Gary was on the front porch waiting for Jim Thompson to pick him up to begin the game day routine. Jim used his parent’s station wagon to pick up the players from Spanish Lake, most of them anyway. Actually, there were only four, Jim, Ron Lumberjack, Dan Masters and Gary. Gary’s mind wasn’t on the game. It was and it wasn’t. He was reliving the argument he had the night before with his father about playing the game. No, about starting the game; this stupid football game. His father made it out like this was his only shot to go to a college. He hadn’t even thought about going to college much less a specific one. He recalled saying to his father that he wasn’t him and he was never going to be him. When he finally noticed that his mother and sister were crying, he gave up and went to his room and went to bed.
A car horn briefly bleated to bring him out of his reverie, and he looked up at the Dodge station wagon waiting for him at the bottom of the sidewalk. He grabbed his gym bag, got up from his seat, walked down the hedge lined sidewalk and got in the back seat next to Ron.
“Hey,” Ron said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, why?” Gary answered as he buckled his seat belt.
“You looked weird,” Dan said from the front seat.
“Getting ready for the game,” Gary said as Jim put the car in gear and pulled away from the front of his house.
The game day ritual included breakfast at the Ponderosa Steak House near the corner of Lindbergh and New Halls Ferry Road just down the street from the high school. The restaurant opened early for a pre-game meal of a sirloin steak, baked potato, and drink for $5.00. The team gathered in the parking lot and waited for the coaches to show up promptly at 9:00 a.m. Gary stood with the D-Backs and their conversation was never about the upcoming game but intentionally about something else. Today’s topic was, of course, who they were taking to the Homecoming Dance. Smitty, Nick and Andy were dating cheerleaders and they had been for a long time. Jonesy and Rick decided not to take anyone but to go alone in order to dance with and talk to anyone they wanted. Gary was taking Janet and was receiving grief because he not only was taking her to homecoming, but it was their first date.
“But your first date, man,” Jonesy was admonishing him. “I know you have been friends for a long time and, frankly, inevitable, that you would be going out, but your first date?”
“Wait,” Gary responded in surprise. “Inevitable? What does that mean?”
“Oh c’mon, Gary, you know you two were going to get together sooner or later, right?” Smitty chimed in. “Everyone else knew.”
“The coaches are here,” Tim announced.
“I’m hungry,” Rick started to lead them to the entrance of the restaurant.
Gary watched them walk in front of him, stepped in line behind them and said to himself, “I didn’t know.”
***
Gary sat in his gold game pants, a t-shirt, black knee-length socks, and tennis shoes at his locker among other people that were coming and going out of the room. Some of them were in the process of getting their ankles taped while others were getting dressed for the game. Dan Masters walked into the room holding a football. He, too, was dressed identically to Gary.
“Are you ready?” Dan tossed the ball to Gary.
“Yep,” Gary stood and tossed the ball back to him.
The pre-game ritual was continuing as Gary and Dan exited the locker room to go into the gym. At 11:00 a.m. on the day of every game, Dan would warm-up by throwing the football to Gary, and only to Gary, in the gym. There never was any talking and they started ten yards apart. Dan would point behind Gary to indicate to him to back up at ten-yard increments until they were approximately 50 yards apart. After several tosses at that distance, Dan would point to the left and to the right for Gary to run in that direction and he would throw him the ball as he ran. Back and forth, he would run and catch the ball until Dan would throw his final toss in a high arc indicating to Gary that he was done. Dan would wait for Gary to jog to him and together they would return to the locker room.
Game time was 1:00 p.m. and at high noon, the special teams, kick-off, and punt team members, would gather at the exit to the practice field. Kenny the kicker led them outside and down the sidewalk to the track and football field. They would clap in a three-step cadence of clap-clap, “Hawks!” as they walked toward the field. The McCluer Comets were already on the field lined up in neat rows performing their pre-game activities.
Once they were on the field, Gary went with the kick-off and punt returners behind the field goal posts to catch Kenny’s field goal kick attempts. He took his turn catching and running a short distance before tossing the football back to Dan who was practicing holding the ball on the ground for Kenny. He ran to the back of the line and scanned the crowd gathering in the stands. His parents sat in the same spot behind the bench about 12 rows up and he saw that both of his parents were already there. He was surprised to see his father. His mother was talking to someone sitting next to her, but his father simply sat, upright, on the other side of her. He watched as his three siblings sat behind them carrying little red and white boxes of popcorn.
In front of him, Kenny moved away from Dan and was preparing to kick a few punts. Gary and the receivers moved their line from behind the field goal posts to stand and wait beside them. Ken took a step forward, swung his right leg and kicked a high, spiraling football toward them. Tim settled beneath it, caught it, and ran with the ball back to Kenny. He repeated the motions and the ball was heading toward Gary. He dropped a step backward then jog forward and caught the ball on the run. He returned it to Kenny and jogged back to the rear of the line behind Tim. In the distance, he heard the rhythm of clap-clap “Hawks!” as the remainder of the team was leaving the school building to join them. The Marching Band who was waiting in the end zone at the far end of the field began to play the fight song. The Special Team squad ran to the center of the field and began to match the cadence of their approaching teammates, clap-clap “Hawks!” and the chant is overshadowed by the music of the band. The two parts of the team met in the center when the fight song ended and the clap-clap “Hawks!” was the only thing heard and that chant was picked up by the people in the stands. The cheerleaders shook their pom-poms to the beat and the sound of “Hawks!” seemed to echo all around the field.
Dan, one of the captains yelled “One!”
Clap-clap “Hawks!”
Ron, the other captain yelled “Two!”
Clap-clap “Hawks!”
Dan yelled “Three!”
One final clap-clap “Hawks!” and the crowd cheered, and the team spread out and continued their pre-game warm-up drills.
***
The Hawks lost the coin toss and the kick-off team lined up as Kenny placed the football on the tee. Gary jogged to his place at the end of the line, turned, and glanced up to find his family sitting in the bleachers. His father was there, and he thought maybe his father would stick around and watch the game. He returned his attention to the field of play and waited for the referee’s whistle to indicate the start of the game. The whistle blew. Kenny approached the ball, swung his leg, and kicked the ball downfield. Gary began his sprint down the field. The ball flew to the far side of the field and the receiver caught the ball and began to run back toward him. He saw a lane at a good angle through the mass of players before him and he ran toward it. The ball carrier was looking away from him when Gary lowered his head and reached out to tackle him. As he latched on to him, another teammate joined the tackle, and the ball carrier went to the ground. A whistle blew and everyone on the ground rose to their feet and some, like Gary, jogged to the sideline.
Gary continued running through the line of players on the sideline and came to a stop next to Steve Strange, the backup tight end, who Gary stood with during games. They started standing together during games when the season began and continued to do throughout the season. Superstition is real.
“Nice tackle,” Steve told him.
“Your welcome,” Gary replied as he removed his helmet from his head.
“Jackson!” Coach Simon yelled. “You stand by me today!”
“Well, I got to go,” he called to Steve as he placed his helmet back on his head and jogged to stand by his defensive back coach. On the field, the Comets were spreading out and Gary’s defensive teammates were matching them. When the ball was snapped, Rick ran through the line of scrimmage in a blitz. The Comet quarterback calmly avoided him and threw the ball to their running back out in the flat. He was immediately tackled, and a whistle blew stopping the play.
The second play was a running play to the fullback up the middle and the play was immediately stopped, setting up a long third down play.
“Jackson go out there for Rick and tell them to play a zone, three deep,” Coach Simon told him. Gary ran unto the field yelling “Rick! Rick!” who ran off of the field. he joined the defensive huddle. Smitty was just making the defensive call of “61”.
“Three deep zone,” Gary added as the eleven players clapped in unison and spread out to wait for the Comets.
They came out in a spread offense, splitting out their ends and setting up their flanker in a slot to Gary’s left. Andy ran to stand in front of the flanker, and it was his job to follow that player wherever he went on the field. Gary ran to cover the left side of the field, Smitty stayed in the middle, and Tim stayed on the far right. The ball was hiked to the quarterback and he dropped back as the receiver in front of him cut across from Gary’s zone to Smithy’s and the flanker ran straight up the field, turned, and suddenly ran to his right into Gary’s zone. Andy was a step behind him trying to keep up and Gary ran to his left to stay in front of the receiver. The quarterback decided to throw the ball at that moment to that receiver. Gary decided that he had a good chance to catch the ball before the receiver and sprung into action. He reached for the ball at the same time the receiver was stretching to catch it. Gary got hold of it first and started running back across the field but only got about three steps before he was tackled. Interception!
The crowd was cheering and yelling as Gary ran off the field receiving slaps to the top of his helmet from the offensive players as they passed him on the field. He ran to the end of the bench and grabbed a paper cup from the water cooler. Before he filled it with water, he glanced up toward his family only to find that his father was missing. His mother and his siblings were going crazy with their applause, screaming, and waving at him. Gary crumbled the paper cup and threw it on the ground, turned and sat down on the bench.
Gary played most of the second half and it was during this time, he made the play his friends love to talk about him. The Comets star quarterback, Steve Parker, was having a bad day. The Hawks defense strategy of stopping Steve Parker and, ultimately, stop the Comets certainly worked in this game. Gary was now playing free safety as there was no doubt the Hawks were going to win their homecoming game and Smitty was given the rest of the day off. The Comets were passing the ball on just about every play. It was third down and twenty yards to go for them to receive a first down, when they spread out their formation and the Hawks were playing a total zone defense. Just like in his earlier play, the flanker headed to Gary’s left and the split end ran across and straight up the center of the field. The teammate in front of Gary was Ron who was in front of the potential receiver and Gary was immediately behind him. There is absolutely no way the “star” quarterback would try to pass the ball to this receiver as he was completely covered by Ron and Gary, but Steve Parker did. Gary very easily jumped in front of the receiver and intercepted his second pass of the day.
“Go Gary!” Ron yelled as Gary ran past him, looking at a clear field to the end zone. He churned his legs a little harder as he angled his run toward the flag on the far left of the end zone. He was getting excited that he might get a touchdown when he was fifteen yards away from it. He was at the ten-yard line when he found himself running along the sideline. He was at the five when he felt someone grab at his shoulder and he yanked himself forward. The effort caused him to get off balance and he jumped toward the end zone and he heard the whistle blow. He jumped to his feet and tossed the ball to the referee who placed the ball about a half yard from the end zone line. He was just short of a touchdown.
The crowd was in a frenzy when he left the field and Dan came up to him on his way out onto the field and said, “Don’t worry! We got this!” Gary stood on the edge of the line of players, next to Steve, and watched Dan take the snap from center, put his head down and scored the touchdown. He turned away from the field and looked up at the stands toward his family who were standing and cheering him on. Janet had joined them and was cheering, too. His Dad missed it – the best game he ever played.
To be continued…
My First Stories 