(Front row left to right)  Quinn Smith, Jeff Bullock, Lonnie “Hot Rod” Wilson, Darryl Woods, Scott Gibson and Dennis Powers.  (Back row left to right)  Lonnie Dupuy, Clyde Seiber, James Carson, Gary Lovett, Danny McCullah, Keaton Jordan, Mark Russell and Leland Miller.  Coach Junior Honeycutt stands on the left side while Coach Johnny Letner is on the right.
LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Worth noting about that magical baseball season in 1965 when the La Follette Little League All-Stars won the state championship is that it was a single-elimination tournament; lose and you’re team is out of the tourney.

 All of La Follette’s games were played away from the Stars home field, Liberty Park.  Fifty-five years later, the park remains between First Baptist Church and the former West La Follette School.  However, home plate faces East these days compared to a North facing home plate in 1965 toward the church.
The first leg of the fabled run began with four games in the district tournament at Clinton.  La Follette opened with a win over Jellico followed by wins over Sevierville, Maryville and Clinton.
Dennis Powers called the win over Maryville one of the best games of the march to the state.  James Carson pitched a no-hitter and Maryville pitched a one-hitter, and the one hit was by Carson; a solo home run that won the game 1-0.  The final game in the district tournament was a big win for the district championship over host Clinton.
Coach Johnny Letner said that J.W. Lee with Lee Ford loaned the team a new station wagon to help with its travel accommodations.  After the wins at Clinton, it was on to Johnson City for the sub-state where La Follette beat Johnson City and Knoxville Inskip to advance to the State Finals.
Powers, the only 11-year old among all the other players who were 12, led the team in half-price tickets when the team went to the movies.  When they stepped up to buy tickets, teammates would all point at Dennis and say “he get’s in for half-price.”  Powers took a lot of ribbing for that and thinks that was the only category he ever led the team in.
At the Smyrna Air Force Base is where the State Finals were held.  “We beat a team out of Memphis and then beat Jackson in Game 8 for the State Championship,” said Powers.
The season continued even after La Follette claimed the state crown.  The next stop was Athens, Georgia for the Southeast Regionals for the National Little League Championship.  Powers notes, “There were four state champs representing Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, and we would have had to win that series in order to advance to Omaha, Nebraska, for the National Championship.”  Tennessee, La Follette’s All-Stars, lost to Florida bringing the memorable season to a close.
Powers remembers while in Athens, the team toured the Hanna bat factory and received tiny souvenir bats.  The tour also included a visit to the University of Georgia football stadium.  The All-Stars stayed in an old dormitory on the UGA campus.
Letner recalled that the team went swimming the day of their game with Florida.  “I think they were drained by the time the game rolled around that night.  We probably should not have let them go swimming that day,” said Letner.
“We got in a coat hanger fight and ended up in trouble soon after.  I also remember going in the little downstairs dining hut on campus and listening to the jukebox and thought it was the coolest place. It was a memorable trip for all of us,” Powers remembers.
Over the years, Coach Letner has always said this group had it all with pitching topping the list.  La Follette had James Carson, Danny McCullah and Quinn Smith on the mound.  “Having a left handed pitcher was a really big deal.  Quinn, the lefty, gave the other teams fits,” said Letner.
Thanks for the memories, Stars.  (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 09/09/2020-6AM)