Every now and then, a sports season comes along that absolutely defies any kind of logical explanation outside the providential hand of fate. For Central’s Yellow Jackets, the 1992 state championship season will always be regarded as one of ‘those’ seasons.

Under then second-year head coach Ed Pilcher, Central started the fateful campaign with a 1-5 record. In a recent interview, Pilcher made clear that those losses weren’t to pushovers.

“That early schedule was as tough as anybody’s,” he recalled. “We lost to Colquitt by a touchdown, then to Thomasville when we missed a field goal on the last play of the game. Then we lost to Cairo and Dougherty by a touchdown each, so it wasn’t like we were getting blown out by lightweights.”

It was with the ensuing 19-0 shutout loss to Westover that Pilcher knew something had to give.

“The next week we were playing Albany on a Saturday night,” he remembered. “We had an extra day to prepare, so that Monday morning I thought since we had an extra day we just needed to clear the air a little and get everybody on the same page. Since we hadn’t scored the week before, we ran plays we knew we could score on and then we practiced celebrating! And that’s when we started the hot dog deal.”

Needing something to rally his team together, Pilcher reached out to the boosters about grilling hot dogs for them and creating a time for bonding built into their practice routine.

“We had a short practice, and then gathered them all together for a hot dog supper,” Pilcher said. “I told them that what was done was done, and that the only thing I wanted them to do from that point forward was to have fun starting right now. And that’s what we did.”

The combination of that paradigm shift with getting some key players back from injury proved to be a magical elixir for the Yellow Jackets.

“We started getting better and better, and the kids started believing,” the head coach explained. “Next thing we know we’re in the playoffs. We ended up having to play Dougherty at home in the first round, and they had already beaten us. We went out there and rushed for 505 yards and beat them 42-19. It just started snowballing from there.”

Central would go on the road to beat always-tough Thomson 34-0 in the next round.

“We were ahead 12-0 at the half of that game, but hadn’t completed a pass. We just couldn’t catch the dadgum ball. So I gathered up our receivers and told them, ‘boys, we ain’t throwing the ball in this second half at all. If y’all will just block good we will win this game,’ and that’s what we did. We didn’t throw it again!”

After disposing of Appling County 31-10 in round three, Central found itself on the long road to Stephens County in the semifinals. What would happen in that game would become the stuff of legends.

“We were losing 7-6 real late in the game when we threw an interception and they returned it deep into our territory, and in trying to tackle the guy our starting quarterback got hit and couldn’t even move” Pilcher recalled. “They had to bring EMT’s on the field and loaded him into an ambulance to take him to the hospital. It was rough, but he ended up being fine.”

“But that took a bit of time, so I went to our defensive coaches and told them that we didn’t have a chance if we couldn’t get the ball back. I told them to let them score, because if we lost 14-6 or 7-6 it’s still a loss. I at least wanted a chance to go out with my guns blazing.

“On the first play, one of our little defensive tackles made a perfect play and tackled their guy. He just couldn’t help himself. So I had to call a timeout to go back out there and remind them that we were letting them score, which they did on the next play. We got a good return and on first down our backup quarterback Ricky Stacey hit Johnny Cooksey on a 65-yard touchdown and we were able to tie it 14-14 and go into overtime.”

According to the rules at that time, in overtime the game could either be won outright by leading or by deepest penetration by a team. Central threw an interception that Stephens returned to the Central 19-yard line, where the Indians decided to try to run the clock out and win on penetration — which they almost did.

“We were able to run our offense back on the field with only six seconds left,” the head coach remembered. “We ran the same play we had hit Johnny on earlier, but this time he found Paul Miranda, the fastest guy on the field, in front of our sideline and he outran everybody to score on the very last play of the game. On the bus ride home, I told our coaches I didn’t care who we played the next week, we were destined to win.”

Central would return home to defeat top-ranked and undefeated Peach County 14-13 to win the state championship in dramatic fashion, holding the Trojans out of the end zone on a two-point conversion play late in the game that would’ve given Peach the lead.

In the Times-Enterprise the day following the state championship game, Pilcher summed up his feelings on the win and the magical season of 1992.

“Before the game I was very emotional talking to the team. I didn’t think I was going to make it. I told them ‘you will win this game because you have gone through adversity and they haven’t.’ Championship teams are teams that have overcome adversity.”

“Nobody else might have believed in them, but I did.”