Thirty-one locally hosted selections from a 49-item source folder: preseason expectations, the first home playoff game, Lexington 27–0, the six-inch finish at Crockett County and the items that mark the beginning of Greenbrier’s 2002–05 climb.
The surviving 2002 scrapbook includes 49 items. Thirty-one of the strongest football pages are presented below.
49Surviving source items
31Featured here
1Filed in the 2002 scrapbook
The 2002 team returnsSeason preview and team photograph: a young roster from 2001 returns with real varsity experience.Older but wiserThe preseason feature frames a stronger senior group around experienced underclassmen.No holding backSenior fullback/linebacker Curt Williams enters his final season as one of the program’s central two-way players.Streak stoppers — 2002 editionThe scrapbook used the phrase for the DCA opener. Birdwell’s stat box says 169 rushing yards; Williams scored three touchdowns.Even the weather could not stop itA sideline column remembers the 40-minute delay and the significance of finally winning an opener.Greenbrier seniors win an openerThe DCA result was the program’s first opening-night win since 1994.First region winCurt Williams ran for 186 yards as Greenbrier beat Sycamore 34–10 and rushed for 391 as a team.Greenbrier 16, Springfield 14Williams scored on runs of 15 and 68 yards; Luke White kicked a 34-yard field goal; Greenbrier forced five turnovers.Staying perfect in the regionGreenbrier beat Page 18–13 to improve to 2–0 in Region 5-3A.Herndon leads the Page winRoger Herndon returned after a hard hit and helped finish the late winning drive.Playoff berth clinchedGreenbrier beat Cheatham County 24–7; Birdwell ran for 115 and the defense held the Cubs to 105 total yards.Home playoff game guaranteedBirdwell ran for 195 and Williams for 173 in a 29–26 win that secured a top-two region finish.Regular season: 7–3The 28–3 win over Montgomery Central closed the regular season and set up Lexington at Greenbrier.Home sweet homeThe scrapbook celebrates the first home playoff game and an undefeated home regular season.The 0-for-playoff burdenA contemporary column lists the playoff losses that had followed Greenbrier into 2002.First home playoff weekTeam imagery from the week Greenbrier prepared to host a TSSAA playoff game for the first time.What earlier teams builtA senior quote explicitly thanks prior Greenbrier players for setting the example that made the moment possible.Lexington comes to GreenbrierThe scrapbook’s playoff preview looks back at the program’s previous postseason appearances.Greenbrier captures first playoff victoryThe first full newspaper account of the 27–0 Lexington breakthrough.The celebrationKirk Williams and the postgame scene after the first playoff win.Lexington 27, Greenbrier 0The scoring/stat box: Greenbrier rushed for 266 yards and allowed no points.Making historyThe headline that gives the 2002 season its collection name.A new eraA postgame column argues that the playoff breakthrough changed how the program could see itself.The Class 3A bracketThe contemporary bracket places Greenbrier’s Lexington win and Crockett County matchup in context.Remember the AlamoThe second-round road trip to Crockett County.Second-round actionAction imagery from the playoff trip to Alamo.Six inches shortThe headline after a 21–0 deficit became a 21–20 finish.The conversionA surviving fragment isolates the failed two-point try that decided the season.The final numbersBirdwell: 124 in the game and 1,121 on the season. Williams: 110 in the game and 1,234 on the season.Crockett County actionTwo more surviving images from the final game of 2002.December 11, 2002A color scrapbook photograph from a postseason team gathering, preserved with its camera date stamp.
The collection also includes one 2001 Greenbrier–Giles County item that belongs with the previous season.
