History with Hiller: The night Johnny Booty — with Mean Fred Dean in pursuit — proved he could run

Editor’s note: This is a regular feature in the SBC Advocate by local high school sports historian and record keeper, Lee Hiller.

Woodlawn had a rich history of developing some of the best passing quarterbacks in the state of Louisiana from 1965 to 1970 under the leadership of head coaches Lee Hedges and A.L. Williams.

From Terry Bradshaw in 1965 to Joe Ferguson 1966-68 to Johnny Booty 1969-70. All three had seasons of passing for more than 1,000 yards.

Ferguson earned Outstanding Back honors on the LSWA Class AAA All-State team his junior and senior seasons. Booty was the quarterback on the initial Class AAAA team.

Booty was the state’s leading passer his junior season with over 1,800 yards and led Woodlawn to a 9-3 mark the year after Ferguson led them to their only 14-0 season and AAA state championship.

The Knights started the 1970 season 6-0 when Byrd sprung an upset and handed them their first loss. Next on the schedule was Ruston, 6-1 on the season like Woodlawn, ranked fifth in AAAA. The Bearcats’ only loss was to Captain Shreve, 21-20, in the second game of the season.

The Bearcats, like most everyone all over the state, knew Booty could pass. What they weren’t expecting was the senior signal caller to run after he underwent knee surgery after his sophomore season.

“I was a Cedar Grove running quarterback,” Booty told the SBC Advocate on Wednesday, “but after Terry and Joe, there wasn’t a lot of talk about running.

“After the surgery, I worked out every single day for a whole year. I threw the football a minimum of one hour every day except one day — the day my grandfather had a heart attack. I had to become somebody totally new. If you played for A.L. Williams, you had to know how to throw the football.”

This night was different.

With Booty running the option to precision he scored three times – twice on runs of 47 and 69 yards in the fourth quarter as the Knights thumped the Bearcats 35-14 at State Fair Stadium.

“I was like Forrest Gump,” Booty said. “I just kept running.”

His passing lead in 1-AAAA didn’t suffer either after completing 15 of 27 through the air for 166 yards and another score.

With key games approaching against Captain Shreve and Airline, coach Williams knew with the threat of the run added to Booty’s passing ability would give them another dimension they might need.

“We work on the option play every day that rolls around,” Williams told the media. “But we haven’t used it more than 10 times the whole year. We’ve been saving it for key situations.”

Booty responded with a 10-yard run in the second quarter that gave the Knights a 14-8 lead.

“Booty throws the ball better than anyone we’ve played,” said Ruston coach L.J. “Hoss” Garrett. “And he has more time than anyone. We just couldn’t get to him.”

Booty’s magnificent fakes gave him enough space to get in the open field and outrun defenders on both long scoring runs that put the game away in the final quarter. The first, from 47 yards, had him outrun the swift Steve Rogers to the endzone. The 69-yard sprint came when he managed to get past imposing defensive tackle “Mean” Fred Dean — a future Hall of Famer — and two defensive backs. The two runs came in the span of 3 minutes, 30 seconds.

It made for one of numerous memorable games played at the Fairgrounds over those years.

“I dreamt of being a running quarterback, not a passing quarterback. Nobody will remember that,” Booty said. “When I went to Woodlawn, I was really a sprinter, track guy. I won the 220 going away in the city track meet. I would have won the 100, but I jumped the gun.

“On the night against Ruston, all of a sudden a lot of that (running) came back to me.”