ADVERTISEMENT

Coldest Playoff game

Vik-Val 86

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2020
5,331
4,491
113
What was the coldest playoff game you ever been to. I would have to say the 1997 playoff game when Shelby came to Bandys. It was the 4th rd 2A. Temperatures dropping down in the 20’s at the start of the game. Bitterly winds as well. It sure was bitterly cold that night.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lion Attack
For me a couple - around 2004 a playoff game at High Point Central (cold and wind howling). Forestview a few years ago we played our last game of the year at their place, then went back the next week for the 1st week of the playoffs (down right freezing cold both games). Seems like the older I get, the colder it gets!
 
I can remember a Shelby vs Chase game at Gardner Webb in the late 60's that was extremely cold. A Shelby vs Alexander Central when I was in high school, we set trash cans on fire to stay warm. Coldest in recent memory for me was when we played Burlington Cummings in the early 2000's at Burlington. I was very cold and the wind was blowing like 600 mph.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
2008. Richmond @ West Charlotte. I remember a bottle of water on the bleachers beside me being water at the beginning of the game, but ice by the end. Upper 20s - lower 30s.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
1989 state championship game in Chapel Hill Kannapolis versus Burlington Cummings. We had a ice storm that weekend and there was ice still all over the stadium both fans had to sit on the same side.

1997 Kannapolis at Asheville that might be the coldest game I have ever been to it was in the twenties and the wind was whipping down out of the mountains down into the stadium. It was cold.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
2008 Asheville at tuscola 2nd round. Temperature was in the teens at kickoff and dropping throughout the game


Absolutely, it was 7 degrees at the end of that game and the wind was blowing off the mountain into C.E. Weatherby Stadium in Waynesville. The wind chill was around -10. It was brutal.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
2002 - 3A 2nd round
Mooresville @ Ragsdale
low 20’s, windchill into the single digits. me and some other poor soul (their guy) filmed the game from atop their press box. my only solace is that we upset them 27-20, ending their perfect season. it was Mike Carter’s last win as the head coach for Mooresville. we lost @ South Point 12-10 the following week in the third round.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
When I was a kid (late 60's) old Mt Holly High played at RS Central in a late Oct game. It was very cold and I remember garbage barrels behind the visitors bleachers with fires in them. Here's the kicker, refs got snowed in at Asheville, so another crew had to be sent to our game. The game didn't start until 9pm.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
1989 state championship game in Chapel Hill Kannapolis versus Burlington Cummings. We had a ice storm that weekend and there was ice still all over the stadium both fans had to sit on the same side.

I remember that day well. AC Reynolds played Richmond Co. that same weekend. We had to get special permission to play that game on Sunday because of the ice storm. It was horrible, also Richmond took us down 39-13 which didn't help things any either. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
All of our “coldest games ever” will be in February in a couple months for our season openers. A nice 2nd half of a game in Boone franklin Waynesville or Cherokee at about 9pm in mid February where it’s 14 at kickoff
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
We didn't play it because we barely missed the playoffs that year due to a technicality, but we came within a hair of having to play Franklin in the first round in 2014 at their place. Wilkes Central got the spot because they were in a split conference more or less.. we had the harder schedule but it is what it is. The kicker was we ended up winning a game that week by forfeit due to HP Andrews's bad paperwork shenanigans that year. If that had happened a week earlier we woulda had that spot.

Anyways it was that first round Friday where it was so dang cold.. I read Franklin's temperature was supposed to be less than 10 degrees that night so I def made it past a bullet there. I think it ended up being 2 degrees with a negative wind chill. Health wise I was badly sick then and lost my voice that Friday of the game.. I'm thankful that game never happened. If I had been stupid enough to have went on that long ride I woulda been in the hospital with pneumonia or something worse that night or days later. So glad that didn't happen.. we won our last game of the regular season in a thriller anyways so that was a way better ending.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
First round playoff game Alleghany hosted Bishop McGuinness on that same 2014 season...think it was 8 degrees. That was our final four year.
 
Coldest football game I've ever played in was 2004 playoffs @ Forbush in late Nov. It was miserable. Also, remember a few early season baseball games @ Mitchell, Avery, Heritage and Madison in late Feb/early March. They were pretty brutal too. Can't imagine anywhere being as bad as Watauga though. Gotta be the coldest place in the state by far.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
Coldest football game I've ever played in was 2004 playoffs @ Forbush in Nov. It was miserable. Also, played a few early season baseball games at Mitchell in late Feb/early March. That was brutal. Can't imagine anywhere being as bad as Watauga though. Gotta be the coldest place in the state by far.
Agree. My daughter went to App State. First visit, they told us Boone in the Winter is like Canada in the Winter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
Bandys at Hibriten I believe it was 2004 semi-final game... Coldest I have ever been in my life

Shelby at Bandys 1997 almost as bad

Shelby at Lexington I dont remember the year maybe 2000... Again bone chilling cold and bad windy that night

Monroe at Shelby 2016 was another cold one...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
I don’t remember the year or the opponent. It was in the 80’s. Ashbrook High School was playing at home. The temperature was thirty-two or thirty-three degrees at kickoff. Not that bad you say, and if that were the end of the story I would agree with you. I believe by the end of the game the temperature was in the high twenty’s. The problem was not the temperature, not the wind but the temperature and the RAIN. When we got back to the truck following the game we had to chisel the door’s open. Can you say miserable.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
Newton-Conover at Mt. Airy in 1987 playoffs. It was announced as 6 degrees with a -3 windchill, swirling wind blowing snow and sleet in all directions. NC led big at halftime, but had no heat in their locker room, NC lost on a late Mt. Airy score caping off a big comeback.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vik-Val 86
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT