lies will be told and a lot of stories will be swapped. And, they will be looking for a new project, since the legacy group’s recent endeavor was in response to current Red Devil Football Head Coach Corey Fountain’s request to help in the formation of a Clinton youth football association.
They heard the call - and all they did was raise $13,650, to train up right the next generation of Red Devils.
