In 1941, $4,075.00 could buy a new house. A new car cost $850, and gasoline was 12 cents a gallon. In Mount Holly, the Piedmont and Northern Railway passed through this small town of 2,055 on its way from Charlotte to Gastonia, rumbling by the PepsiCola sign painted on A.P. Rhyne’s corner office on Main Street.

At Mount Holly High School, the football team was making history, game by game, unaware that for many players, the world was about to change.

Coached by A.S. Holt, Jr. and L.C. Ward, the 1941 Hawks went 8-0, outscoring their opponents by a total of 167-13.

Twenty-three days after their last game, a 35-0 victory over Belmont on Nov. 14, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service bombed Pearl Harbor, pulling the United States into World War II. Team members were faced with life choices that outweighed football strategies and a high school education.

For their efforts on the field, and for what several did beyond football, the 1941 Hawks are being inducted into the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame.

“Many are patriots, who left school within a few months after the football season ended to volunteer for the Armed Forces,” says Hall of Fame committee member Gary Neely. “Many players from the war years joined the war effort as they came of age. Some returned to complete high school and their football careers after the war ended in 1945. It was not unusual to see 20-year-olds playing high school football in the post-war years.

“They later became part of the Greatest Generation. That is another reason why we are honoring the undefeated 1941 team as part of the 2019 induction class. They earned the honor.”

The team was one of three in North Carolina that year that never lost and never tied.

A 1946 Mount Holly High yearbook lists the team members under the word SQUAD. Not “team,” or “players,” but SQUAD, like a gang of 27 young men on a mission.

Guilford Huitt, Jr., Gene Painter and Bill Hunsuck are listed as managers. The team sponsor is written as Mr. Costner. Players were Arthur Davis, Boyd Arndt, Paul Harkey, Ross McConnell, Pete Johnson, Lee Campbell, Hugh Mullis, Jimmy Dellinger, Ralph Williams, Joe Bailes, Fred Gantt, Harry Gannt, James Cherry, Wayne Huffstetler, Marion Fletcher, Bill Stowe, Paul Springs, Gwyne Baker, Boyce Wells, Melvin Smith, C.B. Hayes, Coyte Wilson, Howard Horton, George Fincher, Billy Cashion, Craig Lawing and Billy McCorkle.

They took on Taylorsville, Cramerton, Oakhurst, Maiden, Tech High, the Abbey Ramblers and Monroe before that final showing at Belmont. Only two opponents were able to score on the Hawks – in a 19-6 game with Oakhurst and13-7 game with Monroe.

Their success put them on the pages of the The Gaston Daily Gazette, though not with big headlines and photos. On Saturday, October 18, they landed in a little story halfway down the fifth column of a middle page, squeezed between a theater roundup (“Badlands of Dakota” starts Wednesday!) and a story about the New York Giants, who “piled up four straight triumphs in the National Pro League but Coach Steven Owen is juggling his lineup.”

The story reads:

“Mount Holly rolled up a 33-0 conquest over a heavier Maiden eleven here Friday, advancing the ball for 16 first downs to Maiden’s two.

The first touchdown came in the first quarter on a little plunge by Horton, who kicked the extra point.

Three touchdowns were scored in the second quarter. H. Gantt plowed through center for the first of the second quarter pay dirt, with Horton’s kick scoring the extra point. Fincher’s 35-yard pass to Hayes scored the second, with Horton again kicking the extra tally. On the next score, Fincher passed another 35 yards to Arndt for a touchdown. The extra point try failed.

Dellinger took a line plunge jaunt for the final touchdown. Mount Holly gained 246 yards in rushing 46 times. Maiden garnered a bare 39 out of 21 tries.

H. Gantt and Cherry were outstanding Mount Holly linemen with juniors Fincher and Horton sharing the backfield spotlight.

Mount Holly meets Tech High of Charlotte there next Thursday.”

No first names, no photographs, no quotes from the players or coach.

George Fincher and Arthur Davis were inducted into the MHSHOF in 2008, Davis for his success in boxing with Golden Gloves; Howard Horton joins them this year.

According to Neely, the ’41 squad went several directions later in life.

For Coach Seaton Holt, 1941 was his 15th and final season, and he retired with a 55-28-10 record.

Manager Gene Painter was a longtime pharmacist at Charlie’s Drug Store. Boyd Arndt worked at the Mount Holly Post Office for three decades, and Ross McConnell ran a local fence company. Fred Gantt and Paul Springs worked for American & Efird; James Cherry worked for Goodwill Publishers in Gastonia; and Marion Fletcher had a Mount Holly service station. Coyt Wilson became a Los Angeles policeman. Howard Horton played football for the University of North Carolina for two years, including a trip to the January 1, 1947 Sugar Bowl against Georgia. George Fincher played in the Shrine Bowl and worked for Duke Power.

Craig Lawing is said to have remained a big fan of Mount Holly High football and baseball for years after graduation, and would return to the fields to watch games and practices as long as the school existed.

Because if you were one of the best, who says you can’t go home again?