MaxPreps published the Top 100 winningest high school football programs of all-time earlier this week, with some of the teams getting their start in the late 19th century. But what if you took a trip back in time to see what the winningest programs have been for the past decade, the past 50 years and even the past 100 years?
While
Valdosta has been the winningest program in the country since high school football began in the 1880s, it's not the winningest program over the past 60 to 90 years. That honor goes to Mayfield, a small western Kentucky school near the Missouri-Indiana border. The Cardinals have been dominant the last 60 years (657 wins), the last 70 years (718), 80 years (784) and 90 years (845). The only reason Mayfield doesn't have more wins is because it started playing football around 1911.
Mayfield benefited from perhaps the winningest father-son coaching combination in high school football history. Jack Morris guided Mayfield from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, winning 254 games. Son Joe has coached the past two decades and recently passed his father with 257 wins.
John Curtis Christian (River Ridge, La.), also makes the list as the Patriots are the leader for the past 50 years with 590 wins and for the past 40 years with 498 wins. They've had one coach during that span, J.T. Curtis, and he's approaching 600 all-time wins (598).
Other schools on the list include Aledo (Texas), with 143 wins in the past decade, Maryville (Tenn.) with 284 wins in the past 20 years, and Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa, Pa.) with 387 wins over the past 30 years. Valdosta is the top team for the past 100 and 110 years.
Sources for the list include Georgia High School Football Historians, Alabama High School Football History, Texas High School Football History, Kev Varney and Tim Sikorski of Illinois, Ron Pesch of Michigan, Four Seasons Football by Rick Baker, Steven Floyd of Corpus Christi and various newspapers accessed via Newpspapers.com.
If we've missed a team or totals aren't accurate, let us know at kevinaskeland65@gmail.com. Teams are listed with the number of wins.
Aledo, which has won 10 Texas state titles, is the winningest high school football program of the past decade with 143 victories.
File photo by Robbie Rakestraw
Aledo (Texas) — 143
Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa, Pa.) — 140
Maryville (Tenn.) — 139
Kirtland (Ohio) — 139
Allen (Texas) — 137
Webb City (Mo.) — 136
Argyle (Texas) — 135
Fyffe (Ala.) — 134
Katy (Texas) — 132
Charlotte Catholic (Charlotte, N.C.) — 132
Refugio (Texas) — 132
Mayfield (Ky.) — 132
Last 20 years
Maryville (Tenn.) — 284
Buford (Ga.) — 270
Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa, Pa.) — 263
Katy (Texas) — 260
Reidsville (N.C.) — 260
Webb City (Mo.) — 257
Aledo (Texas) — 257
Alcoa (Tenn.) — 253
Charlotte Catholic (Charlotte, N.C.) — 253
Southlake Carroll (Southlake, Texas) — 248
Hoover (Ala.) — 248
Last 30 years
Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa, Pa.) — 387
Katy (Texas) — 378
Maryville (Tenn.) — 377
De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) — 368
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) — 362
Webb City (Mo.) — 361
Mayfield (Ky.) — 360
Buford (Ga.) — 357
John Curtis Christian (River Ridge, La.) — 357
Reidsville (N.C.) — 356
Last 40 years
John Curtis Christian (River Ridge, La.) — 489
Southern Columbia Area (Catawissa, Pa.) — 481
De La Salle (Concord, Calif.) — 478
Mayfield (Ky.) — 472
Refugio (Texas) — 464
Maryville (Tenn.) — 460
Trinity (Louisville, Ky.) — 460
Southlake Carroll (Southlake, Texas) — 449
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) — 444
Webb City (Mo.) — 439
Last 50 years
John Curtis Christian (River Ridge, La.) — 590
Mayfield (Ky.) — 575
Trinity (Louisville) — 564
Maryville (Tenn.) — 561
Refugio (Texas) — 538
Lincoln County (Lincolnton, Ga.) — 529
Haynesville (La.) — 529
Shelby (N.C.) — 523
Highlands (Fort Thomas, Ky.) — 517
St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) — 515
Last 60 years
Mayfield (Ky.) — 657
Maryville (Tenn.) — 633
Trinity (Louisville) — 620
John Curtis Christian (River Ridge, La.) — 618
Highlands (Fort Thomas, Ky.) — 617
Shelby (N.C.) — 611
Refugio (Texas) — 604
Neville (Monroe, La.) — 589
Summerville (S.C.) — 586
Valdosta (Ga.) — 578
Last 70 years
Mayfield (Ky.) — 718
Highlands (Fort Thomas, Ky.) — 696
Maryville (Tenn.) — 684
Valdosta (Ga.) — 680
Refugio (Texas) — 676
Neville (Monroe, La.) — 672
Shelby (N.C.) — 670
Summerville (S.C.) — 667
Trinity (Louisville) — 646
Highland Park (Dallas) — 635
Last 80 years
Mayfield (Ky.) — 784
Highlands (Fort Thomas, Ky.) — 773
Valdosta (Ga.) — 757
Maryville (Tenn.) — 750
Highland Park — 738
Shelby (N.C.) — 727
Refugio (Texas) — 723
Neville (Monroe, La.) — 713+
East St. Louis (Ill.) — 697
Haynesville (La.) — 686
+Some Neville wins unaccounted for
Last 90 years
Mayfield (Ky.) — 845
Valdosta (Ga.) — 830
Highlands (Fort Thomas, Ky.) — 823
Maryville (Tenn.) — 801
Highland Park (Dallas, Texas) — 800
Haynesville (La.) — 764
East St. Louis (Ill.) — 762
Shelby (N.C.) — 759
Washington (Massillon, Ohio) — 751
Refugio (Texas) — 749
Danville (Ky.) — 749
Last 100 years
Valdosta (Ga.) — 894
Mayfield (Ky.) — 884
Highlands (Fort Thomas, Ky.) — 880
Highland Park (Dallas) — 854
Maryville (Tenn.) — 826
Haynesville (La.) — 825
Washington (Massillon, Ohio) — 815
Shelby (N.C.) — 807
Dobyns-Bennett (Kingsport, Tenn.) — 806
Danville (Ky.) — 801
Last 110 years
Valdosta (Ga.) — 932
Mayfield (Ky.) — 907
Highlands (Fort Thomas, Ky.) — 906
Washington (Massillon, Ohio) — 874
Highland Park (Dallas) — 854
Haynesville (La.) — 831
Male (Louisville, Ky.) — 831
Maryville (Tenn.) — 826
Shelby (N.C.) — 813
Dobbins Bennett (Kingsport, Tenn.) — 806
