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Post by senatorblutarsky on Jan 19, 2024 17:13:24 GMT -6
My experience was very similar to that of coachwoodall . Probably not surprising since I graduated one year earlier than he did. A lot of the other “seasoned” guys mentioned things very similar as well:
Salt pills, no water, shimmel shirts/jerseys, getting my bell rung, thud (Coach, is this “full thud”?), distance runner training, pre-game team meals… good times, good times… I went to a large (about 2600) school who was very bad at football. We won 2 games in my first 3 years at that high school (we weren’t connected to the varsity in any way in 9th grade… we were considered junior high). I played on varsity as a long snapper as a soph., and C/G and LB my junior and senior years. I started every game I was available for during those years (I missed 6 games with a broken leg as a junior), which tells me how poor we really were. We did not have water at practice ever until I was a senior (new coach). I remember as a sophomore we came in after a long hot practice and guys were lined up at the one drinking fountain, the one sink, the showers (6 or 8, I think)… but our senior NT went over and flushed the urinal (twice)… then started drinking out of that. I made it a point to never mess with him. I do remember having “Gatorade gum”, which I had often at practice. I would form it in my mouthpiece to help feel refreshed/hydrated. It didn’t work at all. Our league had 12 teams (two divisions of 6)- we did have state playoffs (so it was rumored… we were never even close until my senior year). The top 4 in our league would make it to state: both 1s would play for the top seed. 2 vs. 3 to qualify… then 4 vs. 4, 5 vs. 5, etc. in the “toilet bowl” games. We improved by one every year going from the 6 vs. 6 game as sophomores eventually to the 4 vs. 4 game my senior year. In the 6 vs. 6 game my sophomore year (which was at least our third in a row at the school)- we were ahead by a TD, and for some reason with about 1:30 left in the game, they let all us sophomores play offense. We ran a reverse (called by our sophomore HC). Apparently, our (varsity) HC lost his mind… until we scored and went up by 2 scores and held the lead for a win. Talking about guys chewing tobacco… we had to hide it in high school because we would get in trouble. We had to hide it in college because every coach on the staff would “bum a chew” off you until you were out. I had to get a “decoy can” and take it on road trips. Most of the other stuff I remember from college I won’t share, because it’s probably still admissible. Back then, NAIA was known as the “National Association of Ineligible Athletes”… which isn’t fair, because many players were eventually eligible for parole… |
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Post by irishdog on Jan 19, 2024 17:44:28 GMT -6
-I had NUMEROUS concussions while playing, you got your bell rung and you toughed it out. I think it causes me to forget stuff. Nowadays they don't pull that. -I had NUMEROUS concussions while playing, you got your bell rung and you toughed it out. I think it causes me to forget stuff. Nowadays they don't pull that. -I had NUMEROUS concussions while playing, you got your bell rung and you toughed it out. I think it causes me to forget stuff. Nowadays they don't pull that. nice way to put it!!! I'm convinced that my horrible tinnitus today was caused by those 'bell ringers' Had my bell rung four times. Once in HS, twice in JC, and once in college. No, wait, once in JC and twice in college. No...it was twice in JC. Anyway, I do remember that one happened in Bakersfield, and one in Coalinga. Not only had the bell ringer in Bakersfield but it also came with 7 stitches in my chin. Even after watching the film we couldn't tell how that happened. The Coalinga ringer was rough. Found myself on the bench with an ice pack on the back of my neck. Had NO IDEA what happened or where I was. At first I thought I was in Santa Maria, but my buddies laughed and told me we had already played there. Eventually figured out where I was on my own. Nice. |
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Post by coachdubyah on Jan 19, 2024 18:24:15 GMT -6
I just feel like this needs to be in here. it's not /showingposting, but is the Andy Griffen clip? NFL Rocks on YouTube. Bunch of “bangers” (as the kids say) in this. |
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Post by groundchuck on Jan 19, 2024 21:09:27 GMT -6
We drank water from a hose connected to a iron pipe with holes drilled in it. {censored} it probably lead for all I know.
I had an old school neck roll and huge pads and Nike Landsharks....I had Spot-Bilt cleats for my first three years of high school.
I wore a Max Pro helmet with a cloth chin strap until my senior year. I earned the Air Helmet and hard cup chin strap as a senior.
One day a thunderstorm rolled in and we kept practicing. We did bull in the ring while wondering if we were going to get electrocuted.
And to bring this full circle to the Deion thread. I had a pair of those mid-1990s Air Mac Diamond Turf Trainers and a pair of those 1990s vintage Oakley Razors. I thought I was part Prime and part Boz.
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Post by agap on Jan 19, 2024 21:49:54 GMT -6
My senior season was in 2005. We did cals for about the first 15 minutes and than grass drills. After that we had stations, which was agility, ropes, monkey rolls, etc. We probably spent the first 45 minutes on these things. Than we'd have either offense/defense for the next hour, and then finished with some type of conditioning for the last 15 minutes. We probably got water 2-3 times during that time. Many students would be puking throughout grass drills and stations. We also had to practice on the "practice fields" that they didn't water. If we were lucky, we'd go to the practice field they watered once a week.
I don't remember ever being taught how to tackle. We did the Eye Opener drill where we got concussions every time.
At the time, we had about 4 good helmets each year that the captains got. Otherwise the rest got helmets from the 90s that were probably 15 years old.
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Post by tog on Jan 19, 2024 22:19:43 GMT -6
I remember flatback ol play
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Post by CS on Jan 20, 2024 5:54:35 GMT -6
My senior season was in 2005. We did cals for about the first 15 minutes and than grass drills. After that we had stations, which was agility, ropes, monkey rolls, etc. We probably spent the first 45 minutes on these things. Than we'd have either offense/defense for the next hour, and then finished with some type of conditioning for the last 15 minutes. We probably got water 2-3 times during that time. Many students would be puking throughout grass drills and stations. We also had to practice on the "practice fields" that they didn't water. If we were lucky, we'd go to the practice field they watered once a week. I don't remember ever being taught how to tackle. We did the Eye Opener drill where we got concussions every time. At the time, we had about 4 good helmets each year that the captains got. Otherwise the rest got helmets from the 90s that were probably 15 years old. When I first got into coaching the kids called the “good” helmets when I played “buckets” 😂. That’s good doodoo You bring up a good point about tackling. We never did tackling drills. I was the force player in our defense and was never really taught how to do it. |
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Post by freezeoption on Jan 20, 2024 8:02:21 GMT -6
I remember my first year of real football, 7th grade. I was lucky and had a big head so I got a Bike helmet with hard pillow pads in it. Some kids got helmets with elastic bands that looked like a trampoline, outside the ear section was bigger that the helmet. Two clear bars for the face mask and looked like a leather coating. We all had different helmets.
A coach didn't give me a belt so my first practice I ran all over but had to hold my pants up. I said to the coach am I supposed to hold my pants up, he said no you need a belt. He didn't get me one so I used my leather belt. I wore my only shoes, canvas high tops.
One of my favorite drils is where we had a wooden shed by the practice field. The coach would but the defensive line backs to it. Offensive line were to block you, if you gave ground you got driven into it. We had one coach per grade, 7 through 10th grade. About 50 kids each class.
One made me love it, I got to hit a kid that mouthed me and called me fat. I didn't know Dick Butkis but I did that visualization he talked about where my tackles would decapitate the kid.
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Post by hlb2 on Jan 20, 2024 9:34:01 GMT -6
94' graduate, played in central FL in a very rural area (swamp, cow pastures and orange groves baby). Played guard, center and LB in the 50 defense with a little bit of NT my senior year. 3 year starter. Senior year we had the 1st winning record at that school in over 20 years. Good times. Was fortunate enough to be picked up by an NAIA school in Kentucky as a guard. Played there 3 years before career was cut short due to neck injury, then GA'd after that. Wore huge pads because I wasn't very big and wanted to look bigger. Wore the cowboy collar and a mirror visor (not allowed today). Wore Neumann gloves too, even as an OL. I hated the big bulky OL gloves. When you were as sh!tty as I was, you needed to hold, but those old open jerseys everyone wore would tear your fingernails up (as someone already mentioned). 2 a days in HS were hell in the FL heat. My dad owned a construction company and I'd work between practices cleaning up job sites and delivering material to various jobs throughout the area. On the days I was lucky not to have to work we'd go to someone's house that had a pool and swim. Well, we wouldn't actually swim, we'd just sit in the cool water dreading the next practice. Things were wild where I went to school, we'd go fire hunting at night after practice (hunting deer with a spotlight) or hog hunting with dogs and get up the next day and do it all over again. Ah to be young again! Then again...maybe not. That transitioned into 3 a days in college, hours of film (which I loved) and opponent breakdown. The school I went to was very rural so it fit with my rural upbringing. I got educated real quick, fast and in a hurry about being the small fish in a big pond. Got my ducks in a row as a sophomore and was able to start 8 games. Made 3 starts as a junior before my injury. I saw the writing on the wall though, my body just would not let me continue to play the game at that level. So I got into coaching. Loved every minute of it. 18 hour days, the grind, I loved it as a 20 year old. The $400 every two week stipend and getting married killed that though. But, it fired up my love for coaching, so there is that. Like some have said, I would not trade a dam minute of it for nothing! Edit: My one claim to fame is that during my time as a starter in both HS and college I blocked for a thousand yard rusher every year. I always though that was pretty neat. Anyhoo... Did you ever line up against the Blue Darters? Nope, never did. They were a bit too far north to be in any sort of district with us. |
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Post by mrjvi on Jan 20, 2024 14:18:23 GMT -6
Fall 1976 I was playing center on our HS team. My right guard was a buck 30 maybe but hit harder than anyone on our team. One play he pulls and levels a guy with his head. He comes back to the huddle and says, "John" (me), "the lines on the field are green and the grass is white". I got him out of there fast. He was back in the game the next quarter.
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Post by dubber on Jan 21, 2024 23:59:11 GMT -6
00-03 rural area
PVC pipe watering station
We were still using pins and mesh bags for laundry.
Practiced in right field of the baseball diamond…..still remember taking tumbles into the in field and getting cinders in my cleats.
Craziest story was my junior year in the playoffs we played the state school for the deaf…..only they were sending their kids home for fall break, so we had to play them on a Wednesday.
Weirdest game ever.
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Post by brophy on Jan 22, 2024 3:18:49 GMT -6
what the game was like for them while they still played the game. I'm not sure what "the game" means in today's world, but whenever I reminisce of what "the game" was for me two real things stand out. 1. Off-Season Conditioning 2. "BEING" a Football player Conditioning and Partying...thats what I remember most. The games were a blur. For the most part, you could've bashed my head with a golf club for 60 minutes and I would have the same recollection of what happened during the game. |
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Post by brophy on Jan 22, 2024 7:33:57 GMT -6
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Post by wacotd on Jan 22, 2024 16:15:23 GMT -6
transferred to a DII school in the Midwest, early 80s. First practice of fall camp we had a water break. I got a paper cup full and took a drink - instantly spit it out. The trainers put salt in the water cooler. I did without.
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lws55
Sophomore Member
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Post by lws55 on Jan 23, 2024 8:34:13 GMT -6
I graduated in 1994. Was a starter all 3 years of high school (we had junior high so Freshman were not in the high school). I never came of the field. On offense I played Guard, Tackle, and Center in that order from my Sophomore year forward (I did get to play some fullback on big boy package). On Defense I was a end and then my senior year I was moved to Middle Linebacker. I was also the long snapper and on all the special teams. My sophomore and junior years we had to play JV on Mondays and then the Varsity game on Friday (we would not have enough players to field a JV team if we didn't play both games) Seniors were not allowed to play JV.
We got water, from a PVC pipe that was bolted to the fence and had holes drilled in it. We had 3 coaches, our HC was our OC and an off campus real estate agent was our DC and then one assistant that kind of coached everything. We had no structured off season program, other than our HC would open the weight room and then sit out side of it until 5 reading the newspaper and then would tell us when it was time to go home. We learned to lift from Body Building Magazines and Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding. I didn't know what a clean was until my Senior year when a guy that gone to college came home and was lifting and did them during his workout.
I dislocated two fingers on my hand, when I came over to the sideline to get help the DC kept telling me the next play we were going to run, I was trying to show him my hand and he ignored it, I was dumbfounded. Meanwhile the assistant coach came around behind me grabbed my fingers and popped them back in. The DC gave me a pat on the helmet reminded me of the call and sent me back out.
I was one of 2 guys that was able to play football in college, going to one of the top jucos in the nation at the time. Wouldn't trade my time at Juco for anything. I won more games my Freshman year in College than I did my entire 3 years in High School.
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Post by brophy on Jan 23, 2024 10:39:09 GMT -6
an even better football coaching story is the 2nd guy on the left was a class ahead of me in high school. I knew him well, sweet great guy. He went on to start at Indiana. Didn't stop me from getting steamrolled all afternoon by him and his buddies Anyway, I later paid him back while coaching HS at our alma mater some 13 years later. We had a lawn chair in the coach's office that had been beat to hell, thrown in a rage during halftimes and had one too many fat guys sitting in it. The thing was trashed. I decided to string it together with the least amount of athletic tape and string. When my friend Ghaton (some 350 at the time) visited us on game night all the seats were taken......but this one. The chair disintegrated the instant he sat down and the entire room lost it. so be warned  |
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