Originally heard this story from Brother Neal and Mark ???, president of my previous employer. Brother Neal gave a slightly different rendition. Brooksville narrowly lost a game late in the season. Schully and his crew were afraid an undefeated season would draw too much attention.


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Brooksville High's dream season

Its 1974 football campaign was too good to be true

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Angus Lind

Anybody remember the 1974 Brooksville High Tigers?

They were undefeated, 10-0, in the regular season, and played in the Sugar Cane Bowl.

Quarterback Billy Hutchinson became a legend. Adrian Hicks, what a player he was. Neal Golden, the place kicker, saved many a game for the Tigers.

They were the best team nobody ever saw -- because they didn't exist. The Tigers were the product of the fertile but prank-prone mind of Barry Schully, Brother Martin Class of 1976.

In 1974, Schully was a sophomore. He had read a story about a fictitious team that was fabulous. They had a star. People bought into it. They did nothing but win. But in the end, the guy who created it got caught.

The possibility of getting caught didn't deter Schully one bit.

At the time, legendary sportscaster Hap Glaudi was on WWL-TV. The beloved Glaudi, at his best, was not exactly known for his on-air organizational skills.

At the very end of his sports segment, many will recall, he would shuffle through papers on his desk, always looking a little out of sorts, as if he was searching for something he had lost or missed reporting, while wishing people happy birthday, happy anniversary and undoubtedly trying to see if there were any late scores to report.

Back then, the bulk of the high school games were on Friday night but there were games on Thursday. And people routinely called scores in to Hap. Schully decided to make his move on Thursday, thinking that Brooksville could get lost in the onslaught of the Friday night schedule.

Sometime between 9:30 and 10 p.m., he dialed 529-4444 and identified himself as Bernard Schultz (for B.S.) and gave the score: Brooksville 28, Bradley 7. He told them quarterback Billy Hutchinson threw for three TDs.

Billy Hutchinson was the name on Schully's fake ID. Adrian Hicks, who would become a Brooksville star, was the name on his buddy Guy Duplantier's fake ID. They had gotten them on Canal Street when they were 16.

The call made, they sat back and watched. Near the end of the show, Glaudi, again sifting through papers, came up with a late score just called in: "Brooksville 28, Bradley 7. And quarterback Billy Hutchinson threw for three TDs. That's the sports."

"I couldn't believe it,' said Schully, a 1980 LSU mechanical engineering grad and partner in Schully Strawn and Associates Inc., a firm that sells commercial air conditioning equipment.

Of course it happened the next week and the next and the next. "Word got around Brother Martin," he said. "About week five or six, there was a faculty meeting. They wheeled a TV into the meeting and they stopped to watch Hap. In that meeting was Brother Neal Golden, Schully's math teacher.

"About half the faculty knew," Schully said. One of them said to him, "Make sure Brooksville is on tonight."

Near the end of the show, on came Hap with the Brooksville High score. This night it was Brooksville 13, Winona Tech 12. "And Neal Golden kicked the winning field goal," Glaudi reported.

Needless to say, a legend was born. "They thought it was great," he said. Years later, Brother Golden would tell Schully's son, "I was a lot better field goal kicker than your dad."

"It was something you could do back then, but you could never get away with it now," Schully said. But the notoriety wasn't just on campus. His parents and their friends knew. His uncle at investment firm Howard Weil sold a football betting pool with Brooksville and rival Brisby.

Brooksville was the name chosen because it flew under the radar. "Almost every state has a Brooksville or Brookville," said Schully. It was a generic name that wouldn't attract attention or raise eyebrows. Schully in years to come would get postcards from friends who knew the story and had gone through a Brooksville somewhere in the U.S.

Brooksville played teams like McDonogh 22. "We looked for a number that wasn't behind any other McDonogh school," he explained. They also played Lambertson High (John Lambert was a close friend). "We thought about having a homecoming parade with some cars decorated," he said. But it never materialized. The line had to be drawn someplace.

Here's the fun part: "To this day, when I go to Brother Martin for any reason, that's the thing they remember me for," Schully said. "I could have found the cure for cancer, and they'd remember me for Brooksville. And it's a 31-year-old memory."

In the Sugar Cane Bowl, wherever it was played, Brooksville toppled Lambertson, 28-14. And that was it -- Brooksville went undefeated, and never got caught. There would be no next year.

The schedule is someplace in Schully's attic but the memory lives on. Does it ever.

A couple years ago, his firm had a Christmas party at Metairie Country Club. He ran into Brother Martin's Brother Jean Sobert and Brother Ivy LeBlanc, who were dining there with Brother Martin donor Tom Ridgeley, now the chairman of the board. Schully walked up to say hello. They saw him coming.

"Barry, you're not going to believe what we were talking about," said Brother Sobert.

Of course, Schully did know. That's what people who knew about his scam think about when they see him.

"I think I'm going to put it in my obit," he said. " 'He was the founder and head coach of the Brooksville High Tigers in 1974.' Just to see if people notice."

No doubt they will.

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Columnist Angus Lind can be reached at alind@timespicayune.com, or (504) 826-3449.