Strom Thurmond wins S.C. 3A title - beats Clinton (Hillary throws for one, runs for two)

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Coco Hillary passed for one touchdown and ran for two more scores Saturday night to lead Strom Thurmond a 21-3 victory over Clinton for the state Class 3A championship.

Hillary completed 13-of-19 passes for 174 yards and ran for 63 yards as the Rebels finished with a 14-1 record and won their first state title since 1968.

Hillary's touchdown pass came on the last play of the first half on a 50-yard toss to Jarrell Taylor that gave Strom Thurmond a 14-3 lead.

The Rebels scored the only touchdown of the second half on Hillary's 4-yard run in the final minute.

Clinton (11-4) scored first, taking a 3-0 lead on Eli Watts' 32-yard field goal. The score was set up by an interception at the Strom Thurmond 19.

The Red Devils had a touchdown pass called back in the fourth quarter on an illegal participation penalty.

Clinton had just 12 yards passing and 122 yards rushing, while Strom Thurmond gained 155 rushing and 174 yards passing.

From - http://www.jdedman.com/weblog/2003_12_14_archive.html

HIGH SCHOOL MASCOTS: The Edgfield County School Board in South Carolina has replaced the Strom Thurmond High School Southern aristocrat mascot with a blue-tic hound after complaints from students. However, the board allowed the high school to keep its "rebel" nickname in the wake of criticism. The State, the daily newspaper in Columbia, S.C., reports:

A group of parents and others fighting to keep the mascot have threatened to sue on the grounds the board violated a 1973 court order involving the integration of the school. Under the court order, white students gave up “Dixie,” the Confederate flag and a bayonet-wielding Confederate as school symbols. The settlement kept the Rebel nickname and allowed the colonel mascot.

As I observed in my law review article [PDF] on the Confederate flag and the First Amendment, litigation involving a school's official adoption of Confederate symbols is not ucommon. See generally Crosby v. Holsinger, 852 F.2d 801 (4th Cir. 1988) (finding that school officials did not violate students' First Amendment rights by eliminating "Johhny Reb" as the school mascot); Banks v. Muncie Cmty. Schs., 433 F.2d 292 (7th Cir. 1970) (finding no constitutional violation in the school's official use of Confederate symbols); Augustus v. Sch. Bd. of Escambia County, 361 F. Supp. 383 (N.D. Fla. 1973) (finding that school's use of the Confederate battle flag as the official school symbol "seriously interfered with the effective operation of a unitary system at this school.").

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