Science Hill High School

Sammy Humphreys

Sammy Humphreys 1959

Sammy Humphreys began his senior year tearing up a knee and ended it tearing up the record books.

Humphreys was set to replace Bill Durham in Kermit Tipton's backfield as a senior in 1958, but he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the final scrimmage against Unaka the week before the opener.

"It liked to have killed me," Humphreys said. "I'd made the move to fullback and had a great spring, and I end up in a full cast the first six to eight weeks of my senior season."

Humphreys didn't subscribe to self-pity, and he won the state title in the discus the following spring.

He had plenty of four-year offers and ended up bypassing Wake Forest for South Carolina, where he got to chase Georgia's Fran Tarkenton -- "I never caught him; he was a jackrabbit," Humphreys says -- and catch passes from Dan Reaves while lettering three years.

Science Hill alumnus Roy Chatman joined Humphreys at South Carolina.

Humphreys said you couldn't help but notice how the Hilltoppers were so far ahead of most of the South Carolina kids fundamentally.

"Really, Kermit Tipton and his staff would literally all but kill us at Science Hill," Humphreys said.

He recalled how salt tablet dispensers were in the dressing room and water breaks were a no-no. At the time it was thought to be the way to combat sweating.

"They were doing what they thought was best at the time," Humphreys said. "If Kermit saw you downtown and you were eating a hot dog or drinking a coke, maybe eating some popcorn or dancing, believe me, you paid for it the next week.".

Stringent methods paid off. Humphreys played linebacker, offensive tackle and end as a junior at Science Hill, and played well in the 1957 upset of top-ranked Oak Ridge.

Science Hill teammate Emory Hale said running into Humphreys wasn’t safe. “He ran over me in a spring game and almost ruptured a kidney,” Hale said. Humphreys lettered in track and football three years at USC after lettering in each four years at Science Hill. He was also on the Science Hill basketball team.