“From the glow of springtime to the haze of autumn, begins the cycle of challenge which will forever remain in the memory of those who lived it.”

Those words from the 1959-60 Fairhope High School yearbook staff no doubt evoke memories of a special year. For those who wore the Blue and Gold Pirate football jerseys of the ‘59 team and all who cheered and supported them, this year — this golden anniversary season of 2009 — is all the more important to remember.

When the Pirates kicked off that season, they were coming off an 8-2 Baldwin County and Gulf Coast Conference winning finish in ‘58. When the final whistle of ‘59 was blown, they were 10-0 and Alabama state champions in their division. So said The Birmingham News sportswriters and editors, who voted Fairhope the Division I-AA Football Champions.

“I’m not sure we were thinking state championship when that year started,” Jerry Brown, a junior defensive back for Fairhope in ‘59, said. “I know we didn’t want to go backward. We knew we had something to build on after that (8-2) year before. By that time we knew we had a good coach in coach (Joe) Compton. I mean by then, he didn’t have to prove anything to us. He had turned things around and we knew we could play.”

It was Compton’s second season at Fairhope after taking over a program that finished with a losing record in ‘57.

Brown’s senior teammate in ‘59, running back Fred Penry, echoed similar thoughts on the expectations for the Pirates.

“I think we were confident coming off of ‘58 and going into my senior year, not over confident, just confident,” Penry said. “Yes, we definitely knew coach Compton knew what he was doing. He knew how to get the most out of you and he knew how to make adjustments during a game. He knew how to win. I guess you could say: He knew how to get us ready to win.”

Coach Joe Compton

Compton arrived in Fairhope late in the summer of 1958 to teach economics from Fitzgerald, Ga., where he had been an assistant football coach. One of the first Fairhopers he met was FHS agriculture and vocational teacher Wesley Grant. Grant introduced the Sylacauga native to each of the players just before fall practices began.

“Joe was a good one,” Grant said. “He was a hard worker and a good teacher. He also was a very good coach as we all found out. He changed (the offensive formation) to the box — the Notre Dame box. Fairhope had been running the T. Of course none of the other teams had played against (the box) and they had trouble defending and it was hard to get ready for. And considering, he didn’t have a lot of boys to pick from — I think he only had 19, 20 or so players — he did a really good job.”

Compton, who played fullback and linebacker at the University of Alabama, said Grant, his first assistant coach Joe Caldwell and the seniors of the ‘58 season deserve much of the credit for his success that first year and laid the ground work for the state-title team of ‘59.

In a 2004 taped interview by former ‘58 senior player Dean Koch recorded at Compton’s farm near Fitzgerald, Compton said that Grant helped him and his family adjust so quickly to the move, including helping them find a place to live, that he was able to focus on evaluating his players and prepare them for the new offense.

“He was a very, very special person,” Compton said. “And one of the best people I met. Wes was someone I could always talk to.”

Compton credited Koch and his senior teammates for being fast learners, especially since some of the seniors that year were first-year varsity players.

“I always said it took a year to make a football player,” he said to Koch. “Y’all showed me it didn’t.”

Even after 45 years, Compton recalled many names from his Fairhope teams without looking at old rosters. “Ya’ll were winners and they (the ‘59 team) were winners. You put everything into it. Y’all did that.”

Koch said recently that playing for Compton was inspiring on and off the field.

“He very quickly gained the respect of everybody. I think our 8-2 success was because we didn’t want to fail him. You would work hard for him because you wanted to earn some respect back from him and you played your heart out because he was such a leader.”

One of the ‘59 season seniors that Compton recalled fondly, but with sadness, was his starting quarterback Hardie Calloway, who later died in the line of duty as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam.

Calloway almost didn’t play at Fairhope that fall because his parents had moved away. But Compton and his wife took him in so he could finish his senior year there.

“I talked it over with my wife. He moved in to stay. He was, you know, just an outstanding boy. Like a son to us.”

Undefeated season

Calloway, Brown, Penry and their teammates went on to an undefeated, untied championship season.

One teammate in particular literally saved the unblemished record. In the second game of the season against Baldwin County High, the Pirates led 14-7 near the end of the contest. The Tigers scored late and threatened to tie it on the extra point, but the Pirates’ Bert Shepherd broke through and blocked the kick.

All totalled, the Fairhope defense allowed just 78 points to opponents that season while racking up 254 Pirate points. Ironically, the numbers still didn’t add up well enough to keep Compton teaching economics and football at Fairhope. The county school system denied his request for a raise, so he went back to Georgia and later North Carolina where he went on to coach state championship teams as well.

Interestingly, Caldwell, who was recruited away after the 8-2 season, eventually met Compton again as an opposing coach in North Carolina where Caldwell eliminated his former boss in a semifinal matchup en route to his own championship.

In addition to Koch's taped interview with Compton, former players Robert Hall and Richard Dean contributed documents and comments to this report. Due to declining health, Compton was unable to respond.

"We just wanted folks to remember that time and coach Compton's contributions," Hall said. "Fifty years seems like a good time to do that." Dean said he hoped all the players from both '58 and '59 teams could be honored. "Especially the ones we've lost like Hardie," he said.