
In 2005 Leslie Borhaug, a middle-school teacher at Davidson River School, assigned a class project that ultimately inspired Tom Dierolf, a first-time filmmaker, to create an award-winning documentary about the Brevard Blue Devils integrated 1963 Football team.
The assignment was to publish a children’s book on a subject they found interesting from Transylvania County’s history. The students chose to research the 1963 Brevard High School Football team, one of the first racially integrated teams in the state. They were assisted with their research by Jack Powers and other volunteers from the Transylvania County Historical Society. The students also benefited when the coach at the time of integration, Coach Brookshire, his wife Nancy, and team members from the 1963 team met with them one day at the school for face-to-face interviews. The students heard firsthand accounts of what the team endured during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Nancy Brookshire showed the students a scrapbook she kept during that time full of newspaper clippings that told of the Blue Devils championship season, and how the team won 13 consecutive games stretching from their first season into their second season where none of their opponents were able to score.

The 1963 Brevard High School varsity football team consisted of Coach Jim Johnson, Don Peevy, Danny Shook, Brock Kitchen, Ollie Johnson, Ray Siniard, John Garren, James “Tank” Whitmire, Don Metcalf, Rick Trent, Paul Scruggs, Robbie Sales, manager Roger McCall, (row one); manager Rodney Franks, Dickie Roberts, Mike Metcalf, George Leopard, Tommy Ferguson, Dickie Edwards, Rad Bramlett, Ricky Skerrett, Keith Elliott, David Cantrell, Jim Buchanan, Spencer Macfie, head coach Cliff Brookshire, (row two); assistant coach Bob Armstrong, manager Mike Driscoll, Tommy Burrell, Reggie Lynch, Wayne Hunter, Lamar Hamilton, Ronnie Brown, Robert Conley, Lloyd Fisher, L.H. Hughey, Larry Reece, Buddy Huff, Kenny Parker, Charles Saleeby, and Johnny Peterson.
From their research and interviews the students wrote and illustrated a moving story about how this team came together, despite the glaring racial tensions and the open hostility they faced, both at home and especially on the road. The finished book was titled “Brevard…Standing Alone: North Carolina’s First Integrated Football Team, The Untold Story”.

Tom Dierolf lived in many places around the world before moving to Brevard in 2004. During his semi-retirement, he happened upon Borhaug’s student-created book in 2005. This was the first time he heard about the 1963 Brevard Blue Devils and their historic status as the first integrated football team in North Carolina. “I could not help but wonder how such a historic event could happen in this small, almost all-white mountain community,” said Dierolf. “Ten years, later I began working on the film.”
The film includes first-hand accounts from Coach Brookshire and three of the players from the 1963 team: Keith Elliott, Lloyd Fisher, and Paul Scruggs. Others chime in to give their perspectives such as the head of the local NAACP chapter, historians, long-time team fans, and more. Their story is highlighted by media footage from 1963.
Lloyd Fisher, a white player on the 1963 team, recalled that during their first game at home Paul Scruggs, a black player, scored his first touchdown. Fisher said, “After the first touchdown, the crowd was a little less racist, and after the second touchdown, they were ‘Almost Cured’”. The black players scored four touchdowns in the season opener.

The 30-minute documentary, “Almost Cured,” came out in 2017. The film was accepted into 13 film festivals between 2017 and 2018 and won four awards for documentary filmmaking. Both the film and copies of the book are available for checkout at Transylvania County Library.
Photographs and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Library Assistant Helaine Kranz. Sources available upon request.