Western North Carolina High School Activities Association Football Champions (1930-76)

The Western North Carolina High School Activities Association was founded on December 10, 1929.  Charter members of the organization included Belmont, Concord, Kings Mountain, Lexington, Lincolnton, Monroe, Newton, Mooresville, Black Mountain, Cliffside, Hickory, Lenoir, Marion, Morganton, and Rutherfordton-Spindale schools.

The WNCHSAA would grow to more than 42 members and four conferences before it was dissolved in June of 1977 and its members joined the NCHSAA.

Only three of the 42 members failed to win a Western title in some sport during the WNCHSAA’s existence and it had some outstanding football programs in it.  W.C. Clary served for many years as the executive director of the organization.

From 1930-53, the WNCHSAA had two conferences; South Piedmont and Western.  Round-robin leagues schedules not played; therefore numerous times two teams would finished tied for the loop crown.  Occasionally, a playoff was held for a particular conference, but an overall WNCHSAA title game was rarely played.

Year	Champion			Game Score	Runner-Up
1930	Hickory	Monroe
1931	Hickory	Morganton
1932	Hickory	Newton-Conover
1933	Lexington	Newton-Conover
1934	Cherryville	Lexington
1935	Concord			39-0	Newton-Conover
1936	Children’s Home	Newton-Conover
1937	Children’s Home	Forest City
1938	Children’s Home	Lenoir	Lexington
1939	Lexington	Morganton
1940	Lexington	Morganton	Statesville
1941	Barium Springs	Morganton
1942	Marion	Mills Home
1943	Children’s Home	Hickory
1944	Albemarle			19-0	Shelby
1945	Children’s Home	Newton-Conover
1946	Albemarle	Morganton
1947	Children’s Home	Shelby
1947 Harvest Bowl	Concord			13-6	Shelby
1948	Charlotte Tech	Statesville
1949	Children’s Home	Lenoir	Monroe
1949 Harvest Bowl	Monroe			13-13	Lenoir
1950	Asheboro	Lenoir
1951	Lenoir			19-14	Wilkes Central
1952	Lenoir			25-19	Children’s Home
1953	Albemarle			7-6	Belmont
1954	Lexington			19-14	Albemarle
1955
1956	Kings Mountain	Lexington
1957	Albemarle			54-6	Marion
1958	Asheboro			33-14	Hickory
1959	Hickory			34-13	Albemarle
1960	A.L. Brown	Hickory		0-0
1961	Mooresville			13-12	Hickory
1962	Wilkes Central			14-7	Asheboro
1963	Asheboro			21-6	Shelby
1964	Thomasville			20-13	Hickory
1965	Asheboro			34-7	East Rutherford
1966	Hickory			41-7	Statesville
1967	Lexington			33-12	Lincolnton
1968	Shelby			32-12	Thomasville
1969	East Rowan			26-21	Shelby
1970	Shelby			13-7	Salisbury
1971	Salisbury	South Point		14-14
1972	Shelby			26-21	Mooresville
1973	Salisbury			13-0	Watauga
1974	Salisbury			14-3	Shelby
1975	North Davidson	Shelby		21-21
1976	Shelby			25-0	Lexington

** In 1947 Hickory officials inaugurated a bowl game to be played at Lenoir-Rhyne University featuring two of the top teams in the WNCHSAA; one from each conference.  The game was played from 1947-50.  The teams were selected several weeks before the conclusion of the regular season, making it difficult to pick the league champion.

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