On this week back in 1986, a talented girls track team won Robertsdale's first high school state athletics title, winning the Alabama Indoor Track Championship in Montgomery. 

Going into the final event of the State Championship . . . the one-mile run  . . . RHS trailed Cullman and Mobile County in total points.  The only way the Lady Bears could overtake the lead and win the state title?  Finish in 1st and 2nd place in that mile run event.

They did it!  RHS senior Debbie Davis finished first, with eigth-grader Liz Nowling coming in 2nd.  They delivered the school's first state championship. 

Davis and Nowling also finished first and second in the two-mile run.  Another highlight of the event was a resounding win for RHS in the two-mile relay.  Davis and Nowling took part, of course . . .  joined by Lisa Sirmon and Sheila Davies.  The relay team shaved a full 30 seconds off the previous state record time for the event!

Other members of that first RHS state championship team were Tonya Givens, Sabrina Middleton, Stephanie Odom, Sheila Kucera, Lenora Foley and Joyce Vaughn.  A jubilant Coach Keith McClammy said, "Our girls won it, but this is something . . .  when you start talking about it, you'll say 'Robertsdale' . . .  the town, the school, the people ought to be proud."

In the same 1986 edition of The Independent in which the RHS championship was covered, 8-month CD rates were advertised at 8% annual yield. (Mortgage rates hovered near 10% at the time).  A half-gallon of milk cost 99 cents.  Laundry detergent was 59 cents for a 42-ounce box.  A complete set of new twin bedding cost $99.  A year-old Ford Escort was priced at $5,995.  A new 64-foot mobile home cost $16,500.  Beachfront condos in Gulf Shores were listed for $79,000 and beachfront condos rented for $250 a month.

(Throwback Thursday is a weekly feature on GulfCoastNewsToday.com featuring local news events, as covered during the same week in history by Gulf Coast Newspapers)