Football in my Life

 I wrote recently in this BLOG how important baseball was in my life. But I am an American boy, and I do love football too. I only played football for four years, all at Middlebury Union High School. I did not play youth football (flag in Middlebury) and when I went to UVM my Freshman year, they had just discontinued the football program. I did get some scholarship letters from some small New England Colleges, but I was more interested in an education...

Here I am as a "Tiger of the Week" during my senior year with Bob Cunningham. Each week the local paper would name and offensive and defensive player of the game for the previous week. I had a slight advantage, I was writing the sports coverage for that paper...

During my life, I have been to a lot of football games. First, my parents were avid fans of watching both the High School and Middlebury College games. Back then, I did not keep the ticket stubs so there is no exact record. My parents were inspired to watch my sister as a cheerleader at MUHS ('65), both brothers, John ('68) and Tom ('73), playing for Coach Hubie Wagner, and watching me ('75), who also had Coach Wagner. I would guess I attended about 75-100 high school games in Vermont. One year when I was about 7, my sister dressed me as the mascot, a ferocious Tiger.

I should mention that my Junior year, I broke my collarbone in a tri-team scrimmage (preseason against a NY team and Burlington), and missed the whole season. I did keep the statistics for Coach Wagner. That year we played our home games at Porter field at Middlebury College since the High School field was being redone and lights were added so we could play Friday night games.

The College games were a little rarer since we usually went to the HS game first, but I did enjoy a few games at Porter Field when I was growing up. I even have been to a few games at the new college field up by the golf course. My brother John use to be on the chain gang. This was after I had moved to Florida.

I saved off this 1938 photo of Middlebury College playing UVM at Porter field.

High School

Another favorite High School game to watch was the annual Shrine game between Vermont and New Hampshire. Each state would select all-stars and then play the game in August. When I was a kid, we were regulars at the games. I have ticket stubs for five games but I know I went to more. I do have the stub for the 1973 game when my friend Rex Martin, from Montpelier, led a late game comeback to upset the NH team 22-21. Rodney Bicknell was the starting QB for the game. 

In 1969, Coach Wagner and his team of assistants had the pleasure of coaching the Vermont team. The one or two week of practices were held in Middlebury. For the Provonchas, it was a family affair. Mom, being a cook at the HS, was on the crew to feed the players three meals a day. Dad was a helper in keeping the dining room clean. I was only 11 (almost 12), but I helped with the practices chasing balls and other kid jobs. My dad got the idea to have the team sign their autographs for me.

The Middlebury players that year were Peter Mackey, Dorey Gordon, and Vin Fucile. Coach Wagner even signed for me with his assistant coaches Chuck Martin and Mike Cummings. Team managers were Ric Merrill and Bill Cunningham.

Professional

Although Florida currently has three professional NFL teams, I have been to only four Tampa Bay games, one Miami game, and none in Jacksonville. My most recent game was in 2017 when the Bucs lost to the Detroit Lions 25-21. I went with my friend Doug Burns who had season tickets while his daughter attended USF in Tampa. The view from our seats...

A couple games were back in the 1980s. This photo shows the Bucs still wearing the orange uniforms and Vinny Testaverde (#14) was one of the QBs. I do remember a game against the Buffalo Bills too.

I guess I need to try and make it to Jacksonville to watch the Jaguars. Who knows, if I go, they might win a game. I can dream!

In the professional ranks, I also went to three Arena Football games with my friend Jose Marin. The Orlando Predators use to play at the Amway Arena/Center and a few seasons at UCF. It was more about the drinking and the Hooter girls, but it was a lot of fun to watch. I saw the LA KISS, NY Dragons, and San Antonio Talons play.

College

I had mentioned I went to college games as a kid. But after moving to Florida, I became a regular at some of the Bowl games, mostly the Citrus Bowl (which has had many names) held in Orlando. My friend Fred Arnold use to be a season ticket holder. He was a big fan of Penn State and we would also go see them play when they were in the state.

I have a collection of ticket stubs for 29 Division I college games. Four of these games were regular season games and include the following:

• Old Miami Orange Bowl -- Penn State 27 Miami 23 -- 0/18/1999
• Orlando Citrus Bowl 
• Florida State 23 Notre Dame 16 -- 11/12/1994
• Florida State 70 Duke 26 -- 9/2/1995
• UCF 34 Idaho 17 -- 9/20/1997 (Saw Daunte Culpepper play QB for UCF)

The other 25 games were all Bowl games. The Orlando Citrus Bowl hosted 24 of these games and the other was the Outback Bowl in Tampa where I saw Penn State beat Auburn 43-14. I started to go to the New Years Citrus Bowl in 1994. In 2006, Orlando started to host a game in late December called the Champs Bowl, then it became the Russell Athletic Bowl. The Citrus Bowl has been named the CompUSA Bowl, Ourhouse.com Bowl, and then the Capital One Bowl.

The late December Bowl game I went to 8 times and included teams:

• FSU - 2, Wisconsin - 2, Miami -2
• Notre Dame, NC State, West Virginia, Boston College
• Michigan State, Maryland, Purdue, Louisville, Virginia Tech, Rutgers

The New Years Citrus Bowl game I went to 17 times and saw teams from the SEC vs Big 10:

• Auburn(3), Georgia(3), LSU(2), Florida(3), South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee(2), Arkansas
• Penn State(4), Michigan St(2), Purdue, Nebraska(2), Iowa, Michigan(4), Ohio State(2), Wisconsin

In the 2008 game, Michigan beat Florida 31-24

In 2008, the QB for Florida was Tim Tebow...

In 2008, the two teams meet after the game...

In 2012, I saw South Carolina beat Nebraska 30-13

Another great thing about the Citrus Bowl is the Marching bands, both before the game and at halftime. In 2013, the Georgia and Nebraska Marching Bands both performed before the game...

And yes, there was a lot of tailgating. In 2013, Brandon came to the game with me. That is Fred Arnold in the blue Penn State shirt, one of the organizers of a fun time each New Years Day.

Coaching Youth Football

Back in 1981, I was an assistant coach for the Satellite Beach Cowboys. That is me in the middle back. The head coach was Clay Hatley, my supervisor back then at ENSCO. His son played on the team as well as my bosses kid David Pitkethly, #44. I still have occasional beers with John and David. The Asst Coach on the back left is Fred Arnold.

Fred would start coaching again and then he became President of the South Beaches Football. I coached with Fred back in the mid 1990s and even was head coach for a few years. Here we are after a game in 1995.

We coached the Mighty Mites, age 8-10. Fred moved up to the next age level so I took over the Mighty Mites. During the games at this level, the coach is on the field and in the huddle. It is tackle football and we start teaching football basics. Here I am, teaching the kids the proper way to play...

The interesting thing about doing this is running into the kids later in life. They still remember you as Coach but they have grown into young men. I did go to a few High School games to watch my players play at the next level. Also, I met a lot of nice people too.

Well, I guess football has taken up a lot of my time. I have no exact count of games but it is probably around 150 or more. So, what other sports are there that have consumed part of my life? That will be a future post in my retirement BLOG.