User:Carrite/Commerce Tigers Football

The Commerce Tiger football team represents Commerce High School in American Football. The Tigers are a Class A team in the GHSA, and participate in Region 8-A. Commerce High School has fielded a football team since 1909 and has an all time record of 584–296–22 (a .660 winning percentage). The Tigers play at Ray Lamb Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 5,000. The Tigers have won two Georgia state championships and seventeen region titles.

The current head coach of the Tigers is Michael Brown, former Tiger offensive lineman.

Early history (1909-1924)
Commerce football began in 1909, and was led by head coach Professor Walker. The only game record of the first season that is known is that the Tigers defeated the Maysville High School Hurricanes 3-0 on November 12, 1909. Records from the earliest years of Commerce football are scarce due to lack of publicity from local papers, with the exception of the Commerce News.

After several abysmal seasons, the Tigers returned to prominence starting in the second game of the 1914 season. After losing to Gainesville High School in week one, Commerce began a winning streak that would last through the remainder of the 1914 season, the 1915 season, and through half of 1916. In this eleven game winning streak, Commerce would score 340 points, while holding their opponents to only 42.

In 1915, Commerce earned their first known undefeated season. Led by first year head coach E.J. "Ed" Hardin, the Tigers defeated Monroe A&M, Athens High, Madison High, and Warrenton. The lead scorer for the 1915 Commerce team was Verne Davis, who would later star at Georgia Tech.

The Tigers continued play until the 1925 season. Due to the depression, Commerce did not field a football team until 1940.

The Tigers return (1940-1960)
With Richard Nix at the helm, the Commerce Tigers finally returned to the gridiron after a 11 year hiatus. In this time, the Tigers switched their primary colors from Black and Yellow, to Gold and Black. Uniforms were donated by Georgia Tech, and the return of Tiger Football was finally here. Category:1909 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)