Sitting at home on a rainy Sunday with a house full of sick and wounded, I'm looking for solace in my usual places...the history of high school sports.

In writing this, I'm torn by superstition and the need to tell a story. As a former journalist, the latter often (but not always) seems to win. So Concord fans, please forgive me, but I don't really believe in jinxes, and if you don't talk about the story beforehand, you run the risk of never ever having known or discussed the possibilities before the event.

My old alma mater, Concord, will be playing in the western regional 3A finals for men's basketball this weekend at Lawrence Joel Coliseum. If the Spiders win those two games, by no means a given, they will advance to NCSU's Reynolds Coliseum for the state 3A title game for the second straight season. And if they should be fortunate enough to win that game, Concord will accomplish something that only four senior classes of NC high school students can claim in the last 50 years.

That would be winning the state football and men's basketball titles in the same school year. So to distract myself from the sickness and torn ligaments around me in the house today, I've looked back over the last half-century to see how many schools have been able to accomplish this feat.

The first to do it was Beaufort High School's class of 1960-61, winning the 1960 football Class A title and the 1961 A basketball crown.

The next class to make the grade did so in legendary fashion - going for the trifecta. The Rocky Mount Blackbirds, led by future UNC QB standout Danny Talbot, won the 1962 football 4A title, and then the 1963 4A basketball title. Not yet satisfied, the Blackbirds didn't take the spring off to bask in their glory - they won the 4A baseball title as well. Rocky Mount's Class of 1963 remains the only one to have performed this feat, to our knowledge, and the only one to win the first two parts in one of the state's higher classifications (where there have traditionally been fewer schools that can dominate sports in their class).

Forty years would pass before the football/basketball double would occur again, and this time it would be Reidsville. The 2002-03 Rams won the 2AA football title in December 2002 and followed up with the 2A basketball crown in March 2003.

Their rivals in the Chair City apparently saw this and were not to be outdone. Two years later, Thomasville won the 2004 1AA football title and the 2005 1A basketball title.

And that's it - four schools, four remarkable school years...and although I don't know it for sure, I'm guessing four remarkable senior classes with leadership and desire.

So now we will see if Dee Bost, Lance Lewis and Concord can accomplish the feat for the 5th time (and the second time in the two higher classifications).  

As an addendum, I should note that there have been a few schools that have won the two state titles in the same calendar year, such as Eden Morehead in 1958.

I also did not go look at the WNCHSAA (how ironic is that) to see which schools might have accomplished it there.

Thanks for pulling this together. I was wondering if anyone had won the championship in all three major mens's sports.

Do you know if they won any other championships that year? Men's or womens...

I also just noticed that Concord is not alone. Shelby, Cummings and Thomasville also are still in the men's regionals and have a shot at the double titles.

Dale - just based on word of mouth, I think that's all they won and the only time post WW2 anyway that any school won all 3.

Updating after the regional finals - Concord, Cummings and Thomasville will have a chance to achieve this goal next weekend.

Congratulations, Concord Spiders, as they beat Kinston 85-79 and become the 6th team (Cummings did it earlier in the day) to win both titles in the same school year.

Dee Bost was named MVP - just as he was with the football title game. Need to check and see how many times that has happened.

Add one more - Thomasville wins as well.

How ironic, 4 times in 50 years, and then three times in the same day!

I finally decided, in the imterest of closure and accuracy, to post the full list of schools that have won the football/basketball combo:

Open Titles

1920-21, Chapel Hill
1922-23, Asheville
1927-28 and 1928-29, New Hanover

Classes A and B

1930-31, Charlotte (A)
1932-33, Charlotte (A)
1935-36, Raleigh (A)
1938-39, Durham (A)*
* tied Greensboro for football title
1939-40, Durham (A)

Class AA, A and B

1946-47, Mount Airy (A)

Class AAA, AA and A

1955-56, Kinston

Classes AAAA, AAA, AA, A

1959-60, Beaufort (A)
1962-63, Rocky Mount (AAAA)

Skip ahead 40 years to the new A/AA...

2002-03, Reidsville (2-AA/2A)
2004-05, Thomasville, (1-AA/1A)

And the three new ones

2006-07

Concord (3A)
Cummings (2A)
Thomasville (1-AA/1A)

It has happened 18 times, but only 5 times since 1963.