These Bumpkins Could Play: Garner Still Rejoices Over 1987 Title

This season marks the 20th anniversary of Garner's amazing run to the 1987 4-A state football championship. Dip into our archives to see Hal Stewart's halftime speech and other highlights from that year.

Posted 3:17 a.m. Sep 28, 2007 — Updated 1:08 a.m. Sep 29, 2007

Dane Huffman

They were country bumpkins, perhaps, but few teams in the history of high school football ever galvanized a community like the Garner Trojans in 1987.

The Trojans had a masterful head coach in Hal Stewart, who knew how to teach and motivate. They had scrappy defenders who could bring an offense to its knees.

And they had tailback Anthony Barbour, whose short height and skinny legs didn’t look too threatening in warmups – but then the games began.

No one accelerated faster than Barbour, and Garner’s toss sweep turned poetic when No. 43 cut upfield.

Garner was undefeated going into the state 4-A championship game, and trying to become the first Wake County team to win the 4-A title since Broughton in 1970. But even then, swaggering Charlotte Harding had little respect for the small-town team.

One Harding assistant coach even said before the game that when the two coaching staffs met to exchange film, the Harding coaches thought, “What a bunch of country bumpkins.”

And Anthony Barbour? Had he really played against a defense like Harding?

Harding, coached by the current Charlotte Independence coach Tommy Knotts, never thought it would lose.

Garner thought otherwise.

The night of the game in Charlotte, Trojans fans poured into Memorial Stadium, many bearing signs screaming, “We love our country bumpkins!”

And Stewart, enraged by Harding’s attitude, delivered a pre-game speech that will live for ages. WRAL’s Jeff Gravley and Jay Jennings were in the locker room, cameras rolling, as Stewart told his team: “We’ve been talked about like dogs all week in the paper by these city slickers from Charlotte!”

Barbour ran 60 yards for a touchdown on Garner’s first play.

At halftime, with the score tied at 7-7, Stewart was just as emotional.

“Destiny, it’s meant to be. It’s meant to be to break the record, it’s meant to be to win the state championship,” Stewart said.

And it was as Garner won, 40-21..

It was Homecoming Friday, when Garner played Knightdale. And even now, Garner remains a team, a school, and a town that retains the glow from an amazing title two decades ago.

Garner's game-by-game in 1987

Aug. 28: at Durham Hillside W, 61-0

Sept. 3: Clayton W, 35-0

Sept. 11: Cary W, 25-0

Sept. 18: at Millbrook W, 36-28

Sept. 15: Triton W, 41-0

Oct. 2: Athens Drive W, 46-16

Oct. 9 Smithfield-Selma W, 49-13

Oct. 15: Sanderson W, 48-7

Oct. 23: at Enloe W, 44-6

Oct. 30: at Broughton W, 35-0

Playoffs