×The headline and a photo of the first W.A. Berry homecoming queen, Rachel Brown, as seen in the Oct. 10, 1964, edition of The Birmingham News.

Before there was Hoover High, there was W.A. Berry — the city’s original high school and home of the Buccaneers. On a Friday night in October 1964, the scene couldn’t have been more perfect.

The Buccaneers notched a 26-14 win over Alexandria High School in what became a milestone moment: the first homecoming football game in Berry’s history, the first to be played on campus at its new stadium atop Shades Mountain, and the first homecoming victory in just the program’s second year of varsity football.

Quarterback Jay Meyers opened the scoring with a 12-yard run, and the Bucs never looked back. A key interception by Sonny Ferguson helped set up a

See Full Page