KHS football in 50 greatest games

Well, Kilgore, you can be proud of your 2004 Class 4A Division II state football champions once again.

The Kilgore News Herald received an advance copy of the new 50th anniversary issue of Dave Campbell’s Texas Foot- ball Magazine on Friday, and in that issue the editors of the magazine name the 50 greatest football players in Texas history, the 50 greatest moments, the 50 greatest coaches, and all sorts of other lists. The lists include all of football: the pros, college and high school.

And in the 50 greatest games of all time, with a photo included, is the Kilgore-Dallas Lincoln 4A state championship game, played at Floyd Casey Stadium on the campus of Baylor University in Waco in 2004, a game the Ragin’ Red won in double-overtime, 33-27.

The photo is, naturally, the shot of Kilgore cornerback Nick Sanders blocking a Lincoln field goal attempt. Sanders would scoop up the ball and return it all the way for the winning touchdown, going down as probably the greatest football play in Kilgore High School history — and cementing the school’s first state football champion.

Other greatest games are the 2006 Rose Bowl (Texas’ 41-38 win over Southern Cal), last year’s Texas Tech-Texas game won by the Red Raiders in the final seconds, and more. Twenty-two of the 50 greatest games are high school games, and Kilgore-Lincoln is one of those. The item appears on page 160 of the magazine, which should be on sale in area stores within the next week or two.