The first game of the 1969 season saw Purcell end Lindsay's dominance over the Dragons by beating the Leopards 19-0. This loss was followed by Ada winning over Lindsay, 28-6, followed with a 62-7 victory over Crooked Oak. In the fourth game of the season, Marlow beat Lindsay, 22-21, but the fifth game saw Lindsay bounce back with a 24-0 victory over Anadarko. Yukon, still in Class A, beat Lindsay, 18-13; Lindsay beat Sulphur, 49-14; El Reno squeaked by the Leopards, 8-0; Lindsay beat Pauls Valley yet again, 21-7, and Wynnewood beat the Leopards, 13-6, to end the regular season with four wins and six losses.
The Leopards made the state playoffs, however, by beating district foes Crooked Oak and Pauls Valley (three District A-3 teams), and was to face the Yukon Millers in the state Class A Quarterfinals. Remember, Lindsay had already been beaten by Yukon, 18-13, in the sixth game of the year, but the Millers were in a different district when they first met.
On November 23, 1969, one day after playing the Yukon Millers in the Quarterfinals, The Oklahoman reported:
Yukon Ties Lindsay, Gains Semis
Millers Score On Final Play
LINDSAY -- In one of the wildest finishes ever seen on a prep football field in many a moon, Yukon scored on the final play to tie Lindsay, 14-14, Friday night and advance to the semifinals of the Class A state playoffs. The teams finished with three penetrations each, but Yukon had a 16-12 edge in first downs to remain alive for the championship.
Lindsay had apparently scored the winning touchdown with 3:07 left when Mike Terry bolted in from two yards out and Doug Scribner kicked his second conversion to give the Leopards a 14-7 lead that looked awfully big to Yukon fans. But the Millers weren't through yet. After Donnie Givens returned the ensuing kickoff to the Yukon 35, the Millers took to the air, with quarterback Jim McGuire firing to Tim Wagner for 16, 13 and 12 yards, and to Givens for another 13 and a first down on the Leopard 11.
Givens smashed twice for seven and three yards and a first down on the one with 18 seconds left. With no time outs remaining, Yukon lined up quickly for its last ditch effort. Givens and McGuire failed to dent the savage Lindsay defense, but as the buzzer sounded the end of the game, Givens ricocheted around right end for the touchdown. Jim Canaday split the upright for the second time to keep the count at 14-14.
It was a bruising defensive battle from the opening kickoff with neither team giving ground. For Yukon, Danny Warwick, Kevin New, Bill Pool and Givens were a constant detriment to Leopard ball carriers.
Lindsay's defense with Steve Allen, Gary Cooper, Mike Flesher and Mark Loman leading the way, kept the Millers from putting together long marches with the exception of a long scoring drive late in the third period and the last one.
Lindsay drove 53 yards in seven plays late in the second quarter with Terry going in from the two for the only score in the first half. Yukon tried a field goal with 20 seconds left in the first half with a first-and-ten from the 11, but Terry broke through to block it...
The '69 Leopards finished the season with four wins, six losses and one tie, but many of its starters were underclassmen, so would probably improve their record for the 1970 season.
Next up - Leopard Legends of the Fall 1970...
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