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CHAPEL HILL — Dudley football's finest hour came after years of waiting.

Years of toil and triumph over things that had nothing to do with football finally ended Saturday evening when the Panthers won the state 3-AA championship 28-20 over Charlotte Catholic.

The first football title for any Greensboro school since 1985 came on the field where Charlie Justice once ran in an all-white era of Southern college football. The first Dudley football title since 1951 came 38 years after the Panthers were finally allowed to compete against all other schools in the N.C. High School Athletics Association.

All week, Dudley Panthers dating back decades talked to coach Steven Davis about this game. The school had lost two previous title games in six years and fought through a brutal schedule just to get a chance to play in it again. Davis said there were doubters along the way, but Dudley was unified in its finest football hour.

"They just asked me to make them proud," Davis said. "I felt it. I knew there were a lot of people who wanted this."

Ricky Lewis Jr., wearing the number Justice wore, ran from a variety of old-school formations in an offensive performance for the ages. Leaving nothing to chance, Dudley ran almost every play it had and some it made up just for this occasion. Cramping and struggling to keep the clock running, Lewis ran for 181 yards and a touchdown and passed for 196 yards and three touchdowns.

The passing game stunned Charlotte Catholic and many of the fans in the stands who had seen Dudley this season. Lewis roamed around the backfield, eluding defenders and looking deep downfield for teammates. He found them when he needed to, ran when he had to and kept Catholic grasping for No. 22 on almost every down.

"We were ready for this,'' said Lewis, named the game's most valuable player.

Davis credited the young offensive line, and most of the players credited the coaches for a game plan that spanned the season and the many seasons that came before it.

Davis arrived at Dudley seven years ago after coming over from Page. He was an assistant for three seasons and became the Panthers' head coach four years ago. In those seven seasons, Dudley has been to the playoffs every year, made three state title games and, finally, won a state title.

"When I came here seven years ago, Dudley had been down,'' Davis said. "I came from a program that had been winning the whole time at Page, and we always knew if we could get over there we could change the kids' mentality and have a winning program at Dudley.''

Last year, 10 players signed college scholarships. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year.

"People doubted us," Davis said, still bristling at the expectations. "They complained about the losses we had early. People didn't know the schedule we played early. We opened up the season with Carver. Then we had Eastern Randolph. We had Grimsley, then we had Page. Our non-conference schedule was so tough we were battle-tested. Our guys realized that when we got into the playoffs we could play with anybody.

"Then once we got in our conference we had Northeast twice, regular season and playoffs, and then of course we had Western Alamance. Go Western."

He's a league guy to the very end. Every team he mentioned after the game made the playoffs. In all, nine of Dudley's opponents ended up in the playoffs, and two teams from the Triad 3-A won state titles. Western Alamance was the other.

Dudley's defense carried it through much of the season. Western Alamance coach Hal Capps said earlier this season that Dudley's defense was the best he had seen in 10 years. Coming into the final against a disciplined Catholic team that would be called for only one penalty in the title game, Dudley unleashed an offensive show that included wrinkles drawn up early in the week. It also included plays passed down through the years.

They started playing football at Dudley in 1930, and the Panthers spent 39 years in the old N.C. High School Athletic Conference for historically black schools. Not until integration ended the statewide conference was Dudley finally allowed to play in the larger association. The school has been wildly successful, winning the first NCHSAA volleyball title, a slew of track titles and three basketball titles.

The football title eluded the Panthers through the years. Although other Greensboro schools claimed championships with regularity since the first NCHSAA football championship in 1913, they all stopped in 1985 when Page won the last of its titles. For the Panthers, it had been longer than some Dudley alumni were comfortable with.

Davis tried to calm them this year. He tried to convince them this wasn't a rebuilding season. He tried to tell them to trust the kids to understand Dudley's history.

"We've got great kids at Dudley,'' Davis said. "People don't realize that. We're definitely looking to get back to this point again. We want a program. We don't want a one-year thing.''

A 38-year thing ended Saturday when Dudley finally won the big one and started talking about next year.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ehardin@news-record.com