“The night Cosby almost tore the Pit down”
It was the 1986-87 season, the first year in many that the Midway Greenwave boys basketball team had gone into the season under new leadership, as longtime Coach Stanley Galyon had hung up his whistle for good at the end of the previous season. A strapping young coach from Oliver Springs, Coach Darrell T Ruffner, assumed the reigns as Midway’s head basketball coach.
The 1986-87 Greenwaves would follow in the successful tracks laid down by their predecessors and have a very fine run through the regular season, ending the season with big wins over Rockwood and Harriman and close losses to Meigs and Kingston. The regular season district crown was hotly contested and the Greenback/Midway rivalry was especially fierce. The Cherokees crushed the Greenwaves during the football season by 33 points however; the Waves had pay back in mind as they owned Greenback on the hardwood. Midway beat Greenback 3 times that year, ironically, with the smallest margin of victory being 33 points.
The Waves had 5 seniors on the team (pictured right): Randall Woody, Lance Easter, Jerry Pennington, Robie Viar, and Tony “Batman” Williams.
The starting five consisted of Randall Woody, Jerry Pennington, Robie Viar, Preston Woody, and Tony Williams. A young Craig Moser was usually the first off the bench and Wayne Long 2nd. The Waves cruised through the district tournament and won the regional by 20 points over Boyd Buchanan. With the regional championship in hand, the Greenwaves earned the right to host Cosby at the Pit. This is where our story begins.
The first sign that this would be a ballgame to remember came early in the week. With scattered reports that TSSAA officials were “looking into the length of the floor and seating” at the Pit as a possible reason for not allowing Midway to host the substate game, to say the SOR community was in a bit of an uproar would be an understatement. Unconfirmed rumors had Cosby lodging a complaint to the TSSAA and requesting the Midway/Cosby game be held in a more fitting setting, possibly Roane State or Kingston (or as Yankees north of the bridge call it Roane County High). Around midweek, young Coach Ruffner, and the Sage of South of the River basketball, Mike Hayes, set about the task of “officially” measuring the floor. While most all who played basketball in the Pit knew that the floor was fairly short and thought to be around 84 feet (remember the difference when playing at Harriman or Kingston), amazingly the official measurement from baseline to baseline came to be 94 feet, which happened to be the exact measurement needed by the TSSAA to host the substate game. It was game on, in the Pit, SOR style with a trip to the state tournament on the line.
The Cosby Mountain Goats, a talented team then & now, were deep with basketball tradition and traveled very well. ”Energetic” was an understatement when referring to the Cosby fans for this game. Cosby High School closed at 11:30. The school brought 5 bus loads of supporters and arrived at the gym around 4:30. They packed the visitors side. When the team arrived via police escort, the fans went crazy.
The Midway fans were just as stoked. Coach Ruffner had the young gladiators playing 4 quarters of intense pressure defense and they were a sharp shooting squad. By 30 minutes before tip-off, the “Pit” was packed. A humongous sign on the floor announced, “Welcome to the Pit.” Wave fans were fired up, Cosby fans were loud long before the game started and the gym was about 110 degrees by tip off. Every seat was filled, people were standing on the overhang and in the aisle ways, it was SRO – Standing Room Only.
Despite generally playing poorly throughout much of the game, the Waves led most of the game and were leading late in the 4th quarter until Cosby rallied to tie it up and force overtime. Emotions on and off the court were high and much talking and unpleasantries were exchanged throughout the game. “The Pit was LOUD. One of the loudest events I have been to….it was rockin”, commented Craig Moser.
The overtime was hotly contested and came down to the wire as well. To the Waves demise, their deadly shooters could not come through late in this game and Cosby eked out a hard fought victory, winning by 2.
It was in these final moments of the game when the Cosby fans nearly demolished “The Pit”. In the waning minutes of the overtime, the Cosby fans crossed the line and became an overzealous mob. In the final seconds of the overtime and a couple minutes after, all hell would break loose in the Pit. About a half dozen holes were punched into the ceiling on the visitors side (see “low ceiling in Tales from the Pit story”) leaving ceiling tiles scattered along the bleachers, the boys visiting locker room was trashed, the outside trash cans were turned upside down and set on fire, fights broke out in front of the school between the fans and the fire alarms began ringing. It was a scene like no other in and in front of the gym and one the single Roane County Sheriffs deputy assigned to the game could never hope to control. Finally, about 20 minutes later the crowd and cooler heads prevailed, and the Cosby fans and players loaded their vehicles and headed far east with a State tournament berth. The Wave fans and players went home brokenhearted at what would be the last boys substate hosted at the Pit. The Cosby players were reported as “mooning” and “shooting the bird” to the Midway fans and players as their bus headed up Highway 72.
When asked about the game, Coach Ruffner stated “The comment I remember most came from a fan who said ‘we not had a killin in a week, things are really boring’. This was the start of what has become a great relationship between our schools. If we were in trouble Cosby would come to our aid without hesitation.”
While the loss to Cosby still burns in the minds of many of us “middle aged” followers of the program, maybe some of the younger fans and players don’t exactly realize the intensity or history of this rivalry. With the number one ranked and 24-1 overall record Cosby team coming to SOR this Friday, February 10, 2006 the SORSN staff asks the fans, coaches and most of all the players to show up, be enthusiastic (don’t cross the line like Cosby did) and to put up 4 quarters of your very best basketball. Those who watched the Vols defeat the to-be-top ranked Florida Gators earlier this season can tell you anything can happen when a tremendous effort by the players is met with great enthusiasm by the crowd.
Vindicate the 1987 team, defend the honor of the Pit, go Greenwaves beat Cosby!