High School Football: My Last Football Play Ever. Shattered Dreams and a Missed Tackle…

Setting: prior to the 1976 football season, I had 4 seasons in a row when I started; 8′th grade (bantam league), 9′th grade (JV at Yokota High), 10′th grade (varsity at Yokota High) and 11′th grade (JV at Travis High; I was ineligible for varsity). So I had high hopes of become a starter on the varsity. It wasn’t to be.

So it came down to our last game; we were playing Anderson High who would win the conference championship (and make the play-offs) with a win against us. We were 4-5 going in.

The game was cold and sleety; just miserable. As usual, I was benched and didn’t expect to play (though I had played in previous games).

We took the lead on a kick-off return and lead 6-0; they scored the next 36 points and lead 36-6 late in the game.

The coach put me in for a few plays; I enjoyed being out there at least a little bit.

The other side of the field still had lots of people; our side of the field had emptied. The band had left at half time as had all but, literally, 2 or 3 of our fans.

Anderson got the ball inside our 3 yard line and there were only a few seconds left in the game.

What happened next was bizarre: our coach and our entire bench LEFT THE BENCH TO GET TO THE BUS. They literally left us out there; evidently they thought that the clock would run out.

But the other team called a time out to give their reserves a chance to score. We (those still on the field) didn’t mind; that meant that we got another down of football.

So I dug in. They ran a basic goal line running play and I beat my block! I slammed into the ball carrier and had him stopped but couldn’t wrap up. He rolled off my left shoulder….into the end zone.

Perfect: my last play was a missed tackle that lead to a touchdown, and no one saw it.

So in the huddle between the TD and the extra point, we discussed what we’d do on the subsequent kick-off and if we got the ball back; remember that our bench and coaches had left us all alone!

We kept competing; we drew a few off side penalties on them; they ended up missing the point. Final: 42-6.

We then ran to where the bus was; fortunately they had waited for us. As we got on, the coach ASKED US WHAT THE FINAL SCORE WAS.

That was my last football game.

Note: obviously, my football dreams were destined to failure sooner or later; those who were destined to play big time college football were much stronger, quicker, faster and more powerful than I. I worked at it; I lifted weights and worked up to a 290 pound bench press (on the universal; I did the 220 pound stack plus added weights; I got 210 with free weights) and I ran sprints on my own; alas I never could break out of the high 5′s (5.7-5.9) in the 40 yard dash. Yes, you read that correctly; I was turtle slow, though I did clock a 5:57 mile as a 220 pounder.

Tip/Wag – Evangelical Scientists & Rick Santorum – The Colbert Report – 2011-17-08 – Video Clip | Comedy Central

Evangelical scientists break up the Bible’s most famous couple, and Rick Santorum puts the issue of gay marriage into terms everyday people can understand.

Tip/Wag – Evangelical Scientists & Rick Santoru…, posted with vodpod

Illinois vs. Arizona State football: 2011 and other topics

Workout notes Easy 10K walk (two loops of Cornstalk) in 1:25. It was a bit slippery from drizzle.

College Football
(photos from yahoo)

I admitted that this was the most I’ve enjoyed a live football game in a long time. Illinois beat Arizona State 17-14 in a slugfest. The teams traded drives to get to 7-7 in the first quarter; Illinois made their second quarter field goal and Arizona State missed theirs; that turned out to be the difference.

Basically, the Sun Devils moved the ball reasonably well between the 30′s but had trouble finishing drives. The Illinois defense played lights out and sacked the Sun Devil quarterback repeatedly (6 times) and came up with fumbles/interceptions. They also, for the most part, took away the running game. They moved the ball just enough to take advantage of Arizona State miscues.

Neither team is top 10 material, but my guess is that both will play a bowl game.

Note: if Illinois overlooks Western Michigan (next week’s opponent) they do so at their peril.

The crowd was really into it; this was the best atmosphere I’ve witnessed in this stadium in a while.

Football WTF???
When I left to go to this game (90 minutes away), Pitt was dominating Iowa and up 27-10 in the 4′th quarter.

The Hawkeyes rallied to win 31-27??? I admit that Iowa looked deader than a doornail when I left.

But this wasn’t the biggest rally…

Houston trailed Louisiana Tech 34-7 in the 3′rd quarter; they rally to win 35-34.

This wasn’t the strangest game though.

Oklahoma State played at Tulsa and the game was scheduled to start at 9:15 central time. There was a lighting delay and the game didn’t start until after midnight!

Astonishingly there were still fans at the game; oh yes, Oklahoma State won 59-33.

Famous Last Words
When Texas beat BYU 17-16, I said that I thought that BYU has a big, physical team that would win a lot of games. They got blown out at home 54-10 by Utah. I don’t understand that.

I didn’t see Navy’s 24-21 loss at South Carolina.

It was a heart breaker for Navy, but a good performance nevertheless.

In other action, ND played well (for a change) to whip Michigan State 31-13, and UT cruised past a bad UCLA team 49-20.