It’s been tough to write for the past week or so. The heat here, mild to many, has drained me. A visit from my Vermont and Boston family was a wonderful reason to hold off. There are other reasons that will not be discussed here. i don’t wish to belabor my darkness. It’s mine, and it will pass.
So trying to think about good stuff i would enjoy as i sat stirring up my pot of memories, i came up with something that some might consider a bit bizarre for a feel-good memory: pre-season football practice. Weird, right? Now, i must warn you a number of these experiences have come up in many of my writings. This is my escape, weird or not.
The first memory went back to August 1956 in Lebanon. Monday, August 20, to be exact. i had been chomping at the bit to realize my dream of being a football star. Lebanon Junior High School, located in the former high school on the corner of North Cumberland and East High Street was a complete change.
The junior high had been established the year before. After the sixth grade, the two elementary schools, Highland Heights, which was adjacent to the new school, and McClain merged for the seventh and eighth grades. McClain on West Main was where i had attended the first six grades. The transition made me feel i was grown up (wrong!).
Pop Warner Football or any youth program earlier that junior high did not exist back then. There were no football camps, no coaches working on techniques, no videos to explain the game and the basics of how you played different positions. There were only pickup games, listening to college games and watching the few college and pro games available each weekend. And, most importantly, the high school games on Friday nights. In the late 40s and early 50s, the high school field was located on the northwest side of Fairview/North Greenwood Avenue where it intersected with West High Street (for you young’uns, the Baddour Parkway did not exist then).
i was excited i would be playing on the field here i watched my idol, Clifton Tribble, race to touchdown after touchdown during the Blue Devils 1951 undefeated season. i was about to face reality.
We reported to the gym behind the school’s parking lot and between the junior high and Highland Heights. Being August in Middle Tennessee, it was humid and hot, “95/95” as we grew fond of saying. i remember laying on the living room rug in shorts. That’s all: shorts. in our living room with the front door open, hoping for a breeze and futilely hoping even more the heat would break.
We received our uniforms and donned them in the locker room. i’m not sure anything they gave me fit. i think i could have turned 360 degrees and the helmet would not have moved. i swear my high tops cleats flopped because of so much room in the toes. The inserted knee pads on my pants drooped below the knees to my shin. Undeterred, i un-majestically jogged behind the elementary school to the north side of the playground bordered by what i believe was Highland Park.
Awaiting us were the coaches and the practice field, aka, the recess play ground. There was some grass but it was sparse to non-existent on that north end. They lined us up and began with calisthenics, the old kind. We did jumping jacks, toe touching windmills, sit-ups, push-ups, and leg lifts for what felt like an eternity.
Then they lined us up and taught us the basics. i was the fullback on the second string. T-formation. i learned the splits between the center, guard, tackle, and end were numbered, even to the right, odd to the left. Mule directions, “gee” to the right and “haw” to the left told us the direction of the play. The first number was the number of the back who would be carrying the ball, quarterback 1, right halfback 2, fullback 3, and left halfback 4. Thus, Gee-24 meant the right halfback would go through the number four hole, between right guard and the right tackle.
i thought that was the coolest thing that existed.
We walked through several plays before gathering for blocking and tackling drills, brutal even for a 12-year old boy. The final drill was using the blocking sleds, trying to push them around while another player was resisting on the back. i don’t recall ever feeling so awkward. We concluded the practice with 40-yard wind sprints, wondering if the coaches would ever call it quits.
And then we walked back to the gym where we would gulp from the water fountain. Back in those days, you were a sissy if you drank water and were encouraged to take salt pills. Nobody died. i think it made us tougher. But it wasn’t fun.
This was repeated for two weeks of weekdays with the scrimmages advancing to full play.
The morning after the first day, i wasn’t sure i could move. i had never done any physical fitness exercises before. Every muscle in my body hurt. i forced myself to put on my clothes and go to practice. By the third practice, the soreness was pretty well gone.
It was time to do it for real. i believe our first game was a home game on Thursday night, September 6. Somewhere, i have the name of the opponent and the score, but now, i just know we won. That’s pretty easy to remember. We won all of them that season. i got in a few games, waiting for the next year. But boy, it was fun.
And so, that brutal two weeks of pre-season practice was worth it, and it was a giant step in my moving toward manhood.
The characters in this pre-season photo: first row- Billy Jennings, James Manning, Jim Jewell, Tommy Wood, Jimmy Gamble, Tommy Palmer, Buddy Boyd, and Reed Oliver; second row – Townley Johnson, Frank Moody, Mike Dixon, Frank Newbell, Eddie Taylor, Earl Majors, and Eddie Sellars; third row – Henry Harding, Mike Gannaway, Paul Thomas, Jimmy McDowell, Ronnie Wooden, David Hall, Jimmy Howell, Jimmy Hatcher, Steve Organ, and LeRoy Dowdy. The coaches were Jimmy Allen and Don England.
Other preseasons to follow.
Hey, Henry and LeRoy, at this stage of my life i am now wondering if you two didn’t have a hand in ensuring i got a uniform that didn’t fit. Anywhere.
