Day 23: Football journey…part 4
I walked into the gym and Coach Bud said, “Congratulations!” and I said, “For what?”. He asked me if I had read the paper today and I said I hadn’t, then he told me that I had been selected for the Shrine Bowl.
This was a shock! I had come from a no-name Junior to what is the biggest honor in the state of North Carolina for High School football players, was this real? Turns out it was! I got home that night and there it was in the paper and soon after I received an official letter asking me if I wanted to attend…which I accepted immediately and now the real fun began.
Let me explain. The Shrine Bowl in the Carolinas means, 33 Seniors from North Carolina playing in a bowl game in Charlotte, NC against 33 Seniors from South Carolina. We got out of school for a week during the month of December to practice and play and EVERY college coach east of the Mississippi, and some beyond, were there to see the top prospects from both states. This was a dream come true, a make-or-break situation for college scholarships and your future.
Right before I left, Coach Bud said to me, “Now, the first day you get on the field, the coach is going to come up and talk to everybody. Then he is going to put the football down on the ground and say…’Give me a center, two guards and two tackles…’ as soon as he says that be the first center to jump on that ball.”
There were 3 centers invited, me, Larry Tootoo from Wilmington, and Jim Tomanchek from a big 4A school in Charlotte, where we were playing the game. Larry and I were roommates and about the same size…6’ 200 lbs. Jim T was about 6’2” 220 lbs. and looked like a giant compared to us. But it didn’t matter…just as Coach Bud said the first day, the coach talked to us, put the ball down and before he could get out of the way, I was standing over it. So, I was first team offense that day and I never lost my spot, by game time on Saturday, I was the starting center. Jim Tomanchek snapped punts and extra points, which was fine for me because I hated those.
Let me back up a little. Larry Tootoo was Samoan and my roommate. He was from a big family who were all great football players. He was quiet at first, didn’t say much, but you could tell when it came to football, he was no joke. The first question he asked me was if I like to use my head when I hit. He was a linebacker and center and tough as nails.
That first night when we went to bed, he knelt by his bed to say his prayers. In typical Larry fashion he looks up and says, “Don’t you pray?” I told him I had already said my prayers and so he went back to his.
On the way over to the field the next day, Larry and I sat on the bus together and as we pulled up, he said, “We may be friends now, but when we get on the field…we aren’t.” Later that week when the final starting lineup came out Larry said to me, “You are the first person to ever beat me out at center.” A man of few words, but as starting middle linebacker, he won the most valuable defensive player of the game…and that’s saying something.
Everyday we were treated like kings, recruiters everywhere, in the hotel, on the practice field and in the hallways stopping to talk to you and tell you about their school. It was the Disneyland for High School Football players and like a dream.
We ate all our meals in a big cafeteria, both North and South Carolina together. In the middle of the cafeteria against a wall was a big scale to weigh yourself. Now why it was there, I have no idea, but it was. It was one with a big round face and the needle went from 0 at the 12 o’clock position around to 100 at the 12 o’clock position again. Well, South Carolina had a goliath of a lineman and every night after the evening meal about 10-15 South Carolina guys would walk up with him to the scale and he would get on and the dial would spin 3 times (meaning 300 lbs.) and then they would all cheer. It was crazy land.
My only thought was, “I hope he plays offense, because I’m not sure I can block him.” Turns out, he was a defensive tackle in their 5-2 front, but he wasn’t over me as the nose tackle at least. I hit him on one play, and it was like being sucked into a pillow, he didn’t move, but he didn’t make the tackle either.
The nose tackle over me was about 5’10” or so and weighed 240 or 250, they grow them big in South Carolina. All I remember was him in front of me in a 3-point stance swinging his meat-hook of an arm before each snap ready to club me. I didn’t have size advantage, but I had always been quick AND I knew the count as a center. So, I might have snapped the ball a millisecond before the call, just so I could get into him before the “club” hit me and I did.
I played a good game, but we lost by a few points, and it was over. Coaches and families rushed the field to congratulate us and that was about it. But that one door opened up the world for me, I had taken full advantage of and it set the course for the next four years and really the rest of my life…which I’ll explain later in another post.
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