Rich Johnson is entering his first season as the head coach of the Mountain Grove Panthers.  Going into Friday night’s opening game against Rogersville, Johnson has already learned what football means in the small town of less than 5,000 residents.

"Mountain Grove football has a great tradition, I knew about the tradition when I was in Kansas City,” said Johnson.  “There's a reason why football's been here for 100 years, and that's because they love their football in Mountain Grove"

The Panthers are celebrating 100 years of football.  The first Panther team suited up in 1912.  Rusty Emery, the “Voice of the Panthers” played for Mountain Grove in the 90’s and can tell you just about anything you could possible want to know about Mountain Grove football and rolls the accomplishments off with ease.

"1930 was a great season, that team allowed one touchdown," exclaimed Emery. “ The 1943 team led the state in points,  1938, 1939 those were the first Ozark bowl years and we later won 6 Ozark Bowl titles.”

He thinks the 1945 team is the best in Mountain Grove history.  Emery along with Ken Rhodes have compiled a collection of almost every team photo in the 100 year history of the program.  Emery’s book of pictures also contains numerous articles and a long list of accomplishments.

"It's been a lot of fun just seeing the history, because pictures can tell a history more than what anybody can write,” said Emery.  “There's not a lot of stuff we don't know about Mountain Grove Football."

Emery had an interesting fact about one of the most famous alumnus of Mountain Grove.  The University of Missouri’s football stadium is named after Don Faurout, who grew up in Mountain Grove.  Faurout had a great playing career at Mizzou, evn though he didn’t actually play football at Mountain Grove.

Tim Murphy is the athletic director and also a former Mountain Grove football player.  He proudly reminises about his playing days.

“My greatest memory would be a 5 overtime win when I was playing here and each and every one of our football players who have played here have those great memories,” said Murphy. “

That's what panther football is about is the memories we can take away from it. “

Mountain Grove hosts defending class 3 state champion Rogersville Friday.  The contest will be featured as the KSPR Game of the Week.  Watch KSPR News at 4:00, 6:00 and 10:00 Friday for live reports from Mountain Grove.