The Deuce Is Wild

The Western Hills Wildcats got a big lift from their beloved Chicago Bears special teams in Week 13

The Wildcats tame the Sloth Monsters, 41-11

ENSLEY, AL - This is one of those annual BDFL neutral site games that can be played anywhere southwest of Birmingham from Elyton to McCalla. This one just happened to be played on the grounds of the old Western Olin High School where David Palmer cut his teeth. The Wildcats joined the BDFL in 2004 as the Rocky Ridge Wildcats. "Rocky Ridge" for the area of Vestavia Hills where the James Gang resided at the time and "Wildcats" from Libertyville, Illinois from where they had resided in Chicagoland. The team's colors of navy blue, orange and white came from Libertyville and their beloved Chicago Bears. Once the league lost track of where the elusive James Gang was hiding out, they were reverted back to their roots of Glen Oaks to become the Western Hills Wildcats. There is some debate out there that the BDFL's Wildcats invented the offensive formation known as "The Wildcat" back in 2005 when they petitioned Iron Hand to run a four wideout set in a BDFL game and were granted the right. However, the Wildcat scheme is actually a derivation of Pop Warner's old single wing from the 1920s. Kansas State's Bill Snyder made significant contributions to the formation's development in the late 1990s and is often cited for the formation's namesake, but the modern day "Wildcat" was first used by Gene Stallings at Alabama in 1993. Down 15-17 to Tennessee at Legion Field after scoring a touchdown with just 21 seconds remaining with the Tide's 28-game winning streak on the line, Stallings inserted his All-American kick returner/wide receiver, David Palmer, seven yards deep and let him take a direct snap from center for the two-point attempt. Palmer, known as "The Deuce" for the #2 on his jersey, took the snap and ran right for the two-point conversion and the game ended in a 17-17 tie to stretch Bama's unbeaten streak to 29 games. The Wildcat made its first appearance in the NFL in 1998, when the Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator, Brian Billick, lined up his quarterback Randall "The Legend" Cunningham at wide receiver and had his third-down specialist, David Palmer, take the direct snap from the center with the option to run, or pass. Thus, today's Wildcat formation in college and pro football can be traced back directly to The Deuce.