Former players for both the DeKalb County Tiger and Cannon County Lion football teams will congregate at Fred Schwartz Field in Woodbury on Saturday evening, May 14, for a first-ever Alumni football game between the two schools. Kickoff of the full contact event is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. WJLE will have LIVE coverage with John Pryor.
Cannon County and DeKalb County have had a long-standing border rivalry in all sports, which spans the course of decades. In 1963, high schools in Smithville and Liberty combined to form a consolidated DeKalb County High School. Games between schools in the region were played prior to that consolidation, but the first official consolidated Cannon County – DeKalb County football game was played in the fall of 1963, which the Tigers won in Smithville, 12-0. DeKalb County won again in 1964, 39-0, in Woodbury, but the Lions claimed three straight in the series from 1965-67, before the series was suspended until the 1971 season.
The two teams tied, 6-6, in 1971, but DeKalb County gained a stranglehold in the series from that point, winning the next 15 games in the series, from 1972-2004. Cannon County won two of the next three meetings, including a 47-7 rout of the Tigers in 2005, which laid the three-plus decade streak to rest. After a Lion win in the 2007 game in Smithville however, DeKalb County took command of the series, having won the last eight meetings, including the most lopsided result in the series in 2015, when the Tigers rolled to a 69-3 rout of the Lions in Smithville.
In all, since DeKalb County’s high school consolidation in 1963, the Lions and Tigers have played 32 total times. DeKalb County holds a 26-5-1 all-time lead in the series. The Tigers are 12-4-1 against the Lions in Smithville, and hold a 13-1 advantage over the Lions in games played in Woodbury. One neutral site game was played in Baxter in 1972, which the Tigers also won.
DeKalb County averages 27.7 points per game against Cannon County, while the Lions average 9.7 points per game against the Tigers.
DeKalb County’s alumni roster features 33 players from various teams, dating back to the Class of 1993 through players who graduated in 2015.
Admission to the game Saturday evening is $10, with proceeds to benefit each school’s football program. Tickets will be available at the gate.
Archived News & Obituaries