Football
Sunday, April 5, 2020
The Year was 1969
Original post was 10/4/2008
How does the schedule of the average high school athlete today compare with 1969-70? 1969-70 was my senior year in high school.
Summer, 1969:
Those of us who had jobs, which was most of us, worked during the days from 7AM-3:30PM or maybe 8-4:30. The country boys helped their fathers on the farm until late afternoon and then headed for the creek to cool off. Few got into trouble- there wasn't time. If you played baseball you went straight from work to practice or a game. If you played any other sport....you went to the baseball game to watch the game and talk to the girls, hoping the right one would show up. There were no cell phones to check and see. Basketball and football practice (or weight-lifting) did not exist in the summer. Few got into trouble- we all had fathers at home ready to teach us why trouble wasn't a good idea.
You were in bed by 10 on weeknights or as soon as it cooled off enough to sleep. No air-conditioning.
Baseball ended around the 4th of July except for All-Stars. Once it ended you started going to the football field in the late afternoon after work and running to get in shape for the upcoming season. A lot of the time was spent just goofing off, catching up on what was going on with your teammates. No coaches were there except maybe mowing the grass. They weren't allowed to be and no one did.
Fall, 1969:
The first day of fall camp was tough and each day thereafter was tougher. Practice was twice a day, at 8AM and 4PM, and lasted about 1 1/2 hours. The first week you rarely saw a football...just ran, and ran, and ran. We city boys about died. The country boys would run into the locker room after practice, get showered and get their jeans on, and head for the farm to haul hay until the afternoon practice. We city boys drug ourselves home, collapsed on the couch, and barely made it back to the next practice. The country boys would come in, shower to get the hay off of them, and run back to the practice field. During fall camp we city boys hated them country boys.
Three weeks of two-a-days ended with a jamboree on Friday night with the season opener the next week.
During the season we practiced the last period of the school day, beginning at 2PM. We rarely practiced more than 1 1/2 hours. If the coaches couldn't get it done in that amount of time then they needed to find new jobs, or so they told us.
Our offense was a split-back veer which was pretty advanced for our day and age. On defense we ran some 4, 5, and 6-man fronts.
The season consisted of ten straight games, no open dates. At the end of the season, the best of the best were invited to a postseason bowl game. Everyone else was finished. There were no playoffs. We ended 6-2-2, tying two games in the last minute but missing the extra points. No bowl game for us.
The big bowl games in middle Tennessee were the Clinic Bowl (Nashville), the Tobacco Bowl (Hartsville), the Butter Bowl (Pulaski), and the Crockett Bowl (Lawrenceburg). Just hearing those bowls mentioned sent chills up my spine as a kid. In the early 60's LCHS played in the Tobacco Bowl and I listened on the radio. The Sugar Bowl couldn't have been bigger to me. In 1964 the Wildcats played Glencliff in the Clinic Bowl. I, and the whole town, went to the game on a train.
Winter, 1969-70:
Football players went to study hall or to basketball, which is what I did. Basketball season was about 20 games ending with the district tournament. There were about 16 teams per district, winner moved on and the loser went home. Only the district finalists moved on to the region and only the region champion advanced to the substate with the substate winner going to state. (We lost in the Region finals.)
Some high schools had baseball but most didn't, not yet. No one had soccer.
Spring, 1970:
Football spring practice for underclassmen was four weeks, in April and May, culminating with a spring game. There were no winter workouts, there were no weight rooms. School ended at the end of May and you would see the football coaches again in August. There was no need for a "dead period". Summer was...summer!
For me, though, high school was over. I left for Florida the morning after graduation and worked on a construction job in Ft. Lauderdale 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, until two days before I was to report to Austin Peay for fall football practice.
My life as a teen revolved around sports (and girls, but that's another story). I played three sports and the day after one season ended I went immediately to the next sport. I am grateful that I never had to choose between sports until I was ready to do so.
(For purposes of accuracy, the general outline above is what it was like for the four years I was at Lawrence County High with the exception of football my senior year. That year the teachers in Lawrence County went on strike and the coaches were not allowed to come to practice. The seniors held the practices until the Monday before our opening game with Manchester. The coaches were with us only four days before our first game....which we won.)
Join with CoachT Plus members in our Open Discussion Forum as we solve the world's problems, both large and small.
How does the schedule of the average high school athlete today compare with 1969-70? 1969-70 was my senior year in high school.
Summer, 1969:
Those of us who had jobs, which was most of us, worked during the days from 7AM-3:30PM or maybe 8-4:30. The country boys helped their fathers on the farm until late afternoon and then headed for the creek to cool off. Few got into trouble- there wasn't time. If you played baseball you went straight from work to practice or a game. If you played any other sport....you went to the baseball game to watch the game and talk to the girls, hoping the right one would show up. There were no cell phones to check and see. Basketball and football practice (or weight-lifting) did not exist in the summer. Few got into trouble- we all had fathers at home ready to teach us why trouble wasn't a good idea.
You were in bed by 10 on weeknights or as soon as it cooled off enough to sleep. No air-conditioning.
Baseball ended around the 4th of July except for All-Stars. Once it ended you started going to the football field in the late afternoon after work and running to get in shape for the upcoming season. A lot of the time was spent just goofing off, catching up on what was going on with your teammates. No coaches were there except maybe mowing the grass. They weren't allowed to be and no one did.
Fall, 1969:
The first day of fall camp was tough and each day thereafter was tougher. Practice was twice a day, at 8AM and 4PM, and lasted about 1 1/2 hours. The first week you rarely saw a football...just ran, and ran, and ran. We city boys about died. The country boys would run into the locker room after practice, get showered and get their jeans on, and head for the farm to haul hay until the afternoon practice. We city boys drug ourselves home, collapsed on the couch, and barely made it back to the next practice. The country boys would come in, shower to get the hay off of them, and run back to the practice field. During fall camp we city boys hated them country boys.
Three weeks of two-a-days ended with a jamboree on Friday night with the season opener the next week.
During the season we practiced the last period of the school day, beginning at 2PM. We rarely practiced more than 1 1/2 hours. If the coaches couldn't get it done in that amount of time then they needed to find new jobs, or so they told us.
Our offense was a split-back veer which was pretty advanced for our day and age. On defense we ran some 4, 5, and 6-man fronts.
The season consisted of ten straight games, no open dates. At the end of the season, the best of the best were invited to a postseason bowl game. Everyone else was finished. There were no playoffs. We ended 6-2-2, tying two games in the last minute but missing the extra points. No bowl game for us.
The big bowl games in middle Tennessee were the Clinic Bowl (Nashville), the Tobacco Bowl (Hartsville), the Butter Bowl (Pulaski), and the Crockett Bowl (Lawrenceburg). Just hearing those bowls mentioned sent chills up my spine as a kid. In the early 60's LCHS played in the Tobacco Bowl and I listened on the radio. The Sugar Bowl couldn't have been bigger to me. In 1964 the Wildcats played Glencliff in the Clinic Bowl. I, and the whole town, went to the game on a train.
Winter, 1969-70:
Football players went to study hall or to basketball, which is what I did. Basketball season was about 20 games ending with the district tournament. There were about 16 teams per district, winner moved on and the loser went home. Only the district finalists moved on to the region and only the region champion advanced to the substate with the substate winner going to state. (We lost in the Region finals.)
Some high schools had baseball but most didn't, not yet. No one had soccer.
Spring, 1970:
Football spring practice for underclassmen was four weeks, in April and May, culminating with a spring game. There were no winter workouts, there were no weight rooms. School ended at the end of May and you would see the football coaches again in August. There was no need for a "dead period". Summer was...summer!
For me, though, high school was over. I left for Florida the morning after graduation and worked on a construction job in Ft. Lauderdale 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, until two days before I was to report to Austin Peay for fall football practice.
My life as a teen revolved around sports (and girls, but that's another story). I played three sports and the day after one season ended I went immediately to the next sport. I am grateful that I never had to choose between sports until I was ready to do so.
(For purposes of accuracy, the general outline above is what it was like for the four years I was at Lawrence County High with the exception of football my senior year. That year the teachers in Lawrence County went on strike and the coaches were not allowed to come to practice. The seniors held the practices until the Monday before our opening game with Manchester. The coaches were with us only four days before our first game....which we won.)
Join with CoachT Plus members in our Open Discussion Forum as we solve the world's problems, both large and small.
