The football teams from Fike High (now known as Wilson Fike High School) won state championships in 1967, 1968, and 1969. Six decades later, the players and coaches look back on what they accomplished in those years and their greatest pride doesn’t involve football.
The football teams from Fike High (now known as Wilson Fike High School) won state championships in 1967, 1968, and 1969. Six decades later, the players and coaches look back on what they accomplished in those years and their greatest pride doesn’t involve football.
Don’t miss the premiere showing of “Pick Up Your Bed and Walk” on Saturday, February 21, 2026 at The Surge at Farmington Heights Church. Doors open at 6pm. Program begins at 7pm. » READ MORE!
The football teams from Fike High (now known as Wilson Fike High School) won state championships in 1967, 1968, and 1969. Six decades later, the players and coaches look back on what they accomplished in those years and their greatest pride doesn’t involve football.
In the midst of conflicts about integration, women’s rights, and the war in Vietnam, they found a way to unite a community.
Pick Up Your Bed And Walk tells this story. It is produced by Show N Tell Ministries with Emmy Award winning videographer Brad Simmons.
Fike Senior High School and Cyclones Head Coach Henry Trevathan captured three consecutive North Carolina AAAA state championships covering the 1967, 1968, and 1969 seasons. During that span, they won 35 games and lost only 3.
1967: The Cyclones lost their opener against Reynolds but then reeled off 12 in a row, including four shutouts, to take the 4A state title with an overall record of 12-1.
1968: The Cyclones once again lost their opener to Reynolds, this time getting shutout. But the team dropped only one more contest to finish the season 11-2 and cap a second consecutive 4A championship.
1969: The Cyclones rolled over most of their opponents, outscoring the opposition by an average of 23 points per game en route to a perfect 12-0 season and a third consecutive 4A championship.
You can check out the team rosters, game results and complete box scores for each season and game in our Seasons Archive.
After a season-opening 41-0 loss to Winston-Salem Reynolds in 1966, Coach Henry Trevathan met with quarterback Lynn Daniell. “We had a man-to-man talk that really opened my eyes. He said, ‘We’re going to work on you building your confidence back up….. We’re going to look at things every day that you’ve done well, and we’re going to get it built back up.’
“… really made a big difference in my life, just him taking that time and gradually building that confidence back up. … That’s why I say Coach Trevathan was quite a people builder, and the fact that he’s done that up till this date and staying in touch with us.” — Lynn Daniell, Class of ’68
“Little Ralph Cherry speaks up. He was our cornerback on the short side of our four-four defense. Ralph’s father was a minister of the gospel. He said, ‘You know what? We’re not sick. Let’s pick up our beds and walk.” It caught on. The players in the hallway would met each other and say, ‘Pick up your bed and walk.” The teachers started repeating to the students and each other, ‘Pick up your bed and walk.’ We even heard that in uptown Wilson on Nash Street, business people met each other on the streets of Wilson and said, ‘Pick up your bed and walk.”
“We won the next twelve games in a row and won the state championship. I’ve often wondered who was the greatest. Was it Lynn Daniell, our first quarterback? Was it Carlester Crumpler, a great running back? Was it, Dan Killebrew and Sarvis Bass, our great pulling guards. It might have been little Ralph Cherry.” — Henry Trevathan Sr., Cyclones Head Coach
A spirit swept through the tobacco community of Wilson, NC in the fall of 1967. As scripture says, “The wind blows as it wishes. And you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going.”
This spirit ignited among a group of high school boys known as the Cyclones. And the spirit blew through their community. But success didn’t come until Ralph Cherry, the preacher’s quiet kid, spoke up. “We’re not sick. Why don’t we pick up our mats and walk.”
And so, the spirit swept through a struggling football team, unifying a community amidst societal changes that divided other communities.
