Friday Night Lights

 

This week is the last week of the 2020 football season for the Mildred Eagles. It has been an interesting season that will be one for the history books. There has been no season like it in living memory with the shadow of COVID hanging over the season. The Eagles have had some struggles with COVID with a player coming down with it but fortunately have not had to cancel or forfeit any games due to COVID.

For the Eagles, nothing has gone to plan this season. They came into the season with high hopes but then struggled as injuries mounted and having a player transfer. They had three girls tryout for the team and play as kickers and have done really well. One even went down to JV where she played on defense in addition to kicking duties.

The team struggled at times while showing flashes of their talent. In honor of this being the last week of the season, I thought I would include a couple football-related stories.

Every player has a routine on game day. Something they like doing or eating the afternoon of the game. For my friends and I playing in the late ’90s, several of us would go to ‘The Other Place’ Restaurant on 7^th Ave in Corsicana, currently the location of Ellinya’s Italian Restaurant, before home games. We would eat a burger or chicken strips or something similar before going back to the fieldhouse to get ready for the game.

My grandfather told me a story about a player who played with him. This would have been either 1950 or 1951, I think. Mr. Asby told the players before leaving school to go home, eat a couple scrambled eggs, bacon, and a piece of toast to get ready for the game. One of the offensive linemen told Mr. Asby when they got back to the school, “Mr. Asby, my momma wasn’t at home when I got home to fix me some eggs but she baked a cake last night so I ate the cake.” Note I said the cake and not a piece of the cake.

When I asked what was Mr. Asby’s reaction, he told me, “he just laughed. What could he do at that point?”

I cannot imagine trying to play a game after eating a whole cake!

Many a story could be told of Mr. Asby. He is a local legend that was a coach, teacher, principal, and superintendent at Mildred ISD in a career that spanned decades. One of my friend’s dad liked to tell us how two of his friends were fighting. Mr. Asby broke them up before giving them boxing gloves. He told them to go ahead and finish their fight, but the winner would face him (Mr. Asby). Suddenly, neither boy had the urge to fight.

Many of you have their own stories about Mr. Asby. My grandfather has told me many over the years and I will include them at some point in a post of their own.

The Eagles have made a few deep playoffs runs over the years including making it to the State Championship Game in 2012 led by Nic Shimonek and company.

Another notable run was in 1976 when the team made a deep into the playoffs before facing Ben Bolt in the Regional Finals game. One of my friend’s dad who played on the team liked to tell us how “they thought they were good, then they faced Ben Bolt”. Ben Bolt for those who don’t know is in the Valley near Kingsville. He used to like to tell us “the entire team for Ben Bolt was Hispanic and spoke Spanish. They would run up to the line, call out the play in Spanish, and off they would go. We had no idea what hit us or was going on. None of us spoke more than a few words of Spanish.” Ben Bolt ended up beating the Eagles 26-0 before falling in the State Championship game.

Football is something that has united the community for generations. Friday nights in the fall see the community come together to support their boys (and girls). The team may be better some years than others, but the community supports them all the same.

If you have a football player or know one, or even a student of this year or last year, have them write down their story. We have all lived through seminal moments in history. Many people my generation can tell vividly where they were on 9/11 or when the Oklahoma City Bombing occurred. For my parents, it may be when JKF was assassinated or Challenger exploded.

We all have a story and for kids today, their story will include what it was like coming of age in the midst of a global pandemic and all the uncertainty that is contained therein. How many of us would like to ask our grandparents or great grandparents what it was like during the Spanish Flu a hundred years ago.

Our story is something that unites us. We all have a story to tell, experiences we have lived through. For my kids growing up today, they cannot fathom growing up without the internet. For people my age, we cannot fathom what it was like to grow up without running water or some of the hardships our grandparents or great grandparents experienced as normal ways of life. One of the goals of this project is to share my family’s stories before they are lost to time and hopefully you to share or write down your own stories before they are lost.

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” ~Marcus Garvey

Everyone have a great week!