‘It’s on’ [Bluefield Daily Telegraph, W.Va.]

Aug. 26--BLUEFIELD -- Robert Henry stopped by Fly Kutz Barber Shop Wednesday afternoon for a haircut. That's not unusual, but just two days from kickoff at the annual Bluefield-Graham football game, seeing a G-Men assistant football coach sitting in Willis "Fly" Wilson's barber chair is unexpected.

"I don't get many Graham guys in here, especially on Friday before the game," Wilson said. Wilson along with Raymond Isabelle and Donald Rozzel were the star running backs in Beaver's 1992-'93 backfield. "We won both of those years, but Graham busted us in my sophomore year," Wilson said. "A lot of Graham people will come in here (today), but not on Friday."

Wilson still has a video clip of highlights from the 1992 Graham-Bluefield game when ESPN visited both teams prior to the game and included some clips from the game in the broadcast. "I remember that last play," Wilson said. "They put C.C. Cook in there for that last play. I knew he was the fastest guy on the field, but I keyed on him, followed him and blasted him.

"He's coaching the (Little League Bluefield, Va.) Chargers now," Wilson said of Cook. "Those kids are fired up. They'll be playing Bluefield Saturday morning on the same field where Beaver and the G-Men play Friday night. We take it deep, the Beaver Graham game. You know it's on when game time rolls around."

For 10 consecutive years starting in 1964, at least one of the Graham G-Men captains grew up in West Graham -- a section of town that extends from Dudley Funeral Home and ends at the town limits. "We call ourselves the 'West Graham Boys,'" Terry Kirk, of Pocahontas Land Company said. "When you were little, they put you in to play with the big boys. I learned how to play there in West Graham."

The West Graham Boys are planning their inaugural reunion on Saturday after the game from noon to 7 p.m., at Cotton's Drive In, in the heart of West Graham.

"We have the best cheeseburgers in town," Otis Mitchell, Cotton's owner said. The restaurant/neighborhood tavern was built in the early 1950s by Clarence "Cotton" Smith, a former employee of Bluefield's afternoon newspaper, the Sunset News Observer. Mitchell bought Cotton's in 1982. About 9-10 years ago, he installed the Graham High School "G-Star" logo created by the late Ray Brooks, in the floor of the establishment

"Terry (Kirk) told me to expect 80 West Graham Boys here Saturday afternoon for the reunion," Mitchell said. "They'll all probably come in Friday night too."

Kirk, who was one of Graham's tri-captains in 1970, said that many of the young men who grew up in West Graham went on to have successful careers in many fields. Wilson has kept up with his teammates as well, and looks for many of them to visit this weekend.

"They'll be in here talking all day Friday," Wilson said. "It's on."

--Contact Bill Archer at [email protected]

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