HAPPY 20th TO THE 2004 BULLDOGS | Kilgore honors its 2004 state title team
The 2004 Kilgore High School Bulldogs went 16-0, won their district championship, beat all their rivals – beat everyone, in fact – on the way to winning the University Interscholastic League’s Class 4A, Division II state championship.
Kilgore’s 33-27 double-overtime win over Dallas Lincoln on December 18, 2004 at Floyd Casey Stadium on the Baylor University campus in Waco has become legendary – even Dave Campbell’s Texas Football listed it a few years ago as one of the 100 greatest high school games in the history of the sport, in this state.
The team was honored Friday night prior to Kilgore’s 37-31 double-overtime win over Pleasant Grove – fittingly, it went to double OT – and even before that, ETBlitz.com hosted our ETBlitz Road Show Friday night just outside the turf at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium, and welcomed four players from the 2004 title team: quarterback Chase Fisher, kicker-punter-quarterback Rudy Galvan, running back Keith Gilliam, and center Bill Slagle. They told some of their favorite memories from the year, and shared some laughs with our crew.
After that, they joined members of the team, and former coaches, on the field and were honored. Among those present: former head coach Mike Vallery, the winningest head coach in Kilgore’s football history, and former coach and current athletic director Mike Wood, the defensive coordinator on that ’04 team.
Here’s the script that KHS football announcer Mark Fried read for the crowd to honor the 2004 state championship team Friday night…
“GOOD EVENING, once again.
Here at Kilgore, we do a lot of celebrating. We do that because, well, we have a lot to celebrate. We live in a great community, where we care about each other.
And tonight, we’re here to celebrate something very, very special, something that happened 20 years ago this year that brought this community together – something that still lives on in the hearts and minds of those who lived those events, and something that will live on forever through windows that God has provided that we simply call…”memories.”
We’re here tonight for a football game, and that’s appropriate because nobody did football better than the men we’re going to honor this evening. Those men, of course, were the players and coaches of the 2004 Kilgore High School Bulldogs, and also, every single student trainer, every single cheerleader, every single band member, Hi-Stepper, friend, parent, grandparent, family member, teacher, and member of the community that supported that team. We say that because the 2004 Ragin’ Red – they are our FAMILY.
The tone was set the season before, when the 2003 Bulldogs went 12-2 and lost a tight game in Tyler to Highland Park. It was a bitter playoff exit. But as it turned out, it was a motivating playoff exit.
Kilgore went 16-0 that 2004 season, not a single, solitary loss, from a hot August trip to Greenville all the way to the double-overtime December finale against Dallas Lincoln. The Bulldogs went 3-0 in their non-district schedule, 7-0 in district play, and of course, 6-0 in the playoffs. In all, they scored 501 points, an average of 31.3 points a game, and allowed 163 points a game that season, an average of right at 10 points a game.
The non-district slate wasn’t an easy one: the injury bug bit the boys in the opener against Greenville, but they still won on the road, 49-10, and then took care of Atlanta, 41-13, the next week. John Tyler went down the following week, 7-6 – Kilgore’s lone touchdown: a kick return by Nick Sanders and an all-important extra point by Rudy Galvan. Those two would have a pretty big role later, if you get my drift.
The district schedule had plenty of familiar names: Nacogdoches, Marshall, Pine Tree, Hallsville, Whitehouse, Jacksonville – yes, at the Tomato Bowl, and yes, with the trains – and of course, Henderson. And every single solitary one of them went down to the Bulldogs, with Hallsville being the most stubborn: a safety by Coty Gatewood was the difference in the 9-7 contest.
The two most memorable playoff games might have been the first two. First off, at Waco ISD Stadium, against Brenham. Brenham just punched Kilgore in the mouth early, going up 21-3 at halftime. In the second half, it was ALL KILGORE, and a 38-21 final. Asked by reporter Mitch Lucas after the game what coach Mike Vallery said in the locker room to cause the turnaround, center Billy Slagle simply said, “He didn’t have to say a word.”
The following week: the thunderstorm game, played at Stephen F. Austin University at Nacogdoches, a game against Port Neches-Groves that fans of both schools waited on for hours into the night. What fans didn’t know was that had the game not gotten started, a coin flip would have decided it. But when the game finally started, very late, in a pouring rain, it was the Ragin’ Red that decided it, and finished it, 41-0.
Kilgore would beat El Campo, 18-0, in round three, and won a testy battle with mouthy La Marque, 26-21, before outlasting Demby “The Diesel” and Pflugerville Connally, 10-7, to reach the state championship game.
That game was played December 18, 2004, at Floyd Casey Stadium on Baylor University’s campus on a beautiful day for football, a beautiful day, period – unless you were for Lincoln, as it turned out. Lincoln quarterback Byron Eaton showed up, folks. He gave Kilgore’s defense all we could handle for four quarters. But Kilgore’s passing game, led by quarterback Chase Fisher and Courtney Thomas, and a running game led by Keith Gilliam and that offensive line, allowed the Bulldogs to do what they always did: have a chance to win in the end.
With the score tied in double overtime, Lincoln kicker Salvador Miriles lined up to try a 42-yard field goal that would win the game. The weight of the Dallas Metroplex was pressing down on his shoulders. Lincoln was trying to claim Dallas’ first state title since 1950.
They wouldn’t do it. Fate would step in. And fate’s name that day was Nick Sanders.
Sanders raced off the edge like a runaway train, blocking the kick – and getting some good fortune. It hopped off the Floyd Casey turf and into his hands.
Sanders began racing toward the end zone, teammates behind him in unison, racing into history, the game-winning touchdown to give the Bulldogs the 33-27 double-overtime win, and the Class 4A, Division II state championship.
And Sanders is still running in our hearts today.”
The scores from that 2004 season:
Kilgore beat Greenville, at Greenville, to open the season, 49-10, on Aug. 27, 2004. In week two, Kilgore beat Atlanta, 42-13, at home, on Sept. 10.
The Bulldogs won at Rose Stadium over John Tyler, 7-6, on Sept. 17, and then hosted Nacogdoches to open district play and won in a rout, 47-18, on Sept. 24.
Oct. 1 was a trip to Marshall and a 28-27 win (Maxpreps has that score wrong, by the way; it was a close game, not a blowout). Pine Tree visited on Oct. 8, and it didn’t go well for the Pirates, a 42-7 score in Kilgore’s favor.
The Bulldogs played former Kilgore standout Roger Adams, who coached Hallsville, and the Bobcat almost, ALMOST pulled the upset on Oct. 15 in Hallsville, but couldn’t quite do it, a 9-7 KHS victory where a safety was the difference.
Kilgore bested Whitehouse, 35-6, on Oct. 22, then played Jacksonville, one of the toughest opponents of the season, in a 20-17 classic in the Tomato Bowl on Oct. 29. Some Jacksonville players and fans would wind up supporting Kilgore all the way to the state title game; Jacksonville lost to La Marque before Kilgore faced the Cougars, and then Kilgore beat La Marque. Jacksonville fans could be seen in the stands at Kilgore games along the way after that.
The Ragin’ Red closed the regular season Nov. 5 with a 49-0 shutout of rival Henderson, and then the 4A-DII playoffs began.
That first round was the playoff at Waco ISD Stadium that so many remember against Brenham on Nov. 12, an eventual 38-21 win for Kilgore, but Brenham ruled the first half, going into the half with a 21-3 lead. Of course, we know what happened; they wouldn’t score another point.
The following week, at Stephen F. Austin University Stadium in Nacogdoches, Kilgore rained all over (pun intended) Port Neches-Groves, 41-0, on Nov. 20 after weathering a thunderstorm late into the night.
November 26 and the third round of the playoffs took the Bulldogs back to Waco ISD to meet El Campo, and the Ricebirds wouldn’t score against Kilgore in a tremendously windy matchup, but one that Kilgore took convincingly, 18-0.
The Bulldogs met La Marque on Dec. 3 at Kyle Field in College Station on the Texas A&M University campus, and in kind of a testy matchup, it was Kilgore taking it, 26-21. At that point, La Marque was a playoff mainstay; it was quite a coup for the Ragin’ Red to give La Marque the boot from the postseason.
The 4A-DII semifinals saw Kilgore face Pflugerville Connally at Birdville ISD Stadium in Fort Worth on Dec. 11, a low-scoring battle that KHS took, 10-7, punching its ticket to the state championship game, and the fateful matchup with Lincoln the following week, Dec. 18 at Floyd Casey Stadium.
Here’s the 2004 Kilgore High School roster, complete with coaches and trainers. Happy 20th anniversary, you guys.
2004 KILGORE HIGH SCHOOL BULLDOGS
| 1 Pat McCrory | 2 Trey Sands |
| 3 Nick Sanders | 4 Bronkale Kenney |
| 5 Keith Gilliam | 6 Daren Chappell |
| 7 Chase Fisher | 8 Antonio Henderson |
| 9 Michael Cottier | 10 Kendrick Brown |
| 11 Jamar Bornes | 12 Rudy Galvan |
| 13 Courtney Thomas | 14 Keonta Robinson |
| 14 Keith Lampkin | 15 Jaron Shepherd |
| 16 Kaleb Nix | 17 Kurt Rossum |
| 20 Cory League | 20 Tony Cureton |
| 21 Brandon Morgan | 22 Tim Davis |
| 22 DeAundray Rossum | 24 Chris Harvey |
| 27 Casey Whitmer | 27 Nick Cline |
| 30 Antonio Kelly | 31 Kyle Shipp |
| 32 Eddie Jones | 33 Eddie Rutherford |
| 40 Chase Patterson | 41 Kendrick Ector |
| 44 Derrell Moore | 50 Billy Slagle |
| 52 Josh Mathis | 54 Daniel Swaim |
| 55 Buddy Davis | 58 Austen Gideon |
| 60 David Whipkey | 61 Peter Schill |
| 62 Stephen Foster | 63 Michael Huey |
| 64 Josh Slagle | 65 Jered Price |
| 66 Mario Schill | 67 Ryan Whitmer |
| 68 Adam Wiggins | 70 Joey White |
| 75 Scipio Scholars | 76 Matt Morris |
| 77 Jordan Moore | 78 Lon Roberts |
| 79 Edgar Sanchez | 81 Britt Mitchell |
| 82 Justin Clark | 83 Bryan Brantley |
| 84 Wayne Daniels | 90 Lawrence Emeadi |
| 92 Coty Gatewood | 94 Bobby Curnutt |
| 96 Diego Orta | 97 Paul Springer |
| 98 Daniel Wheeler | 99 Artineal Gardner |
Trainers: Phillip Mitchell, Brandon Welborn, Ciro Alvarez, Andrew Beason, Creed Hamill, Juan Venegas, Jeremy Armeida, Justin Climer, Stephen Burch. Ball boys: Logan Preston, Seth Whisenhunt.
Head coach: Mike Vallery. Assistant athletic director: Doug Duke
Assistant coaches: Kenny Ferro, Mike Wood, Chris Vallery, Kyle Preston, Jay Dean, Les Loper, Charles Presley, Drenon Fite, Keith Meyers, Mark Roskos, Jim Hargett, Whitney Keeling, John Lewis, Kris Duplissey, Jerry Reddic.
Administrative assistant: Debbie Copeland. Athletic trainers: Darrell “Red” Ganus, Kelly Gray.
Superintendent: Jerry Roberts. Principal: Bobby Wheeley