The Guthrie BlueJay football program came on the scene in a hurry back in the 2001 season under first year head coach Rafe Watkins. Since then, Guthrie has been one of the elite programs in the state of Oklahoma.
With a week five win in the 2011 season, Watkins earned his 100th win as the Guthrie head football coach in just 128 games. Prior to Watkins arrival, the Jays had won 114 games from 1978 to 2000.
“The main thing is I have had great coaching staffs and great players,” Watkins said following his team’s 56-14 win over Ada. “People just don’t understand how easy it makes my job to have such a great assistant staff.”
“We have had a run of great kids and being able to keep our coaching staff for the last eight years certainly helps. Everybody knows their role and does a great job,” Watkins said of his staff that has a combine of 124 years of experience and 72 years combined on the Guthrie staff.
In just his second season (2002) Watkins led the BlueJays to their first ever state championship with a 12-2 season and winners of their last 10 games.
The program has won 10 or more games five different times and in seven seasons have had three or fewer losses.
Perhaps the game that may have been the spark for the uprising of the program came in the 2001 season with a 23-22 win over Carl Albert with a game winning field goal. Mick Cornett, who was broadcasting the game on television, said “they have not been this happy in Guthrie since state hood” as the field goal split the up rights.
From that moment many Guthrie fans started to believe and rallied behind the program and now the fan base is one of the most loyal with many turning out for home and away games and sometimes drawing more than the home team in the stands.
“We have always said it’s a community effort and the community has helped us to do that,” Watkins said.
Guthrie stayed perfect in state title games when they ran the schedule for an undefeated (14-0) season and the school’s second state championship in 2007. The ’07 team has been often referred to as the “Dream Team” and one of the best high school football teams ever in Oklahoma history. That season, the Jays outscored their opponents 764 to 89 by scoring 60 plus points in eight of the 14 games.
Watkins has landed his teams in the state semi-finals five of his 10 full seasons and has missed the playoffs just one time (2004).
Breaking Down the 100 Rafe Watkins Wins at Guthrie:
- 2-2 in the month of August, 36-10 in the month of September, 37-8 in the month of October, 25-8 in November
- 23-10 in non-district games, 61-11 in district games, 16-7 in playoff games
- 10-0 on Senior Nights, 8-2 in Homecoming games, 8-3 on games broadcasted on television
- Watkins has never lost to 16 schools that he has countered: Ada (2-0), Capitol Hill (2-0), Chickasha (2-0), Coweta (1-0), Duncan (3-0), Durant (3-0), Harrah (9-0), John Marshall (2-0), Northeast (3-0), Piedmont (4-0), Ponca City (2-0), Southeast (3-0), T. E. Central (3-0), U.S. Grant (3-0), Western Heights (3-0), and Woodward (5-0)
- Watkins has a losing record to just three programs: B.T. Washington (1-2), Douglass (2-3), and Lawton Mac (0-1)
| Coach | Seasons | Years Coached | Wins | Loses | Ties | Games Coached | Winning Percentage |
| Rafe Watkins | 11 | 2001-Present | 100 | 28 | 0 | 128 | 78.12% |
| Ty Prestige | 4 | 1997-2000 | 12 | 28 | 0 | 40 | 30.00% |
| Robin Roof | 9 | 1988-1996 | 45 | 55 | 0 | 100 | 45.00% |
| Max Smiley | 9 | 1979-1987 | 42 | 57 | 99 | 42.42% | |
| Mike Sperry | 4 | 1975-1978 | 15 | 28 | 43 | 34.88% | |
| Bert Elliot | 3 | 1972-1974 | 13 | 17 | 30 | 43.33% | |
| Al Blevins | 4 | 1968-1971 | 23 | 17 | 1 | 40 | 57.50% |
| John Heatherington | 3 | 1965-1967 | 14 | 15 | 1 | 29 | 48.28% |
| Floyd Clauses | 1 | 1964 | 2 | 8 | 10 | 20.00% | |
| Ken Naybor | 2 | 1962-19-63 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 19 | 52.63% |
| Buddy Burris | 2 | 1960-1961 | 6 | 14 | 20 | 30.00% | |
| Bob Daugherty | 3 | 1957-1959 | 9 | 18 | 2 | 27 | 33.33% |
| Liddell Pearson | 3 | 1954-1956 | 7 | 20 | 1 | 27 | 25.93% |
| Dean George | 3 | 1951-1953 | 11 | 19 | 30 | 36.67% | |
| Stanley Hicks | 2 | 1949-1950 | 4 | 17 | 21 | 19.05% | |
| Lyle Yarborough | 2 | 1947-1948 | 7 | 12 | 1 | 19 | 36.84% |
| Harry Sockler | 1 | 1946 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 50.00% |
| Bob Sumrall | 1 | 1945 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 80.00% | |
| Cecil Crooks | 1 | 1944 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 66.67% | |
| Charles Martin | 1 | 1943 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 20.00% |
| Clifford Wright | 5 | 1939-1942, 1936 | 32 | 22 | 54 | 59.26% | |
| Kenneth Gallager | 2 | 1937-1938 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 19 | 57.89% |
| Everett Hafer | 8 | 1928-1935 | 40 | 31 | 14 | 71 | 56.34% |
| John Mason | 3 | 1925-1927 | 11 | 20 | 1 | 31 | 35.48% |
| W.E. Young | 4 | 1921-1924 | 21 | 16 | 7 | 37 | 56.76% |
| George Purdue | 2 | 1919-1920 | 3 | 12 | 2 | 15 | 20.00% |
| John Gibbs | 1 | 1918 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 42.86% | |
| Maynard Ashworth | 2 | 1915-1916 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 45.45% | |
| John McCorkmick | 1 | 1914 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 40.00% | |
| Wayne Curfman | 1 | 1913 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 50.00% | |
| Harold Cook | 1 | 1912 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 50.00% | |
| Frank Doyle | 1 | 1911 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 50.00% | |
| E.H. Winslow | 1 | 1908 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 80.00% | |
| George Norris | 3 | 1905-1907 | 15 | 6 | 21 | 71.43% | |
| Season of 1903, 1904, 1909, 1910, and 1917 coaches were unavailable. | |||||||
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