MAN — The last time Man High School made it to the Super Six President Ronald Reagan had just been re-elected on a historic election night where only a narrow loss in Minnesota kept him from winning in all 50 states.

Reagan beat his Democratic opponents — presidential hopeful and former vice president Walter Mondale and his VP pick, Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to ever be nominated to a major political ticket and the last since Sarah Palin in 2008.

Los Angeles had just hosted a splendid Summer Olympics and West Virginia native Mary Lou Retton won American hearts by winning gold in gymnastics.

The federal debt was just $1.5 Trillion.

Kirk Gibson and the Detroit Tigers beat the San Diego Padres in the World Series.

The then Los Angeles Raiders beat the Washington Redskins 38-9 in the Super Bowl.

Unbeaten BYU was named as the improbable champions of college football after the Cougars beat a 6-5 Michigan team in the Holiday Bowl.

During Thanksgiving Weekend of this year, Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie’s game-ending hail mary pass to Gerald Phelen lifted the Eagles to a 47-45 win at Miami (Fla.) over Coach Jimmy Johnson’s Hurricanes.

The mega TV hit, “The Cosby Show,” made its debut.

The album of the year was Michael Jackson’s “Thril-ler.”

Vanessa Williams was named Miss America but had to give up her crown because of nude photographs which later surfaced in men’s magazines.

Back in Logan County, Coach Tootie Carter’s Man High School football team was playing in the Class AA state championship game.

The year was 1984.

That’s the last time the Hillbillies had made it to the Super Six.

Until now.

Man wrapped up a berth in this Saturday night’s Class A state championship game with Madonna after knocking off previously unbeaten Richwood, 27-20, in last Saturday night’s state semifinals at George A. Queen Memorial Field.

It’s ironic that Man will be heading to the Super Six on the 25th anniversary of the ‘84 team which lost 14-10 to Grafton in the title game.

Man, ranked No. 2 and 12-1 on the season, is slated to take on No. 1 Weirton Madonna (13-0) which beat Wheeling Central, 18-7, on Friday night in the other semifinal playoff game at Weirton.

The Billies and Blue Dons are set to play on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Wheeling Island Stadium.

Man and Madonna have met before as the Blue Dons blanked the Billies 47-0 in a first-round playoff game in 2004 at Weirton.

The Blue Dons will be a formidable foe for Man.

Madonna’s defense has given up only 37 points all season. Only 22 points have come against the Blue Dons’ first-team defense. The other 15 came against reserves in Madonna blowouts.

Man will also be carrying the public schools mantel at the Super Six.

The Class A football playoff field has been dominated in recent years by private school Wheeling Central, which won Class A state crowns in 2000, 2002 and 2004-07.

In fact, four schools _— Wheeling Central, Moorefield, Madonna and Williamstown — have played in every Class A state championship game since 2000.

Man has just bucked that trend.

Madonna has one state championship to its credit, a 22-8 victory over Matewan in the 1987 Class A state final. The Blue Dons have been the runner-up twice, in 2004 and last year. In ‘04 Madonna lost 34-7 to Wheeling Central in the finals. Last year, the Blue Dons fell 23-7 to Williamstown.

Man has been to the state finals three times in its Double-A days, falling 20-6 to Poca in 1977, 18-13 to the Ceredo-Kenova Wonders in 1980 and 14-10 to Grafton in 1984.

This year’s Man football team has gotten the job done with the complete package of a sound offense, a hard-nosed defense and a good special teams.

Man’s offense has been led by senior quarterback Ryan Crum and running backs Brandon Plymale, Andrew Hale and the brothers Michael and Derek Lomax. The ground game has been guided by Man’s tough offensive line.

“They’ve done an excellent job all year long,” Man coach Harvey Arms said about his line, which has been led by seniors Manny Gibson and Tyler Dunigon. “They did a good job tonight (against Richwood). We controlled the time of possession and as long as we had the ball they couldn’t score.”

Man takes on a Madonna team which took away the Billies’ No. 1 computer rating in the second to last week of the season. Man had been No. 1 since the first ratings came out after Week 3.

“They have an excellent defense. They haven’t give up too many points this year,” Arms said of Madonna. “We played them in 2004 in the first round of the playoffs. We just have to get ready for them. This is a new experience for us, just like this one was a new one tonight. I hadn’t been this far in the playoffs. This week, we go one week further. We’re going to keep working, keep preparing and we’re going to go to Wheeling and make the best of it.”

Arms praised the Man community in its support of the Billies in its playoff run.

Man has enjoyed nine home games this season, including six during the regular season and the three playoff games.

Last Saturday night, George A. Queen Memorial Field was packed.

A standing-only crowd of more than 4,000 was on hand to watch Man knock heads with the Richwood Lumberjacks in a high school football atmosphere that was almost unbelievable to witness.

Fans started to arrive at the game around 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and by 6 p.m. nearly every bleacher seat was occupied. When Richwood’s marching band made it to their reserved seats between the 20-yard line and the goal line on the visitor’s side, it was just about full.

“We can’t say enough about our fans the way they support our team and the things that they do for us,” Arms said. “We’re just a Single-A school but we’ll match any Triple-A school in the state with the kind of support that we have. Our fans are great. We can’t thank them enough. We appreciate them. We hope that they continue to support us and we’re going to work as hard as we can to give them what they deserve.”

The 2009 calendar year has been a good one for Man High School athletics in general.

Last winter, the Man boys’ basketball team advanced to the Class A regional championship game.

Last spring, the Man softball team won its second straight Class A state title, while the Man baseball team reached the Class A state finals at Charleston.

Now, the Man football team has made it to a state championship game.

In other Super Six state championship games this weekend at Wheeling, Wayne faces Bluefield in the Class AA title matchup on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Brooke takes on South Charleston in the Class AAA final on Saturday at noon.

Wheeling Island Stadium holds 12,220 seats and has an artificial Field Turf surface.