Sonny Cole didn’t volunteer to be a member of the New Hope booster club. Rather, he was enlisted.
“My dad forced me to join the booster club after I dropped out of college,” Cole said. “There were a bunch of old men who were running the concession stand and they wanted to watch the game. So I joined the booster club and they put me in the concession stand.”
Two years later, Cole assumed a new role.
“It was the very first game of the 1963 season and just before the game they said, “‘We’ve got to run the chain crew.’ So that’s what I did.’’
Remarkably, 60 years later and at age 80, Cole still runs the down-and-distance chains at New Hope home football games.
“I’m blessed with good health and I love being around these kids, so why stop?” Cole said, who has spent his entire life in New Hope and is a familiar face in the community as owner of Trojan Superette grocery store.
In fact, it would be hard for New Hope to play a home game if Cole didn’t show up.
“About 20 years ago, the school needed a new chain and down box but didn’t have the money, so I paid for it,” Cole said. “I keep them here at my shop because I don’t want to leave them where they might be torn up. They stay with me all the time. I take them to the game with me.”
New Hope opens the 2023 season Friday in Fulton against Itawamba Agricultural High School in a year marked by milestones. It’s the school’s 100th anniversary and its 73rd season of high school football. When the Trojans go on the road to play county rival Caledonia on Sept. 15, it will be the 700th football game in New Hope history.
Cole said he’s seen most of those games, either as a youngster sitting in the stands, a player in the late 50s/early 60s or running the chain crew for the past 60 years.
“My dad owned a service station in town,” Cole said. “He and a few friends of his got together some money to start a football team at New Hope. That was in 1951. So I went to games as a kid, then played linebacker for New Hope. We were pretty good. I think we lost four games in four or five years.”
Apparently, no one kept tabs on the team’s record until 1957, but from that year until 1961 (the year Cole graduated) the Trojans compiled a 38-8-2 record, including a pair of undefeated seasons (1957 and 1959).
The Trojans didn’t maintain that success, though. Over the next 10 seasons, the Trojans went 26-52-4. New Hope carries an all-time record of 330-356-11 into Friday’s season opener and hasn’t had a winning season since 2016.
It’s an anomaly for a school whose athletics teams have won state championships in baseball, softball, basketball and cheer. The football team hasn’t come close to a state title and, in fact, has won just one district/region championship in its entire history (1985).
“That’s what’s a little hard to swallow,” Cole said. “New Hope is competitive in everything they play except football.”
That hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm, though.
“I love high school football and I love New Hope,” he said.
In addition to being at every home game since 1963, Cole attended most road games until a few years back.
But Cole has extra incentive to follow the Trojans wherever they play this year.
“I’ve got two grandsons on the team this year, so I’ll be at every game,” he said.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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