An Almost Undefeated Football Season

The 1932 football season was special for the Mooringsport High School team.  It completed its regular season unbeaten, untied, and unscored upon; and also shutout its opening playoff opponent. Unfortunately, the Oiler squad later fell short against a larger Tallulah squad in its  quest for the state championship . 

Regular Season

Beating peer schools, such as Benton, St. John's, and Oil City handily; the team, coached by J. D. "Big Boy" McKellar, also vanquished three considerably larger opponents - Atlanta (Texas), Bossier City, and Vivian. One win was an amazing 102-0 romp over Dodson.

Monroe (LA) News Star 29-Nov-1932, Page 6

Note: Houghton above is actually Haughton, LA. Principal Walker is Lloyd E. Walker, who served at Mooringsport for over 20 years.


Northwest Louisiana Class B Championship

After capping off that perfect regular season, the Oilers' first playoff foe was Dubach High.

Source: Monroe News Star 22-Nov-1932, Page 14

As in previous the nine games, the Oilers shut out the visiting Plungers 12-0 in front of what was reported to have been their largest home crowd ever. Quarterback Alton Gleason and fullback Lewis Stephenson scored touchdowns for the victors.

Source: New Orleans Times Picayune 27-Nov-1932 Section 4 Page 4


North Louisiana Class B Championship

Lead-Up

The Tallulah High Trojans were champions of the east. This battle of unbeatens was played at Monroe's Brown Field, the stadium then used by Ouachita Parish Junior College, now the University of Louisiana at Monroe. The victor would advance to play the winner of the Amite -LaGrange contest for the state championship.

There was much anticipation in both communities, and even the entire north Louisiana region. Part of the proceeds from the game, which was sponsored by the American Legion, were to be donated to charity.

The shutout string and sound beating handed to Dubach caught the attention of the Trojan coach, team, and fans.

Source: Monroe (LA) News Star 29-Nov-1932, Page 6


The Mooringsport team was however significantly outmanned, at least in number of players.

Source: Monroe (LA) News Star 29-Nov-1932, Page 6

Source: Monroe (LA) News Star 01-Dec-1932


Game Day

The Contest was played at 2:30 in the afternoon. An added attraction was a performance of stunt plying by the Flying Aces, in town for an air circus held that weekend.

Alas, victory was not to be realized, as the deeper Trojan team scored in the second and fourth quarters to take a 12-0 victory before a reported 1,000 fans.

 Source: Monroe News Star 03-Dec-1932, Page 6

Source: Monroe News Star 03-Dec-1932 Page 7


The following week Tallulah claimed the state title, beating LaGrange High of Lake Charles 10-6.

Source: Baton Rouge Morning Advocate 10-Dec-1932, Page 7


Personal Honors

At the end of the football season, several Mooringsport players earned Class B All-North Louisiana recognition including:

First Team - Charles Mathis (Guard)

Second Team - Garland LeSeur (End)

Third Team - Doyle Thurmond (Back)

Honorable Mention - Marshall Adams (Tackle), James Austin (Back), Alton Gleason (Back), Felton Milford (Center), Carl Smitherson (End)

Source: Monroe (LA) News Star 13-Dec-1932, Page 6

Mathis and Austin would go on to star at Louisiana State Normal College, now Northwestern State University. Read about them, Coach McKellar, and other notable athletes from Mooringsport at this link.


The Oilers' record of posting 10 consecutive shutouts stood 50 years, until finally broken by Teurlings High of Lafayette in 1982.

Source: New Orleans Times Picayune 23-Nov-1982, Section 5, Page 3

There was no ESPN in 1932 and no record of a gubernatorial proclamation. Coach McKellar and his boys are long gone and their accomplishment a mostly scant memory in the minds of a few persons who are themselves at least a generation removed from the event. So let this page be their memorial and perhaps current and future friends, family, and Mooringsport residents will read this and know about that special team and season. 

Return to Memorable Coaches and Athletes.

Mooringsport Reservoir

Ever heard of the Mooringsport Reservoir? It was a major water project included in the 1946 Flood Control Act that proposed a dam near Mooringsport, much larger than the eventual one currently in place east of the town.

Source: Texas Almanac 1949-1950

An acre foot (AF) is as it sounds the volume of water required to cover one acre of surface area one foot deep. It is the equivalent of 326 thousand U.S. gallons.

Note the proposed Mooringsport Reservoir was to have had a capacity of 660,000 AF. Caddo Lake by contrast has a capacity of 129,000 AF , meaning this proposed would have been over four times larger. That doesn't mean four times more surface area, but certainly existing land and possibly even some communities would have fallen within its footprint. This certainly happened before with some of the big central Texas lakes (Travis, Buchanan, etc.); where farms, homes, and even a couple of small towns were condemned and abandoned to make way for the big projects seen as being for the greater good.

Other area lakes created as a result of the 1946 act were Lake O' the Pines (originally Ferrel's Bridge reservoir mentioned in the above article), which ended up with a capacity of 241,000 AF; considerably less than the 440,000 AF originally envisioned, and Lake Texarkana. Funding for the Mooringsport Reservoir was killed in 1955 and later resurrected on a smaller scale with the current dam being built in 1971.