The Barrel was born in 1940 when a Welch staff member thought it would enhance the rivalry to award a prize to the winner of the football game each year. A Welch hardware store mamager emptied out a keg of nails and the keg was painted on one side with the Welch colors and on the other side with the Gary colors, thus the "Barrel" was born. It was called "The Beer Barrel" going along with the popular song at the time The Beer Barrel Polka. The barrel was unveiled at the Gary-Welch football game Thanksgiving Day Nov.21,1940. The game ended in a 6-6 tie and the barrel went back to Welch. Welch won the game and the barrel the next two years. Gary won in 1943 and took the barrel for the first time. Welch won in 1944,45 and 46. It was a tie in 1947 and Gary claimed the barrel from 1948 untill Nov.1957  when Welch claimed it back with a 14-13 win. Welch won the game and claimed the barrel for the last time to close out the rivalry between the two Schools Nov.1977 by a score of 31-6. Both High Schools closed with the graduating classes of 1978.                                                                        The final record was Welch had the most wins with 29, Gary had 23 wins and there were 8 ties, thus 60 games over a span of 55 years came to an end.             ROLL OUT THE BARREL

1966 AA State Championship Season Scores: Gary 14- Northfork 7 , Gary 27- Princeton 20 , Gary 32 - Man 13 , Gary 40 - Logan 13,          Gary 13 - Bluefield 28 ,   Gary 32 - Mullens 6 , Gary 44 - Pineville 12 , Gary 13 - Big Creek 19,    Gary 42 - Iaeger 0 ,         Gary 13 - Welch 0   State AA Championship Gary 33 - Ceredo-Kenova 14          9-2-0             1970 AA State Championship Season Scores : Gary 12 - Northfork 6 , Gary 44 - Iaeger 6 , Gary 6 - Logan 0,                      Gary 14 - Bluefield 8, Gary 44 - Williamson 0, Gary 45 - Mullens 0, Gary 56 - Princeton 0,Gary 40 - Big Creek 0, Gary 36 - Huntington 14, Gary 44 - Welch 12   State AA Championship Gary 28 - Oceana 0     11 -0-0  

1951 Football Team                                                              The 1950 and 1951 football teams put Gary HS football in the History books . The 1951 team was unbeaten for ten games but the night before the Championship game the team had a night out on the town and were not in any condition to play that day and consequently they lost to Beckley in a big way. These are some of their names.           Bill Bingham, Pete Brooks, Jim "Ox" Warren, D."Red" Johnson, Tommy Boardwine, Joe Lopez, Hal Easter, Billy Rose, R."Monk"Mayhew, L."Woo"Korczyk, John Cure.