I'll
never forget moving back to the town of my birth ~ Memphis, TX ~ in the
summer prior to my junior year in high school. It was not a move about
which I was extremely excited to say the least.
I had spent, what
I considered to be at that point in my life, the best four years ever
in Ft. Smith, AR! When I received the news of the move, I sought every
conceivable way to alter the plans to take me away from my friends, my
school and my activities. Regardless of the approach I took, none worked
and I found myself in that small town in the Panhandle of Texas.
It
wasn't like I was moving in as a total stranger. I had spent
considerable time there and had even attended school on a couple of
occasions over the years ~ but this was different. I was moving during
high school!
I decided that I would work to make the best of it
and found myself engaged in summer two-a-day football workouts almost as
soon as my feet hit the ground.
I recall, after the first
practice, how excited I was to be part of such an extraordinary group of
guys! They were perhaps one of the most talented collection of players I
had seen in a long time! I suddenly felt a that maybe the move would
have some positive outcomes after all.
Well, the season began and
in my mind I could see a perfect record shaping up . . . and we DID
have a perfect record ~ 0 and 10! Yes! We lost every game we played! We
were everyone's Homecoming game! It was humiliating and disappointing to
say the least.
I looked back at that season often and wondered what happened, then one day many years later, it hit me!
Although
I cannot say for sure how far reaching the impact on the team, the
school or the town ~ I realized that the death of a senior football
player in a tragic car accident the month or so prior to the beginning
of school had to have played a part in what transpired that year.
In
small towns, there is a closeness that often defies description. The
entire town was devastated! As a teen, I was unable to emotionally or
intellectually quantify what I sensed and experienced, but the impact
was obvious!
A pall hovered over the community that perhaps
continues even today. I know that I often reflect back on the potential
effects that single event had on a community, a school and a team.
I
can only speculate, but through the years, I have witnessed similar
effects on students, schools and communities when a tragedy of this sort
interrupts the routine.
The fall 1969 season for the Memphis
Cyclone football team is in the record as a perfect season ~ 0 and 10 ~
but, from where I stand now, there should be an asterisk beside that
stat.
