JR2004
09-16-2006, 04:28 PM
For those who don't know or didn't see when I posted it last year, these two schools are separated by less than two miles. Madison's head coach, Ronald Johnson, is a Lincoln graduate. His offensive coordinator is a Lincoln graduate. Several other coaches on Madison's staff either played for or coached at Lincoln. Some coached there as recently as last year I believe before switching sides in the rivalry this past off-season. Even within the staff you have guys that played against each other as Coach Gates (Defensive coordinator) and Coach Flentroy both played for Madison and played against Madison's offensive coordinator, Randall Johnson, when Madison used to be the big dog in this rivalry in the late 80's/ early 90's. Heck even the assistant principal at Madison left Lincoln to move on over to 3000 MLK Blvd. What makes this game even more interesting is Lincoln tried everything they could to get Coach Johnson to take the head job when Coach Samples left after the 2004 season to go to Skyline. He instead promptly turned down the job at his alma mater to stay on as the head man for JMT.
Everyone around the state probably doesn't realize just how big this game is since Madison hasn't been in 3A for years and years, but this game is the South Dallas version of Texas-OU. I think this is finally the year that Madison breaks through and ends the 7 year losing streak to the Purple Tigers. I believe Madison finally has the better team this year with Shawnbrey McNeal and CB/WR Larry Johnson (offers from Nebraska and Texas A&M among others) headlining things for the Trojans. On the other side you've got probably the nation's best defensive end in Richetti "The Machete" Jones who came into this season with 40 sacks over the last two years. Lincoln kind of looks at Madison as a stepchild and Madison, well this is a family site so I'm not going to say what all my friends who played for the Trojans thinks about someone who chose to play for the Purple Tigers. :) A lot of the guys from that last Trojan team that beat Lincoln way back in 1998 are going to the game this year for the first time in a good while because they feel this is the year that the streak comes to an end.
The kids playing in the game were once teammates as the majority of them all come from the same middle school (Pearl C. Anderson) before they went their separate ways and went to Madison or Lincoln. A lot of these kids go back even farther than that as they played together as young kids on the same pop warner teams. The rivalry between these schools goes all the way back to the PVIL days when both schools weren't allowed to compete in the UIL. You even have division among families for this game as one of my good friends played for Madison in the last 90's, but his mother is a graduate of Lincoln! Heck there's even sides at the church I go to as the pastor of my church who played collegiately at Baylor in the 70's (And was on the miracle on the Brazos team I believe) also happens to have the misfortune of having graduated from Lincoln. :) These two schools from South Dallas are about as intertwined as you can possibly get and in my opinion it makes for one of the best rivalries in the entire state of Texas and is the best game in Region II this week.
Everyone around the state probably doesn't realize just how big this game is since Madison hasn't been in 3A for years and years, but this game is the South Dallas version of Texas-OU. I think this is finally the year that Madison breaks through and ends the 7 year losing streak to the Purple Tigers. I believe Madison finally has the better team this year with Shawnbrey McNeal and CB/WR Larry Johnson (offers from Nebraska and Texas A&M among others) headlining things for the Trojans. On the other side you've got probably the nation's best defensive end in Richetti "The Machete" Jones who came into this season with 40 sacks over the last two years. Lincoln kind of looks at Madison as a stepchild and Madison, well this is a family site so I'm not going to say what all my friends who played for the Trojans thinks about someone who chose to play for the Purple Tigers. :) A lot of the guys from that last Trojan team that beat Lincoln way back in 1998 are going to the game this year for the first time in a good while because they feel this is the year that the streak comes to an end.
The kids playing in the game were once teammates as the majority of them all come from the same middle school (Pearl C. Anderson) before they went their separate ways and went to Madison or Lincoln. A lot of these kids go back even farther than that as they played together as young kids on the same pop warner teams. The rivalry between these schools goes all the way back to the PVIL days when both schools weren't allowed to compete in the UIL. You even have division among families for this game as one of my good friends played for Madison in the last 90's, but his mother is a graduate of Lincoln! Heck there's even sides at the church I go to as the pastor of my church who played collegiately at Baylor in the 70's (And was on the miracle on the Brazos team I believe) also happens to have the misfortune of having graduated from Lincoln. :) These two schools from South Dallas are about as intertwined as you can possibly get and in my opinion it makes for one of the best rivalries in the entire state of Texas and is the best game in Region II this week.