Got a football trivia question for you?Who was the last Rocky Mount place kicker to lead the Gryphons in rushing in a football game?
Junior fullback/kicker Nick Hahula led Rocky Mount in rushing with 10 carries for 85 yards Friday night in its 44-0 endowment win over Northampton-East. Hahula, in addition to six touchbacks, had five PATs, a career-high 41-yard field goal and scored on a 9-yard run. But place kickers rarely carry the ball that often for the Gryphons.
Got a clue on the question?
Well, if you're around 45 years old or so and a Rocky Mount football fan, then you would remember Rodney Birth.
Birth, a member of the RMHS Class of 1979, led the Gryphons in rushing several times his senior season while also serving as the team's place kicker and punter. In his final game for RMHS (a 10-7 first-round 4-A playoff loss to Eastern Wayne in 1978), he led the Gryphs in rushing with 15 carries for only 40 yards. But it was his ability to boom punts that earned him a scholarship as a punter at N.C. Central.
He's still in the football business now as an assistant coach at CIAA member Virginia Union, where former RMHS lineman Chauncey Perry currently plays and will be a possible starter at center.