VALDOSTA — A strange note is listed under 1929 in the annals of Valdosta High Wildcat football. It is often found in the team’s program. The note reads: “... The Albany High game was never finished, as VHS withdrew its team late in the fourth quarter.”

For Charles O’Neal that 1929 withdrawal is more than a footnote. He was there. Not in the stands, not on the sidelines. No, Charles O’Neal was there as a player. He played end for the Wildcats from 1929-32, playing first for VHS Coach Mike Herndon, then Coach Bobby Hooks.

At the age of 95, Charles O’Neal is often referred to unofficially as the “oldest living Wildcat,” says Troy Black, a Wildcat Touchdown Club board member.

O’Neal is part of a Valdosta-Lowndes County football dynasty.

In 1967, legendary Wildcat Coach Wright Bazemore led a Valdosta Touchdown Club dedication to John Robert O’Neal, Charles O’Neal’s father. Bazemore wrote of the “great privilege” of coaching so many of John Robert O’Neal’s descendants.

“I’ve never coached one of his descendants who didn’t give 100 percent on the field and conducted themselves in a manner that made me proud of them,” Bazemore wrote. “They all seemed to have that extra something called desire, spirit and character that made them Champions.”

Bazemore first became the Wildcat coach in 1941, nearly a decade after Charles O’Neal had played his last Valdosta game, but the descendants to whom Bazemore refers, as well as other relatives, are all part of O’Neal’s family.

Charles’ older brother, Johnny O’Neal, was a Wildcat player from 1924-27. Charles played the same 1929-32 years as his younger brother, Lonnie. Glenn O’Neal played for the Wildcats from 1941-43.

Lowndes High School had opened by the time Charles’ sons, Charles Jr. and Jerry, were old enough to play football. Charles Jr. and Jerry played for LHS from 1959-62. Many of Charles Sr.’s nephews, such as John Robert O’Neal, played for Valdosta, including Billy Grant for whom Valdosta State University’s Billy Grant Field is named.

Many of Charles O’Neal’s descendants and relatives have played football for Valdosta or Lowndes. His great-grandson, Cale O’Neal, currently plays for Lowndes High. High school football has seen many changes since Charles’ 1929 team and Cale’s 2007 team.

In Charles O’Neal’s day, players wore leather pads and leather helmets. Helmets were optional. He shares the story of one teammate who refused to wear a helmet in practice or during a game. This continued until the player was matched against “a big ol’ boy” on an opposing team. The player “ran to the sidelines and got a helmet. That other fella was so big. He always wore his helmet after that.”

The 1929-32 teams never played a night game. There were no lighted fields. All games were played on afternoons.

Most high schools played a football game on Thanksgiving Day.

Wildcat football wasn’t a throwing game then. “We would run with the ball,” O’Neal says. While the ball itself had the essential shape of today’s football, the 1929-32 ball was a bit rounder and thicker in the middle.

To train, the team ran and practiced plays but there was no weight training. For many of that era’s players, muscle conditioning came during chores performed before the start of school and after school and football practice.