As the sadness of another loss settled in with the Wildcat faithful after the Friday night defeat at the hands of Lake Highlands, many fans remembered back to another season. It was exactly 20 years ago during the 1986 season that the Wildcats found themselves in a very similar situation. Having suffered several heart-breaking loses, and the real danger of missing the playoffs unless the ship was righted in a hurry, the Wildcats appeared to be in trouble.

On September 26th, 1986 the Wildcats had fallen to the Richardson Eagles at Eagles Mustang Stadium 21-14 for their second straight loss, having lost the previous week at Clark Stadium 27-13 to the Duncanville Panthers. Then, like today, the media was preparing to write-off the Wildcats. The Plano coaching staff, which included Coach Brence and Coach Thomas, set about under the direction of Head Coach Tom Kimbrough to bring Plano back into the playoff race.

The Friday night of October 3rd, arrived and Plano visited the swampy field used then by the Newman Smith Trojans. Halfway through the first quarter Plano fans sat in disbelief as Newman Smith, who had never beaten Plano and seldom even had a winning record, was ahead of the Wildcats 7-0 and the Wildcats offense was struggling. Coach Kimbrough called a timeout and gathered his team around him on the sidelines. No one outside of that group will ever know what was said by Coach Kimbrough, but the team took the field after the timeout and sank Newman Smith's upset bid 42-7.

The Wildcats NEVER looked back again as they rolled through 11 more opponents on their way to another State Championship title by defeating Lamarque 24-7 at Texas A&M that year.

Actually Plano rolled through 16 straight opponents the following year in 1987, running their winning streak to 29 consecutive games after their defeat on September 26th, 1986, and won another State Title by defeating Houston Stratford at Austin Memorial Field on December 19th, 1987.

Can history repeat itself, no one knows, but if it can we must put our trust in the Plano Wildcats and their coaching staff who have seen how a team can turn on a dime and reel off win after win, where only a short time before it looked to be a second tier team. This coming Friday night the Plano Wildcats will travel to Wildcat-Ram Stadium to face the powerful Berkner Rams who have lost only one regular season game in two years. Can Plano turn the tables and rejoin the playoff race with a victory?

The history book says yes! [...]

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