For the past few weeks, I’ve been talking with the former Andalusia football players that are being inducted into the Bulldog Football Hall of Fame, and let me tell you, it has been another great experience.

I’ve heard stories from the “Glory Days” at Andalusia High School.

Players like Lynn Shreve, who never lost a regular season football game while at Andalusia, were amazing to talk to.

Shreve told me stories about those seasons, and it simply amazed me. The level of talent that was present at the time seems unreal.

Coach Don Sharpe told me about the 1973 team that got the Bulldogs rolling on their record breaking 58-regular-season games without a loss.

He told me about the things that he expected from the players, how he implemented the first summer weight lifting program at Andalusia High School.

Coach Gwin Burkett and I spoke earlier in the week about football and lot more.

It turns out that Burkett was a friend of my late grandfather, Charles Dutton Sr., and he shared some stories with about going to my grandparents’ house and eating raw oysters.

Burkett told me that he didn’t think he ever went over there to eat dinner when my grandfather didn’t also have raw oysters. I told Burkett that I don’t think I ever went to his house without him having a cooler full of raw oysters.

Most of the players that I spoke with were a part of Andalusia’s 58 straight regular-season games without a loss.

They told me stories about not knowing what it was like to lose a game. When they stepped on the field, they didn’t just want to win, they knew they were going to win.

I can’t imagine what that must have felt like.

These guys shared a lot of their dear memories of Andalusia High School and playing for the Bulldogs, and as a graduate and former Bulldog football player myself, it was something that I really loved listening to.

Their stories are heartfelt and told with such a passion that it seems like it all happened yesterday instead of 40 years ago.

It was such a pleasure to talk with them and learn more about the history of Andalusia High School football.

I look forward to seeing these well deserving men be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday night.