This Friday night on Lincolnton's Buddy Bufford Field, the Lincoln County Red Devils and Washington- Wilkes Tigers will meet for the 71st time on the gridiron. It will be the latest renewal of "The Perfect Rivalry."

What does it take to become a true rivalry?

First, it takes a competitive nature in both yourself and the would-be rival. Lincolnton and Washington certainly have that when it comes to their respective football teams. Our Red Devils have an all-time record of 655- 238-23 with 14 state titles and 33 re- gion championships. Those 655 wins and 14 titles are second in Georgia only to Valdosta (nation-leading 842 wins and 23 titles). The Tigers are ninth in the state in football wins with a 590-324-33 record with 4 state titles and 20 region championships. (By the way, Thomson is 11th with a 569-259-37 mark.)

Many times the schools have met when one or both were ranked in their class's top 10. The rankings may give the game some extra attention at the state level, but no extra hype is ever needed locally. The game is almost always standing-room-only, and often has fans lined up 5-or-more deep along the fences. For this game, it's get there early or get ready to stand for 3 hours!

Second, a rivalry needs proximity and familiarity. With the two counties adjoining and only 18 miles between the county seats, some might say the two schools are too close together. Many residents attend church, shop, work, or have other activities in the rival community. The schools play in most other sports, so the students know each other.

And there are many inter-county marriages. A football player or cheerleader from one school may find themselves the parents of a player or cheerleader for the other school years later. There are truly "houses divided" in Lincoln and Wilkes counties over the issue of high school football. And there have been many "conversions" over the years, sometimes with the loss of Christmas dinner invitations!

Third, a great rivalry must go through the generations. Parents and grandparents must be able to hand down the great stories of outstanding games and indoctrinate their youngsters with distaste for the opposition. Friday's game marks the 51st consecutive year that the two schools have played football. Before that, a Devil-Tiger meeting on Thanksgiving afternoon at either the Fairgrounds in Washington or on May Field in Lincolnton would highlight many seasons. Actually, this rivalry dates back before there were Red Devils and Tigers - both teams were known as Bearcats in the 1920s.

Great names like Norman, Hearst, Bunch, Rogers, Drinkard, and Leverett have dominated the long-time series. Players from one generation became the coaches for later generations. This rivalry has survived stock market crashes, wars, radio, disasters, television, gas over $4.00, and even the Internet. Now fans from across the world can track their favorite team online and listen to the game anywhere.

Fourth, despite each school's best efforts to win big over the past 86 years, a great rivalry needs to remain competitive. If one team always whips the other every year, the rivalry would slowly disappear, and the game would become just another game. The first meeting, on Halloween 1922, ended in a 7-7 tie and was described as a "hectic affray" by a local paper; the Washington fans had expected their team to run over the first-year Lincolnton team, but that was not the case.

After 70 meetings, the series is even at 32 wins for each school with 6 ties. Twenty-six of the games have been decided by 7 points or less. Blowouts are few, but are well-remembered by both the winner and the loser.

A Lincoln County win Friday night will give the Red Devils the series lead for the first time EVER! Our Devils finally managed to tie the series, for the first time since 1922, fittingly in the biggest game ever between the Devils and the Tigers - the 2005 Class A State Title game at Buddy Bufford Field. The 25-0 win before 6,000 fans gave the Devil faithful bragging rights they intend to hold onto until the universe comes to an end.

And last but certainly not least, there has to be some genuine dislike for the other, whether justified or not. There have been some unfortunate incidents over the years which should not have happened. The important thing is to keep this rivalry in perspective, enjoy it for what it is (a sports competition), and have some good-natured fun with it.

The feud is often cited as THE top high school rivalry in the Peach State, but it takes someone from a neighboring town to really put the rivalry in perspective. Earlier this year on the Thomson-WW post game show on Thomson radio, the announcers were comparing the Thomson-WW rivalry with the Lincolnton-Washington rivalry. They concluded that it just wasn't the same. Dennis Sanders, who is Thomson's play-by-play man but is also known in the three counties as the Toombs Circuit District Attorney, said the Thomson-WW rivalry was usually for good-natured bragging rights. He then said the Lincoln County-WW rivalry was much different. He used the analogy that, if Lincoln County was playing Iraq, the Washington folks would be pulling for Iraq - and that the same would be true if the roles were reversed. Now, that "summation" might be going just a little bit too far, but then again, the Red Devils faithful wouldn't be pulling for W-W!

New fans shouldn't be surprised to learn that the series was halted after the first year due to too much intensity by spectators. After 1922, the two teams didn't play again until 1939. Our Red Devils wouldn't claim their first win in the series until a 14-12 win in Lincolnton in 1949.

The Devils have fared better in the rivalry since Thomas Bunch named Larry Campbell as his successor. Lincoln County has won two out of every three games against W-W during The Campbell Years. That included a 10-game winning streak from 1976 to 1985.

Now, GO DEVILS and go beat those Tigers!!