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drjeff's post and this article on turf eliminating muddy high school football games sent *me* to the wayback machine......to 25 years ago, October 25, 1984.
Our freshman football team was dominant. We won the first six games of the season with a combination of an aggressive defense and a big-play offense. Our seventh game was scheduled for Thursday, October 25 at our arch-rival, Upper St. Clair High School. We defeated them earlier in the season at home, 13-6.
The weather had been clear for the first six games, but on this late October day, the skies opened. Rain fell all day, and I knew what this would mean....a MUD BOWL.
Helping this along is the fact that Upper St. Clair had the freshman game played on a practice field which had undoubtedly been torn up by 2 1/2 months of use.
We arrived at the field, and sure enough, it was full of not only mud, but muddy ruts and even deep puddles - great for a game of slop football with beers afterward.....and great for us. (Earlier in the season, a group of our players slid around in the mud after practice on our field....why not do it for real!)
Shortly after the game started, a girl from our school who came to watch the game teased me about my uniform being clean. A couple minutes later, I was sent into the game (I was a defensive tackle).
We stopped USC, and they were punting. I got past my blocker and lumbered towards the punter. As he dropped the ball, I dove for where the ball would be.....and barely missed it. I didn't miss one of the dozens of puddles on the field, though.
After I got up, I ran downfield and got back to near where the returner had fumbled....and blocked one of the players covering the kick. Down I went into the mud again, and I found the girl and showed her my well-earned coating of muck.
It was not great football, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. We won, 13-0, to cap off a perfect season. Little did I know that would be my last football game - I would injure my knee in training camp the next two years and not go out my senior year.
drjeff's post and this article on turf eliminating muddy high school football games sent *me* to the wayback machine......to 25 years ago, October 25, 1984.Our freshman football team was dominant. We won the first six games of the season with a combination of an aggressive defense and a big-play offense. Our seventh game was scheduled for Thursday, October 25 at our arch-rival, Upper St. Clair High School. We defeated them earlier in the season at home, 13-6.
The weather had been clear for the first six games, but on this late October day, the skies opened. Rain fell all day, and I knew what this would mean....a MUD BOWL.
Helping this along is the fact that Upper St. Clair had the freshman game played on a practice field which had undoubtedly been torn up by 2 1/2 months of use.
We arrived at the field, and sure enough, it was full of not only mud, but muddy ruts and even deep puddles - great for a game of slop football with beers afterward.....and great for us. (Earlier in the season, a group of our players slid around in the mud after practice on our field....why not do it for real!)
Shortly after the game started, a girl from our school who came to watch the game teased me about my uniform being clean. A couple minutes later, I was sent into the game (I was a defensive tackle).
We stopped USC, and they were punting. I got past my blocker and lumbered towards the punter. As he dropped the ball, I dove for where the ball would be.....and barely missed it. I didn't miss one of the dozens of puddles on the field, though.
After I got up, I ran downfield and got back to near where the returner had fumbled....and blocked one of the players covering the kick. Down I went into the mud again, and I found the girl and showed her my well-earned coating of muck.
It was not great football, but it was a hell of a lot of fun. We won, 13-0, to cap off a perfect season. Little did I know that would be my last football game - I would injure my knee in training camp the next two years and not go out my senior year.
