BBBTV12 Serving Anderson, Roane, and Morgan Counties
Friday’s game of the week features county rivals, well, at least one side calls it a rivalry. Oak Ridge has dominated this series over the years, winning 48 games to 11 for Clinton. In fact, Oak Ridge is on a 12-game winning streak with the last win(s) in the series by Clinton back in 2008 and 2009 (back-to-back wins).
Clinton has been playing football for 94 seasons, they’ve played 889 games in those 94 years, and they’ve won 440 games, lost 426 and tied 23. That’s a winning percentage of .508. Coach Darrel Keith is in his third season and is 9-13 overall. The Dragons have steadily improved over the three seasons that Keith has been at the helm, they went 1-9 in 2020, 6-4 in 2021, and they’ve started 2-0 this season with extremely high expectations. They have outscored their opponents 93-14 so far this season, averaging 46.5 ppg, while only giving up 7.
Of Clinton’s eleven wins in the series, four of those came in the 40’s while Oak Ridge was still a young city, school, and team. The Dragons shut-out Oak Ridge in all four of those games, outscoring Oak Ridge 52-0 (1943 – 20-0, 1946 – 12 -0, 1947 – 6-0, 1948 – 14-0). Clinton led the series 4-2 after the 40’s. It would take Clinton twenty-two more years to beat the Wildcats, but there were only two games between those years.
In the seventies, Clinton was 2-8 versus the Wildcats, winning in 1970 and 1972. The Dragons have only won five games since that 1972 win. Winning in 1986, 1992, 1997, 2008, and 2009.
The Wildcats of Oak Ridge are in their 80th season of football, beginning in 1943. They are the 12th all-time winning team in the state of Tennessee with an overall record of 680-206-11, a winning percentage of .764. They have eight state championships (four in the playoff era) and even one national championship in 1958. Joe Gaddis, who is now the athletic director, is the school’s all-time winningest coach with a 196-58 record in 20 seasons, while Emory Hale (115-22 in 12 seasons) is second but has 3 state championships including the back-to-back in 1979 and 1980. Jack Armstrong is a close third with a 107-28-5 record but has 4 state championships and the national championship.
Coach Scott Cummings is in his first year at Oak Ridge (1-1) but is in his 21st year as a head coach. He spent 13 years at his alma mater West, winning one state championship and a runner-up going 101-58. He moved on to Cleveland for four years where he was 21-21. He spent the past three seasons at Halls where he was 20-14. That takes his record to 143-94 for a .603 winning percentage as a head coach. He is also 8-1 all-time versus Clinton.
So, we have a clearly lopsided history between the two schools. A 12-game winning streak by Oak Ridge. A very hungry and talented team in Clinton. A banged-up team in Oak Ridge that has sustained several early season injuries. Is this the year of the Dragon? The Chinese calendar says it’s not until 2024, but if you ask any Clinton fan, they will tell you “YES”. If you ask a Wildcat fan, they will tell you the same old same old will happen.
Whichever team you follow, we should expect a good game. The Dragons are an incredibly talented team, but does the mental factor come into play knowing that Oak Ridge has dominated the series? We’ll find out this Friday night on the OEB Game of the Week on BBB Communications – TV-12.
How do you watch the game? You can watch it on Comcast Channel 12 in Anderson and Roane Counties (parts of Cumberland and Morgan) and on Channel 230 in Campbell County. The game will be in SD (standard definition) as that is all Comcast will allow us to broadcast.
Want to watch the game in high definition? You can watch it on bbbtv12.com, Facebook.com/bbbtv12 (if they don’t pull us down again), Youtube.com/bbbtv12 , and on Twitter.com/bbbtv12 . You can also watch using this link on BoxCast: https://boxcast.tv/view/oeb-law-game-of-the-week—clinton-at-oak-ridge-rdirbiujue7f2tawlbqw
Do you have a Roku, FireTV, or AppleTV (not Apple TV+) streaming device? You can watch us by adding the Boxcast App/Channel to your device. Then when inside Boxcast just search “BBB Communications” and you’ll be set to watch all our programming in MUCH better quality than you can watch it on Cable. Here is a video explaining how to do it.
